In the run up to China’s leadership change the People’s Daily has been trumpeting China’s political reforms claiming that “great achievements were made in boosting democracy” and that “In a landmark move, ‘protection of human rights’ was incorporated into China’s constitution in [...] Keep reading »

Several years ago, when I was working in a very rural university, I hosted a group of college graduates from the United States. They were invited to visit with the students, and one of them became very popular with the girls in class. He always had more attention than any of the others, perhaps because he was incredibly friendly, had a bright smile [...] Keep reading »

When I heard that Richard Burger, of The Peking Duck, had written a book about sex in China, I expected it to be a somewhat scandalous introduction to the topic (he had told me that it wasn’t meant for China experts). However, I found Behind the Red Door: Sex in China to be an incredibly thorough exploration of sex and sexuality in China. He cove [...] Keep reading »

By Yaxue Cao In the first part of this long post, I took a closer look at Mo Ya’s political choices and explained why many Chinese find him objectionable as a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. At the end, I asked the question: If Mo Yan is such a critical writer, as many in the west believe (the Nobel Committee certainly does), why does t [...] Keep reading »

By Yaxue Cao The disparaging of Mo Yan began before the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced on October 11 when rumor had it that Mo Yan was this year’s favorite. With the exception of the literarily versed, the criticism wasn’t based on his works, to be sure, but on a few events that had thus far shaped people’s perceptions of the man: B [...] Keep reading »

Readers of my posts here by now should know that I am not a neutral person, and my bias can be very strong. To be perfectly honest with you, I cherish the freedom of not having to pretend otherwise. Below is a compilation of Twitter Chinese community’s reaction to the news of Chinese writer Mo Yan 莫言 winning this year’s Nobel Prize for Lite [...] Keep reading »

By Wang Shuping, published: September 27, 2012   It isn’t new. It’s the story of how tens of thousands ofimpoverishedvillagers and hospital patients were infected with HIV through contaminated blood in mid 1990s in Henan province, China. Entire villages and families were wiped out and many lives wrecked. And two decades later, the pain con [...] Keep reading »

As I prepared myself for leaving China to embark on something of a speaking tour of American churches, I was told time and again by friends, co-workers, former students, and even the Party Secretary of the hospital to tell them the “truth” about China. The undertone seemed to be that Americans were truly ignorant about China and thought [...] Keep reading »

The other day, I highlighted China’s argument for why it should be considered the rightful owner of the Diaoyu Islands – in short: Military aggression should not be rewarded with new territorial claims Treaties signed under duress should not be acknowledged Historical claims should be the major determining factor in ownership, giving sp [...] Keep reading »