This is a post I put up on the H-ASIA forum today, after a pair of scholars brought up the issue of underrepresentation of Chinese scholars in Western academia, in this case, Asian Studies.
Read MoreI recently read a novel, written by the Chinese author Zhang Henshui, called _The Shanghai Express_. The original title in Chinese is pinghu tongche 平滬通車. The plot is fairly sentimental, and for that matter, implausible. I won't give away the story, but suffice it to say that a wealthy Beiping banker (Beiping was the name used for Beijing after Nanjing became the national capital in 1927) falls for a beautiful young southern woman while traveling on a train from Beiping to Shanghai. What made this such a great read was the author'seye for detail.
Read MoreAccording to a recent news item, as reported in the Asia Times, in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2008, the Chinese government has relaxed its grip on foreign reporters in China. Time can only tell whether or not this will lead to freer reportage in practice. It is one thing for the central government to issue such a proclamation, and another for officials on the local level to honor it.
Read MoreWill China eventually become a democratic country? How long would this take? These are two questions often in the minds of Western journalists in China. In a recent podcast interview with China Digital Times, New York Times journalist Howard French was asked what question he would most like to ask Hu Jintao if he was granted an interview. He responded that he would ask him about China's democratic future.
Read MoreThere's something macabre about this online character, China Bounder. While I appreciate his blog as a kind of "Kinsey report" of the sexualized environment of today's Shanghai, something is eerily disturbing about his particular line of thinking. Certainly I'm not a trained psychoanalyst, but in mulling over his case last night while tossing and turning in the wee hours, I came up with the following observations.
Read MoreHe's back. The man who inspired a witchhunt last August for his controversial blogsite about shagging in Shanghai. We know him as China Bounder. If you believe his story, he is a British Caucasian in his 30s and a former (if not current) English teacher in Shanghai. If you're somewhat more susceptible to rumors and innuendo, he is in fact a team of clever, mischievous blogsters making it up as they go along (or maybe even a team of monkeys relentlessly pounding on the keyboard?). I for one don't believe that tripe for a minute. In my humble, unenlightened opinion, this guy is real, and so are his stories.
Read MoreRecently a member of H-ASIA, an academic online forum for which I'm currently an editor, posted an inquiry asking for examples of Chinglish. This provoked a flurry of brief responses, some quoting horribly misspelled or otherwise ungrammatical English translations of Chinese signs, which in turn led a few members to write in stating that they found these postings offensive or unscholarly.
Read MoreRecording his city's rich architectural heritage has been a demoralizing task for Shanghainese photographer Deke Erh. While Art Deco buildings in Miami, New Zealand's Napier and even the Eritrean town of Asmara are lovingly tended, Shanghai has demolished scores of equally historic structures in its headlong rush for modernity. "I've been taking photographs of old Shanghai for 20 years, and I've continually seen these things torn down," says Erh. "But I still have hope. Even today, Shanghai has more Art Deco buildings than any other city in the world. If I didn't have hope, I'd have to give up."
Read More BEIJING, Feb. 10 -- By the time the World Expo opens in 2010, travelers will no longer have to visit Shanghai in person to enjoy a three-dimensional tour of its downtown core. They will only have to boot up their computers.
Read MoreExcuse me for my obsession with this heavenly object, but I want to report yet another brilliant siting of the comet, this time during a dinner party held in honor of our friend Jane Fenn's birthday. The dinner was held at the Wharf Restaurant located on Pier 4, offering a great view of Sydney Harbour Bridge to the east and a fairly unobstructed view of the western sky. Again, the comet appeared at around 8:45 pm and stayed in the sky for maybe a half hour before setting behind Pier 6.
Read MoreNot everyone involved in Shanghai's old homes sees them as money-making opportunities. In fact there are people who are ardently against too much gentrification of the European-style homes, worrying that they will become merely facades for modern-day interiors -- early 20th century on the outside, early 21st century within.
Read MoreIt's been ten years since I last saw a comet--the last was Hale-Bopp, which was mighty impressive as it rose above the Mongolian tundra at around 3 am. So I was very excited when I found out recently about the appearance of Comet McNaught in the evening Aussie skies.
Read MoreSHANGHAI-It's June 7, 2007, a day you've prepared for your entire life. Over the next three days, 12 hours of exams will determine your future, forever. Sound melodramatic? For the 1.5 million university hopefuls in Shanghai, it is the reality they've always lived with. Unlike at U of T, where 63 per cent of undergraduate applicants were offered admission last year, the limited number of places in prestigious Chinese universities has enormous numbers of students jostling for a spot. In China, entrance into the nation's top universities is a stepping stone to a successful career.
Read MoreA government survey, covering 800 immigrants, found that most of those with a high level of education and a stable job were leading a happy life in the city, and that the hostility between local residents and immigrants was subsiding
Read MoreLast Friday I returned from a fantastic three-day trip to the Red Centre. No better place to see the "real Australia." Before that my experiences had been limited to the coast of New South Wales and the Blue Mountains near Sydney. This trip was a real eye-opener.
Read MoreTHE ticking time bomb that is the Chinese population has been underlined by a report describing the huge challenges its sheer numbers - 1.3 billion and rising - will present to the country over the next 30 years.
Read MoreFrom outcast nomad to tribal warlord and finally founder of the world's
greatest land empire, Genghis Khan went through a lot of changes in a
tumultuous life spanning the end of the 12th century and the beginning of
the 13th.
Read MoreAmid official silence over the graft case against Shanghai's disgraced
Communist Party chief, unlicensed tomes are stepping into the void with what
they claim is the inside scoop on his downfall.
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