The Chaos They’ll Call Peace

Contra Trump ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant ‘They make a desert and call it peace’ is an oft-quoted and clichéd line from Tacitus, one that we learned in high school when studying Roman history.… Read

When the Ayatollah Called the General Secretary

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

Hang High the Lanterns

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

Covid Lessons for Kumbayistas

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

On Heritage in Seeds of Fire

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