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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 odds, despite defeat after defeat, Chiang still fights on, confident in ultimate victory. This great man, a Christian by conviction, is indeed a man of stamina, the heart and soul of the Chinese resistance.”*
Yeesh. Who knew Henry Luce wrote trouser ads in his spare time?
As my friend and fellow historian Glenn (from whom I shamelessly grabbed this picture and so I tip my electronic hat in his direction) said on Facebook: “Before Bob Dole, there was…”
While on the subject of CKS for the moment, I thought I’d also share a little nugget I found while re-reading a speech Chiang gave soon after the Japanese surrender in 1945. Addressing a high-level meeting of the KMT, Chiang ponders what a post-war China would look like, and in this particular section discusses the status of former Qing territories such as Outer Mongolia
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 for the dog to be presented as a “gift” to Queen Victoria.
The puppy’s new name: “Looty.”
Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. Perfidious Albion, thy true nature is whimsy.
Harper’s Weekly via the New York Times Archive*, picks up the story:
“He was a very lonely little creature, the other dogs taking exception to his Oriental habits and appearance,** and when the Prince and Princess of Wales returned from the a Continental trip, the latter pleaded with her mother-in-law to be allowed to take Looty to Sandringham. About six months later Looty’s mate arrived from China, and the breeding of this species of dog became a diversion in fashionable society.”
No word yet on whether a team of Beijing lawyers is going to sue to have all Pekingese dogs repatriated to Beijing, because goodness knows there aren’t enough of the yappy little
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, has a toilet seat plated with gold. “When I wrote about his golden toilet, I got a call from a friend saying, ‘Hey, Yu, were you writing about my toilet?’ I know so many people who have golden toilets, says Yu. In another scene, Song Gang undergoes breast-enhancement surgery to hawk fake–and toxic–chest-enlargement cream. Yu responds to critics who call that too extreme by likening it to the recent melamine scandal, in which tainted milk sickened thousands of Chinese babies. “After melamine, people have begun to understand that these things happen all the time,” says Yu, his voice rising slightly. “And now they are starting to pay attention.” His work doesn’t give them any choice.
We’ve already had YouTube yanked because…well, they’re saying it’s the result of posted videos showing Chinese police clubbing Tibetan protesters, but I think it’s because the paternalistic and
A few random hits from around the China blogosophere on this Sunday morning…
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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 become remarkably resilient. Through learning and adaptation, it seemed, the world’s largest and most powerful one-party regime had become politically nimble and skillful enough to overcome difficulties that would have overwhelmed lesser autocratic rulers. For two decades, the party has compiled an impressive list of achievements: at home it has kept the economy growing at a gravity-defying double-digit rate, while abroad it has pursued a pragmatic foreign policy, avoiding confrontation with the United States and methodically gaining prestige and influence.
Because of the global economic crisis, however, Beijing is in trouble. The problems are numerous: China’s exports are plummeting, tens of millions of migrant laborers have lost their jobs, millions of college graduates cannot find employment, industrial overcapacity is threatening deflation, and the once red-hot real estate sector has nose-dived. The country’s faltering growth is posing the hardest test yet to the
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