The Fourth of July 2026

Contra Trump 肥了自己瘦了美國 In July 1976, summer holiday back in Australia was bracketed by two events: the bicentenary of the American revolution on the fourth of the month and the Tangshan Earthquake on the twenty-eighth.… Read

In the Shade of Victor Mair

Celebrating New Sinology 維恆之蔭德 ‘Translating 里 as “tricent” today in memory of Victor Mair, who was a generous scholar and a kind and decent man.’ This note by Brendan O’Kane, characteristically arch and affectionate, alerted me to Victor’s death on Sunday, 28 June 2026.… Read

Other People’s Thoughts, LXXXI

This is the eighty-first chapter in Other People’s Thoughts, a China Heritage series inspired by a compilation of quotations put together by Simon Leys (Pierre Ryckmans), one of our Ancestors, during his reading life.… Read

Lao Shu in Lotus Land

The Other China 幸有一片涼 Lao Shu 老樹 is the nom de plume of Liu Shuyong (劉樹勇, 1962-), a Beijing-based artist, writer, critic and professor in communications. His artistic voice is unique and personal, its tenor, whimsy and profundity evoke what for decades we have called The Other China — a cultural noosphere that is as undeniably local as it is universal.… Read

Lao Shu on the Consolation of Cats

The Other China 有貓，真好 Lao Shu 老樹 is the nom de plume of Liu Shuyong (劉樹勇, 1962-), a Beijing-based artist, writer, critic and professor in communications. His artistic voice is unique and personal, its tenor, whimsy and profundity evoke what for decades we have called The Other China — a cultural noosphere that is as undeniably local as it is universal.… Read