The Other China
新年自示
Just as we bid farewell to the year 2024 with the art and poetry of Lao Shu, we also greet the year 2025 in his winsome company.
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Lao Shu 老樹 is the nom de plume of Liu Shuyong (劉樹勇, 1962-), a Beijing-based artist, writer, critic and professor in communications. His artistic voice is unique and personal, its tenor, whimsy and profundity evoke what for decades we have called The Other China — a cultural noosphere that is as undeniably local as it is universal.
The following work by Lao Shu is taken from the artist’s Weibo account. It was published shortly after midnight Beijing time on the 1st of January 2025.
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The first day of January 2025 marks eight years since China Heritage went online. On the 29th of January, the first day of the Year of the Snake 乙巳蛇年, we will introduce China Heritage Annual 2025, the theme of which is New Sinology.
During 2025, we will celebrate two decades of New Sinology 後漢學, an approach to the study of and engagement with the Chinese and Sinophone world that featured in China Heritage Quarterly, the predecessor of China Heritage.
— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
1 January 2025
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I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
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Lao Shu in China Heritage:
- The Whimsy and Wisdom of Lao Shu, in a summer of discontent
- Lao Shu’s Fall
- Lao Shu’s Farewell to the Year of the Rabbit
- ‘Do you really think you can eat those pies in the sky?’
- Lao Shu’s New Year
- Lao Shu — an artist in all seasons
- Only ever one step away — Lao Shu’s travels in time and space
- As the Year Flitters Away — Lao Shu’s Autumnal Hues
- Keeping Ahead of the Game — Lao Shu Farewells 2024
A Sisyphean Task
西西弗斯
Lao Shu
Translated by Geremie R. Barmé
What’s the new year going to bring?
Guess we’ve got something of a clue.
For my part, I’ll just remind myself:
Make sure to stand your ground!
— Lao Shu, New Year’s Resolution, 2025