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Powers
of illusion
BASED
on their native political history and traditions, Westerners tend
to associate power with an outward or expansive movement, exemplified
by exploration and conquest. For this reason they often find themselves
deeply perplexed by ancient Chinese imperial power, which seems
to exhibit a very different, even opposing tendency.
FULL
STORY
 'Piercing
the veil' of beggary
Not
long ago, a group of reporters were sent by a newspaper to observe,
day and night, some beggars in their city, in an attempt to identify
whether they were real beggars, or, to put it more accurately, to
expose their falsity.
Mooncake
lunacy
Beware
when you receive mooncakes as a present from your subordinates or
businessmen if you are a man invested with absolute authority.
'The
ultimate tourist challenge
It's
tough being a tourist. I know, I've tried. It really isn't as easy
as it sounds. I tried really hard to be a tourist this weekend,
when I visited the island of Putuoshan.
Peasant
productivity
Many
commentators on contemporary China, even - or perhaps especially
- locals, tend to regard the country's farmers as a problem. The
relative poverty and sheer immensity of the Chinese peasant population
is considered to be a serious matter for concern.
China
by rail, ups and downs and steep descents...
My
having travelled most of the world by all manner of conveyances,
from horse drawn cart to Concorde, I hesitated not one moment to
take the train from Beijing to Shanghai when all air tickets had
been snapped up by rich-daddy students returning for another academic
year of toil and tribulations.
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