ARTICLES
SQUELCHING PUBLIC MEMORY
In part 2 of my look at the underground history journal, Remembrance, I look at how the journal tried–and failed–to foster a public debate about apologizing for the Cultural Revolution.
RETURN OF THE PAST
Part 1 of a two-page article in the New York Review of Books on a samizdat historical journal in China that is challenging the government’s monpoloy on interpreting the past. Part 2 to come out next issue, in a fortnight. UPDATE: Now unpaywalled on the ChinaFile website.
VIBRANT, TIMID BERLIN
Amid the celebrations surrounding the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, my less rosy take in the New York Times Sunday Review on what the city has actually become in the intervening years.
HOW LITTLE WE KNEW: BERLIN WALL AT 25
Twenty-five years ago this coming Sunday the Berlin Wall fell, the most dramatic in a series of steps that led to the reunification of Germany–and Europe. Back then I was a fixer, translator, and free-lancer based in West Berlin, after having spent several years in the 1980s in China and
DISCUSSING CHINESE NATIONALISM “ON POINT”
In this broadcast of Tom Ashbrook's "On Point," I join U Chicago's Dali Yang and Duke's Kang Liu to discuss why Xi Jinpiong endorsed controversial blogger Zhou Xiaoping.
RELIGION AND THE ENVIRONMENT
I’ll be in Chicago and St. Louis for a series of talks sponsored by the Pulitzer Center. One of the highlights will be a talk Tuesday with Dali Yang and others on religion and China’s ecological problems–an unlikely topic but something that’s actually quite fascinating. More
CHINA’S UNSTOPPABLE LAWYERS
This is another in my ongoing series of Q&As in the New York Review of Books blog called "Talking About China."
FIXING CHINAS FARMS
Once the backbone of imperial China and a backbone of China's early market reform efforts, agriculture has become a drag on China's economy.
LI YINHE ON PROSPECTS FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, STATUS OF WOMEN LI YINHE ART
In my continuing series of Q&As with Chinese public intellectuals, I talk to Li Yinhe, the country's most famous expert on matters relating to sex, family, and women.
CHINA’S PUSH INTO AFRICA
In this article in the New York Review of Books, I review two new books on China in Africa, one by Columbia Journalism school and former New York Times correspondent Howard French, the other by freelancer Jacob Kushner.
INSPIRING DIALOGUE, NOT DISSENT, IN CHINA
In this piece for the New York Times, I profile filmmaker Jocelyn Ford and her documentary on Zanta, a Tibetan woman trying to get an education for her son.