I arrived yesterday afternoon to a brown Beijing.  A massive sand/dust storm has turned the city into a murky mess.  Everything is covered in a fine brown powdering of air-borne dirt from Mongolia.  Many locals have broken out the surgical… Continue reading

Whenever I set out on a trip, passage 47 of the Daodejing always comes to mind.  I don't really agree with it, as is obvious from the fact of my travel, but it keeps things in perspective: You can know… Continue reading

CNReviews has a great post up explicating the new meanings of an old socialist term: xiaozi – 小资.  When I saw the characters I immediately thought "petty bourgeois."  And that is the first part of the discussion.  But, as poster… Continue reading

Learn from Lei Feng.  Just like the foreign Lei Feng.  Continue reading

i've been trending in a more Confucian direction of late.  So, to balance things off a bit I'm just going to throw this out there…. As I have mentioned before, I like to understand the Chinese term de – 德… Continue reading

I'm getting ready for two talks tomorrow.  Here at Williams, I will be giving an international studies colloquium on "Confucianism as Soft Power"  (would the Chinese title be: 以儒学为软实力?).  The local poster is below (yes, I will mention the dust… Continue reading

For those of us interested in contemporary Confucianism not being able to see the Confucius movie is a bit of a drag (How are they portraying him?  Does it work as a movie?).  We have to rely, for now, on… Continue reading

Historian Thomas A. Wilson has a nice site, Cult of Confucius, with discussion and information on the canonization of Confucius in imperial China (HT Frog in a Well).  Here's something to think about: The division of the philosophical masters and… Continue reading

I been a bit remiss in not linking earlier to this interesting post over at The China Beat: "Sheep in Wolves' Clothing? The Book the Han Nationalists Love to Hate.  James Leibold, a historian from La Trobe University, offers an… Continue reading