Writing. Teaching. Traveling. And having visions of revolutionary wild fowl.
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Writing. Teaching. Traveling. And having visions of revolutionary wild fowl. It’s nearing sunset on the last day of this, the year of the Golden Tiger. The first tentative booms and celebratory ka-kracks are sounding over the grey tiles of Minwang Hutong, occasional bursts of nervous energy, harbingers of what’s to come, like the claws of a wannabe werewolf clacking on the bars of his cage before letting out for a full-on full-moon rumble. It’s my first Spring Festival in Beijing after many years of celebrating in Tianjin. This year we asked Tianjin to come to our house and I think we’re better for it. All of the things I like about the Spring Festival — dumplings, immediate family, bad television — are gathered in one place, leaving such things as crowded rail stations and traversing streets of drunken artillery for less fortunate souls. In any case, wishing all of you the happiest of New Years and best wishes for the Year of the Golden Rabbit, may this year be full of joy, health, and good fortune. Reading about a new book by Stefan Collini: That’s Offensive! Criticism, Identity, Respect. Professor Collini is a professor of intellectual history and English literature at Cambridge University, and in this, his latest book, he looks at the very meaning of criticism, what it means to criticize, and distinguishes the most common understanding of the term (“fault-finding”) with it’s more academic usage, that is the close analysis of a particular subject or text. Scott McLemee’s short review for Inside Higher Education notes, quite correctly, that in an increasingly poisonous and rancorous atmosphere for the public debate of important topics, understanding the goals and rhetoric of criticism is an important first step to overcoming the resistance to listening to a critical analysis of our own cherished ideas and views. (In the Levensonian language of Modern China, not to let ideas about “what is mine” prevent me from hearing “what might be true.”) Of course, thinking of this through Levenson, it’s hard not to recall the rather prickly response on the part of the Modern Chinese state (and their supporters and advocates) to recent criticism of their handling of the Nobel Prize. In a recent Global Times masterpiece with the whimsical title of So…Liu Xiaobo has won the Nobel Peace Prize. I think it’s great that Norwegians can cause so much discomfort in the halls of Zhongnanhai, unfortunately the timing of the announcement means that Yajun is going to be at work for the evening…kinda screwing with our plans to celebrate her birthday. So…congratulations Liu Xiaobo but couldn’t the Nobel committee have waited a day? |
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Copyright © 2012 Jottings from the Granite Studio - All Rights Reserved
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On Sun Yatsen, 1912, and Han Han
Trusting Yuan Shikai to nourish a fragile young republican government was basically akin to dousing a three-year old in A1 Sauce and putting him in the care of a rabid honey badger, but the demise of the first republican experiment might not have been as inevitable as some believe.