Jottings in New Sinology On 22 December 1972, the government of New Zealand cut off its decades-long diplomatic relationship with the Republic of China, which had been based on the island of Taiwan since 1949, and recognised the People’s Republic of China with its capital in Beijing and ruled over by the Chinese Communist Party.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XXV 贖   ‘… it’s like a child at the beach. You give them a shovel. They’ll make a hole and a hill and work at it all day.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XXIV 職責 One of the most common aphorisms in the Chinese lexicon of national identity and patriotism reads: 天下興亡匹夫有責。 ‘Everyone is duty bound to take responsibility for the wellbeing of society.’… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XXIII 空白   All decadent ideology and other incongruous parts of the super-structure are crumbling as the days go by. To clear away the rubbish completely will still take some time, but there is no doubt of their inevitable and total collapse.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium
Chapter XXII 官逼民反   Tears of sorrow are flowing from the Far West
of China to the seaboard in the East. 熱淚從中國的最西一直流到中國的最東。 A line circulating on Chinese social media captured the mood of sorrow following a fire in a residential high-rise in Urumqi, Xinjiang, on Thursday the 24th of November 2022. … Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium  A Postscript 未 When I read obituaries I always note the age of the deceased. Automatically I relate this figure to my own age. Four years to go, I think.… Read