Things I’ve discovered since I’ve been home: New television (hockey in HD=awesome), bad television (the car crash that is the “Jersey Shore”), and good television (the brilliant “Sons of Anarchy.”)
Okay, so I’m lazy. Here then are the top seven posts of Jottings from the Granite Studio. Good luck in 2010.
Cai Yuanpei and Charter 08 January 17, 2009 “To dismiss the importance of Charter 08 because it is the product of a single class (or sub-group within that class) is to miss a lesson of history. With a nod to Margaret Mead, I might suggest that modern Chinese history has had its own share of small groups of committed individuals whose ideas did not receive their due when first published or spoken but whom we now look back upon as transformational figures.”
On the wrong side of history January 27, 2009 “The counter to “Τιbet is part of China and history says so” is not “Τιbet is not part of China and history says so” but rather “How can you be so sure? Did you look at it this way?””
The Historical Record for February 17, 2009: The 30th Anniversary of the Sino-Vietnamese War February 17, 2009 “The war is almost completely forgotten in China but in Vietnam it is remembered as the last in a series of brutal foreign invasions of their territory.”
Lonely Boys and Losers: Are we overstating the fenqing phenomenon March 15, 2009 “For me, the defining characteristic of a fenqing is not strong belief in a particular view, but rather an inability to accept that other valid perspectives might exist.”
List of possible embarrassing revelations in Zhao Ziyang Memoir due out this summer May 15, 2009 “#4: “I banged Chai Ling.””
Notes from a Non-Anniversary June 4, 2009 “I woke up this morning and took a short walk to a big square. As expected, it was pretty calm in the kind of jittery, strained, composed way one usually associates with a dinner party where one of the hosts is having an extramarital affair with one of the guests.”
60th Anniversary Hangover October 2, 2009 “Did anybody else consider the possibility that Hu Jintao was pantless during his limo ride? Mao would have been. Count on it.”