Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

Thanks for joining me this week.

Recommendations

China Stories

Chris Buckley, “In China, a Forbidden Question Looms: Who Leads After Xi?”

Control over history has been exercised to an even greater degree in the Hong Kong case than others. As in other territories, colonial officials maintained the administration based partly on the extensive information they held and, towards the end of the administration, chose which documents to remove to the UK. But unlike other territories, the British Government continues to deny access to the Hong Kong files. Even after the 1997 handover and recent pressures on Hong Kong’s history, the records that were relocated to the relative safety of the UK remain closed. By controlling access, the British Government maintains a handle on the narrative of its colonial administration and on the broader history of Hong Kong. In withholding these files, the British Government denies Hong Kong people access to their own cultural, social, economic, political and personal past, controlling history as it controlled the colony.

— Matthew Hurst, “Memory Exiled”

Tom Levitt, “‘They told me not to speak out’: the woman who took on China – and won her husband’s freedom”

Alice Liu, “The Democracy of HOAs (Seriously) w/ Shitong Qiao”

Rebecca Liu, “The Beijing courier who went viral: how Hu Anyan wrote about delivering parcels – and became a bestseller”

Wanderings Around the World

Errin Haines and Amanda Becker, “First ladies made history in the East Wing. It was razed for Trump’s ballroom.”

Seldom do we see cookbooks produced with such intensive governmental investment, at all levels, from the president down to civic volunteers that included home cooks. It was an ambitious project for a young country. The eventual 1,100-page project took seven years to complete, occupying nearly a third of the duration of Sukarno’s presidency. The cookbook was a significant, if unconventional by nature of its literary genre, policy document: it told its readers the political, economic, and ideological vision of Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno, and it did so through food.

— M. Paulina Hartono, “Jewels of Flavors: Mustikarasa and the Making of an Indonesian National Cookbook”

Jayson Maurice Porter, “Mule Power: Unpacking empires and diaspora in Mexico and the United States.”

Paul Sonne and Alina Lobzina, “Russia Pushes a State-Controlled ‘Super App’ by Sabotaging Its Rivals”

Standout Story

Former park leaders say the cost-cutting argument doesn’t make sense. The park service budget represents less than a fifth of a percent of the federal budget. Yet it creates $56.3 billion in economic output, what advocates call a 16x return on investment. In 2024, visitors spent an estimated $29 billion in the gateway communities outside each park. “You’d think if you had a budget that’s less than 1 percent, that delivers that much economic benefit—why would you touch it?” asked David Vela, a former Grand Teton superintendent who served as an acting director of the park service under Trump 1.0.

— Gloria Liu, “What’s the Trump Administration’s End Game for the National Parks?”

Featured photo: Bangkok, Thailand, July 4, 2019.