'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The Chinese version is no easier to read than the original, the loyal-minded translator assures, but James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" has still sold out its initial run in China _ with the help of some big urban billboards.
Perhaps more than Westerners, the Chinese have a gambling streak.
At a time when China's economy and society are under considerable strain and the country is embroiled in increasingly tense border disputes with its neighbors, the relatively peaceful once-in-a-decade political transition in Beijing has helped deflect attention from the underlying turbulence in the Chinese system.
A new book by Ronald Coase, age 101, is an event in itself. Mr. Coase, the 1991 Nobel laureate in economics, revolutionized the field by challenging conventional wisdom regarding the nature of business firms and how so-called public goods can be provided. One of his main contributions is the concept of "transaction costs," which are the costs individuals incur in making an economic exchange.
North Korean farmers who have long been required to turn most of their crops over to the state now may be allowed to keep their surplus food to sell or barter in what could be the most significant economic change enacted by young leader Kim Jong-un since he came to power nine months ago.
North Korean farmers who long have been required to turn most of their crops over to the state may now be allowed to keep their surplus food to sell or barter in what could be the most significant economic change enacted by young leader Kim Jong-un since he came to power nine months ago.
China's military is making bold accusations that self-described "heroic" anti-American hawks are being purged and betrayed by China's CIA-controlled civilian leaders.
On May 7, South Korean customs authorities announced they had discovered 17,500 capsules made from the incinerated remains of human fetuses and infants being smuggled into the country from China for sale.
As more details seep around the Great Firewall that Beijing's masters once thought would suppress all dissident blogging and as contradictory explanations emanate from Party sources, the case of Bo Xilai and his wife becomes all too familiar.
The last time China's next president visited the United States, he bunked in the spare bedroom of a small-town Iowa home, replete with football wallpaper, a window's view of an old iron basketball hoop and "Star Wars" figurines on the dresser.
China is engaged in the most repressive crackdown on Tibetans since 2008 and is intensifying a communist brainwashing campaign that is targeting Tibetans. The government in Beijing is calling the new campaign the "Nine Must-Haves."
Rumors that retired Chinese leader Jiang Zemin was dead or dying raced through China's Internet on Wednesday, sending censors into overdrive to excise them and in turn spurring people to craft ever more cryptic and inventive postings.
Rumors that retired Chinese leader Jiang Zemin was dead or dying raced through China's Internet on Wednesday, sending censors into overdrive to excise them and in turn spurring people to craft ever more cryptic and inventive postings.
Marking the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party last Friday, President Hu Jintao told colleagues the party's survival depends on the twin pillars of economic growth and social stability. While China undoubtedly needs both for the party to remain in power, the dilemma for the country's leaders is that the way China achieves rapid economic growth is increasingly the reason behind growing instability in Chinese society. In fact, loosening rather than tightening its grip on power is more likely to ensure that there is harmony rather than turmoil throughout China.
Everyone knows about China's economic "miracle." High economic growth rates and rising incomes have given many parts of the country all the trappings of a "nouveau riche" society — from luxury-car traffic jams to stylish tourists traveling the world.
"Of course, a major difference between the two cases is that the vast majority of the Chinese population were farmers at the time," he said.
"Of course, a major difference between the two cases is that the vast majority of the Chinese population were farmers at the time," he said.
