Ada Tseng and Brian Hu asked me to join them for the first episode of season six of their amazing Saturday School Podcast. To talk about something I kind of dislike.
Posts in the Asia category:
Good for NYC, Bad for Beijing
Filmmaker Zhu Rikun is homeless. Not literally, but in a philosophical way. “I still continue my job as a filmmaker,” he says. “I just feel homeless. I don’t feel any home anywhere, in China or the United States.” Good for NYC, bad for Beijing: Beijing Indy film festival opening this month in NYC. @AngShah reports, […]
A textured look at modern China
Had the good fortune to talk about Chinese Characters, the book of essays about everyday life in China that I co-edited with Jeff Wasserstrom, with Lisa Napoli on KCRW in Los Angeles. Here’s our chat: Lisa wrote in the Which Way, LA blog: “There’s lots of news each day from and about China, but it’s rare that any of […]
US Ends Trade Privileges to Bangladesh Following Garment Factory Disasters
President Barack Obama announced Thursday that the US will end trade privileges with Bangladesh over concerns for safety and working conditions in factories. The US will suspend Bangladesh from the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which will increase tariffs on certain goods. The move, in response to recent garment factory disasters, will not directly affect the garment […]
How has the web changed coverage of Asia?
Next week in San Diego, I’ll be on a “late breaking” news panel at the Association for Asian Studies’ annual conference. I’ve started to think about how to explain the many ways that connectivity — social media, VOIP, chat clients — have really colored how I think about news and story telling about the region. From telling […]
China Stories
If Chinese Characters is about telling the stories of everyday life in China, China Stories is explicitly a way to think about how we tell and hear those stories. Historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom and I teamed up again to curate and edit this e-book volume of reviews and analyses for the Los Angeles Review of Books. The cover […]
Reddit Users Debate the Pricing Game Of The Cancer Drug Industry
When the Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla announced last month that it would cut the cost of three drugs used to treat cancers – one used for lung cancer and two for breast cancer – people around the world responded. Some of the most lengthy conversations took place on the news commenting site Reddit, including a […]
Human rights in Sri Lanka take center stage at the United Nations
Sri Lanka has captured attention recently for a deteriorating situation around human rights. International Crisis Group researcher Alan Keenan explains why the Human Rights Council review is so important, and why the world should care. Read more about the current situation in Sri Lanka and my Q&A with Keenan at Public Radio International.
Publication Day for Chinese Characters
Today is publication day for Chinese Characters! The first shipments via Amazon have reached readers and the book is now easily available to anyone. We’ve got a lot going on, including East (New York City) and West (Los Angeles) Coast book launches and talks and seminars in China, Boston, Philadelphia and around Southern California. Please do […]
Ordinary Chinese in extraordinary times
Eye on China interview with Angilee Shah (11:58) From Radio Taiwan International on August 30, 2012: How are ordinary Chinese dealing with the dramatic changes in their country? That’s what the new book Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land unveils. Tune into Eye on China as Natalie Tso talks with the […]