Dan Washburn is a writer I’ve followed since I arrived in China six years ago. Over the past couple of years Dan has shifted his focus to golf, a burgeoning sport that has attracted a certain amount of controversy in China. To say that few Chinese play golf would be a grand understatement- the percentage [...]
If I may take a break from my usual content, I’d like to direct your attention to this very moving profile of America’s finest film critic, Roger Ebert. Since a 2006 surgery, Ebert has not had a lower jaw. He has not eaten, had a drink of anything, nor spoken a single, solitary word since.
Most [...]
In Foreign Policy Christina Larson provides a useful reminder that Tibet is no ‘Shangri-La’. My own experience traveling through Tibetan parts of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces confirms this; Tibetans aren’t the enlightened, beatific race imagined by the region’s more fervent supporters.
Yet the Tibetans are, in fact, Tibetan and not Chinese. China likes to tell the [...]
Who writes the textbooks we use in our schools? Who pays for them? From which point of view do they argue? How do our schools choose these textbooks? Do alternatives exist?
To the last question, I can definitively answer yes. Not long after I arrived in college, a friend lent me a copy of the recently-deceased [...]
On the heels of a lazy Saturday day and a rare Saturday evening at home, here are a couple of links to brighten your weekend reading.
I realize I talk about Peter Hessler a lot, but skeptics will know why after reading this wonderful interview the writer gave entited “Why I Write”. Well worth a read, [...]
Hey all- I hope you’ve enjoyed the first week or 2010, which here in Kunming has been sunny, nice, and warm.
Here’s a good article to start the year off- in the Financial Times Gideon Rachman writes that democracies such as Turkey, India, Brazil, and South Africa have increasingly turned their backs against US foreign policy [...]
I’ve spent part of this morning listening to a podcast lecture organized by Folger on the subject of foreign impressions of China. The three panelists are Rachel DeWoskin, author of Foreign Babes in Beijing and a former actress in the Chinese soap opera of the same name, Orville Schell, the distinguished China scholar and author [...]
A few new- or new to me- China blogs for you to feast on, though only one of them is in traditional blog format. Drumroll please…
1. Chinasmack- what Chinese 姑娘 and 伙子 are saying on the internet- a useful summary of the more interesting trends on the Chinese interwang, translated into English.
2. Sexy Beijing- a [...]
Two interesting articles on China from the American media:
1. From the Washington Post, the Chinese government has arrested a dissident for signing a petition calling for political reform.
2. From the New York Times, Chinese exports are down, signaling worry.
The two events might seem unrelated; after all, one is a purely political story while the other [...]
As a culinary region in China, Yunnan doesn’t have the same cache as Sichuan, Hunan, or Guangdong. That doesn’t mean, however, that Yunnan food isn’t good. In fact, some of the regional specialties are absolutely delicious and difficult to find outside of Yunnan. These include “Grandma’s potatoes”, a mashed potatoes dish that’s spicier than what [...]