Hong Kong Apostasy   The exhortation ‘be water’ — that is remain fluid, flexible and fast-moving — encapsulated the approach of protesters during the Hong Kong Uprising of 2019. Although Bruce Lee (李小龍, 1940-1973), the martial arts hero of Hong Kong cinema, is quoted as the modern source of this strategy, water as symbol, metaphor and meaning has a venerable history in Chinese thought and culture.… Read

Xu Zhangrun vs. Tsinghua University
Voices of Protest & Resistance (XXXI)   On the 5th of October, Xu Zhangrun 許章潤 reprinted an essay that he had written earlier this year, on the 23rd of March, just two days after he had effectively been ‘cashiered’ by Tsinghua University, the Beijing educational institution at which he had for many years been a prominent professor of law.… Read

Hong Kong Apostasy   The 7th of October 2019 is the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month of the Lunar Calendar, a day that marks the Double Ninth Festival. In ‘New Sinology Jottings’ 後漢學劄記 we previously noted that the Double Ninth or Double Brightness Festival 重陽節 is a celebration of the autumn, a time of late bounty, seasonal change, lingering beauty and finality.… Read

Hong Kong Apostasy   In this chapter of The Best China we introduce a sign-language version of ‘Bring Back the Glory to Hong Kong 願榮光歸香港’, the city’s popular protest song cum anthem, and translate an interview with its creator Jason Wong Yiu-pong (黃耀邦, 1993-), a deaf choreographer and sign-language interpreter.… Read