Peter Hessler is a best-selling author and journalist. He has published two books of non-fiction on China, _River Town_ and _Oracle Bones_. He has also written feature articles on China for _the New Yorker_, _National Geographic_ and other magazines. Last November I met Peter in Beijing while he was researching an article on my friend David Spindler and his Great Wall project. This article was published in the May 21 2007 issue of _the New Yorker_ magazine. After meeting Peter, I was inspired to read his book _River Town_, which recounts his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer and English teacher in Fuling in 1996-7. I found the book to be an honest, perceptive, and insightful account of what it's like to live in China as a foreigner.
Read MoreDavid Spindler and the Great Wall
This week, tens of thousands of people will be reading Peter Hessler's New Yorkerarticle on David Spindler and his Great Wall project. Here I offer a brief testament in support of David's work.
Read MoreThe Great Wall of China: Article and Film
For several years now, a former classmate of mine from Dartmouth College named David Spindler ('89) has been conducting fieldwork and scholarly research on the history of the Great Wall. Specifically, his interest is in the walls built in the areas north of Beijing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in order to protect the capital from Mongol raids.
Read MoreFinal Remarks on the Usage and Abusage of "Laowai"
It appears that the H-ASIA thread on "laowai" may be finally drawing to a close (I may be speaking too soon--Ryan may still be holding a few posts in his mailbox). As one of the editors of this list, and also as the person who inadvertently started this conversation by using the term in an unrelated discussion, I thought it might be a good idea to summarize the gist of the conversation we've had. Basically, the discussion has revolved around the meaning and usage of the term "laowai" in China today.
Read MoreThinking About Ethnicity and Race in China
Frederic Wakeman, _Policing Shanghai_/ A Review
Here's my next installment: a review I wrote back in grad school (with slight revisions for this site) on what I consider to be one of the best studies of pre-Liberation Shanghai done by any scholar. Fred Wakeman sadly passed away not long ago. An homage, long overdue, to this outstanding historian and person is in the works.
Read MoreResurrecting Old Shanghai: The Peace Hotel
I just read a news article stating that Swatch, the Swiss watch company, is joining with the Jinjiang Hotel Group, owner of the Peace Hotel, to renovate it. This is interesting news because the Peace Hotel, from what I've heard, is rated quite poorly as a hostelry. I recall that it was renovated in 1997 by the same New York firm that renovated the Park Hotel (guoji fandian). They did a decent job with some features such as the 8th floor ballroom (though one questions whether or not all of the features in that ballroom today are genuine 1930s Deco), but apparently not so with the majority of rooms. I've also read in online travel blogs that the service is appalling. Whether or not the next round of renovations will change the software as well as the hardware of this fine historical building is another matter.
What Wm. T. de Bary Has Taught Me
Unfortunately, I did not get to know Professor de Bary that well while at Columbia. I didn't take any courses with him, and my only real exposure to him was through the course that I precepted for him in 1994. Yet he has left an indelible imprint on my own teaching philosophy and methodology.
Read MoreOn the True Meaning of Laowai
In my experience, the Mandarin word laowai, which literally means "old outsider," does not in fact mean foreigner in the strict sense. A much more accurate translation for this term would be "Caucasian." Japanese and Koreans are rarely if ever referred to in China as laowai, and neither are foreign-born Chinese. Nor are people of African descent.
Read MoreMainland Chinese Historians, US Academia, and Cold War Politics
Unblocking Blocked Blogs in China (or India, Pakistan, Nepal..)
Like a blocked nose, a blocked blogsite is a constant annoyance for us blogsters who seek unrestricted honking. Here are some ways I've discovered to get round the blockage:
Read MoreA Short Walk on a Great Wall: David Spindler Strikes Again
Mark Schatzker, a travel journalist, has posted two blogs (April 4 and 5) on a hike on the Great Wall with David Spindler on his 80 Days blogsite for Conde Nast Traveler. In the process, he also recounts some of the knowledge that David has accumulated over years of research on how the Ming Wall worked and whether or not it kept the Mongols at bay.
I also remind readers that I have a few blogs and photos of David and the Wall as well. See my Great Wall journal. I promise to add more soon. We're also nearing completion of a documentary film featuring David hiking on and telling stories about the Great Wall. If anybody is interested in learning more about this film, please write me at andrew.field@unsw.edu.au.
Are Chinese underrepresented in Western academia?
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 MoreOn Translations of Popular Chinese Literature
I 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 MoreChinese Doublethink: The New Media Rules
According 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 MoreDemocracy in China?
Will 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 MoreGreat Wall Exhibit in Sydney/Melbourne
I've written a review of the Great Wall exhibit sponsored by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, which has shifted over to Melbourne. Here is a link to the review, published by the online journal reCollections.
More Thoughts on Sex and Shanghai
There'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 MoreSex and Shanghai
He'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 MoreOn Chinglish
Recently 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.
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