History
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Ninety Years of the Chinese Communist Party
Ninety years ago today, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai. There's a big celebration in Beijing, and Chinese media are in overdrive reporting on the successes of the Party. To round out the picture a bit, I thought… Continue reading
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Just how Confucian was the Han Dynasty? And what does that suggest for today’s Confucian revival?
It is generally understood that, following the Qin repression, Confucianism was revived and given government sponsorship under the Han Dynasty. The conventional wisdom goes something like this: Under the rule of Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE), Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒,… Continue reading
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More on Understanding China
I've been away for a bit, giving lectures in Chicago and Milwaukee, and that, and other things, have distracted me from blogging. But I received various responses on the last post below and those replies have sparked some other thoughts… Continue reading
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Understanding China – or not
On Monday, Vice-Premier Wang Qishan said, in an interview with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on The Charlie Rose Show: It is not easy to really know China because China is an ancient civilization and we are of the Oriental culture.… Continue reading
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Killing Chinese People
Frank Dikotter has a new book out about the Great Leap Forward, Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe. I haven't read it yet (mine is on order) but early reviews are in. Here's Jonathan Mirsky: In… Continue reading
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Laozi’s Biography
It seems that there is a new biography of "Laozi" published in China. I haven't seen it yet, but Francesco Sisci reports that it is a "quasi-novel" by Yu Shicun. That sounds about right – quasi-novel – to me, but… Continue reading
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Beauty and Power on China’s Silk Road
A piece I wrote for the Kyoto Journal just came out, and it is available on-line here. It is based on some posts I did here a couple of years ago, with some nice pictures added… Continue reading
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This Day…
..twenty one years ago.. The PRC government tries to eradicate the memory but recollection cannot be stopped. Here is a cartoon that ran in the Guangzhou newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily on June 1st, which was recognized as "Children's Day", an… Continue reading
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Materialism in Chinese Society
Another week goes by and still I have not caught up with blogging… Oh well, all I can do to rectify the situation is: blog… Last wee Kai Pan, over at china/divide put up a short post entitled: "Is Chinese… Continue reading
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Mao Thoughts
A random confluence…. I am running a group independent study in connection with my Nationalism in East Asia class. Three students could not fit the class into their schedules; so we work off the syllabus and meet once a week… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 