Buying American,
2010
Ron Javers Worldwide
Buying American, Ron Javers
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
When New York rumors began flying about fresh talks between Newsweek and The Daily Beast over Tina Brown’s taking over the editorship of the venerable but now reeling newsweekly I found myself wondering what Xiang Xi in Guangzhou thought of all that.
New Release: Coming To Terms With The Nation,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
New Release: Coming To Terms With The Nation
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
On Monday, China’s decennial census began, sending six million census workers door-to-door in a quest to record and count the country’s population over the course of only ten days. A key issue in this census, according to some observers, will be placing China’s population in terms of place of residence. One thing analysts are waiting to find out, for example, is how many citizens of the PRC are described as living in cities rather than villages, as this census, which comes after a period of massive rural-to-urban migration, is supposed to describe where people physically live and work, not their …
As China Goes, So Goes The World,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
As China Goes, So Goes The World
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Karl Gerth is a tutor and fellow at Merton College and a historian of modern China at Oxford University. His new book is As China Goes, So Goes the World: How Chinese Consumers are Transforming Everything (Hill & Wang, 2010). (See this review by Christina Larson at the Washington Monthly and this oneat Kirkus Reviews for more on Gerth’s book.) Below, an excerpt from chapter 1 of As China Goes, which takes a look at one of the most notable phenomena of 21st-century Chinese life: the sudden boom in car ownership and its far-reaching consequences.
Queueing,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Queueing
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
“In queue to visit the Indian pavilion at Shanghai’s World Expo, the man in front of me purveys what will be another hour of standing in the drizzle.
Book Tour Updates: Mid-May Talks,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Book Tour Updates: Mid-May Talks
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
When the dust settles from my still-in-progress “book tour for the post-book tour age” (as I’ve taken to calling the series of events relating to China in the 21st Century that I’ve been taking part in, sometimes having the stage to myself, sometimes sharing it with others), I’m going to try to write something about the experience as a whole (though there won’t be any video log of my travels a la theones by Rebecca Skloot I’ve been enjoying: h/t to Mara H. for leading me to them on the web). But for now I’m still too busy accumulating frequent …
Around The Web: Podcasts And Videos,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Around The Web: Podcasts And Videos
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Though we spend a lot of time reading over here at China Beat headquarters, we also like to keep up with the many China-related podcasts and videos that are proliferating on the web these days. A sampling of what’s caught our attention recently:
“A Wildly Weird And Wonderful Event”,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
“A Wildly Weird And Wonderful Event”
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
For updates and insights on the 2010 Expo, one of the first places we turn isShanghai Scrap, where Shanghai-based writer Adam Minter has been following the story for almost two years. Minter’s Expo posts cover topics such as the emergence of Haibao (September 2008), the renovation of the Bund (December 2009) and demolition of neighborhoods (October 2009), and an ongoing in-depth investigation of the twisted saga of the U.S. pavilion (most recent posthere; full archive here). Minter also has an article and slideshow about the Expo atThe Atlantic. In the wake of last Saturday’s opening ceremony, we posed a few …
In Case You Missed It: Fractured Rebellion,
2010
School of Oriental and African Studies
In Case You Missed It: Fractured Rebellion, John Gittings
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
A group of former Red Guards at Beijing’s Qinghua University, interviewed in spring 1971 about their recent factional struggles, laughed loudly (always a sign of uneasiness) and made their “frank confession”: yes, they had not always behaved in a spirit of proletarian comradeship, they admitted. “We used to sit on either side of the table and agree to make up our differences, but even while we shook hands we were kicking one other under the table!”.
Bloggers’ Breakfast At Aas,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Bloggers’ Breakfast At Aas
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
It’s become a tradition for China Beat contributors and friends of the blog to assemble at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting (as well as at the American Historical Association’s meeting) for a “bloggers’ breakfast” that provides China Beatniks the chance to get together and meet face-to-face — often for the first time, since so much of our business is conducted via e-mail. Last Saturday morning, we gathered at a Starbucks near the AAS conference site and talked about China, writing, and many other topics over coffee and pastries. A couple of photos from the AAS 2010 bloggers’ breakfast:
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part Ii),
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part Ii), Kate Merkel-Hess
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Moving across the country (from Irvine, California to State College, Pennsylvania) meant that most of my books—even the new ones—spent the summer packed in boxes. But alongside a rapid inhalation of all three Stieg Larsson novels, I still did a little China reading. Here, a few recommendations.
A Tale Of Three Mega-Events,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
A Tale Of Three Mega-Events, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
What can we learn, about either the People’s Republic of China or India and about what makes the two countries similar to and different from one another, by placing recent mega-events in these two young nation-states side by side? As a China specialist who watched the Beijing Olympics from afar with great interest in 2008, spent a month in Shanghai last summer while it played host to the 2010 World Expo, and is now nearing the end of his first stay in India, which took place in an autumn week that began right after the Commonwealth Games had concluded, I’ve …
In Search Of Remembrance: Jia Zhangke’S I Wish I Knew,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
In Search Of Remembrance: Jia Zhangke’S I Wish I Knew, Ken Kwan Ming Hao
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
In his new film I Wish I Knew, a documentary on Shanghai, Jia Zhangke recreates once again, after a detour of sorts with Useless and24 City, that wonderful tension between the biographical and the historical, the primal impetus of his art, that had made Platform,The World, and Still Life, his best films, so memorable. Jia is different from all other well-known mainland Chinese directors, be they of the 5th or 6th generation — his is a singular sensibility that is aware of but not chained to the social-political, which to him are meaningful only to the extent that they are …
A Chinese Immigrant Reads Yiyun Li,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
A Chinese Immigrant Reads Yiyun Li, Xujun Eberlein
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Among the twenty-three people who received MacArthur Fellowships last month was Yiyun Li, a fiction writer based at the University of California, Davis. Born and raised in Beijing before coming to the United States for graduate work (first in immunology, later in creative writing), Li is one member of a growing community of Chinese authors now writing in English. We asked Xujun Eberlein, also part of that group, to reflect on Li’s writing.
Basketbrawls Past And Present,
2010
Saint Joseph's University
Basketbrawls Past And Present, James Carter
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Many readers have by now heard of the brawl that broke out in the first half of an international basketball match between China and Brazil on October 12 in Henan province. The international “friendly” became increasingly chippy as the Chinese side objected to hard fouls and “dirty” play by the Brazilians. Dissatisfied with the officials’ response, the Chinese team (and its American coach, it should be noted) took matters into its own hands:
First Reactions: Liu Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
First Reactions: Liu Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Here in California, we woke up early this morning to the news that Liu Xiaobo had indeed been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There’s been an outpouring of coverage in the hours since Liu’s win was announced, which will surely continue in the days to come; at the moment, “Liu Xiaobo” and “Nobel Peace Prize” are also in Twitter’s top-ten trending topics worldwide. We’ve been combing through news stories and tweets and put together this quick list of readings:
California Dreamin’ At China’S World’S Fair,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
California Dreamin’ At China’S World’S Fair, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Shanghai can be a surreal place to visit in ordinary times. This is due to the juxtaposition of buildings, modes of transportation, and lifestyles that seem to belong to not just different decades but different centuries. And this aspect of the city was heightened for me last summer by the presence of the 2010 World Expo.
Coming Distractions: Chinese Whiskers,
2010
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
Coming Distractions: Chinese Whiskers, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Pallavi Aiyar’s 2008 memoir, Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, details the six years she spent living in Beijing, first teaching English and then becoming a reporter for The Hindu. Now stationed in Brussels with the Business Standard, Aiyar’s articles tend to focus on topics such as Belgium’s cultural conflicts and theuneven parallels drawn between India and China. For this reason, I was quite surprised to learn that Aiyar’s second book, to be released by Harper Collins India in early 2011, is a story of Beijing narrated by two cats: Tofu and Soyabean, the protagonists of Chinese Whiskers, share …
China By The Numbers: The Chinese Professor And The Red Emperor,
2010
Northwestern University
China By The Numbers: The Chinese Professor And The Red Emperor, Charles W. Hayford
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Remember those jailbirds who know all of each others’ jokes? They don’t tell the whole joke, just shout out the number from the jokebook. Our public discourse on China has something of the same quality. Instead of shouting out a number, however, somebody “shouts out” a word or an image which evokes a whole China story. These stories can be persuasive, poetic, or insightful, but when we only “shout out” the number, then we don’t have the chance to examine the whole story. Painful facts or challenges to venerable beliefs can be papered over when the story is a misleading …
On Michael Jackson In Mongolia, Hanging Out At Shanghai’S World’S Fair, And Other Topics: A Quick Q & A With Marketplace’S Rob Schmitz,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
On Michael Jackson In Mongolia, Hanging Out At Shanghai’S World’S Fair, And Other Topics: A Quick Q & A With Marketplace’S Rob Schmitz, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
Over the summer, there was a changing of the guard in the Shanghai office ofMarketplace, an American radio program that has consistently carried smart reports about China. Scott Tong moved from the PRC back to the US (where he continues to work for the show) and former Peace Corps volunteer Rob Schmitztook his place. I had the pleasure of meeting them both in Shanghai in July andran a post with the former in early August, in which he reflected on his time covering the China beat. Now, as a sequel to that post, comes a quick q and a with …
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Iv),
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Iv), Ron Javers
The China Beat Blog Archive 2008-2012
I was booked to give a China talk in August, high season in the Hamptons, as part of the summer series at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton.
