Su Shi was a government official and one of the most respected poet of the Northern Song dynasty in China, twice exiled for his criticisms of imperial policy. In 1082, he pondered about mortality and change at the Red Cliff, the place where General Cao Cao was defeated by his enemies 800 years earlier, expressed… Continue reading An Ode on the Red Cliff
Tag: China
The Great Turnings
As Vladimir Lenin said, there are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen. What makes our times particularly turbulent is that we are simultaneously at the late stages and transitional moments of three big cycles: Carlota Perez's technological revolutions / financial capital cycle (50-60 years) Strauss–Howe generational cycle (80-100 years) Ray… Continue reading The Great Turnings
Abridged Chinese Classics
John Atkinson created irreverent summations, in the fewest words possible, of some of the most famous works of literature. Here are my own for the Four Great Classic Novels of China: Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Empire splits into three parts. Then reunited. A Journey to the West: A monk, a monkey and a pig… Continue reading Abridged Chinese Classics
Freedom by Coercion
Fanatical experiments cannot be sustained without creativity. To paraphrase a wise man from the last century, the way the Nazis or the Communists sell their holy causes is no different from the way capitalists advertise their Gucci bags or cigarettes. The techniques we found in the imperialistic tendencies of the Nazis and the Communists are… Continue reading Freedom by Coercion
Skin in the Game
Nassim Nicholas Taleb uses two criteria to filter ideas and books. First, the Lindy Effect: the more the book has been around, the longer its future life expectancy. Second, the more skin in the game, the more convincing the idea is. In practice, I am attracted to books that look ancient, and look at how far… Continue reading Skin in the Game
Architecture in a Post-Truth World
Büro Ole Scheeren took the needle of the tower and bent it back into itself to create a loop. There is no beginning or end. Walk around the base of the tower, and you see it go from strong and imposing to unstable and fragile. It’s the perfect symbol for a post-truth world.
A Guide to Reading Pu Songling
In vernacular Chinese, the Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) by Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) is regarded as the supreme novel. In classical Chinese, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊齋誌異) by Pu Songling (蒲松齡) has the equivalent status. Mao Zedong claimed to have read the Red Chamber five times. I say you need to read Strange Tales two times. Read it in English the first… Continue reading A Guide to Reading Pu Songling
A Historical Theory of Tea and Opium
The mysterious way in which seemingly disparate historical events are connected with each other fills me with awe. The human intellect simply cannot grasp the infinite permutations and the sheer complexity of the laws of history. In 1773, the Boston Tea Party threw 342 chests of Chinese tea into the Boston Harbor, leading to the… Continue reading A Historical Theory of Tea and Opium
The Political Logic of China’s GDP Growth Target
I'm a political analyst, not an economist. But in many situations, it's more than enough for me to understand the logic behind the Chinese economy. As an important example: in the March 2016 National People's Congress session, why did Xi Jinping set 6.5% as the GDP growth target for the next 5 years? This number… Continue reading The Political Logic of China’s GDP Growth Target
Andy Yee 