My Cousin,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
My Cousin, Zhang Lijia
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
My cousin died in Nanjing shortly before his 56th birthday this September, killed by multiple myeloma, a rare and nasty form of blood cancer.
A Tale Of Three Mega-Events,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
A Tale Of Three Mega-Events, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
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 …
Reading Round-Up: October 31, 2010,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Reading Round-Up: October 31, 2010
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Today’s reading round-up is in a somewhat different format from the one we generally use: instead of just listing links, we’ve first grouped our reading recommendations around two broad topics that have been in the news lately, then included some stand-alone stories at the end.
Here, There, And Everywhere: Upcoming Events,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Here, There, And Everywhere: Upcoming Events
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
If you have a bit of free time, check out one of these China-related talks around the world this week and next:
Basketbrawls Past And Present,
2010
Saint Joseph's University
Basketbrawls Past And Present, James Carter
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:
China, In Dim Light,
2010
University of California, Irvine
China, In Dim Light, Pierre Fuller
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
On a train moving across north China last year, a girl, blond hair reaching down to her waist, maybe 15, darted past my bottom perch in the hard sleeper. As much as her hair, it was the colorful ankle-length dress she wore that caught my eye, the kind I’d spotted on girls in places like rural Utah and Nevada. I could have sworn I’d seen an apparition, but settled anyway back into my book.
A House Museum Café: Part 1,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
A House Museum Café: Part 1, Leksa Chmielewski
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
In American museums, the museum gift shop or café stands as a constant reminder—before exhibit visits, after them, even in between them—of the dire financial straights in which nonprofits chronically find themselves. Museum gift shops and cafes are multiplying in Chinese museums too, even though the vast majority of Chinese museums are state-affiliated and enjoy full government funding. Chinese academics who work with museums lament that the Chinese museum scene still has much to learn from the American nonprofit-based system—but if that implies budget cuts, layoffs and a proliferation of museum shops selling finger-puppet versions of classic paintings, it’s not …
Liu Xiaobo And The Nobel Peace Prize: Readings And Reactions,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Liu Xiaobo And The Nobel Peace Prize: Readings And Reactions
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
When we heard of Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize win last week, we quickly reached out to a variety of China Beatniks and asked for either their reactions to the news or links to any writings they had done on Liu in the past. Below are some of the responses we received.
Readings On Liu Xiaobo And The Nobel Peace Prize, Part 2,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Readings On Liu Xiaobo And The Nobel Peace Prize, Part 2
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Many more commentaries about Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize have been published since we collected an initial round of readings on Friday. Here’s the latest:
First Reactions: Liu Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
First Reactions: Liu Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize
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:
China’S Population Destiny: The Looming Crisis,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
China’S Population Destiny: The Looming Crisis, Wang Feng
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Observers of China’s rise, when assessing the implications for global peace and prosperity, have largely focused their attention on the country’s economy, on its energy and resource needs, on the environmental consequences of its rapid expansion, and on the nation’s military buildup and strategic ambitions. Yet, underlying all these dazzling changes and monumental concerns is a driving force that has been seriously underappreciated: China’s changing demography.
New Readings On Mega-Events And Matteo Ricci,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
New Readings On Mega-Events And Matteo Ricci
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Two of the scholarly publications on our radar have new China-related content online:
California Dreamin’ At China’S World’S Fair,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
California Dreamin’ At China’S World’S Fair, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
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
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 …
Gao Xingjian, Wolfgang Kubin, And The Nobel Prize Debate Ten Years On,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Gao Xingjian, Wolfgang Kubin, And The Nobel Prize Debate Ten Years On, Sebastian Veg
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Chinese literature and its significance or insignificance is a continued subject of heated debate in China. From May Fourth, when anti-traditionalist thinkers called on literature to assume a pioneering role in transforming subjects into citizens, to its use as propaganda during World War Two and on both sides of the Strait after 1949, it was seen as a crucial vector of political ideas. During the “Enlightenment” of the 1980s, literature was again called upon to play a central – though politically very different – role in helping society come to terms with the officially still taboo traumas of the Cultural …
Shanghai Mourns Victims Of High-Rise Fire,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Shanghai Mourns Victims Of High-Rise Fire
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Thousands of Shanghai residents gathered on Sunday to mourn the victims of last week’s fire at Jiaozhou Road. Adam Minter has a thoughtful post on the mourning procession (as well as links for further reading) at Shanghai Scrap; Marta Cooper’s blog . . . in Shanghai has photos from the assembly. At the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report, watch a short video about Sunday’s gathering. On Twitter, users have been marking their thoughts on the fire and its aftermath with the hashtag #jiaozhoulu.
Bill And Warren’S Excellent (Chinese) Adventure,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Bill And Warren’S Excellent (Chinese) Adventure, Caroline Reeves
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are throwing a charity banquet in Beijing. On September 29th, the two American tycoons will host a dinner for China’s wealthiest magnates to convince them to give their monies away to charity. This event has caused a stir in the Chinese world. Everyone from movie stars to industry moguls is involved. Doonesbury is talking about it. Some billionaires have publicly declined to dine with the dynamic duo, wondering aloud if the event was planned to publicly part them from their new fortunes. Their response has called into question China’s “charitable impulse” and given rise to …
Anhui’S Barefoot Aids Doctors,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Anhui’S Barefoot Aids Doctors, Annie Ye Ren
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
For the past four years, I have periodically worked with a Chinese grassroots HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization (NGO) that serves children in Fuyang Prefecture, Anhui Province. The Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association (AOS)gives aid directly to local communities, addressing local needs that are often overlooked or underfunded by large-scale government projects.
Pakistan’S Nuclear Weapons Program And Implications For Us National Security.,
2010
Stephen F Austin State University
Pakistan’S Nuclear Weapons Program And Implications For Us National Security., Michael Tkacik
Faculty Publications
This article analyzes Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and the characteristics of the environment in which the program is nested. These characteristics include Pakistan’s history of internal and external instability; nuclear saber rattling during crises; support for Islamic terrorism in order to advance state goals; indigenous production of many elements of its nuclear forces; possession of delivery and command and control systems with destabilizing characteristics; and finally, nuclear doctrine that appears to advocate first use of nuclear weapons. The article argues that the characteristics of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program generate threats to US national security interests. The article examines six interrelated …
The Politic 2010 Winter,
2010
Yale University
