The Other China 重陽節   The 18th of October 2026 is the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month in the traditional Chinese calendar 農曆九月初九. It marks the Double Ninth or Double Brightness Festival 重陽節, a celebration that follows shortly after the Harvest or Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節.… Read

Intersecting with Eternity The Idler, though sluggish, is yet alive, and may sometimes be stimulated to vigour and activity. He may descend into profoundness, or tower into sublimity; for the diligence of an Idler is rapid and impetuous, as ponderous bodies forced into velocity move with violence proportionate to their weight.… Read

The Other China 四季最愛秋天，紅葉黃葉滿山。
不冷不熱正好，沒事到處轉轉。 Of the four seasons, my favourite must be autumn,
when the hills are covered in variegated leaves and
the weather’s just right — not too cold nor too hot.… Read

The Other China 宜籬下採菊 In this celebration of the northern autumn of 2026, the Beijing artist Lao Shu again plucks virtual chrysanthemums at the imagined home of Tao Yuanming 陶淵明, China’s most famous poet-recluse.… Read

This is the eighty ninth 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

Seeds of Fire at Forty 道生一，一生二，
二生三，三生萬物 In this chapter of Seeds of Fire, a series that commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience (Hong Kong: Far Eastern Economic Review, 1986), we follow up on The Longest Relay, an essay by Mike Brock — a prolific thinker and cultural commentator — that we published to mark the anniversary of June Fourth in 2026.… Read