China insights

By Craig Dietrich In modern times as Chinese came into increasing contact with the outside world, they used several terms to refer to foreigners. These words reflect core cultural ideas, political climate, and degrees of familiarity. One cardinal Chinese cultural distinction is nei-wai (inner-outer) or zhong-wai (central-peripheral). Nei-wai, for example, is used to talk about…

By Craig Dietrich Chang E, the lady in the moon, appears in different versions of Chinese folk legends. She is usually paired with her husband, Hou Yi. The two immortals get demoted to mortals. Hou Yi manages to acquire a pill of immortality, but Chang E swallows it and flees to the moon. (Husbands take…

By Jasmine Qu Editor’s note: Among many issues created by China’s rapid development, the issue of organizations not controlled by the one-party state has repeatedly emerged. Before “Reform and Opening” the socialist system sponsored and controlled all organizations, whether national, provincial, or local; economic, social, political, or cultural. The recent advent of entrepreneurialism, a freer…

By Jasmine Qu Jasmine Fei Qu is an exchange student at Bowdoin College majoring in Government and Economics. Her summer internship with a Chinese Non-Government Organization (NGO) involved several projects. One had to do with waste pickers. Here is her account of that experience. This past summer I worked with the Institute of Contemporary Observation…

By Fred Fagin It was a Very Good Year. Yes it was, and it was a time of self-inflicted trial; a great sadness at being away from home, and yet – sweet opportunity, discovery, growth, and sharing. My son Colin (Fan Wei-cheng) and I, Fred (Fan Cen) ventured forth in late June of 2005 to…

By Barry Hilton Some western missionaries felt that Chinese was invented by Satan “to keep the gospel out of China.” Is it the most difficult language in the world? If you ask professional linguists that question, most will probably say that every language is complex in some ways and simple in others, and that they…

By Mike Palmer While house hunting in North Carolina recently, I met a professor whose work in East Asian Studies at Davidson College is supported by a grant from the Freeman Foundation. In the course of our conversation I told her of my interest in the Stilwell Museum in my home town of Chongqing. She…

By Donald MacInnis Last weekend I visited Yangkow, the small market town downriver from the Nanping Teachers College where I live and teach. I took a 2-hour train to Nanping, and then a one-hour ride in a friend’s car to Yangkow where I spent my first year in China at age 20, 1940-41, teaching in…