So Starts the Spring

The Tower of Reading 歲節 On 2 February 2024, China’s state media proclaimed that ‘the whole nation is suffused with an atmosphere of uplifting optimism’ 整個國家都洋溢著樂觀向上的氛圍. As the economy struggled and the stock market roiled as a major real estate developer went into liquidation, the positive sentiments of the propagandists were widely mocked online.… Read

Lao Shu’s Farewell to the Year of the Rabbit

The Other China 蘤開華落自有時   In January 2023, we ushered in the Year of the Rabbit in the company of the Beijing-based artists Lao Shu and Huang Yongyu. Yongyu passed away in June 2023 at the age of ninety-nine.… Read

Other People’s Thoughts XLI

Other People’s Thoughts is a section in the Journal of the China Heritage site. It is inspired by a compilation of quotations put together by Simon Leys (Pierre Ryckmans), one of our Ancestors, during his reading life.… Read

2024 — An Ambitious Dragon’s Nightmare

The Other China 龍脈   China’s Spring Festival migratory season began on Friday 26 January 2024. Tens of millions of people set off by road, train and airplane to reunite with family members and visit friends to celebrate Lunar New Year, the first day of which is February the 10th.… Read

On the Road — Taipei vs. Beijing

The Other China 在路上   ‘Hope is like a path in the countryside. To start out with there is nothing there but, as people walk this way again and again, a path appears.’… Read