ARTICLES
FORBIDDEN CITY: THE BOOK
Newly published: a new photobook on the Forbidden City that I helped put together with the publisher Assouline. I wrote a 4,000-word introduction, in which I talk about how the Forbidden City has returned to the center of Chinese culture.
WHAT DO CHINESE THINK?
Big question! One answer is to look at what some of the countries thinkers are writing, something that’s been hard for non-Chinese speakers to do. In this article for SupChina I profile David Ownby’s Reading the China Dream translation project.
CHINESE LIBERALS AND U.S. CONSERVATIVES
In this Opinions section piece for The New York Times, I look at a strange phenomenon that’s percolated over the past few years.
STATE NOT SOCIETY
In this Opinions section piece for The New York Times, I look at a strange phenomenon that’s percolated over the past few years.
TEACHING IN THE TIME OF COVID
Students and teachers have been some of the hardest-hit by the pandemic, especially if what currently are temporary measures become permanent.
AWW’S TECHNOCRATIC NIGHTMARE
In his new documentary film, Ai Weiwei presents a China that can quickly crush the pandemic but “offers no answers to humanity’s questions.” See my piece in the NYT here.
NEH PUBLIC SCHOLAR
Thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities for making me a 2020-2021 Public Scholar.
EXCAVATING CHINESE HISTORY
On June 30, the independent New York film distributor Icarus Films is releasing a documentary on the Chinese filmmaker Hu Jie, as well as releasing one of his classic documentaries, "Spark.".
CIRCUMAMBULATING BEIJING
In this mini vignette for the New York Review of Books Daily, I describe a moment during the Beijing lockdown when I broke ranks and ascended a mountain.
EVERYONE IS ISOLATED
In this Q&A, my 33rd for the New York Review of Books, I talk to the Chinese non-fiction writer Yuan Ling about the coronavirus and life under lockdown.
THE CORONAVIRUS, CHINA, AND THE WEST
In this oped for The New York Times, I take on a tricky subject: giving props to some of China's reaction to the coronavirus while taking the West to task for not learning from it.