The Other China Liu Chan 劉蟾 is a Beijing-based writer and editor who uses couplets composed on a lapidary style to record the events of the day in a solemn calligraphic hand.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix LII 該怎麼辦   Featuring the band Wayina and Ren Suxi (任素汐, 1988-), a well-known actress, ‘Outsize Dreams’ 大夢 was a hit. Although it did not enjoy the eye-watering success of ‘Land of the Rakshasas & the Sea Market’ 羅剎海市, featured in There Are Few Folk Songs 山歌寥哉, an album released by the popular singer Dao Lang 刀郎 (羅林, 1971-) in the summer of 2023 (see The Topsy-turvy Country — China’s Summer Hit, 28 July 2023), it was soon downloaded and shared over 45,000 times.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix LI 好話說盡，壞事幹絕   On 1 October 2023 National Day, we return to the well-worn mendacity that underpins the Chinese party-state. We do so by recalling the ‘Golden Millet Dream’ 黃梁夢, an old story about the fleeting nature of success, the whims of autocratic fiat and frustrated aspiration.… Read

New Sinology Jottings The Same Fair Moon 千里共嬋娟   The Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Month of the lunar calendar, which in 2023 falls on 29 September, marks the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節.… Read

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

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium 陰魂不散   ‘At the center of the center of China lies a corpse that nobody dares remove.’ The line rings as true today in 2023, the 47th anniversary of Mao’s death, as it did when Behind the Forbidden Door: Travels in Unknown China, Tiziano Terzani’s colourful account of reporting from China, was published in 1985.… Read