当我第一次听到电影《阿嬤的情书》的剧情时，脑海里即刻浮现出的，是弗兰克·麦考特（Frank McCourt）的《安琪拉的灰烬》（Angela’s Ashes）。这本出版于1996年的回忆录，把爱尔兰贫困、移民与屈辱的情感现实，第一次真正带入了主流文化意识之中。也许，《阿嬤的情书》所标志的，正是中国社会终于开始以类似方式，面对南洋华人离散历史的时刻
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Category Archives: essays
Better Late Than Never: Reading Amah’s Love Letters
The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the plot of the movie 《阿嬤的情书》 was Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. Published in 1996, the memoir brought into mainstream cultural consciousness the emotional reality of Irish poverty, migration, and humiliation. Perhaps 《阿嬤的情书》 signals that Chinese society, too, is finally beginning a similar processContinueContinue reading “Better Late Than Never: Reading Amah’s Love Letters”
网民
The people in China who end up becoming creators of tech- and culture-related content — the kind consumed by China’s billion-strong wang min (网民) — are often those bottle-half-full Chinese youths who dropped out of U.S. universities. These are the modern 邯郸学步 types: they have not truly mastered the foreigners’ stuff, but have already managedContinueContinue reading “网民”
Citizenship — A Pipe Dream
Bristol, Rhode Island There are 193 member states in the United Nations. Nearly all of them are republics of one kind or another. Republic of this. Federal Republic of that. People’s Republic of something else. The modern world is a forest of republics. Given the prevalence of republics among humans, one suspects that in theContinueContinue reading “Citizenship — A Pipe Dream”
Wiggums, Szyslaks, Nahasapeemapetilons—A Super Bowl Story
Super Bowl fun with Moe, Wiggum, Apu Super Bowl LX is just a week away. Earlier today, an email landed in our inboxes from the company’s event committee announcing this year’s Super Bowl Squares challenge. Two brackets, two winners, no cost, a modest gift card. The twist: instead of employee names, each square is labeledContinueContinue reading “Wiggums, Szyslaks, Nahasapeemapetilons—A Super Bowl Story”
Separation & Unity 3/6
唐·章怀太子墓壁画《礼宾图》 Separation of Birth & Merit 1. Human life begins in lotteries Some of these lotteries operate at the level of groups: race, sex, skin color, facial features. Others operate at the level of the individual: height, intelligence, health, temperament, the family into which one is born, whether that family is wealthy or destitute. StillContinueContinue reading “Separation & Unity 3/6”
Separation & Unity 2/6
唐·章怀太子墓壁画《礼宾图》 Separation of Ownership and Use I. What Do You Really Own? China’s Seventy-Year Housing Right In China today, a private individual may buy an apartment, live in it, sell it, rent it out, or pass it on to heirs. And yet, under Chinese law, the right attached to that apartment expires after seventy years.ContinueContinue reading “Separation & Unity 2/6”
Separation & Unity 1/6
唐·章怀太子墓壁画《礼宾图》 Separation of Power & Wealth As China enters what is very likely to be the defining century of its history, an increasing number of observers—friendly, hostile, or simply curious—are asking the same question: what has made China successful? Some will point to luck: historical timing, global shifts, or the exhaustion of older powers. OthersContinueContinue reading “Separation & Unity 1/6”
2025: The Year the Postwar Order Broke
the new Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2025 feels like one of those rare hinge years—the kind that only become obvious in hindsight, but which you can feel while you’re living through them. Eighty years after the end of World War II, the world order born from that moment is quietly, then loudly, falling apart.ContinueContinue reading “2025: The Year the Postwar Order Broke”
China-Hating Chinese
Three Types of China Haters Who Are Ethnically Chinese Over the past decade, I’ve encountered a strange breed of Chinese people—not dissidents, not reformists, not critics motivated by genuine concern, but China haters who are ethnically Chinese—people who are visibly Chinese, whose wealth, education, and career were made possible by China, yet who resent andContinueContinue reading “China-Hating Chinese”
Yego’s Chronicles 