Recent riots in Urumqi have been attributed by the Chinese government to the instigation of Rebiya Kadeer and her World Uyghur Congress. This may distract from a potential public debate on ethnic policies that badly need reform. Years ago, in a high school politics class, I heard our teacher tell us a story about a Han soldier in Tibet. When this soldier saw broken pieces of … [Read more...] about Chinese Ethnic Policies and the Affirmative Action: One Rationale, Two Failures
China Needs to Bridge its Digital Divide, One Official at a Time
Recent events in China suggest that a bunch of technological laggards are trying to play in a field they do not know much about. This ignorance causes increasing social tensions between the government and the netizens, in most cases unnecessarily. In the past month, the government has blocked sites such as blogger and twitter, and then they require the use of filtering … [Read more...] about China Needs to Bridge its Digital Divide, One Official at a Time
Saving Grace
This post was a translation from Li Chengpeng's blog as part of our effort to memorize the tragic earthquake one year ago. The author Li was a sports commentator who later on became active in other public spheres. After the Sichuan earthquake, he went to Beichuan as a reporter as well as a volunteer. As far as I know, this blog post had not been published anywhere other … [Read more...] about Saving Grace
What I talk about when I talk about copycatting
Recently a friend asked for help with the etymology of the word 危险。 She's writing her thesis on the edge that artists have when they skillfully play with "danger." Her whole thesis revolves around the concept of Danger in art and all her professors keep telling her that 危险 has a different connotation in Chinese than danger does in English. So she needs someone to help her … [Read more...] about What I talk about when I talk about copycatting
Numbers as Language
NPR once broadcasted an interview talking about why Asian students are better at math (if I can be excused) . The speaker explained that in these mostly agricultural societies, the mindset is you reap how much you plant, hence their greater commitment. In America, there is more emphasis on “working smart” than “working hard”. Translated into educational jargon, he is saying … [Read more...] about Numbers as Language