ARTICLES
CHINA’S GLORIOUS NEW PAST
I've been fascinated by China's auto-cultural genocide (the willful destruction of its own culture) and efforts to reverse this.
DID WE CONTRIBUTE TO AI WEIWEI’S ARREST?
The arrest of the dissident artist Ai Weiwei has bothered me quite a bit and in this NYRB blogpost I look at some of the issues. No grand conclusions, but maybe some ideas to ponder.
INSIDE THE WORLD’S LARGEST MUSEUM
Here's a piece in the NYT on the battle over two permanent exhibitions on Chinese history at the newly refurbished National Museum of China.
GERMAN BOOK TOUR
I've been in Germany now for almost a week. On March 18/19, I was at the Leipzig Book Fair. On March 25 and April 5 I'll be giving talks in Berlin and on March 31 in Munich. I'd welcome your attendance if you're in either city.
WASHINGTON’S SECRET HISTORY WITH THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
This picture of President Eisenhower meeting with, among others, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood (2nd from right, Said Ramadan) is part of a new blogpost I wrote in the New York Review of Books on our fractured relationship with the Brotherhood.
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD VIDEO ON ITUNES U
The upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East is focusing attention on the Muslim Brotherhood.
GERMAN EDITION OF MOSQUE BOOK OUT
The German edition of A Mosque in Munich is out. Coming soon will be a German page on this site but for now, German speakers can see a YouTube video promo on the book. There are also Pakistani, Indonesian and French editions in the works or out. Waiting for the Arabic…
FINDING THE FACTS ABOUT MAO’S VICTIMS
With all the interest in Frank Dikötter’s new book on China’s Great Famine of 1958-1961, I thought it would be interesting to talk to Yang Jisheng, whose book “Tombstone” is the more authoritative book to come out on famine–and in many ways goes into more depth than Di
CHINA’S RELIGIOUS RENAISSANCE
I’ve been fascinated by China’s religious revival, which is actually happening largely with the state’s blessing. Here’s a profile of a Daoist nun that hopefully sheds some light on it. It ran in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
GETTING STARTED IN DAOISM: FIVE BOOKS
After the NYT Daoism story, I got asked to recommend books on Daoism. Here’s my pick of five (or more actually) that I explain in this blogpost in The China Beat.
Going Baroque in China
I'm a big fan of Baroque music and was excited when the Beijing Music Festival decided to focus on it this year.