Communist Chinese Mantras — keywords and the importance of formulaic language

Watching China Watching Chapter XLI 大中見小，小中見大，虛中有實，
實中有虛，或藏或露，或淺或深。   In Watching China Watching, a China Heritage series launched in January 2018, we offer essays and reflections on studying the Chinese world and approaches to understanding the Chinese People’s Republic.… Read

In the Company of Cats

The Other China 貓片兒   In the Company of Cats is the third and final installment in our 2023 commemoration of June Fourth. See also:
  • Back When the Sino-US Cold War Began, 1 June 2023; and,
  • Other People’s Thoughts, XXXV, 4 June 2023
    • Here we spend this dark anniversary the uplifting company of the artist Lao Shu 老樹 and the raconteur Mei Liu’r 梅六兒, both of whom are based in Beijing.… Read

    Other People’s Thoughts, XXXV

    Other People’s Thoughts is a section in the Journal of the China Heritage site. It is inspired by a compilation of quotations put together by Simon Leys (Pierre Ryckmans), one of our Ancestors, during his reading life.… Read

    Back When the Sino-US Cold War Began

    Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium 動亂、亂動   This storm was bound to come sooner or later. This is determined by the major international climate and China’s own minor climate. It was bound to happen and is independent of man’s will.… Read

    Kissinger Scores a Century

    Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XLIII 期頤佞者   ‘Of course, these people are murderous thugs, but this should not affect our good relations.’ — Henry Kissinger   Saturday 27th May 2023 marks the centenary of Henry A.… Read

    ‘If’ — Ending the Western Presence in China, Then & Now

    Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XLII 溫故而知新
    可以為師矣   Eighty years ago T.S. Eliot published ‘Little Gidding’, part of Four Quartets, a cycle of poems. It contains the following famous lines: We shall not cease from exploration
    And the end of all our exploring
    Will be to arrive where we started
    And know the place for the first time.… Read