Wairarapa Readings   Wairarapa Readings celebrate the variety and vivacity of China’s literary heritage. They introduce literary texts and translations aimed at students of traditional Chinese letters who are interested in the rich cultural world that lies beyond the narrow confines and demands of contemporary institutional pedagogy.… Read

狂人之末日   Li Ao 李敖, a famously controversial writer and media personality based in Taiwan, died on 18 March 2018. For many former admirers Li’s end really came in 2004. His passing gives us pause to consider the plangent fate of this ‘madman’.… Read

Readings in New Sinology   For my own part, I can never get enough Nothing to do. — G.K. Chesterton 閒 xian: idleness, idly. A very much used word. Thus one’s ‘hands’ and ‘mind’ can both be ‘idle,’ or the hands may be idle while the mind is busy, or the mind may be idle while one’s hands are busy.… Read

雅俗共賞   Translation Salons and Readings As part of our recently completed Wairarapa Academy Symposium ‘Dreaming of the Manchus’ 八旗夢影, which took place at Longwood Estate near Featherston in late February this year, we held a number of informal Translation Salons 竹林譯苑.… Read

Dog Days (V)   As students struggle with the sounds and tones of Standard Chinese 普通話/ 國語, and learn about the linguistic variations of tone and pronunciation found in regional languages, they are often introduced to the work of Yuen Ren Chao (趙元任, 1892-1982), a noted linguist and grammarian.… Read

白茫茫大地真乾淨 The Best China (X)   Since the abdication of the last dynastic house in 1912, China’s imperial canker has never been entirely eliminated. Of course, in today’s People’s Republic the state media offers up convoluted folderol and mind-numbing detail regarding the collective and consultative nature of the country’s political system.… Read