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I’m not sure even where to begin with this… The copy alone is simply priceless: “Stubborn and tenacious as a bulldog, fearless and unafraid, doggedly patient, this son of a village merchant is the strongest man China has produced for generations. In 1928, he set out to unify China. He was too successful. Japan attacked. Despite overwhelming [...] I thought of going with Churchill, “history is written by the victors,” but felt that was too trite. Fortunately, Sir Winston once came up with something even more suitable to the occasion: “History will be very kind to me, for I intend to write it.” CCP…this one’s for you. Animal statues weren’t the only things boosted from the Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace) by the Anglo-French forces of 1860, an actual pooch was also snatched as part of the war booty. This diminutive Pekingese, rumored to have been the possession of the Empress Dowager, fell into the hands of a British officer who then arranged [...] From Bruce Humes (h/t Paper Republic), the Cankao Xiaoxi (参考消息) version of Isaac Fish Stone’s review of Yu Hua’s Brothers (兄弟). Stone’s review originally appeared in Newsweek, the cross-outs indicate what the editors felt was…not sufficiently harmonious for a humble book review. Sample section: Some Chinese reviewers have criticized Brothers as too absurd. Baldy Li, for instance, [...] A few random hits from around the China blogosophere on this Sunday morning… **** In Foreign Affairs, Mixin Pei considers the challenges facing the Communist Party as the world’s economy tumbles downward and even China’s much bally-hooed economic miracle takes a bit of a stumble: Until recently, most leading China watchers thought the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had [...] From the BBC: On Christmas Eve in 1937, German businessman John Rabe visited the mortuary in China’s then capital, Nanjing. John Rabe remains a hero in China but his story is little known elsewhere He later described in his diary the charred body of a civilian man whose eyes had been gouged out, and a boy of perhaps [...] Sam Crane, of my favorite philosophy blog The Useless Tree, will be in Beijing this week. We’re getting together for brunch tomorrow (place TBD). If fellow philosophy enthusiasts would like to join, send me an email by tonight and let’s see if we can put together a low-key welcome for one of the China blogosphere’s [...] What’s the point of having students if you can’t organize an NCAA pool and take their money? Yes, it’s that time of year again and in the spirit of exposing my stupidity to the public, I submit my picks for this year’s tourney: Louisville, Michigan State, UConn, Memphis, Syracuse, Gonzaga, Duke, Florida State in the Eight; Florida [...] It’s a slow news week in China, means it’s time for the different Beijing bureaus to trot out the history features. Last week, NPR had the court music of the Tang Dynasty, this week the IHT looks at Pingyao banks from the Ming and the Qing eras. At Pingyao’s height, the 22 banks here thrived on [...] From the BBC: Best known for his gangster roles, Chow will swap his trademark trench coat for scholarly robes in the movie. The film will be a joint production between Beijing-based Dadi Cinema and the state-run China Film Group, a Dadi Cinema official told Associated Press. Filming is due to begin in three weeks. A release [...] Okay, so I’m actually getting published somewhere that isn’t on a site I personally run. It’s going to be on paper, with ink, and in libraries and everything. So…yeah, that’s kind of cool for a grad student. China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance is a collection edited by Kate Merkel-Hess and based on the [...] This post is a response to two essays written this past weekend. One on the blog Froogville that in turn sparked a response from Richard at The Peking Duck. Below are my own thoughts, which began as a comment on TPD but ran long and so I’ve decided to post them here. I don’t think that [...] A few quick and final hits on a week of Tibetan nonsense…Michael Albada has a nice piece in the Stanford Progressive that reminds us cutting through the rhetoric from both sides of the Tibet debate is essential to reconciling the situation there: Tibet has gained a highly romanticized, idealistic image that does not stand up to [...] Today is Friday the 13th for those who care about such things. Personally, I’m not taking any chances and will be behind locked doors all day. I actually do have a good excuse as a wicked late-winter/early-spring cold has taken hold filling my lungs with an odd substance, the consistency of which varies between ‘watery [...] “I don’t know much about money, I’ve seen so little of it.” – Fletch, by Gregory MacDonald Yeah, graduate students shouldn’t pose as financial experts. We’re generally living grant to mouth. After the gravity of last year’s financial crisis set in though, I realized I may have benefited from spending my late-20s and early-30s being so [...] |
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