Yajun writing in The Guardian last week: “As many Chinese web users have written, it’s possible that there is a kind of sickness in Chinese society that has infected us to our core, and which has been growing for a long time.”
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Two new posts at the Atlantic Monthly: an update on renewed calls for demonstrations this weekend in China and a meditation on the meaning of drought in Chinese history. Today was a busy day. Yajun is by herself in the Beijing office writing a story on new calls for a revolution this weekend even as the PSB is busy rounding up the usual suspects. I was teaching today, 90 exhilaration (for me, if not my students) minutes on Chiang Kai-shek and the Nanjing Decade. And somewhere between last night and this afternoon I finished two new posts as part of my week-long gig guest blogging for James Fallows at the Atlantic Monthly site. Post one was inspired by a comment on twitter by Bill Bishop (of the Sinocism blog and the well-known Twitter handle @niubi) about the speciousness of comparing the last days of the Qing with contemporary China. I couldn’t resist, so I took him up on his challenge and concluded that while admittedly there are some pretty significant differences which make historical parallels difficult to make, there are sufficient similarities for Hu Jintao to keep reaching for his bottle of printers ink to keep the gray hairs away. The second post was more of a “what’s hot in the China blogosphere today?” kind of story, this one about Ambassador Jon Huntsman “coincidentally” showing up at last Sunday’s YJ is pretty excited — and a little freaked out — over how much attention her post on the Jasmine Revolution is getting. As of 8:30 p.m. Beijing time tonight, if you google “Jasmine Revolution,” Yajun’s post is the fifth entry on the first page after Wikipedia, Washington Post, BBC, and the New York Times . In other and somewhat related news, this week I’m really thrilled to be one of several guest bloggers for James Fallows on the Atlantic Monthly site. For my first post I’ve tackled the same question as YJ — why isn’t China ready for an Egypt-style revolution. I agree with Yajun that a major issue is the lack of any meaningful organization, but I also argue that this is because the Party has learned the lessons of 1919 and 1989 and is now very careful about letting disaffected groups from linking their causes together either vertically across class lines or geographically. Enjoy. Kaiser Kuo has started Sinica, a much-needed podcast series bringing together people from academia, media, business, and other corners of the Sinosphere to discuss the issues of the day. This week’s episode featured Gady Epstein from Forbes Magazine, Tania Branigan of The Guardian, and I me talking a bit about Hu Yaobang, earthquakes, and, apparently, Song Zuying. People new to the blog and who are interested in reading more on these topics might want to check out the following posts from the past: “The Historical Record for April 15, 2009: The Death of Hu Yaobang” (April 15, 2009) “List of possible embarrassing revelations in Ζhao Ζiyang Memoirs due out this summer (May 15, 2009) And for those interested in earthquakes… “The Historical Record for March 1: Zhang Heng’s Seismometer” Enjoy and thanks to Kaiser for inviting me on the show. |
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