The Useless Tree

Politics

  • The Politics of Cultural Openness

    Here's a story from the Time of India (hat tip CDT): Chinese critics believe that Slumdog Millionaire won the Oscar awards because of its political content. Some sections of the Chinese media are using the movie to indirectly complain that… Continue reading

  • The Particular and the Universal in Human Rights

    Over at A Ku Indeed, Chris and Peony and some others are discussing Daniel Bell's book, East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia. I'm a bit late to the conversation (the end of semester and beginning of… Continue reading

  • Samuel Huntington and the Politics of “Civilizations”

    Samuel Huntington died on Christmas Eve.  He was a fairly famous academic, best known, in the past decade or so, for his "clash of civilizations" idea.  For someone of my age, however, there were other, perhaps more important books.  His,… Continue reading

  • How can we know if Chinese people want democracy or not?

    It seems that, despite arrests and repression, CCP leaders have not completely quashed the movement to sign and disseminate Charter 08.  An Australian newspaper reports: MORE than 3600 people from all walks of Chinese society have now signed "Charter 08",… Continue reading

  • Charter 08: Tyranny Creates The Demand For Democracy

    An extraordinary document, Charter 08, was released yesterday.  It is  a sweeping call for liberal political change in China, signed by more than 300 prominent activists and intellectuals.  Its last two paragraphs capture the spirit of the document: China, as… Continue reading

  • When Power isn’t Power anymore

    A wild story out of Chicago: the governor of Illinois was caught in taped telephone conversations conniving to extract personal material gain from a public political responsibility, the appointment of a person to fill the US Senate seat vacated by… Continue reading

  • Wei Jingsheng, Mencian Gentleman

    Thirty years ago today, on a wall at the intersection of Xidan Avenue and Chang'an Avenue in Beijing, an electrician from the Beijing Zoo, Wei Jingsheng, put up a big character poster (dazi bao) entitled, "The Fifth Modernization."  He would… 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

  • Forty Years

    I think all that needs to be said about these two photos is that the second one is of the night Obama won the election: Continue reading

  • Night Out

    Here is a photo (from the Berkshire Eagle newspaper) of me (on the left) introducing one of my daughter's friends to Deval Patrick, Governor of Massachusetts: The Governor was visiting my college, which held a rather extraordinary event: a panel… Continue reading