This article here, Urban Platforms in a Policy Pressure Cooker, is just one example of Caixin Online’s excellent reporting on China’s political and economic landscape. The high-quality English is also extraordinary, as most Chinese media almost never nail the news voice that, for better or for worse, dominates the international media’s idea of what is credible […]
the Tao
Resist the Worst
“When you think about the worst that could happen, you should resist this temptation to make yourself the centre of the world. Turn away from the injustice of being falsely condemned or the despair of being utterly alone. Quash the thought of losing a child. On this melancholy subject, at least, I am with Smith […]
The Struggle for Hong Kong
Here in Chengdu, people have been asking me: “Hey, did you hear what they did in Hong Kong? They stood up to the government.” There is no mention of winning or losing. Only the fact the HK citizens have the courage to stand up to the government, something Chinese, in general, feel they lack. One […]
Pragmatic above all things
I know a girl named Color who stopped me on the street one day and said, I am different from every other Chinese girl out there. I think deep, she said, and I question everything. Everybody thinks I am weird and I have few friends. I say strange stuff like, Why would you do that? […]
A True Belief
Tom from Seeing Red in China pointed out some China Quarterly essays and one of them is the inspiration for this essay … Few of China’s problems seem so intractable as the issue of the Chinese soul and what morals are available to guide it in the 21st century. The whole concept of a soul […]
So, what now?
I find myself asking this question after reading stories like this one by the late Michael Kreca. This information is not new to me — the fact that FDR, Churchill and Stalin steered America into a war that did not need to be fought. The consequences reverberate today in the Empire that emerged from the […]
Old News and Forgiving Old Friends
Although we may already know that Bush’s policies on pretty much everything have been resounding failures, this in depth analysis of the incompetence and duplicity of the Bush Administration is a good place to look if you want to get angry. Remember: McCain will be the same type of leader, haplessly sure of himself in […]
The death of traditions
It is so hot and humid in Chengdu right now that my brain is bathing in its own liquid, humming strange tunes to itself and sending me images of massive artillery guns firing into the distance. Spengler is a columnist for Asia Times who has derided the Europeans for lacking the courage to face the […]
Pictures of Qing Cheng Mountain
I posted some pics here of Qing Cheng after the quake. If anyone has any information or people they would like me to contact, please let me know. I am headed back up there this weekend.
A Theory of Relativity
First off: Blogger is blocked in China, so people cannot see it here, I cannot comment back to any of you and i do use a proxy. There is so much to tell … I drove from Chengdu up north to a place called Hanwang today, through the towns of Shifang and Mianzhu. Shifang was […]
We felt it comin …
My friend Rachel wrote the day before the quake: “I feel like the world is shifting” if ya’ll check the first few lines of my post “The Illusion of Coincidence” you’ll see that there was something in the air … just to embellish a bit: yesterday was Buddha’s birthday. The plates that caused this earthquake […]
who is the more foolish?
my people are busy lamenting, yet also enjoying, the brainwashing others have endured. it feels good to consider oneself free and to have a target to point at, proof of your powerful mind, resistant to the tendrils of subtle passivity. it is the prisoner in D block laughing at the man in the hole. brainwashing […]
tea baggins
well well well in the Du got my house almost clear of cat shit. garbage is piling up but i have a plan. the toilet is plugged but today i will get a plunger. its getting warmer and the birds are chattering madly. another two months and the good tea is plentiful and flowers will […]
The Ends Meet
This one is for my man Flesh if he ever reads this. I have been in China for eight years. Eight, written as we write it, is formed of two circles, or a Moebius Continuum .. Infinity. As the Chinese write it .. it looks like nothing of the sort. But eight is auspicious. When […]
i am that i am
reading foucalt’s pendulum has been a three month odyssey through umberto eco’s dream library. i finally fell into the pace of the book, now, near the end. and everywhere i see lorenza, belbo — i am belbo, no i am aglie … the man with the scar was on my flight to chengdu. he chatted […]