Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix LVI 向何處去   ‘Where to from here?’ 向何處去, ‘Exploring every avenue’ 上下求索, ‘What’s to be done? 怎麼辦, ‘What is to be avoided and what is to be followed?’… Read

Xu Zhangrun Archive   On 5 December 2023, the Wei Jingsheng Foundation announced that Professor Xu Zhangrun had been awarded the Twentieth Annual Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize. The text of the announcement is reproduced below.… Read

The Tower of Reading 獨樂 In On Heritage, our ‘manifesto’, we quoted, ‘Letter to Shan Tao’ 與山巨源絕交書 by Xi Kang (嵇康, 223-262CE). In it the author declares that the ‘wayward’ ideas of Taoist sages had long influenced his otherworldly predisposition: … My taste for independence was aggravated by my reading of Zhuangzi and Laozi; as a result any desire for fame or success grew daily weaker, and my commitment to freedom increasingly firmer.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix LV 一週年   In May 2022, Li Yuan 袁莉, a New York Times columnist who focuses on the intersection of technology, business and politics in China and across Asia, started a weekly Chinese-language podcast titled Who Gets It — a Shared Search for the Truth and Answers 不明白播客：一起探尋真理與答案.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix LIV 現炒冷飯 ‘On my honour as a chef, I promise never again to make egg-fried rice, or to make any more videos about fried rice!’… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter XXVII 虛船觸舟   ‘Frustrated in life, enfeebled in death’ 活得憋屈，死得窝囊. This was an epithet for Li Keqiang 李克强, China’s former premier who died on Friday October 27 at the age of 68, offered in an elegiac couplet (輓聯 wǎn lián) attributed to an anonymous author at Peking University, Lǐ’s alma mater, that circulated widely within hours of the announcement of his death.… Read