Author and journalist Massoud Hayoun’s novel Building 46 probes behind the air-brushed image of China’s capital city to offer a fascinating (and incisive) look into the everyday lives of Beijing dwellers.
China
Book Review: “We Uyghurs Have No Say” — When Truth Telling Becomes Subversive
What do the words of an imprisoned Uyghur dissident tell us about the desperate plight of China’s ethnic minorities today?
Book Review: “Thank You, Mr. Nixon” — East Meets West, Again and Again
The author of The Resisters returns with a timely collection of stories about the connections and contradictions linking America and China.
Book Review: Cowboys and the Wild East — “In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century”
Proceeding largely country by country, Sebastian Strangio penetratingly explores Southeast Asia’s multifaceted struggle with its behemoth Chinese neighbor.
Film Review: “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue” — Existing as a Writer in China Today
For those with sufficient patience and imagination — and are eager to learn more about the Chinese literary scene than what’s found in journalistic headlines — Jia Zhangke’s documentary will be an uncommon treat.
Film Review: “Do Not Split” — A Compelling, Disturbing, and Imperfect Look at the Hong Kong Riots
Is Do Not Split a fine example of provocative filmmaking? Yes. Should you watch it? Certainly. Will it help you understand the forces feeding the discontent and shaping the discourse generated by the conflict? Not really.
Book Review: “The Future is Asian” — Challenging Western Ideology
Marshaling statistics, maps, scholarly literature, news articles, and reports, The Future is Asian cogently dramatizes the reasons behind Asia’s re-ascendance to economic, political, and cultural primacy.
Movie Review: “A Touch of Sin” — A Fearless Vision of Corruption in Contemporary China
In “A Touch of Sin,” four depressing stories float into one other, all said to be based on news stories from Chinese papers.
Visual Arts Feature: Museums in the East, Part One
In the first few days of our first visit to China, I was nonetheless unable to keep myself from formulating a hypothesis. In China the distinction between art, artifice and artificiality is not drawn as sharply as it is, at least in principle, in the West.
Short Fuse Film Review: Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei — The Anti-Mao
Dissident artist Ai Weiwei speaks for an alternate China, another possibility for it. In a sense, he is the anti-Mao. Alison Klayman’s “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” is an essential introduction to his work to date.