Jottings from the Granite Studio

Chinese president Hu Jintao yesterday began an eight-country tour of Africa following a November summit of African leaders in the Chinese capital. The People’s Daily is describing Hu’s visit as “a journey of friendship and cooperation” but others both in Africa and in the West are more skeptical about China’s intentions and wary of [...]

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There seems like nothing in the history field can rile up the masses like a good old fashioned textbook controversy. This time on Taiwan where recent editions of the standard high school history text for Taiwanese students has had some changes made, most notably the terms, “mainland” (dalu 大陆）and “our country” (我国 woguo) [...]

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Diligence China has a quality post on the landmarks of emerging markets–certain things to look out for as China makes the transition from “from self-loathing acolyte to over-confident preacher.” Two of these landmarks I thought deserved further comment.
A two stage process. Stage one – All of China’s historical problems were all either imported or the [...]

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