Amerikanisches Narrenschiff — a Ship of Fools & the Rule of Idiots

Contra Trump 君者,舟也。庶人者,水也。
水則載舟,水則覆舟。 Previously in Contra Trump we featured Sebastian Brandt’s Narrenschiff (‘Ship of Fools’) when discussing a pro-Trump regime-adjacent ideologue. See Ready Player One — the Narrenschiff of American Gods.… Read

A Fierce Independence of Mind — The Other America

Contra Trump 直言無諱   It has been a graduation season unlike any other. The Trump administration is investigating elite universities and cutting research funding. Pro-Palestinian activism and claims of antisemitism are shaping campus life.… Read

Other People’s Thoughts LIX

This is the fifty-ninth 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

Searching for Solitary Fellowship — paintings and poems by Lao Shu

The Other China 何處覓知音 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

Sympathy for the Devil in China, America and Russia

Contra Trump Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what’s puzzling you
Is the nature of my game ‘法西斯 — Fascists!’ — it was a one-word curse and accusation shouted in shock, anger and outrage that was first heard as the Chinese military moved against protesters at Muxidi, Beijing, late on the night of 3 June 1989.… Read