ARTICLES
ARE CHINESE PEOPLE HAPPY?
At last year's U.S. Catholic China conference, I had the honor of interviewing UC San Diego professor Richard Madsen, one of the modern pioneers of Chinese religious studies in the West.
ONCE THE VILLAGES ARE GONE, THE CULTURE IS GONE
After a bit of a hiatus, part 5 of our series on urbanization, on the loss of rural culture, the bedrock of Chinese culture.
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS
In the West, everyone is familiar with pushy tiger moms, but in China, this way of raising children is coming into question.
DISCONTENT IN CHINA’S MOST POLLUTED CITIES
My second piece in the New Yorker this year is on pollution in Chinese cities.
LEAVING THE LAND PART IV: MODEL TOWN OF HUAMINGZHEN
In part 4 of a series on urbanization in China that I've been doing for the New York Times, I look at the model town of Huamingzhen, which was featured in the 2010 Shanghai Expo as a win-win situation for farmers and developers.
DREAMS OF A NEW CHINA
What’s the China Dream? In this New York Review of Books essay of six new books on China–some good, some atrocious–I look at what’s motivated China’s leaders over the decades. Paywall alert.
TOUCH OF GENIUS? JIA ZHANGKE’S LATEST FILM, REVIEWED IN NYRB
While in New York City earlier this month I had the chance to see the Chinese film director Jia Zhangke speak at The Asia Society, and later watch his film. Here’s my review in the New York Review of Books blog.
FINDING COMMON GROUND AMONG BITTER ENEMIES
n late August, two dozen Chinese intellectuals met at Oxford University and drew up a statement that's come to be known as the "Oxford Consensus."
WHAT IS THE CHINA DREAM?
In this blogpost for the New York Review of Books, I look at a propaganda barrage around Chinese cities to analyze what the government means by the "China Dream."
LEAVING THE LAND PART 3: PICKING DEATH OVER EVICTION
n the third installment to our series in the NYT on the trials of urbanization in China, we focus on the little-reported phenomenon of farmers committing suicide by setting themselves on fire.
CHINA: WHEN THE CATS RULE
In this blogpost for the New York Review of Books, an adaption of my introduction to Lao She’s 1933 novel “Cat Country,” recently reissued by Penguin.
PENGUIN RE-ISSUES “CAT COUNTRY”
As part of Penguin's efforts to promote Chinese literature, it has re-released several of the great 20th century novelist Lao She's works. One is the dystopian satire Cat Country, for which I wrote the introduction.