Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

Two weeks without recommendations meant I saved up a bumper crop for today—I hope everyone can find a story or two in the links below to read with their coffee on a cold winter Sunday.

Thanks for joining me this week.

Recommendations

China Stories

The recent shift in exile rhetoric suggests a realization by the Tibetan leadership that a strategy based on critiques of China’s human rights record in Tibet was never going to work. Instead, the new approach replaces moral chastisement with a critique of China’s claim to Tibet. Unlike human rights criticisms, a challenge to its sovereignty addresses a core sensitivity for the Chinese government. Its primary objective on the Tibet issue in the last 40 years had nothing to do with rebutting criticisms of its record on human rights, which probably never represented more than background noise for Beijing. Instead, its primary objective has always been to get all governments to state that Tibet is part of China.

— Robert Barnett, “The Tibetan Government-in-Exile Has a New Strategy”

Chang Che, “The Father of Chinese Authoritarianism Has a Message for America”

Helen Davidson and Chi-hui Lin, “Fleeing Xi’s China: following the trail of migrants trying to reach Australia through Indonesia”

Amy Hawkins, “‘We need to be prepared’: China adapts to era of extreme flooding”

Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld, “Shen Yun Needed Publicity. The Epoch Times Wrote 17,000 Articles.”

A growing number of Chinese emigrants have taken Chinese public life with them abroad. Chinese bookstores in cities like Tokyo and Hanover now sell uncensored books and frequently host cultural events. Chinese stand-up comics are doing gigs in places like New York and proliferating on YouTube and social media. And several former Chinese state television journalists have launched their own YouTube channels to discuss Chinese politics and history; in the process, they have become some of the most popular Chinese-language programs overseas.

— Yi Liu, “Finding China’s Voice — Abroad”

Luke Patey, “Last Multinational Standing? Can Volkswagen survive in China and still thrive at home?”

Lingling Wei, “U.S.’s Channels With China Have Gone Dark With Trump’s Return”

Tessa Wong, “A dam ignited rare Tibetan protests. They ended in beatings and arrests, BBC finds”

Tessa Wong, Grace Tsoi, Vicky Wong and Joy Chang, “Silenced and erased, Hong Kong’s decade of protest is now a defiant memory”

Li Yuan, “Chinese Muslims, After Finding a Refuge in Queens, Now Fear Trump”

Wanderings Around the World

Tamana Ayazi, “Preserving Afghanistan’s Soul: A Race Against Time”

Rukmini Callimachi, “One Set of China. Five Generations.”

Michael Cavna, “Political cartoons reveal the evolution of Jimmy Carter’s legacy”

Anupreeta Das and Saif Hasnat, with photographs by Atul Loke, “These Students Ousted a Government. Now They’re Rebuilding a Democracy.”

For the first time in nearly four score and seven months, Gettysburg National Military Park needs guides, so the National Park Service will administer an exam this month. The test, last given in 2017, has gained mythic status among Civil War buffs for its degree of difficulty and slim passing rate. It requires an encyclopedic knowledge of the 1863 battle, as well as a firm grasp of the lead-up to the war and its aftermath.

— James Fanelli, with photographs by Greg Kahn, “Civil War Buffs Drill for the ‘Hardest Test in History’”

Caleb Gayle, with photographs by Kennedi Carter, “Can the Rodeo Save a Historic Black Town?”

Peter S. Goodman and Hari Kumar, with photographs and video by Elke Scholiers, “Riding With a Trucker, Witnessing India’s Past and Potential”

Claire Harbage, Catie Dull, and Ross Peleh, “Far from the front lines, Ukrainians fight a war to preserve their culture”

Perri Klass, “‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’ Isn’t a Feel-Good New York Story”

The memorial was due to open in 2017. Seven years later, there is nothing to see. The project has been beset by delays, legal challenges, rocketing costs, and the emotionally complicated spectacle of very old Holocaust survivors speaking both in favor and against it. Depending on who you ask, the memorial complex is either a bad idea, an ugly thing, pushed through by well-meaning but incompetent (and mainly non-Jewish) politicians, who talk in bromides about British values and “the need to fight hatred and prejudice in all its forms,” or a powerful new landmark, a venue for difficult conversations about the Holocaust and the current climate of antisemitism, catalyzed by the war in the Middle East.

— Sam Knight, “Why Is It So Hard to Build a Holocaust Memorial in London?”

Poppy McPherson, Devjyot Ghoshal, Steve Stecklow, and Ruma Paul, “Myanmar junta intimidates aid groups in effort to hide hunger crisis”

Dalia Parete, “Shamed Into Silence”

Scott Powers, “How the NHL’s American Sign Language TV broadcasts bring the game to a ‘marginalized’ audience”

Catching Up

Featured photo: Inside the “Hockey: Faster Than Ever” exhibit at The Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI, January 4, 2025.