Word counts don’t mean so much at the end of the day, the release of a big article manuscript into the hands of a capable editor should always be grounds for a minor celebration. It also seems clear that in writing as in life it is good to have a little bit too much of everything — of friendship, of commitments, of food, of music, … Continue reading Sino-French Soliloquies
[Update: Liberation has the most comprehensive overview so far available (in French, bien sûr).] Like me, you might have thought that you could just forget for a while about Sino-French relations. After all, hadn’t lovely first lady Carli Bruni silenced all the domestic critics and seduced the entire nation of China with her sashaying ways in Shanghai, her thoughtful entwinement with the little President under … Continue reading Little Tremors in Sino-French Relations: Violence in 19th Arrondissement
This is, sadly, no food blog, but the following article from the New York Times has been giving me a great deal of joy lately and I thought I’d share: “Seattle has a thousand teriyakis,” Mrs. Ko said one afternoon. Her tone was dismissive, as if explaining the looming presence of the Space Needle to a not particularly bright child. “No Americans do the cooking. … Continue reading This Ain’t Dallas: NYT on Seattle Teriyaki
Alain Nogues, photojournalist, has a smorgasbord of images of North Korea on his homepage (click on the “2000s”) in anticipation of an exhibition this month in Paris. Here’s part of the press release: Du 11 au 29 janvier 2010, le comité régional Ile-de-France de l’Association d’amitié franco-coréenne vous présente “Visages de la Corée” à la Maison des associations du 16ème arrondissement de Paris (14, avenue … Continue reading More Photos of North Korean Life
On a day when the Chinese Vice-Premier is meeting with the Japanese leadership, it seems appropriate to think about reconciling remaining differences from the Second World War. From my perspective as a sometime scholar of the Chinese past and its depiction in CCP propaganda, I view France and Germany as among the most active societies and governments on earth in coming to terms with the … Continue reading Bismarckian Musical Nationalism: Modern Fallout
Ribiya Khadeer may have been rejected from a visit to the isle of Taiwan, but she continues to move internationally and stir discussion of Chinese policies in Xinjiang. This past week she has been in Paris, which I suppose can be considered, in its own fashion, and with apologies to San Francisco and New York, the center of the world. In Paris, Khadeer met with … Continue reading Rebiya Khadeer in Western Europe
Le Figaro‘s always-divergent China blog carries a high-society/CCP mash-up with a recent entry regarding Jasmine Li, the youngest daughter of Jia Qinglin, No. 4 in the Party hierarchy and one of the nine permanent members of the CCP Politburo. Jasmine Li, following in the footsteps of other “red princes” (wealthy scions of the revolutionary elite), spent last weekend at the Bal du Debutantes in … Continue reading “Red Princess” at the Debutante Ball, Paris
One of the most enjoyable things I get to do in the summer is to travel to archives and research facilities in various countries to seek out new sources which serve as the basis of new articles and manuscripts. As summer, that lovely season, is apparently coming to an end (how? with a bang not a whimper), I wanted to share the abstract of an … Continue reading New Work on Sino-French Relations in the 1950s
Victory is doing good things you never thought you could do. Sunbeams strike the carrefour here in this foreign land, and, amid stone chambers, shapely vowels, the ungeheurerlich complexities of Gaul, arcs of joy cut inexplicably into my sternum. How can this be? Is it not unseemly to declench oneself? Striding toward towers crowned by mute and lovely angels, I heave up great irrevocable laughs … Continue reading Victory
巴黎，永远与隆重欢迎无睡之胜利者 今天它躺着如个破碎闪光预言者 云海哲学家查阅姹紫嫣红的油画词典 （是什么知识女神创造 les feutillons disparu？） 我让他们批评我的痴心妄想，但口不开 — mon solitude, glorieuse et taillé du vert le plus profond, reviens encore — 所以我恩恩鼓励自己，精心精心精心做您的任务，avec soigneusement preparée les course, gagne la vie 突然把握自己的命运 和前进，toujours 前进了 （这儿？但是我没有鞋，没形正同盟 — 哇 garçcon，都好了吧!) 把所有黑压压的伤痕和过去的受到怠慢忘了， 从之外土地到我古爱北方老乡的十字河，最后意知能到遗忘河 崇拜什么没有音乐里面的破书 Continue reading 巴黎巴黎
