After visiting grand Shanghai and glittering Chongqing, it was in a taxi in Dongguan that my view of China took a small, but important shift. I was traveling with a friend to the South China Mall, down the main road that stretches from the city’s train station all the way out to the suburbs. It […]
Posts in the China category:
NPR correspondence by email and me in print
The China Beat just ran an email interview I did with Louisa Lim, the dynamic Shanghai correspondent for National Public Radio, formerly of the BBC. My favorite part? When we arrived at their office, their faces fell. We sat around, drinking tea and waiting. In the next room, we could hear the government officials conferring […]
The best reporting on the Sichuan Earthquake you’ll never see
When I was at the Pusan International Film Festival in Korea, I went to a hotel on the beach to meet a documentary filmmaker from Beijing. I was very impressed by his film, Who Killed Our Children. Pan Jianlin was frank with his opinions and generous with his time. He chain smokes and makes self-depricating […]
Two Guangzhou Neighborhoods
In the last days of the Olympics, neighbors in Sanyuanli and residents of the Clifford Estates left their televisions on so that the final matches and last medal ceremonies set the backdrops of their daily lives. The neighborhoods are similar in many ways. They both sit on the edges of the megacity of Guangzhou. The […]
Orientalism or chinoiserie?
Marketing material for the 1926 Milan premeire of Turandot on the left, and for the 2008 Singapore staging on the right.Like most people, I don’t know where I first heard the famous aria Nessun Dorma of Puccini’s Turandot. But my interest in the opera has certainly been revived several times recently. Maybe it was Pavarotti’s […]
beautiful things
I went to China. It was a fantastic and eye opening trip. I took some photos and wrote a bit — will share that soon. For now — I can’t help but echo the crowd about the Democratic National Convention. I had missed the Hillary Clinton who spoke on Tuesday, the woman who was a […]
Olympics+
I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people lately about how the world is covering the Olympics. Along with the palpable excitement and pride on the part of Chinese people, and intrigue and appreciation on the part of folks from other parts of the world, there is a lot of frustration out there. Is […]
it’s not about Tibet
I frequently read Tim Johnson’s blog on China — he’s the Beijing bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers and often has really interesting things to say and good selections of links. The blog has, of late, become quite embroiled in the Olympics Torch Relay, e.g. the global referendum on China and Tibet. It’s easy to get […]
the games
I’ve been thinking about the Olympics torch relay. It seems to be rousing deep emotions — perhaps some kind of opportunism, or maybe pent up frustrations. But one thing’s clear: Even before the Olympic Games begin, there are some serious political games going on here. Just look at the torch’s run through India and Pakistan […]
joining The China Beat
I wrote my first post for The China Beat today. It was a Q&A with a political scientist, Benjamin Read, who has been studying homeowners associations in China. He put the recent protest in Shanghai in context: So I think we should guard against reading too much into this event. Howard W. French, in his […]