I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the passing of environmentalist and scholar Liang Congjie on October 28. Liang was an advocate for the preservation of China’s environment and founded the first environmental NGO to be officially recognized by the PRC government when he registered Friends of Nature in 1994.
As most know, he came by his activist impulses naturally. His father was the architect and preservationist Liang Sicheng and his grandfather was of course Liang Qichao, one of the most important voices of reform in the early 20th century.
New York Times has an obituary and there’s also a very thoughtful remembrance by Christina Larson on the Atlantic Monthly website.