Art… Rectified Criminal or Courageous Speech? Ai Weiwei in China and Germany 28 Jul 20124 Jul 2012 About two weeks after the disappearance of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, the Huanqiu Shibao released a series of photographs of past criminals who had, through arduous years of “thought…
Art… transmediale buzz 7 Feb 2012 The Berlin transmediale is, to my knowledge, one of the very best annual conferences (a "convergence" is more the appropriate word) which exist on Planet Earth. I was very fortunate…
Art… Cultural Power Battle Threads 3 Jan 20123 Jan 2012 - The Telegraph reports in alarmist fashion about Hu Jintao warning, as the newspaper headline puts it, of "cultural warfare from the West" - A closer examination of the story…
Chinese Avant-Garde… Two New Essays on China Beat: Sino-German and Sino-Korean Relations 23 Dec 2011 I've got a few more changes in store for Sinologistical Violoncellist in the new year (most of them involving the bass clef and Japan, not necessarily in that order), but…
Chinese communist party… The Dalai Lama in Toulouse: On Soft Power, Le Pen, and Unfallen Shoes 4 Sep 2011 Back in July, while on a late-night stroll through the 5th Arrdondisment looking for Rue Oberkampf, I chanced upon an announcement of the Dalai Lama's mid-August trip to Toulouse, France,…
Chinese Avant-Garde… Notes on Sino-German Relations 1 Jul 2011 Mark Siemons, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite correspondents in Beijing, has another piece in yesterday's Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung. Ironically entitled "Deutschland ist eigentlich ein zweites China in…
Art… “Hitler’s Stomach” in Beijing: A Review 28 Jun 201114 Feb 2014 Today in Berlin, I was cruising through the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, the businessman's preferred paper, for German response to the Wen Jiabao visit when I ran across an article so completely…
EU-East Asia relations… News from Berlin 26 Jun 2011 First, thanks to everyone who came out today to hear my Berlin recital. I had a great time playing the Brahms Sonata No. 1 in E, and Schumann's Fantasy Pieces…
East Asian modernity… China’s Public Square Debate over Nuclear Power: Refracting Germany 31 May 201131 May 2011 Imagine my suprise to open the webpage of the Huanqiu Shibao this morning to find the headline "German Environmental Ministry Announces that Germany Will Close All Nuclear Plants by 2022."…
Art… Ai Weiwei and Sino-German Relations 25 May 201125 May 2011 For the last two months, a stack of German newspapers and internet print-outs about the case of Ai Weiwei seems to have accrued first in my bags in Berlin and…
Adam Cathcart 