The Tower of Reading 念樓中秋   The Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Month of the lunar calendar, a day that in 2025 falls on the 6th of October, marks the Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節.… Read

Contra Trump 國魂 ‘We certainly made a mess of the Mandate of Heaven.’ — Gore Vidal, 2008 The 4th of October 2025 marks the centenary of Gore Vidal’s birth. We mark the occasion with a comment on Vidal by Ross Barkan and an essay on the ‘American prophet’ published by Will Lloyd in New Statesman.… Read

Contra Trump 豬八戒照鏡子 … the festival takes place on the seventh anniversary of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi being murdered by Saudi government officials on October 2, 2018. In 2021, President Joe Biden found Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s personal security detail Rapid Intervention Force responsible for killing Khashoggi, but the Saudi royal court has continued to deny involvement.… Read

This is the sixty-sixth chapter in Other People’s Thoughts, a China Heritage series inspired by a compilation of quotations put together by Simon Leys (Pierre Ryckmans), one of our Ancestors, during his reading life.… Read

Xu Zhangrun Archive   In Memoriam: Jerome A. Cohen 精神家族一代師表——思祭孔傑榮先輩 A Eulogy by Xu Zhangrun  許章潤誄孔公 translated by G.R. Barmé (draft, 24.ix.25)   Jerome Cohen enjoyed the longevity of a truly righteous man, however, following an extended illness he has now left us.… Read

Celebrating New Sinology 謝巴公 On 17 October 2025 it will be twenty years since Ba Jin (巴金, the pen name of Li Yaotang 李堯棠, 1904-2005) died at the age of 100.… Read