The Other China 岑然自在，惟心一途   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.… Read

This is the eighty-second 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

Seeds of Fire 40th Anniversary 鬧房 —— 無限風光在險峰 This chapter in Seeds of Fire 40th Anniversary, published on 7 July 2026, marks four decades since Linda Jaivin and I affixed our red-inked thumb prints to our wedding certificate at the East City Civil Affairs Bureau of Beijing in Dongsi 北京東城區民政局.… Read

Contra Trump 反串 Fascism is an inverted form of camp. Its evil side. It is devoid of irony and humor. It takes itself seriously. It uses exaggerated, theatricalized art to turn a leader — like any drag queen — into a larger-than-life persona.… Read

Contra Trump 國破山河在，城春草木深 One of the featured essays in The Fourth of July 2026, — ‘Aussies Officially Hate Trump’s Fucking Guts’ — was written by GMan. Here we reproduce another article by this redoubtable author, who is one of the most lucid chroniclers of and mordant commentators on The Desolation of Donald J Trump.… Read

Contra Trump In this chapter of Contra Trump, a series devoted to the second presidential term of Donald J Trump and its resonance with Xi Jinping’s China, we mark the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence in the company of Timothy D.… Read