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Weekly Wanderings: January 21, 2024
How is it still January?? This month has felt an eternity long, and yet I’m still getting emails that start out “Happy New Year!” Time seems to be moving slowly in 2024. Last week I wrote about “China’s Southern Paradise,” a special exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art that highlighted the artistic lineage of…
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Wanderings: China’s Southern Paradise
A long downward trajectory in U.S.-China relations, intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic, has resulted in less contact between the two countries. Fewer students are crossing the Pacific to study. Airlines have cut back their flight schedules. Multinational executives look elsewhere for business opportunities. “Engagement,” once the hallmark of the relationship, has withered amid mutual suspicion…
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Weekly Wanderings: January 14, 2024
On Friday I published a reading round-up previewing Taiwan’s presidential election, which took place yesterday. Lai Ching-te (William Lai), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate and current vice-president, came away as the winner, securing more than 40 percent of the vote. While the DPP will now hold the presidency for a third consecutive term, it lost…
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Reading Round-Up: Taiwan’s 2024 Presidential Election
A few hours from now, voters in Taiwan will begin heading to the polls to cast their vote in this year’s election. Three candidates are competing for the spot of president, in a race that appears to be too close to call at this point. (Taiwan implements a blackout period on opinion polls starting 10…
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Weekly Wanderings: January 7, 2024
I was among a trio of authors who contributed reviews of Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War, a family memoir by Zhuqing Li, to the Education About Asia journal’s Spring 2023 issue. My review appeared in print then, and is now available to read online with no paywall:…
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Wanderings: Fort Monroe
In October, my parents and I spent a week in Williamsburg, Virginia. We’ve been there before, and have already seen the Colonial Williamsburg sights, toured the battlefield at Yorktown, and visited the reconstructed Jamestown settlement. Looking for something else to check out, I turned to the map in my National Parks passport and located Fort…
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Weekly Wanderings: December 31, 2023
This won’t be another newsletter looking back at 2023 or ahead to 2024. Trust me, I thought about writing one of those. But then I spent the week between Christmas and New Year’s at my parents’ house. With a fair amount of downtime and a comfortable couch, I decided that this was the perfect week…
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Weekly Wanderings: December 24, 2023
I’m keeping things short and sweet today, as there’s still lots to do here at my parents’ house to prepare for Christmas tomorrow. Thanks so much for reading these posts—please enjoy the usual assortment of recommended stories, plus my favorite Christmas cookie recipe. But first, more Goodreads reviews from my recent deep-dive into fiction to…
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Weekly Wanderings: December 17, 2023
I’m sure there’s some mathematical concept that can explain why I’ll request five books from the library over a three-month span, only to see all five become available to me within the same week. Overnight, it seems, I find myself checking out an arm-full of books, all in great demand, with only 21 days before…
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Weekly Wanderings: December 10, 2023
I may have gone a little overboard with recommendations this week, so I’ll skip the commentary and get right to it. Happy reading. Recommendations China Stories Bloomberg News, “Xi’s Quest for Ethnic Unity Turns Genghis Khan Into New Danger”Keith Bradsher and Joy Dong, “Xi Jinping Is Asserting Tighter Control of Finance in China”Chris Buckley, “Dr.…
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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 