Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XXXI 人礦   ‘We are little people knaves the black haired scum your children grandchildren tufts of grass little dogs and cats a gang of liumang [流氓] the cretinous crowds the great masses the hundred surnames and we feel oh-so-lucky extremely moved exceedingly uneasy terribly embarrassed so very pleased boundlessly enthusiastic very very overwhelmed by our good fortune grateful as all get out tears o’fill our eyes our hearts swell like the seas and we’re utterly and thoroughly lost for words.’… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter XXIII, Part II 忘卻的紀念   It is five years since we announced the launching of China Heritage at the end of a speech titled Living with Xi Dada’s China — Making Choices and Cutting Deals and published A Monkey King’s Journey to the East, the inaugural article in our online journal.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter XXIII, Part I 新鬼舊夢   The theme of ‘Chinese Time’, a two-part chapter in Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium published on the first two days of 2023, is the tension between forgetfulness and memory.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter XXVIII, Part II 檄   The month of December in 1972 brought to a culmination a process that had unfolded during ‘the coup year’ of 1971.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter XXVIII, Part I 赤字   ‘The tyrannical King Li of Zhou was reviled by the people’ 厲王虐，國人謗王。 This is the first line in ‘The Minister Counsels King Li Against Suppressing Criticism’ 召公諫厲王弭謗, an account by Zuo Qiuming 左丘明 in Discourses of the States 國語 Guó yǔ (c.… Read

Readings in New Sinology 斅   In May 2005, I published Towards a New Sinology, a short manifesto born of long years of study, experience and thought. Later that year, a reader recommended that I familiarise myself with the ‘Symposium on Chinese Studies and the Disciplines’, a panel organised for the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in Washington, D.C.,… Read