Yesterday’s review of “Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,” is important reading not only to better understand the terror and hysteria of the Mao years, but to understand the way in which the past effects the psyche of Chinese people today. Three bits from the article have been cycling through my mind si [...] Keep reading »

The China Quarterly recently released it’s top ten most downloaded articles for free. Over the next few weeks I’ll summarize and comment on a few of these great articles (and save you 20+ pages of reading). Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries By: Yang Kuisong (link to full text) Tom’s Summary: Yang begins his ar [...] Keep reading »

Caging a Monster by Murong Xuecun is one of the most compelling cases I have seen made about the state of modern China, and what needs to be done to save it. Make sure you read this. Insight: Tibetans in China seek a fiery way out of despair, by Sui-Lee Wee at Reuters, focuses on the ongoing string of self-immolations happening in Tibet’s r [...] Keep reading »

There have been fewer reports on netizens attempting to visit Chen Guangcheng, but there are signs of the campaign taking a different direction, which we illustrate for you in a group of pictures. Starting this week, Ai Weiwei will be sending to his 30,000 “creditors” an exquisite, hand-written IOU. We also offer items about the secret of Huaxi [...] Keep reading »

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you weren’t hoping for a hard news story today. In a very unscientific poll, I asked my students (doctors) what they were thankful for this year. At some point during their “toast,” roughly 30% mentioned their health, 90% mentioned their family, and about 20% mentioned their co-workers. Here is [...] Keep reading »

If you have spent much time in China’s major cities, you have no doubt seen a few hundred new luxury cars, up and coming urbanites clutching Louis Vuitton bags or sporting a new Rolex watch, and more than a few people talking loudly on their iPhones. This rampant materialism even seems to surpass what I saw in the US a few years back. As I& [...] Keep reading »

Ai Weiwei speaks out on his detention, appeared online for Newsweek and covers both the artist’s arrest and his ongoing campaign to pay a 2 million dollar tax bill. Ai’s description of his arrest is troubling, as well as Beijing’s attempts to silence him of which he said, “If you play a chess game, and play two or three move [...] Keep reading »

On November 16th, in Qingyang, Gansu (甘肃庆阳), a minivan with a rated capacity of 9 people but carrying 63 daycare children collided with a truck, killing 19 children and 2 adults. We offer a group of photos culled from Weibo to illustrate the incident. We also continue to follow the two cases, Chen Guangcheng’s and Ai Weiwei’s, that lay [...] Keep reading »

The China Quarterly recently released it’s top ten most downloaded articles for free. Over the next few weeks I’ll summarize and comment on a few of these great articles (and save you 20+ pages of reading). Belief in Control: Regulation of Religion in China By: Pittman B. Potter (link to full text) Tom’s Summary: Throughout China& [...] Keep reading »