Five Years Ago Today — Xu Zhangrun’s Sublime Madness in the Soul

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XLV & Xu Zhangrun Archive   今夜越獄,詩詞為羽   ‘Tonight, Taking Flight on Wings of Poetry I Soar Out of My Confinement’ 今夜越獄,詩詞為羽 is the title of a poem composed by Xu Zhangrun on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the fateful day on which he released his jeremiad ‘Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes’ — a Beijing Jeremiad 我們當下的恐懼與期待.… Read

In Memoriam — Pierre Ryckmans (Simon Leys)

An Early Lesson in New Sinology   Today, 11 August 2021, marks the seventh year since Pierre Ryckmans passed away. The following essay was composed to honour his memory and published in The China Story on 30 November 2015.… Read

The Invisible Republic of the Spirit — Preface to Spectres & Souls

We quoted this line from the I Ching in ‘On Heritage 遺’, an essay composed as the formal rationale underpinning China Heritage, an e-journal launched on 1 January 2017. This pithy maxim is well-known in the Chinese tradition and it serves well as an epigram for China Heritage Annual 2021, the full title of which is Spectres & Souls: vignettes, moments and meditations on China and America, 1861-2021. … Read

Composed of Eros & of Dust — Xu Zhangrun Goes Shopping

Viral Alarm *** The title of the following essay by Xu Zhangrun, formerly a professor of law at Tsinghua University whose ongoing persecution has featured in China Heritage since 2018 (for details, see The Xu Zhangrun Archive) is taken from a well-known ci-lyric poem dating from the Song dynasty (960-1279 CE).… Read

China’s Virus of Lies in 2020

Viral Alarm The following material is reprinted from China Digital Times 中国数字时代 with the kind permission of Samuel Wade, the deputy editor. This is a chapter in Viral Alarm: China Heritage Annual 2020.… Read

Chen Qiushi’s Gift of the Gab

Viral Alarm The lawyer Chen Qiushi (陳秋實, 1985-) was one of the autonomous citizen-journalists who attempted to report on the outbreak of ‘Wuhan Flu’ 武汉肺炎 (武肺) — later known as ‘Corona Virus’ 新冠病毒 or Covid-19 — in February 2020.… Read