On the centenary celebration of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party,  four new texts:
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Zhang Weiwei on telling China’s political story well.  Zhang is a major cheerleader for the regime, and his text fits well with today’s celebration.
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In addition to Zhang, two texts by Party-loyal public intellectuals that could have joined in the birthday bash, but for obscure reasons did not:

Yao Yang and Qin Zizhong on how Confucianism can solve modern problems of inequality;

Fang Ning and Feng Jungong on how the achievement of a “moderately prosperous society” might lead to post-modern challenges to China’s socio-political order.

Finally, for our “Chinese Youth Concerns” project, Yang Xiong on “educational involution.”

There are signs that the US-Canadian border might reopen soon.  If it does, I might well take a week or two off and go visit my mother, whom I have not seen since the beginning of the pandemic.  In any event, I did the math and discovered that I have published, with the help of several colleagues, over 1,000 pages of material on my site since the beginning of this year, an (obsessive?) devotion to duty that surely earns me a brief holiday from text-hunting, translating, and proof-reading.  If you don’t hear from me until August 1, you’ll know why.  Stay cool and stay safe.

​New on the site this fortnight:

Two short texts from sociologist Sun Liping on recent issues in China—China’s aspirational “three child policy” and the phenomenon of “lying flat.”
 
Also, Qian Liqun on the relationship between Chinese intellectuals and China’s rural villages over the course of the 20th century.
 
Finally, New Confucian Kang Xiaoguang and New Left political scientist Wang Shaoguang discuss China’s Third Sector, a text from 2011 that makes us think about where China’s civil society is (or is not) headed.
 
Enjoy!

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New on the site:

​Philosopher Zhao Tingyang, famous for his “tianxia system,” seeks to use ancient Chinese wisdom to “reboot” democracy in his “A Feasible Smart Democracy.”

In addition, in the context to the run-up to the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party next month, two texts illustrating the overlap between propaganda and the work of establishment intellectuals:

Zhang Cheng, “The Methodology of the Chinese Path:  China as Center and Method”

Zhang Xianming, “The Logic of the Politics of Responsibility in Full-Process Democracy”

Finally, a text for our “Women’s Voices” project:  Chang Yinting and Yang Xia, “Feminist Discourse:  Its Chinese Context and Contemporary Value”

Enjoy!

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​New on the site :
 
Jiang Shigong continues his reflection on the theme of empire in “Imperial History without Empires,” a preface to the recent Chinese translation of John Darwin’s After Tamerlane:  The Global History of Empire.
 
Zhou Lian attempts to explain ongoing support for Donald Trump among Chinese intellectuals in his “Three Myths concerning Chinese Trumpists.”
 
Chen Yang and Guo Wan Ying write on “Young People Returning to Dongbei” for our Chinese Youth Concerns Project.
 
Finally I was pleased to discuss Reading the China Dream on yet another new podcast, Jared McKinney’s Indo-Pacific Affairs Podcast.

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New on the site, four rousing essays on the subject of education.

Gan Yang and Liu Xiaofeng offer a withering condemnation of Beida’s 2014 plans to launch the English-language only Yenching Academy, in “The Cultural Positioning and Self-Betrayal of Peking University”

Tsinghua Political Scientist Liu Yu denounces China’s “educational arms race” in “My Daughter is Inexorably Becoming an Ordinary Person”

Social Anthropologist Xiang Biao talks about his experiences as a student at Beida in the early 1990s in excerpts from his book Self as Method.

The Taiwanese Sociologist Zhao Gang discusses “radicalism and violence” among youth in Taiwan and Hong Kong in “Why is this Generation of Young People so Easily Tricked?”  N. B.  I did not choose this text because I agree with it.

I might mention that I was a recent guest on the Chinese Whispers Podcast, hosted by The Spectator in the U.K.  Even if you have heard enough of me, I highly recommend the podcast.  Cindy Yu, the journalist who runs it, asks excellent questions and gives her guests the chance to answer them.

New additions to the site this time :
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“Historical Nihilism,” a nasty little bit of propaganda aimed at establishment intellectuals, which we may be hearing more about in the run-up to the celebration of the CCP’s 100-year birthday in July.
 
For our Youth Concerns project, a nice journalistic essay on young people and…mutual funds.
 
For our Women’s Voices project, Zuo Fengrong, Professor at the Central Party School, on “The Thucydides Trap and a New Type of Great Power Relationship.”
 
And finally, Shi Zhan, historian and foreign relations expert on his new book, Breaking through the Cocoon, which I would really like to read if anyone could get their hands on a copy.

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A rich harvest of texts added to the site today.

First, for those who are following Sino-American relations, we translate Yuan Peng's reflections on the eve of the Anchorage Summit in mid-March.

Second, we offer two different perspectives  on the experience of China's sent-down youth during and after the Cultural Revolution:  Qin Hui reflects on his nine years in the countryside, and Xiang Biao discusses the impact of the Zhiqing generation of Chinese social science.

Finally, Selena Orly and I are launching a project on "Women's Voices" in which we grapple with the fact such voices are suprisingly few among Chinese establishment intellectuals.  This week's addition to the list:  New Left activist Wen Jiajun on China's climate crisis.

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New on the site this fortnite: 

Lai Youxuan, "Chinese Delivery Drivers, Stuck in the System," (part of the Chinese Youth Concerns series of translations), a really good read;

A recent interview​ with Peking Univeristy political scientist Yu Keping on governance issues;

A recent piece by Xie Tao on “2020:  Sino-American Relations and U.S. Politics in the Time of the Pandemic”

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New on the site, "What Has Xi Jinping Wrought?", a follow-up to the last update's piece on "Am I Being Played?", in which I once again use Ren Jiantao's writings, this time from 2020, to try to measure the impact Xi Jinping's reimposition of ideological discipline has had on the world of China's establishment intellectuals.
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In addition, one final essay by Ren Jiantao, this one on the theme of artificial intelligence:  "An Ounce of Prevention:  Technological Revolution and Great Changes to State Governance." 

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Something a little different on the site this week: an essay, “Am I Being Played?​” that I composed over the past two weeks, inspired by a question that arose as I was working on Ren Jiantao’s text for last time.  The question has to do with the extent to which Chinese establishment intellectuals mean what they say when they publish in mainland Chinese venues.

In addition, the translation of another text by Ren Jiantao, “The Periodization of Reform,” that grew out of research for the above-mentioned essay.

Also an addition to our Spanish-language translations:  Yuan Peng, “La pandemia de Coronavirus: Un cambio que solo sucede una vez por siglo.”  Thanks to Ugo Armanini, my former student at the Université de Montréal, now at the Real Instituto Elcano in Madrid, for revising the Spanish-language text.

A recording of a talk I gave at the Hoover Institution on February 10 is available here.  For those just discovering the site, the short talk (30 minutes followed by discussion and questions) might serve as a good introduction to what the project is about.
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Finally, for French-speaking readers, I am pleased to announce the recent publication on Gallimard of Penser en Chine, a collection of essays under the direction of Anne Cheng, with the collaboration of Éric Vigne, to which I contributed a modest translation of an essay by Qin Hui.