Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

In case you missed them, here are the three posts I published last week, covering my September trip to Montana and Yellowstone National Park:

Bookshelf: Yellowstone and the West

Wanderings: Bozeman and Livingston, Montana

Wanderings: Yellowstone National Park

I hope October is getting off to a nice start for everyone—go Phils!

Thanks for joining me this week.

Recommendations

China Stories

Keith Bradsher and Ana Swanson, “For Companies in China, Pulling Out of Xinjiang Poses ‘Messy Dilemma’”

Rebecca Feng, with photos and video by Qilai Shen, “China’s Housing Glut Collides With Its Shrinking Population”

Jeremy Goldkorn, “From Wild Exuberance to State Control in China’s Art Market: A Q&A with Kejia Wu”

Damien Ma, AJ Cortese, and Amy Ouyang, “Hefei: A 21st Century Detroit You’ve Never Heard Of”

Randy Mulyanto, “Is China’s Cultural Outreach to Muslims in Indonesia Working?”

Lynette Ong, “Fleeing Xi’s ‘China Dream’: The great exodus of people and capital”

Liyan Qi, “Song Binbin, China’s Most Famous Red Guard, Dies at 77”

China’s period of rapid growth had provided a window of opportunity for massive demolition and reconstruction that today would probably be unfeasible (except for Xiong’an, that is). On the other hand, this method of historic reconstruction seemed to forget about people as the essential element of culture. The obsession with reconstructing old walls and streets overshadowed an appreciation for people as living heritage. And the reconstruction of Datong has been criticized for its lack of authenticity and sloppy reconstruction.

— Andrew Stokols, “The ‘Datong model’ of heritage reconstruction 10 years later”

Didi Tang and David Klepper, “In global game of influence, China turns to a cheap and effective tool: fake news”

Han Zhang, “Where the Bubble-Tea Industry Has Gone Into Overdrive”

Wanderings Around the World

Jacob Mikanowski, “Teeth as time capsules: Soviet secrets and my dentist grandmother”

Hailey Salvian, “Inside the fight to bring DI women’s hockey to Michigan: ‘Women belong on the same ice’”

Rohan Venkat, “Where to get your India updates and analysis”

Featured photo: A bear pauses while eating at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, West Yellowstone, Montana, September 6, 2024.