The Guardian has posted a stunning collection of photographs entitled The Fish in the Road: Luo Dan’s China.
China and the recently crowned installed anointed sworn in (x2) Obama administration are already in a currency tiff. I get paid in US dollars, so steady as she goes if you please…
At The China Beat, Eric Sezekorn reviews Yasheng Huang’s Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: Entrepreneurship and the State.
Interesting counterpoint to Huang’s economic analysis of 1980s rural China: The Paris Review has anther excerpt from The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China from the Bottom Up, a collection of Liao Yiwu’s encounters with people on the margins of Chinese society. In this episode, Liao talks with a peasant named Zeng Yinglong, who in 1985 declared his hometown in Sichuan Province an independent kingdom and proclaimed himself emperor. (h/t Reflections in a Chinese Eye)
Finally, via FT Passport, Obamamania has reached the big time: ESL textbooks for Japanese learners of English. “His speeches are so moving, and he also uses words such as ‘yes, we can,’ ‘change’ and ‘hope’ that even Japanese people can memorize!”