A Lesson in New Sinology 顛倒：羅剎海市   Within days of its release on 19 July 2023, the song ‘Land of the Rakshasas & the Sea Market’ 羅剎海市, featured in There Are Few Folk Songs 山歌寥哉, a new album by the popular singer Dao Lang 刀郎 (羅林, 1971-), had become the equivalent of a Chinese summer hit.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XLV & Xu Zhangrun Archive   今夜越獄，詩詞為羽   ‘Tonight, Taking Flight on Wings of Poetry I Soar Out of My Confinement’ 今夜越獄，詩詞為羽 is the title of a poem composed by Xu Zhangrun on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the fateful day on which he released his jeremiad ‘Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes’ — a Beijing Jeremiad 我們當下的恐懼與期待.… Read

The Other China 活到老學到老   The study of the languages of China — be it Standard Chinese, Literary Chinese, Classical Chinese, various topolects (such as Cantonese, Hokkien or Wu-Shanghainese), or the non-Han languages of the People’s Republic — presents the student with numerous challenges.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter II
Part I ∓ 加減   The Sixth of July in the Year of the Dog —
I was reborn, from a sacrificial offering on an exquisite altar
Detention set me on a course to join a broader humanity
After my lustration, I share the embrace of a different fellowship 七月六日，歲在庚子
我重生於一場優美的獻祭
因為囚禁，從此奔向了全人類
人類用泯於眾人將我緬懷 This is the first stanza in a pair of poems composed by Xu Zhangrun, formerly a professor of jurisprudence, on the eve of 6 July 2023.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Appendix XLIV 家住安源   The 1st of July 2023 marks 102 years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. It is also fifty years since I saw On the Docks 海港, one of the Modern Revolutionary Works that formed the core of Maoist culture, at The Australian National University in the southern winter of 1973.… Read

Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium Chapter XXIV, Part Three 故事新編   The View from Maple Bridge is a four-part chapter in Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium. In part one, Ah, Humanity!,… Read