Xi vs. Xu: Two Visions for China’s Future | ChinaFile
2 days ago · Xi Jinping is 20 years older than Xu. In his youth, Xi witnessed and suffered from lawlessness under Mao’s brutal rule. In 1962, Xi’s father, a high-ranking leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was persecuted as a counter-revolutionary and suffered greatly. Xi seems not to have learned from his father’s hardship.
‘A Nation Was Forged by Literary Writers’ | ChinaFile
2 days ago · They mock themselves along with their enemies, in some kind of grim acknowledgment that mutual degradation is the way of the world. * * *. If ever a nation was forged by literary writers, it was the People’s Republic of China. In the years following 1911, a band of Chinese literati determined that the country required a complete overhaul of ...
Trains: A Chinese Family History of Railway Journeys, Exile ...
3 days ago · 1. I liked trains as a child. Beijing Railway Station, a Soviet-style landmark constructed in 1959—the year I was born—was just two bus stops southwest of our apartment. Beijing had few tall buildings then, so we enjoyed an unobstructed view of the station from our balcony. On a clear day, it looked postcard-perfect with the elegant twin ...