Category: China
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New Writing: “China’s Para-Police”
Here’s the first paragraph of an article I published last week at the Dissent magazine website, on the chengguan, or “urban management,” units that patrol cities like Shanghai. Chengguan have been in the news recently after the death of a produce vendor at the hands of one such para-police unit. I didn’t notice the apple…
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Shanghai State of Mind
Rivalry between Beijing and Shanghai goes back a long way. It’s often, in my experience, of a friendly sort: upon hearing that I’ve lived in both cities, Chinese will ask me (usually with a smile) which one I like better, and I’ll laugh as I declare that whichever one they come from is my favorite.…
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Rubber Ducky, You’re the One
Shanghai has been rainy, polluted, and humid for the past couple of weeks; everything here (including me) seems gray and beaten down. As in Southern California, the city goes through an intense “June Gloom” before summer arrives in full force. As I was walking home last night, though, I spotted a bright flash of yellow…
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New Arrival
I brought a lot of books back with me to Shanghai after a recent trip to the U.S., most of them things I need to read for my dissertation or review copies sent to me by publishers. But one paperback tucked in my carry-on bag was a book I have no desire to crack open.…
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What’s in Your Water?
Last Sunday night, while riding a bus across Shanghai, I pulled a bottle of water from the side pocket of my backpack and unscrewed the cap. As I raised it to my mouth to take a drink, an elderly man in the seat behind me reached forward and tapped me on the arm. “You shouldn’t…
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More from Moganshan
After visiting the mountaintop retreat of Moganshan on a somewhat rainy weekend last November, I was itching to get back there once the weather had improved. I had just started to think about finding a weekend to do so when my friend Jeremy mentioned that he was once again taking a group of students up…
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Moscow in Manchuria
If someone were to give me a blank check, my passport and laptop, and three months off from all work and responsibilities, I’d head to Russia. I’ve been wanting to go there since I was a teenager—entering the country by the Trans-Siberian Railway from China, preferably—but the cost and time needed to make a significant…
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Sanmao Learns from Lei Feng
Happy Learn from Lei Feng Day! Learn from Lei Feng Day (学雷锋日) is one of the more curious remnants of the Mao era, and not one that many people in China seem to take seriously today, though in recent years the government has tried to revive it. It’s supposed to be a day of service,…
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February Recap
Not a whole lot to recap for this short month, which was interrupted by the Chinese New Year break. Though we officially had a vacation of seven days, a lot of people were away from Shanghai for the full fifteen-day Spring Festival, or even longer. The owners of my favorite dumpling shop around the corner…
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China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know—The Second Edition
Back in the fall of 2011, Jeff Wasserstrom (with whom I’ve co-written several articles, and who’s also my dissertation advisor) asked me if I’d like to be a contributing author on the second edition of a book he’d published in 2010, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. Part of an Oxford…
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 