The Chinese Communist Party is at it again — promoting it’s own awesomeness with an animated rap video (with a side of Beethoven). Here’s a sampling of the lyrics: “Listen to me: four comprehensives, four comprehensives, building a moderately prosperous society is the goal; Repeat after me: four comprehensives, four comprehensives, reform is the impetus; […]
Reviewing the Year in Rap
Just when you thought it was safe to poke around the Chinese internet, the Chinese Communist Party releases a new “rap” video promoting Party Secretary Xi (“Big Daddy Xi”) and all the wonderful things he has done this past year. The Wall Street Journal wrote about the video on their China Real Time Report blog: The […]
Measures, Counter-measures, and Hotel Stars
There is a Chinese saying: shang you zhengce, xia you duice (上有政策,下有对策). The top (leader) has its measures, the bottom (people) has its counter-measures. Or, to put it in plain English: The leaders make the policies, and the people find ways around them. (I wrote about this in an earlier post titled Measures, Counter-measures, and Filial […]
Pearl Buck Makes a Comeback, Sort of…
Like thousands of other Americans, my first introduction to China was through reading Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth. Of course, when I read it in school, I never imagined that China would one day become such a big part of my life. China File recently ran an interesting article about her titled “The Rehabilitation of […]