The 2018 Year of the Dog
戊戌狗年 The Year of the Dog celebrates the positive attributes of the canine: loyalty, fearlessness, alertness, protection. Less admired are features of dogs that have gained metaphorical notoriety when talking about humankind, these traits include infighting, backstabbing, shit-eating, scavenging, disease and fawning.… Read

Watching China Watching (XIX) In Saying the Unsayable we noted that China first essayed the global reach of its United Front strategy during the international leg of the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay.… Read

Watching China Watching (XVIII) It is ten years since China’s 2008 ‘Olympic Year’. The international media anticipated that the XXIXth Olympiad to be held in Beijing in August that year would signify China’s true ‘coming out’ on the world stage.… Read

Watching China Watching (XVII) China Watching has never merely been the province of outsiders. As we have pointed out previously in Watching China Watching, those who watch, analyse and critique China with the greatest intensity are themselves often part of the Chinese, or Sinophone world.… Read

Watching China Watching (XV)  The following essay was written as a Foreword to China Beyond the Headlines, a volume of academic studies of contemporary Chinese society at the turn of the century, edited by Timothy B.… Read

Watching China Watching (XIV) The Man With the Key is Not Here 管钥匙的人不在 offers ‘Sixteen Chinese Key Words’ (pun intended), or ‘Everyday Mantras’, and their layered meanings, that Chinese watchers of China know to be on the watch out for.… Read