The Useless Tree

History

  • More on Confucianism and Modernity

    My last post elicited a couple of excellent responses and, instead of simply burying the exchange in the comments section, I will bring them up here for a new post. First up is Justsomeguy, who points out: Well, for starters,… Continue reading

  • Why Modernity Challenges Confucianism

    The new semester has started.  I am now busy with class preparation (I read everything that I assign for classes right before class so that it' s fresh…and that steals the time I have to read other things). And I… Continue reading

  • Francesco Sisci on Law in Ancient China

    Last week, in the Asia Times, Francesco Sisci, a journalist who has of late been delving into ancient history and philosophy to good effect, has a long-ish article, "China no longer a law unto itself."  Basically, he shows how Legalism… Continue reading

  • Trying to Control History

    In the run-up to the big October 1st National Day celebrations, the Chinese Communist Party is working hard to limit historical debate – even history that long pre-dates the PRC.  They are trying to ban a book that is apparently… Continue reading

  • Pulling out the rice shoots

      A nice post over at Danwei on the discovery of some old "backyard furnaces" from the Great Leap Forward.  The furnaces (pictured above) were an attempt, as a part of the disastrous Great Leap Forward, to produce steel in… Continue reading

  • Nanjing, Spring 1989

    Twenty years ago the PRC was experiencing the largest demonstrations of public dissent in its history.  I was then living and teaching in Nanjing and I watched as that city and my students were swept up in the tide of… Continue reading

  • A Quick Question (that would likely require a long answer)

    What would Mao Dun have to say about 798? (Photos: an original manuscript of Mao Dun's "Midnight" at the Mao Dun Residence, Beijing; installation by Qin Yufen, at 798, Beijing) Continue reading

  • Why History Matters

    Blogging has fallen off a bit of late because the new semester has begun and class preparation demands my time.  Indeed, it demands my time in ways I cannot anticipate; and so, the beginnings of semesters are especially disorienting for… Continue reading

  • John Maynard Keynes: Taoist?

    OK, not really.  But these lines from a recent NYT Magazine article caught my eye: …Then, as now, economists believed that all uncertainty could be reduced to measurable risk. So asset prices always reflected fundamentals, and unregulated markets would in… Continue reading

  • Chinese Nationalism and the Great Leap Forward

    Sorry for the blog silence: a whole week without a post.  That is unusual for me, even when I travel.  What kept me away was work, for the most part.  I had to grade 67 five page papers in under… Continue reading