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From The Invisible Commemoration Of Tiananmen To China’S Festive 60th Birthday, François Lachapelle

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This essay originally appeared on David Ownby’s blog, China at Our Gates, in June. It is reposted in full here with the permission of that site.

2009 is no piece of cake for Chinese officialdom. Having survived the invisible torment of the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen they turn now to the preparation for the 60th birthday of the People’s Republic. Despite daily high temperatures in the 30s in North China, one wonders if Peking bureaucrats might be suffering from cold sweats.

Certain early indicators indicate that the event is being taken seriously. Visas are being restricted, as they were in …

Around The Web: China’S National Day Preparations

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With the PRC’s massive National Day and 60th anniversary celebration now just days away, we wanted to spotlight some of the major stories — as well as a few interesting images — that have been circulating recently. Here are several fascinating links that have caught our eye in the past few weeks as preparations for October 1 reached a fever pitch:

1. Fans of the Jackie Chan song “Country” (国家) and its music video should check out a new amateur version that went viral soon after its posting online (hat tip toShanghaiist for the video link). The video features a …

Wolf Totem’S “Rational Exploration” Of Civilization And Barbarians, William A. Callahan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat has examined the bestselling novel Wolf Totem (Lang tuteng) from a number of different angles, including reviews (by Nicole Barnes and Timothy Weston) as well as several cultural critiques of the book and its media coverage (by Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Haiyan Lee). Now, on the eve of China’s big anniversary, and in a moment, simultaneously, when ethnicity is a crucial flashpoint in the PRC, William Callahan reflects on what the book tells us about China’s nation-building ideology.

The fantastic success of Jiang Rong’s Lang tuteng [Wolf Totem] shows how notions of Chinese identity and culture are moving in …

The Frankfurt Book Mess, Nicolai Volland

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurter Buchmesse), the largest trade show of its kind, turned messy this year before it had even started. At the center of the brouhaha: China, the official guest of honor of the book fair 2009. Or, to be more precise, the row over the revoked invitation of two Chinese “dissidents,” Dai Qing and Bei Ling, to a symposium in the run-up to the Book Fair. The incident had an air of tragicomedy, and turned into a public relations disaster for the organizers as well as an embarrassment for about all those involved. In a larger sense, …

Contributors Around The Web

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few pieces that have appeared recently that feature the work of China Beatcontributors…

1. Ken Pomeranz was interviewed earlier this month for this NPR Planet Money feature on medieval China (jump to about minute 4 for the beginning of the interview).

2. Xujun Eberlein’s book, Apologies Forthcoming (which Jeff Wasserstrom mentioned in this review essay), was reviewed at China Geeks. Charles Custer writes, “Apologies Forthcoming is not perfect, but parts of it are. Florid praise draped over the back cover as it is, I think I shall put it more simply: it is a book you should read. Eberlein …

Events: Bay Area

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We noticed several Bay Area events involving China Beat-related folks in the coming days and weeks, and wanted to alert readers to them.

1. The Center for Asian Studies at Stanford will be hosting the first “Sino-US Literature Forum” beginning tomorrow. The event is open to the public and will be mainly conducted in Chinese. Haiyan Lee and Jeff Wasserstrom will both be presenting at the conference.

2. Jeff Wasserstrom will be giving a talk on “China’s Mania for Mega-Events: Thinking About the Beijing Games and the Shanghai World Expo” at Stanford on September 28 at noon.

3. A conference …

Ode To The Communist Song, Zhang Lijia

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The massive museum, a modern structure of grey bricks and white-painted cement, stands a little abruptly, halfway up Xiayun Mountain, in Fangshang County, in western skirts of Beijing. It is the ‘Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China Museum’, dedicated entirely to this revolutionary song.

On a recent sunny afternoon, when a friend and I descended – or should I say ascended as the mountain, at 2161 meter above sea level, is known as ‘the roof of Beijing’ – we found ourselves the only visitors. The spacious car park was empty. Yiaotangshang, a quiet mountain village, isn’t …

Obama In China: Friendly Advice Ii

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

After Barack Obama’s inauguration, we ran a series at China Beat of various China experts’ reading recommendations for Obama on China (See installments I, II, III,IV, V, VI). At the time, we assumed a trip to China would be one of Obama’s top priorities–as is now clear with the recent announcement that Obama will visit China in November 2009. So we sent out a few emails to China watchers from a variety of backgrounds, asking if they had advice for Obama as he prepares for the summit in Beijing. We previously posted Robert Kapp’s suggestions for the president; below, advice …

In Case You Missed It: The Beijing Of Possibilities, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this year, we ran two excerpts from Jonathan Tel’s (then forthcoming) collection of short stories, The Beijing of Possibilities (the excerpts were “Year of the Gorilla” and “Though the Candles Flicker Red“). Author (and occasional China Beat contributor) Xujun Eberlein recently reviewed the collection at her blog,Inside-Out China, and has allowed us to repost her review in full below.

Chinese stories can be exotic to foreigners, while a foreigner telling stories about China can be exotic to the natives of the land as well. In recent years, there has been no shortage of nonfiction books set in Beijing written …

Chuck Hagel On Iraq And What Needs To Be Done With Iran, Nicholas Hayes

University Chair in Critical Thinking Publications

No abstract provided.

Davos In Dalian, Daniel A. Bell

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last weekend, the World Economic Forum held its third “Annual Meeting of the New Champions” in Dalian. Known as “Summer Davos,” the event brought together over a thousand business and political leaders from around the world (aTelegraph story about Premier Wen Jiabao’s keynote speech can be found here; sina.com has complete coverage of the weekend here). China Beat contributor Daniel A. Bell attended the meeting, and shares his experiences as a lone philosopher in a sea of CEOs and political leaders.

My Davos experience did not get off to a good start. After a week-long research trip to Singapore, I …

Frontline And China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last spring, China Beat ran an interview with Geremie Barmé concerning a lawsuit brought against the Long Bow Group for its film The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Software company Jenzabar, Inc., its CEO Robert Maginn, Jr., and its President Chai Ling filed suit against Long Bow for defamation and copyright infringement, charges related to content on the documentary’s website.

News stories about the lawsuit can be found at the Boston Globe and the Times of London; it was also the subject of a “Letter from China” by Evan Osnos at theNew Yorker. Last month, producers of Frontline, the PBS documentary …

Readings On Xinjiang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this week, the Chinese government announced it had arrested six people allegedly involved in a bomb-making operation in Xinjiang. Tensions in the region continue to run high in the wake of July’s riots and recent arrests of people accused of syringe attacks. China Beat recently ran an interview with a Han Chinese student, Leong, who reflected on the summer’s violence; we also featuredthis essay by James Millward back in July. Here are five more articles on Xinjiang and the continuing unrest there:

1. Lucy Hornby at Reuters posted a blog entry earlier this month describing the panicked atmosphere in …

National Day: Sneak Preview

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last spring we ran a series of excerpts from Philip J. Cunningham’s book,Tiananmen Moon. Cunningham alerted us to his recent postings of “sneak preview” materials from the CCTV National Day programming at his blog, Frontier International. He wrote:

Walking through cramped studios and cacophonous corridors filled with actors and extras singing, chatting, rehearsing their lines and doing last-minute checks of costumes and make-up brought back memories of working on epic China films such as The Last Emperor and Empire of the Sun. It always amazes me to see how relaxed and informal show business people are immediately before and after …

The Landscape Within: Shanghai Photography By Howard French

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Howard French, former Shanghai bureau chief for the New York Times, has recently posted a new collection of black-and-white photographs on his website. The photo gallery, entitled “Disappearing Shanghai Part Two: The Landscape Within,” is accompanied by an essay written by French. Below, an excerpt from “The Landscape Within” and a sample of French’s photography to whet your appetite:

As many times as I have tread those asphalt streets, my mission this summer was altogether different from my photographic explorations of the past. It was inspired, in part, by a suggestion from a friend, the photographer Danny Lyon, that sounded …

Three Generations

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Today we are debuting a new feature. China Beat will be occasionally running a photo with a short gloss from one of our contributors. Today, we feature a photo from one of the regular contributors to this new feature, Alec Ash of Six.

Three generations: Confucius, welcoming visitors to his temple in Beijing; a sweeper, most likely taught to hate everything Confucian when he was young; and a little girl, with other things on her mind. Of them all, it’s the girl who will have the biggest impact on China’s future.

Three generations: Confucius, welcoming visitors to his temple in …

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The first trial of former President Chen Shui-bian 陳水扁, some of his family members, and other defendants has run its course, with verdicts and sentencesbeing pronounced on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks. Chen received a life sentence, a fine of NT$200 million (approximately US$6.1 million), and had his civil rights annulled for life. His wife received a nearly identical sentence, albeit with a larger fine (NT$300 million). His son was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison and fined NT$150 million, while his daughter-in-law received one year and eight months while being fined the same amount. Other …

Yale Global On China (And In Chinese)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We’ve linked to pieces on China at YaleGlobal Online in the past, but wanted to make a special note that they are now running a Chinese version of their website (also hosted by a Fudan U server). YaleGlobal is edited by Nayan Chanda, the author of Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers, and Warriors Shaped Globalization (reviewed in Newsweek by Jeff Wasserstrom). In addition to encouraging you to jump into the Chinese version of YaleGlobal, however, we thought we would also point you to a few recent pieces (in English) that China watchers might find interesting.

1. “Dams in China …

Cities Of The Future, Anna Greenspan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The future is by definition modern – Carol Willis

Modern means Shanghai – then and now – Ben Wood

At the Skyscraper Museum in Battery Park, where lower Manhattan meets the water’s edge, Shanghai is currently on display. Though the museum only occupies a small space, the design by architectural firm SOM gives the illusion of height, and the show is packed with content (including maps, floor-to-ceiling photographs, architectural models, video, and a 20-minute floating streetscape by Shanghai-based photographer Jakob Montrasio).

For those who can’t make the trip to New York, much of this material is now available online at …

Getting Ready For National Day: A Six-Step Plan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Back in October 2007, with the Olympics still almost a year off in the future, I devised a twelve-step reading plan for Outlook India, the goal of which was to help interested observers (and maybe even journalists who would be covering the event) get ready to make sense of the Beijing Games. I’ve been thinking for some time that I should do something similar for this year’s National Day. After all, 10/1/09 will have some things in common with 08/08/08, even if National Day is a thoroughly, well, national holiday, while the Olympics by definition is aninternational event. For example, …

A Han Chinese Student On The Urumqi Violence Of Summer 2009, Timothy B. Weston

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In April 2008 I published an interview at China Beat entitled “Growing Up Han: Reflections on a Xinjiang Childhood” that I conducted with a Chinese student named Leong who attends the University of Colorado, where I teach. Leong and I had been talking about doing a follow-up interview since that time but decided to wait until after he returned from a long-planned trip home to Urumqi during summer 2009 to do it. We figured his trip home and the feelings it generated in him might make for a good interview. Of course, neither of us could have anticipated the tumultuous …

China’S New New Youth, Alec Ash

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In 1915, in Shanghai, Chen Duxiu founded a magazine called qingnian zazhi (青年杂志), or Youth Magazine. Soon after, it was renamed xinqingnian (新青年): New Youth. Perhaps Chen came to feel that the youth of the times had something new to offer China, or that his writers had something new to offer China’s youth. Either way, the magazine and the name captured the spirit of the New Culture Movement which led to May 4th. New Youth aimed to call China out of its Confucian slumber with plain, angry writing by the likes of Lu Xun and essays promoting democracy. Later, it …

The Tael Lights Of Old Shanghai

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Clocking in at only 99 pages, Shanghai: High Lights Low Lights Tael Lights is an excellent appetizer for those of us who generally dine on heavier reading fare. The authors, Maurine Karns and Pat Patterson, make their purpose known early in the book: in the preface, titled “an explanation but not an apology,” Karns and Patterson state that they have written Tael Lights“with the hope of enjoying ourselves, of making a little money, and of not committing ourselves to anything for which we might be sorry” (xx). They proceed to describe, with delightful if decidedly un-PC irreverence, the Shanghai they …

Learning With The Kids, Daniel A. Bell

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China, as everybody knows, is not a politically free country. There are constraints on political activity and many social critics fall afoul of the system. The foreign press often reports on those cases, leading to the impression that it’s impossible to do any good outside of official channels. What is less well known, however, is that some areas of social life that were once politically taboo – such as the plight of migrant workers and environmental concerns – are now openly discussed in the Chinese media. There are also a growing number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that do good work …

Current History: Issue On China And East Asia

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Current History‘s September issue focuses on Asia. Though its articles are not accessible online, the publication has allowed China Beat to print short selections from a few articles. In addition to those excerpted below, the issue also includes pieces from Kenneth Lieberthal, Merle Goldman, Bruce Cumings, and others.

From “Unruly Stability: Why China’s Regime Has Staying Power” by Andrew Walder:

It is no longer as clear to China’s intellectuals and other educated urbanites that the nation’s political trajectory compares unfavorably to those of its former socialist brethren. In the late 1980s the socialist world appeared on the verge of a …

For Poland, Shadow Of 1939 Hangs Over Today's Events, Nicholas Hayes

University Chair in Critical Thinking Publications

No abstract provided.

The Future Of The Oecd, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is one of the least written about and least understood of our major global institutions. This new book builds a well-rounded understanding of this crucial, though often neglected, institution, with a range of clearly written chapters that:

• outline its origins and evolution, bringing its story fully up-to-date

• present a clear framework for understanding the OECD

• set the institution within the broader context of global governance

• outline key criticisms and debates

• evaluate its future prospects.

Given the immense challenges facing humanity at the start of the 21st century, the need for the OECD …

Obama In China: Friendly Advice, Robert A. Kapp

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

After Barack Obama’s inauguration, we ran a series at China Beat of various China experts’ reading recommendations for Obama on China (See installments I, II, III,IV, V, VI). At the time, we assumed a trip to China would be one of Obama’s top priorities–as is now clear with last week’s announcement that Obama will visit China in November 2009. So we sent out a few emails to China watchers from a variety of backgrounds, asking if they had advice for Obama as he prepares for the summit in Beijing. Here, the first installment from Robert A. Kapp, former president of …

Readings On Speech And Protest In China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. Hu Jintao has made a trip to Xinjiang, his first since riots there in July. Xinjiang was in the news earlier this week as well, when international news organizations picked up a story, first reported in Monday’s China Daily, which announced that trials would begin shortly for more than 200 people arrested in connection with the riots. The regional government, however, quickly denied that any trials have been scheduled, and stated that only 83 people have been officially arrested to date. Over at the Wall Street Journal’s China blog, Sky Canaves writes on this story and what it reveals …

Reports On China Environment

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Wilson Center’s China Environment Forum has released two new research briefs, adding them to their growing archive of reports on issues ranging fromhealth challenges in Xinjiang to waste disposal in rural areas. Particularly notable is the collection of reports resulting from a collaboration with Western Kentucky University; the two newest reports are both part of this series.

The first report is “Electric Cars: The Drive for a Sustainable Solution in China,” by Peter Marsters:

The CEO of Chinese automaker BYD has recently taken to drinking vials of his company’s battery fluid. The fluid, designed for use in electric cars, …