See China

The above Time Magazine China Edition cover for 2 February 2004 shows the female author Chun Shu (春树 Spring Tree), nicknamed Beijing Doll 北京娃娃 who wrote a best seller describing her sexual experiences after dropping out of school. This may not sound like a promising start to a discussion of New Chinese Literature, but is [...]

Xia Da （夏达）, a girl of 28 from Hunan province, found herself suddenly rising to fame across the nation lately. According to her wish, this should come from her successful cartoon Zi Bu Yu （子不语, Confucius Says Not）which explores the delicate world of supernatural visions from a 9-year-old girl’s perspective and was published on Japanese Ultra Jump.

《变形记》Bian Xing Ji at the SARS Stage at Chaoyang 9 Theater Reviewed by Elyse Ribbons Sitting in the cheerfully decorated small theater on the 4th floor of the Chaoyang 9 Theater compound, the atmosphere was full of expectations.  The second part in an ongoing series by Director and Playwright Wu Ran, Bian Xing Ji was [...]

The River of Change: Cultural Evolution in China. A book of photographs by Peter Cunningham in New York.

The Discovery Channel has a pseudo-science show called “Mythbusters,” in which the two hosts, through a series of experiments, sometimes prove or disprove that something often believed by a large number of people is not true. As such, China seems to have many myths surrounding it, and so doing some mythbusting, or in some cases myth-proving, may be a good idea.

Several news books on China, both fiction and non-fiction, that you might want to check out.

Launched in 1904, the Eastern Miscellany (东方杂志) is an encyclopedic witness to, and active player in the history of China in the first half of the 20th century. Now going online at http://em.refbook.com.cn, it provides full access to 30,000 articles, 12,000 pictures and 14,000 advertisements in original copies. A true treasurehouse for historically minded people to explore!

Where once we turned to guidebooks to inform ourselves before embarking on an overseas trip, now more likely we are switching on our computers and using the Internet for trip planning.

March 5th is birthday of the morally impeccable Premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) as well as the day when Chairman Mao wrote 向雷锋同志学习 （Learn from Comrade Lei Feng）for the altruistic soldier Lei Feng (1940-1962). As three generations of Chinese are influenced by these two role models in morality, how is the idea of “virtue” changed throughout Chinese society over history?

When we think of Chinese history, most often we think of the great monuments that we see in cities like Beijing and Xi’an: palaces, statues, temples and other relics. These are spectacular, but China is now discovering its maritime history, much of which lies underwater. Just last week, China announced it would work with the [...]