Contra Trump
佯裝川賊
Truth becomes fiction when the fiction’s true;
Real becomes not-real when the unreal’s real.
無為有處有還無
假作真時真亦假
— The Story of the Stone 石頭記, trans. David Hawkes)
Trump imitators have flourished in the United States since the late 1990s and from Trump Year Zero (aka 2016), Saturday Night Live has featured a bevy of them: Shane Gillis, Phil Hartman, Darrell Hammond, Jason Sudeikis, Taran Killam, Alec Baldwin and James Austin Johnson.… Read
‘I envy clouds their freedom.’ — Lao Shu
The Other China
最羨雲彩自由
We marked Good Friday 2025 with a somber meditation — A static hiss in the algorithm’s perfect hum. In accord with the very different mood of Easter Monday, we join Lao Shu to celebrate the spring (autumn where we are in the southern hemisphere).… Read
A static hiss in the algorithm’s perfect hum.
Intersecting with Eternity
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipoténtem,
factórem cæli et terræ, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium. … The Nicene Creed, from which these sentences are taken, is a Christian profession of faith adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325.… Read
factórem cæli et terræ, visibílium ómnium et invisibílium. … The Nicene Creed, from which these sentences are taken, is a Christian profession of faith adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325.… Read
The Lessons of Orbán’s Hungary for Trump’s America, according to Miklós Haraszti
Contra Trump
畫地為牢
Rhyming Chaos is a podcast produced by Jeremy Goldkorn. It ‘comprises interviews with people who have lived through or studied periods of great change, upheaval, chaos, and authoritarian takeover.’… Read
‘Go fuck yourself. With a French press, Bill.’
Contra Trump
牟取暴利
You are not the voice of Main Street.
You are not a steward of small business.
You are a fuckin MEGA rich man crying in his coffee because the golden pipeline of cheap imports just coughed.… Read
You are not a steward of small business.
You are a fuckin MEGA rich man crying in his coffee because the golden pipeline of cheap imports just coughed.… Read
Like the devil, vampires, and the more timid varieties of ghost, fascism must be invited in.
Contra Trump
揚幡招魂
In April 1994, the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University held ‘Mao Craze, Mao Cult? A Symposium on Popular Culture in China Today’. On 23 April 1994, I presented a paper on the theme of ‘The Irresistible Fall and Rise of Mao Zedong’.… Read