The Other China 裡通天朝上國 In the Xi Jinping era, the term Great Power 強國 qiáng guó, literally ‘powerful nation’, is a commonplace term for China itself. It encapsulates the quest of the People’s Republic of China in the twenty-first century to be a superpower.… Read

The Other China 張燈結綵 The Fifteenth Day of the First Month of the New Year 正月十五 marks the first full moon of the Lunisolar New Year. Generally called Yuanxiao 元宵, literally ‘First Evening’, it is also the height of the Lantern Festival 燈節,  one traditionally celebrated from the Hanging of Lanterns 上燈 on the Thirteenth Day of the First Month to the Taking Down of Lanterns 落燈 on the Eighteenth Day of the First Month.… Read

Seeds of Fire 回忌李文良 The space for professionals to speak out within the system as it presently exists is extremely limited. The constraints imposed exist to prevent people from telling the truth; the pressure people are under is tremendous.… Read

The Other China We mark the anniversary of Ukraine’s War of Resistance Against Russia, which started on this day four years ago, with a tribute by the Beijing-based calligrapher Liu Chan.… Read

Seeds of Fire ‘On Heritage 遺’, reproduced below, was written in January 2016. It offers the Rationale behind China Heritage, a publishing and archival project related to culture, translation and thought that was launched in December 2016.… Read

Seeds of Fire 無恥之尤 Journalist Marije Vlaskamp’s essay on the Gao Brothers 高氏兄弟 — Gao Zhen 高兟 and Gao Qiang 高强 — reproduced below, is all but unreadable, even unbearable. That’s because Vlaskamp describes dilemmas and agonies of conscience that have been part of my own life for nearly half a century.… Read