标签：China

Two earthquake orphans on stage? What are you thinking?!

Life & Notes2010.04.30
Two earthquake orphans on stage? What are you thinking?!
SB will be opening, and of course that’s not bad. I’ve always been in favor of this sort of large-scale celebratory event—in my view, throwing money at song, dance, and fireworks is better than throwing money at the Three Gorges Dam. And yet I can’t help it, I can’t help but vent a little. This opening ceremony is fine in every other respect, but the appearance of these two orphans really set me off. What on earth were they doing? It reminds me of the Olympic opening ceremony two years ago, when there was likewise a huge earthquake, and likewise children from the disaster area took the stage. At the…
everyday life China faith tradition
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2010年4月30日
Who Has “Politicized” Google?

Culture & Public Commentary2010.03.25
Who Has “Politicized” Google?
Google ultimately still withdrew from the Chinese market. Whether this is good or bad, right or wrong, I do not want to comment at length; nor do I want to enshrine Google as a heroic fighter, much less regard it as a symbol of freedom and democracy. But in any case, Google’s withdrawal is bound to become a landmark event. At the very least, we can expect that some years from now, when we discuss issues such as politics, economics, morality, media, diplomacy, human rights, and so on in the Internet age, this case will always be cited. Here I only want to mention one interesting little problem that I…
China commentary politics experts
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2010年3月25日
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 10-01-16 [Final Issue]

Life & Notes2010.01.16
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 10-01-16 [Final Issue]
At exactly 9 o’clock, after taking our seats, in order to let the waiter notice that there were people in the non-smoking area, I pressed the order button first. Not long after, a waiter poked his head in and looked around, then brought in a glass of water. But after that there was no further movement; not until 9:41 did classmate Bai arrive, and I had no choice but to call the waiter over to place the order, otherwise who knows how long it would have taken before he remembered me…… Classmate Bai sat there for a whole morning, leafing through the *Introduction to Phenomenology* I had brought, and also…
everyday life culture China Christianity
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2010年1月16日
The Debate between Science and Metaphysics in Educational Modernization: The Case of Zhang Junmai

Enlightenment & the Spirit of Freedom2009.12.30
The Debate between Science and Metaphysics in Educational Modernization: The Case of Zhang Junmai
【Abstract】To define the “Science-CXuan debate” in China’s modernization process as either a dispute between the ancient and the modern, or between East and West, misses the point. The Science-CXuan debate reflects a certain tension internal to the process of modernization itself. What the Xuanxue faction, represented by Zhang Junmai, was proposing was precisely the demand of modernization, or “enlightenment.” At the core of enlightenment lies the education of national character, the cultivation of a free will. What Zhang Junmai was concerned with was not whether science could explain a worldview, but how to cultivate and establish a new worldview. And the establishment of a new worldview, or a new culture,…
China education human nature paper
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2009年12月30日
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon 09-09-19

Life & Notes2009.09.19
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon 09-09-19
Considering that *Early Greek Science* is not all that fun, and that Mr. Wu’s general history of science and selected classics reading courses never got as far as ancient Greece, I figured we might as well wait and see for now. The temporary reading material I brought today was Mr. Wu’s *Lectures on the Philosophy of Technology*. I specially bought four copies yesterday as backups, and everyone who came today got a free book—first come, first served~~ But in the end only two copies were given out (the other two people already had copies, so there was no need to give them one). So the two classmates who had just…
everyday life China Introduction to Philosophy of Technology ranting
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2009年9月19日
Miscellaneous Thoughts on Marching in Step

Culture & Public Commentary2009.08.11
Miscellaneous Thoughts on Marching in Step
Let me begin with a story. Here’s how it went: this morning I went to campus to watch the formation training, and stood outside the fence around the gymnasium watching. Beside me was a middle-aged man who seemed to be visiting Peking University; he picked up his camera and took two photos, and immediately a thug-looking fellow came running from far away, yelling for him to delete the pictures. The man obediently complied and left. Seeing this, I then took out my own camera to shoot as well, and sure enough that fellow immediately charged over again, shouting for me to take out my camera and delete the photos. Of…
China freedom commentary education
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2009年8月11日
zz Ministry of Justice: Lawyers Handling Sensitive Cases Must Pay Heed to Politics and the Bigger Picture

Life & Notes2009.08.07
zz Ministry of Justice: Lawyers Handling Sensitive Cases Must Pay Heed to Politics and the Bigger Picture
http://news.qq.com/a/20090806/002557.htm Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 6 (Reporter Cui Qingxin) — On the 6th, Minister of Justice Wu Aiying said that efforts should be made to further strengthen the education and management of the lawyer corps, to do a solid job in guiding lawyers who represent sensitive cases and mass incidents, and to educate and guide the broad mass of lawyers to be politically minded, to take the bigger picture into account, to abide by discipline, and to faithfully perform the duties and mission of lawyers. At the national meeting of directors of justice departments (bureaus) held here, Wu Aiying called for the active organization and guidance of lawyers, notaries,…
everyday life China politics government
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2009年8月7日
A Cultural History, Technological History, and Intellectual History of Bathing

AI & the Future of Technology2009.07.31
A Cultural History, Technological History, and Intellectual History of Bathing
Now there are many people, especially urban residents, for whom bathing has become an indispensable part of daily life. Some people can scarcely imagine going three or five days in a row without bathing, let alone several months; to speak of people who do not bathe for months sounds almost like talking about aliens. Various things, once they become part of everyday life, are endowed with one or another sort of legitimacy, and thus become things that ought to be. Bathing, for example, is closely linked to the concept of “hygiene”: on the one hand, bathing is a natural thing—after all, isn’t bathing the expression of the “desire for cleanliness”…
book reading culture China technology
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2009年7月31日
Ji Xianlin: “Miscellaneous Memories from the Cowshed”

Culture & Public Commentary2009.07.17
Ji Xianlin: “Miscellaneous Memories from the Cowshed”
Ji Xianlin: Memoirs from the Cowshed (manuscript edition), Zhongguo Yanshi Publishing House, 2006, 9787801288799 The ritual of mourning for Old Ji can be considered complete. By comparison, the book I would still recommend is *The Archive of Shuxingbei*, though *Memoirs from the Cowshed* has its own distinct flavor. If *The Archive of Shuxingbei* is a downright tragedy, then *Memoirs from the Cowshed* is more like a farce—dark humor, of course. How was the Cultural Revolution possible? This was the last question posed by Old Ji. The Cultural Revolution was a miracle; it gathered together every favorable condition of time, place, and people, and only then did it blossom in a…
book reading China notes intellectuals
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2009年7月17日
[Archive] Ji Xianlin: Preface to Miscellaneous Recollections from the Cow Shed

Culture & Public Commentary2009.07.16
[Archive] Ji Xianlin: Preface to Miscellaneous Recollections from the Cow Shed
http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/chapter_38306_22059.html Ji Xianlin: Preface to Miscellaneous Recollections from the Cowshed Miscellaneous Recollections from the Cowshed was written in 1992. Why, after six years, was it only now, in 1998, brought out for publication? This rather violates the usual conventions of book writing. Readers are bound to suspect that there must be some explanation. Their suspicion is justified: there is indeed an explanation, and it is not mysterious at all. It arises merely from a bit of personal selfishness—my own petty “judging a gentleman’s belly by a small man’s heart.” I had already been trampled on by the “revolutionary” youngsters—though in fact they were not necessarily all young—by a thousand feet,…
book reading China notes history
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2009年7月16日