ARTICLES
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.
RUMBLINGS OF REFORM IN BEIJING?
I have a post today in the New York Review of Books on the recent Communist Party Plenum in China. It comes at the end of six weeks of speculation over political reform in China. I give my take here.
CROSSING THE BORDER BETWEEN JOURNALISM AND ACADEMIA
UC Irvine China scholar Jeffrey Wasserstrom and I teamed up for this column in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the risks/rewards of writing books that straddle traditional boundaries. You can read it here.
REVIEW OF “THE PARTY” IN NYRB
I’m back in China and have a review of Richard McGregor’s insightful new book on the Communist Party. You can read it here at the New York Review of Books site or here on the ChinaFile site.
GROUND ZERO MOSQUE NEEDS MORE TRANSPARENCY
The debate about the ground-zero mosque has polarized Americans. Here's my take in USA Today on the topic.
NEW VIDEOS AND AUDIOS UP ON SITE.
I’ve put up a bunch of new video and audio links up on the site here.They range from a talk at the Carnegie Council to National Public Radio and Canadian Broadcasting. My favorite was with Jon Weiner, a funny, informed interviewer on a Pacifica affiliate in Los Angeles
9/11 MOSQUE IN HAMBURG FINALLY CLOSED
I guess we can debate why it took nearly a decade, but here’s my take, fwiw:
POST BOOK TOUR
The tour for a Mosque in Munich is over; see the new page of reviews and, coming soon, some videos and audios of some of the talks.
“MOSQUE IN MUNICH” BOOK TOUR: MAY-JUNE 2010
The book tour for A Mosque in Munich begins May 3 in Toronto, continuing on to New York, Washington, Charleston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.