Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium 陰魂不散   ‘At the center of the center of China lies a corpse that nobody dares remove.’ The line rings as true today in 2023, the 47th anniversary of Mao’s death, as it did when Behind the Forbidden Door: Travels in Unknown China, Tiziano Terzani’s colourful account of reporting from China, was published in 1985.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium 悲欣交集   In October 2020, having found Xiaonan guilty of ‘illegal business operations’ a Beijing court sentenced Geng Xiaonan 耿瀟男, entrepreneur, humanitarian and cultural activist to three years incarceration.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter XXXI 在路上   ‘It’s as though we are in some kind of “Kerouac fantasia”. Back in the day, Jack Kerouac encouraged everyone to hit the road — forget all that stuff and set out in pursuit of your soul, find your own path in life … ‘My sense is that we have this kind of mindset now and, given the way things are unfolding, I’m pretty sure that all kinds of new community and cultural phenomena will appear.’… Read

New Sinology Jottings 中元節   The Fifteenth Day of the Seventh Lunar Month 七月十五 is called variously Zhongyuan 中元節, Half Month 七月半 and Ullambana (उल्लम्बन; 盂蘭盆節, or simply 盂蘭節). It is a calendrical juncture during which elements of Taoist and Buddhist belief mix, both for the salve of the quick and the uplift of the dead.… Read

Xu Zhangrun Archive 殉道 Two years ago, we revisited Xu Zhangrun’s blistering critique of Xi Jinping and his rule. We quoted the preamble of Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes, the lacerating analysis that Professor Xu originally released in July 2018.… Read

New Sinology Jottings 七夕 Separation from loved ones, reuniting with old friends, the reunion of families, happy couples, the sorrow of missed opportunities, anger over frustrated missteps in life… . These are all themes in Chinese culture reflected in such expressions as: 生死離別、悲歡離合、陰差陽錯、 兩地相思、 兩地分居、月圓之夜、月圓花好, and so on.… Read