Alec Ash
@alecash
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Writer and editor focused on China. Editor, . Senior fellow, Asia Society. Author, ‘Wish Lanterns’ and ‘The Mountains Are High’
New York, NY
Joined January 2011
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
Out now: 'The Mountains Are High,' my second book – a reported memoir about rural escape in Dali, southwest China, and the different ways we find freedom. Press and book talks, as featured in Economist and Guardian:
Get it here:
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I wrote about the other half of China (out of lockdown cities) where zero-Covid policy is a small inconvenience that average Chinese are proud of. obv a complex/moving situation, but I think this is an important point that the coverage misses.
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I first came to study in China in 2008, returned to work in 2012 and stayed for a decade – twelve years all told, the last three in Dali (my new book from there out next year). Yesterday I got on a plane to England, and not sure when I will next be back. The journey continues...
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"In my future career, I will follow the general secretary's instructions ... to tell good China stories to the world." At age 14 fell in love with Zhang Ziyi; it may be time to let her go now.
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Mosque with Chinese characteristics. A huge red banner outside reads 坚持伊斯兰教中国化方向 - “Persist in the Sinofication of Islam”. Security cameras and PRC flags everywhere. Not exactly subtle.
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For all of the disgruntled in cities under lockdown, folk outside China don’t get how proud the majority of Chinese are of the zero-Covid policy (ie those not directly affected by its excesses). Huge nationalism around China keeping the virus out where Western nations didn’t.
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God this screengrab – from the excellent China Diction newsletter – made me angry. Xining was the first city in China I knew well, back in 2007. I used to love going to the Dongguan mosque square for a slice of something different. Now it's Han-style pavilions and a red star flag
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So thrilled to share this with the world, just launched: the 'China Books Review', a new digital magazine I'm editing, featuring reviews, essays, lists, a podcast and much more. Follow
@chinabksreview
and sign up for our newsletter to not miss a beat!
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OK here’s a better video, from a friend, of that very Dali-style protest singing the 国际歌. Finally those guitar chops pay off!
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Excellent piece. China can’t keep its borders semi-closed forever, and Covid is not going to disappear abroad. Restrictions say as much about China’s political direction as they do about its health policy. Difficult not to feel cabin fever here.
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This one’s a bit more niche for the Beijing old timers, but I give you the reincarnation of… Sanlitun dirty bar street
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Cover drop
THE MOUNTAINS ARE HIGH
What is it like to radically change your life? Meet the Chinese ditching fast-paced cities to seek respite in the rural southwest. A personal account of one year joining the ‘reverse migration’.
February 2024
@alecash
@scribepub
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Absolutely devastating. I left Beijing last year in part because the cultural space was shrinking, and the cleanup campaign had taken away so many of the vibrant small businesses that made the city so exciting. The loss of the Bookworm feels like the final straw. RIP.
The Bookworm in Beijing confirms it is closing. This venue is truly iconic - the annual international literary festivals, the author talks, the occasional pub trivia.... a space for ideas and discussion in today’s Beijing is more important than ever
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At Cizhong 茨中 on the upper Mekong, a Catholic church (founded 1907 by French missionaries) and a vineyard where a retired primary school teacher produces quite excellent wine
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A painter in my village put on an exhibition of his brush sceneries, and I was surprised to discover my house depicted among them, wirh the caption ‘English author creating inside’. Luckily he agreed to sell, and it is now on my wall!
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Conversation with a Chinese teenager:
Him: "Why is 'China' called 'China' in English?"
Me: "Well, what's the name of the first Chinese emperor to unify China?"
Him: "Mao Zedong?"
Me: "Erm..."
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These propaganda murals showing how the CCP sees (and treats) Muslims in Xinjiang are just horrific. Lost for words at the inhumanity of this narrative. The one of the ax cleaving human bodies is beyond commentary. Hat-tip to
@BrSpivey
for finding them:
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The US paperback of my book 'Wish Lanterns' is out, with the fresh title 'China's New Youth'. In the book, I follow six young Chinese as a window into this transformational generation, at a critical juncture in China's history where they play a key role.
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Back in Beijing for a short stay, I was delighted to find that my old hutong home is still standing despite multiple edicts saying it was going to be torn down since 2019. At first Covid got it the way. Now, according to my neighbors, “没钱拆” - local govt doesn’t have the money
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I wrote about the new generation of Chinese sci-fi writers, how they diverge from the genre's storied past in China, and how truth here is stranger than science fiction, for the New York Review of Books
@nybooks
@thebrowser
@niubi
@goldkorn
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I’m thrilled to start editing this new online publication of reviews, essays and intelligent commentary on all things China books. We’ll be launching later in the year, watch this space and do write me with your ideas!
Today, the Wire announces a new books venture, a collaboration with
@AsiaSociety
's Center on U.S.-China Relations. We hope the China Books Review will enrich coverage of books, art, film and more, and we've hired a remarkable writer to lead it:
@alecash
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It has been such a privilege (and great fun!) to edit the China Channel over the last four years and almost 600 posts, especially to work with such wonderful colleagues as
@annemhdc
@beckminster
@Olivia_Humph3
@BrSpivey
@lnachman32
@chowleen
and
@jwassers
.
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What is paid-for trash like this doing in the
@Telegraph
? Is the business model of daily British journalism really so desperate as to justify this, even with its (tiny fonted) disclosure that it's funded by the PRC?
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Funny how virus prejudice turns on a dime. Two months ago anyone who looked Asian in America was avoided or targeted; now in China anyone who looks foreign is suspect. While travelling in Yunnan, whispers of “foreigner, foreigner, very dangerous!” follow me around...
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This is oral history at its best, and a testament to the honking mass of humanity in Beijing. Hats off to Kuang for having the curiosity to collect these snapshots of life, and to humanize China at a time when it is increasingly talked of as a monolith.
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Disgusting series of videos from People's Daily, reinforcing harmful stereotypes about Uyghurs under the guise of celebrating their 'conversions' to the Han way of life:
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Just read and hugely enjoyed this account by Rian Dundon of the months he spent as Fan Bingbing's fake English tutor. Very revealing behind-the-scenes look, better than most of the fare published in the wake of her fall from grace.
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没有 = "I cannot be bothered to find any because I have no incentive to do so." 不行 = "I don’t want to get into trouble with my boss so don’t dare to help you." 没有问题 = "Your problems have just begun but I don’t know how to tell you." And more gems:
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We're absolutely thrilled to be publishing
@yilinwriter
's new translations of three poems by Qiu Jin (秋瑾), feminist and revolutionary (and martial arts aficionado, what a woman). Thanks to all our donors on Patreon for funding translations like this.
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Thrilled to publish this piece by Xiaoyu Lu on the cognitive dissonance of being a Chinese student abroad, unconvinced by political systems in the West or China, and out of love with liberal democracy
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For those who think China offers an alternative model of governance for the world, this is a nation that tortures its citizens until they denounce their religion and "give thanks to the ruling Communist Party"
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Torch festival in my village at Dali - the most important festival of the Bai and Yi peoples, supposedly to commemorate the founding of the Nanzhao kingdom (a unification which involved one local lord burning the others to death)
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I grew up with stories from my parents from Soviet Poland and the GDR, which made one thing very clear: power serves its own extension. Now that Xi has shown his cards once and for all, let's put to bed the idea that he's doing this for China.
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Was delighted to talk at NYU Shanghai, thanks for the invitation to read from Wish Lanterns to a new generation of post-00s students - though just reminded me how dated the book is now that the post-80s are pushing 40! Was great to catch up with Mia (from the book’s cover) though
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So now it feels like literally everyone I know in Beijing has Covid. One extreme to another in the span of two weeks.
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In which we poke light-hearted fun at ten of the worst China takes over the last decade, from Friedman to Kristof, and "Beijing from the window of my cab." Let's do better. hat-tips to
@BeijingPalmer
@mauracunningham
and
@chinarhyming
for flagging a few
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This was a fun one to co-write. Murong Xuecun's story is emblematic of China's trajectory in so many ways, from the ballsy 00s through the tightening 10s until he finally left in the 20s. The nation is all the poorer for not having voices like him there.
‘I’ve Been Liberated From a Cage’: Murong Xuecun, formerly one of the last dissident writers left in China, is now living in exile. How does a novelist get to the point where he is one step from arrest? Read our profile cover story:
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Second this.
@thechinaproj
has been a great resource helmed by talented people (
@goldkorn
@KaiserKuo
@anthonytao
) and also impressive that they were making significant revenue through Access. good luck to whatever comes next.
This is a huge, huge loss for journalism, and for anyone invested in the future of China/covering China. I'm grateful for
@thechinaproj
for giving me a platform to write, publish and find a community of wonderful people.
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For those in New York on Oct 12, join us at the launch of the
@chinabksreview
, with 'three generations of China writers': Orville Schell,
@iandenisjohnson
and
@yangyang_cheng
(interviewed by Jianying Zha,
@DavidBarboza2
and
@JiayangFan
). Register here!
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Sunrise at 玉龙雪山, Jade dragon mountain, from Baisha village north of Lijiang - original inspiration for James Hilton’s Shangri-la by way of the National Geographic writings of Joseph Rock in the 1920s and 30s
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Jade Dragon mountain 玉龙雪山 in Northwest Yunnan, where Joseph Rock filed his dispatches for NatGeo in the 20s which inspired James Hilton to coin the term Shangrila-la in ‘Lost Horizon’. Now the wheel has come full circle: the area has its own ‘Blue Moon Valley’ for tourists
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The spring tea harvest. Never have I wanted to jump in a big pile of fresh tea leaves more than right now
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One fascinating detail in this: MOFA used to use the formulation “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people”; now it’s “triggers the anger of the Chinese people”. Sign of the times.
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My book 'Wish Lanterns,' literary nonfiction following the lives of six young Chinese (Picador), a BBC Book of the Week: Links to reviews and Q&As from WSJ, WashPo, FT, NYT and more:
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At
@thechinaproj
I helped round up the best China books of 2022 along with
@bucketoftongues
@KaiserKuo
and
@chinarhyming
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Fewer humanities students, fewer foreign language students, less interest in China and Mandarin… the silk curtain grows wider
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These tin mugs were in my house when I moved in. I have no idea where or when they are from, but they’re hilarious in an offputtingly genocidal way. (trans: ‘The Diaoyu islands are China’s!’) Perfect for storing garlic and ginger.
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"China and the US are both large countries who self-identify as anti-imperialist and yet have borders shaped by a history of westward expansion. Both are revolutionary governments utterly infatuated with their own political system." –
@JeremiahJenne
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Delighted that my first book 'Wish Lanterns' is selected as a BBC Book of the Week - published today in the UK!
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For all those who, like me, are drowning in an inbox sea, I have created a crest of arms. The Latin motto translates as "Sorry for the delay in replying." Please note that in the time it took to make this I could have replied to my email.
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Super excited to launch the LA Review of Books China Channel today, on Lu Xun's birthday follow us
@larbchina
!
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Some Weibo reactions of the return of Meng Wanzhou, who on landing said "If faith has a colour, it must be China red." From the Chinese nationalist perspective, the US/Canada was the one arbitrarily detaining *her* and taking hostages in return made sense
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I've been in China a decade and just discovered that a mix of half hot/half cold water is called 阴阳水 'yin-yang water'. No longer do I need to choose between water-drinking customs of East and West!
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This is a brilliant list of social 'laws', hats off to
@TheBrowser
for finding it. My favourite is Brandolini’s law: “The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.”
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Let's be clear: for all of the hypocritical lip service Xi Jinping gives to avoiding a "Cold War mentality", his actions are clearly fuelling a new Cold War of ideology, influence and information.
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I talked to Julia Lovell about her new book on global Maoism, and her selection of five further essential reads on Mao and his diverse ideological legacy, at
@five_books
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This is tricky, as it's difficult to tell which "cells" (a freighted term) are grassroots patriotic, and which receive aid or keep live connections to CCP bodies. Often those lines are blurred. But the Black Hand of the Party isn't behind everything.
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I met Kovrig once at a social thing in Beijing and he was just another think tank guy doing great stuff in China. That he and Spavor’s ordeal can be compared to a CEO’s daughter being secluded in a multi-million dollar mansion is obsene. As ever, politics distorts humanity.
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Liu Xia is free, reportedly, after authorities waited six months from Liu Xiaobo's death. I hope that she can finally leave the country or live wherever she wishes, and slowly heal the irrevocable damage the People's Republic of China has done to her.
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Orwellian euphemism masterclass: how dictatorships describe other dictatorships’ coups.
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So ... you don’t want to be seen as wolves oppressing sheep, and therefore your move is to arrest children’s books publishers, bundling them out of a black van in headbags.
Hong Kong police arrested five people on sedition charges, saying that children's books they had published featuring wolves and sheep as characters were aimed at inciting hatred towards the city's government amongst youngsters
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Terrific read on Deng Xiaoping's time in France, and the obscure shrines in Baoding and Montargis that celebrate it
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'Wish Lanterns' is published in the US today! Literary nonfiction following the lives of six Chinese millenials ...
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More than half of my Chinese friends still use WeChat pretty indiscriminately, including asking me what I think about the situation in HK etc. If a foreigner posting in an English-language group gets dinged, imagine what the state has on domestic users, and how they might use it
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An important account of how a review of a Xinjiang book was squelched by a journal under the aegis of respected academic publisher Brill. Censorship only works in silence.
@BeijingPalmer
@meghara
@dtbyler
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I wrote a longform piece in
@LAReviewofBooks
about how Hong Kong's protest movement, and one of its frontline fighters, radicalized:
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Why is Oxford holding a summit on OBOR, copying-and-pasting Beijing's preferred description of the initiative?
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This is a fascinating episode from
@LiYuan6
’s pod, on why Chinese left and what would have to change for them to go back. “有柏林墙倒塌的情况我才会回去的”
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What are the rival models of Chinese illiberalism? Every China watcher should go read
@freedman_josh
's wonderful longform review of two books on the topic, our lead essay last week at
@LARBchina
:
@BeijingPalmer
@niubi
@goldkorn
@CDT
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Even in far west Tibet, these massive propaganda billboards were everywhere, every few hours on the main east-west road between Shigatse and Kailash. 不忘初心 牢记使命 ("Don't forget your aspirations; keep firmly to the mission") is a phrase I'm used to from Beijing, but not here
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WSJ review of
@david__moser
's terrific book on the history and multiplicity of what we think of as 'Chinese'
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After my first airplane flight in almost three years, I am back in Beijing for a fortnight. This is my old flat in the hutongs, which amazingly survived several threats of demolition and is still standing. Family Shi, who lived there for a century, still around. plus ça change..
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Jetlagged as hell on return to Beijing, spent an enjoyable night binge-watching 'Secret City' (Australian TV series on China-Aussie political intrigue) on
@niubi
recommendation. Lots of fun and despite its own melodrama says much of how Australia is first to call China's bullshit
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Can somebody please tell Stephen Colbert it's pronounced "she" not "jzhi". It will take 5 seconds.
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I bought a sweeping brush that I thought was wooden, but it turned out to be covered in paper made to look like wood, *underneath which was real wood*. Most rural Chinese thing I’ve ever seen.
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China's Republic era sci-fi authors dreamt of modernity. Now their contemporary equivalents are decrying its dystopian inhumanities. My NYRB piece syndicated in
@ChinaFile
cc
@thebrowser
@niubi
@goldkorn
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The grannies in my village have been enlisted as the
#coronavirus
police ... setting up a makeshift blockade (‘Outside cars/people forbidden to enter the village’) and eventually setting up a desk and Party flag (second photo is two days later). This is rural Yunnan...
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We ran a fortnight of posts on the Tibetan genocide (Tibet's experiences during the Mao years), including a Q&A with Woeser, a selection of her father's b&w photos from the era, and reviews of four books:
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Final tweet in this thread from Tibet, but my favourite: at a monastery next to Everest base camp, at the end of a very very long and very very steep road ... a Mobike! Is there anywhere they are not? And how the hell did it come to be there?!
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I realise my twitter following is mostly China watchers but .. I’ve invented a board game and hoping to bring it to market next year. watch this space!
Another great night at
@TheLudoquist
play testing some fun games. This was a very interesting abstract game designed by
@alecash
. Just managed to beat
@MattHoather
.
#boardgames
#boardgame
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the flash mob is now in sheung wan singing glory to hk, and airdropping protest statements. five finger salutes all over
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Brainstorm at Asia Society for the new China Books Review. I do believe it's the first time I've worn a tie in over three years.
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Our reviewer waded in on the controversy over Roseann Lake’s book ‘Leftover in China’ (overlap with
@LetaHong
) and have a balanced look at the book itself via
@LARBchina
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"It seems to me that the CCP is neither on the precipice of collapse, nor on the launch pad to a heavenly ascent." Terrific q&a with Jude Blanchetter on China's political future and the "two-legged mammals" who will decide it, in
@thewirechina
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Whatever the result, looks like you’re got yourself two countries for the price of one there, America.
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I reviewed (and enjoyed) 'The Shanghai Free Taxi' by Frank Langfitt in Washpo:
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“Beijing is steadily reshaping the global media landscape nation by nation.” Must read report on Chinese media influence operations by
@limlouisa
, summed up in Covid context expertly by
@benyt
here:
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“Beijing is a tumor, whose speed of development no one can control." Affecting essay that went viral in China
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The amazing story of how the Doctor Zhivago manuscript was smuggled out of the USSR
http://t.co/Irb85dv6bf
via
@TheBrowser
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Did you know the Chinese word for “crisis”, in Global Times parlance, comprises the two characters for “bad-faith” and “moron”?
I highly suspect that Hong Kong rioters have infiltrated American states. Attacking police stations, smashing shops,blocking roads, breaking public facilities, these are all routine in their protests. Vicious HK rioters obviously are mastermind of violent protests across the US😡
4K
729
5K
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"Xi is less a meditative Confuican-Daoist and more a power-mongering Legalist." Loved editing this by
@UselessTree
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Any Catalan readers out there? The Catalan edition of Wish Lanterns (or ‘Senyals de Llum’ which I think is close to ‘light signals’) is out now:
Ja ha sortit
#SenyalsDeLlum
, la meva primera traducció completa! El text és de
@alecash
i publica
@saldonar
@llegirencatala
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