蛇尾馬頭   The 2014 Year of the Horse was my birth year — I turned sixty on 4 May 2014 — a fateful time and one that Indian astrologers had warned me would be a time of extreme danger.… Read

Seeds of Fire 赤馬紅羊劫   *** This is the first of a series of new years cards designed for China Heritage by Callum Smith. It features a photograph by Lois Conner of a bronze horse from the tomb of Qin Shihuang on a yellow background.… Read

The Other China 北方小年 The Little Year 小年 , also known as The Little New Year, is the Festival of the Kitchen God — variously 竈爺節、祭灶節、送灶節、交年節 in Chinese — is a festival in the lunisolar calendar traditional celebrated a week before the Spring Festival New Year.… Read

Contra Trump Our media and government(s), like most in the Western World, have spent the days since Israel began its Holocaust in Gaza living in a highly fragile parallel universe stitched together by cope, delusion, bloodlust, and greed.… Read

Seeds of Fire 殉道受難 Shortly before Christmas 2023, Jimmy Lai (Lai Chee-ying 黎智英, 1947-), a former pro-democracy media tycoon went on trial in Hong Kong under a Beijing-imposed national security law.… Read

Seeds of Fire 《一九八四 》+《美麗新世界》   We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held.… Read