What is Mao Zedong’s Legacy 120 Years Later?
December 26 is the birthday of Mao Zedong, the portly gentleman from Hunan who, for 70% better and 30% ill, led China from 1949 until his death in 1976. [Read More...]
History
Nanjing
On December 13, 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army stormed the city of Nanjing, setting off a month of looting and killing that still shocks the world. But what is truly being remembered 76 years later? [Read More...]
Mandela and Mao
Nelson Mandela was so many things that the current Chinese government actively fears and loathes. He was a political prisoner, an activist, a party organizer, general rabble rouser, an outspoken champion of the disenfranchised, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. If you are Chinese, these are not activities that get you a place on the CCP Christmas card list. [Read More...]
Jesse Appell raps the history of Chinese economic development. No, seriously.
Jesse Appell is a talented guy who has put together the single greatest rap version of Modern Chinese history. Granted, not a lot of competition in this particular category but still very cool. [Read More...]
Granite Studio on the move…
What happens when an apartment deal seems shady? If you've lived in Beijing long enough, your paranoia kicks in and you start to worry. [Read More...]
One from the Archives: The Sicilian Guide to Chinese History
Chris Buckley in the New York Times today described Xi Jinping as being in "Godfather" mode. In that spirit, here is a post from the past looking at Chinese history through the lens of great gangster cinema. [Read More...]
Patriots Day
A bombing is a tragedy always. But hitting Boston on Patriots Day is a blow to who we are. This is a day when everybody is out in the streets enjoying what is usually one of the first semi-warm days of the year. It’s the beginning of spring.
And some asshole or assholes decided to blow it up. [Read More...]
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. [Read More...]
Five Books about Qing History
Five great reads about the Qing Dynasty. [Read More...]
“To Tear out the Heart and Rip out their Eyes”
A ‘souvenir fan’ in circulation after [Read More...]
Old Wine, New Bottles Department: Rush Limbaugh, the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the Taiping Rebellion
Rush Limbaugh's moronic comments about the LRA are hardly the first time somebody has been blinded by a lunatic leader's professed "Christianity." [Read More...]
The Wire Guide to the 1911 Revolution, Part II
Part II of The Wire guide to the 1911 Revolution and some closing thoughts on the significance of 1911 in today's political climate. [Read More...]
The Wire Guide to the 1911 Revolution, Part I
So, I spent the summer rewatching all five seasons of The Wire and the more I watched it, the more I realized that far from being the story of Baltimore, there was a timelessness and placelessness to the Wire that transcended one city. The sense of hope battling the reality of hopelessness, the way rhetoric and political transitions, however dramatic, rarely change the day-to-day lives of the people at the bottom, the thought of Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai taking swings at each other like Stringer and Avon, it occurred to me how much it reminded me of the years before and after the 1911 Revolution. So without further ado, The Wire guide to the 1911 Revolution, Part I. (Warning: Some strong language) [Read More...]
Turning rumors into news: The non-death of Jiang Zemin
In today’s China, it is government censorship which gives credibility to unsubstantiated rumors, and that turns rumors into news. [Read More...]
From the Archives: 独立宣言–The Declaration of Independence in Chinese
Translating the seminal document on American freedoms into Chinese is a process fraught with difficulties, as much linguistic as political. [Read More...]