Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Workplace
A lot of people have been asking me recently about how I like my new job, so I thought I’d try to answer them all in one place, and try to place this into some larger theoretical context. I’ll start...
View ArticleWalter Russell Mead at Hopkins China Forum
We were very pleased to host Walter Russell Mead at our lecture series last week. At The American Interest and at The Council on Foreign Relations, Mead has been one of the foremost foreign policy...
View ArticleAmerica, China, and Revolutionary Foundings
As Walter Russell Mead points out in his blog, December 17th, 2011 was the 234th anniversary of French recognition of the United States of America. Louis XVI had been convinced by the American victory...
View ArticleDoes Psychological Explanation Ingore Social Context?
Put a kid in a room with a tempting cookie, and nothing else but that cookie, and see if he chooses to eat that cookie immediately or wait ten minutes, so that he is rewarded with another cookie. If...
View ArticleReview of The Opium War by Julia Lovell
How people remember the past can often be more important than what actually happened. From America’s celebration of the “first Thanksgiving” to China’s cruel and materially harmful ridicule of the...
View ArticleAre Chinese Parents Especially Hypocritical?
In the traditional Chinese family, the father is a stern figure. While the children might find genuine human affection with the mother, they feared the father’s watchfulness. The son, especially, was...
View ArticleWhat Does Religiosity Say about America?
Observers starting with Tocqueville in Democracy in America have taken note of the vitality of voluntary associations in America. Chief among these has been the diversity of religious organizations....
View ArticleChina’s Political Model is Superior for Whom?
A recent editorial in the New York Times deserves a reply. The article, “Why China’s Political Model is Superior,” is by Eric Li, a venture capitalist in Shanghai (and upcoming speaker at Hopkins...
View ArticleDoes Charles Murray Make More Sense in China?
We who live in China and have engaged in the least with local intellectuals in the debate about democracy in China should all be familiar with the argument that freedom requires discipline and...
View ArticleWhat’s So Good About Nationalism?
Nationalism has a justifiably bad reputation, given its responsibility for many or most of the horrors of the last two centuries. Is there anything good about nationalism? According to Liah Greenfeld...
View ArticleWhere Does Nationalism Really Come From?
It was indignity that drove the Germans, Chinese, and Americans to want revenge. The Germans almost had their revenge in World War Two, after having been humiliated by the settlement after World War...
View ArticleIs America Older than China and Europe?
Chinese are fond of saying that they have 5,000 years of history, which makes their country “old.” To their minds, European countries are also “old,” since most of them have at least 1,000 years of...
View ArticleThinking about The Opium War by Julia Lovell
Julia Lovell’s The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of China is generally a successful, highly readable history, especially in how it seems to collect every humorous detail about the Chinese...
View ArticleAre Americans Really as Simple as Chinese Think?
Many Chinese feel surprising affection toward Forest Gump. Chinese are drawn not only to the sappy melodrama of Gump and his sweetheart “fated” to be together, but to the “simplicity” of the dim, but...
View ArticleGonzo Politics and the New Age of Mass Protest
The current eruption of protest in Brazil has been met by the scratching of heads, a sound that has become familiar since about 2010. Journalists and academics alike have come scuttling out of their...
View ArticleA View of the U.S. Abandonment of South Vietnam
I’m skeptical about whether foreign travel really adds to our knowledge of other countries. We’re left with incredibly strong impressions based on limited and unrepresentative experiences, the...
View ArticleBill Evans, the 1960s, and Contemporary China
One thing you’ll notice if you have close Chinese friends is that they say Westerners are “direct.” What do they mean by this? Partly, it’s speaking your mind, instead of being suggestive. Chinese...
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China vs. Japan, Out of the Mouths of Babes
A few days ago, I was walking along the road, weaving in and out of what must have been a kindergarten class coming back from a field trip. Chinese kids are cute. Not just in the way that all little...
View ArticleAre Americans Really as Simple as Chinese Think?
Many Chinese feel surprising affection toward Forest Gump. Chinese are drawn not only to the sappy melodrama of Gump and his sweetheart “fated” to be together, but to the “simplicity” of the dim, but...
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