Burn the books and bury the scholars! 焚書坑儒!

Geremie Barmé takes a look at the recent decision of Cambridge University Press to reinstate content deleted from the online version of its China Quarterly available in China: Chinese censorship has come a long way. During his rule in the second century B.C.E., the First Emperor 秦始皇 of a unified China, Ying Zheng 嬴政, famously quashed … Continue reading Burn the books and bury the scholars! 焚書坑儒! →

非漂出版专讯: 2017.9 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs

Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, speaking in Glossing Africa, questions the practice of briefly defining, footnoting, or otherwise clarifying the usage of indigenous terms in one’s fiction writing: There’s a part of me that just deeply resents the fact that there’re many parts of the world where the fiction that comes from there is read as anthropology rather … Continue reading 非漂出版专讯: 2017.9 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs →

One Last Ride aboard Kenya’s “Lunatic Express”

Writes Thomas Bird from Kenya (Lunatic Express), where the China-built new Nairobi-to-Mombasa railway looks set to render the Victorian-era line redundant: “Belt and Road Cooperation for Common Promutual Benefit,” proclaims a large street sign suspended above Beijing’s ever-congested second ring road. China is investing massively in its 21st-century reimagining of the Silk Roads, even if the … Continue reading One Last Ride aboard Kenya’s “Lunatic Express” →

Quote of the Week: To Gloss or Not, That is the Question

There’s a part of me that just deeply resents the fact that there’re many parts of the world where the fiction that comes from there is read as anthropology rather than as literature. And increasingly that kind of anthropological reading then means that . . . you’re explaining your world rather than inhabiting your world. … Continue reading Quote of the Week: To Gloss or Not, That is the Question →

Xinjiang’s Hotian Education Department Issues Directive Limiting Use of Uyghur in Schools

According to a July 28, 2017 report by Radio Free Asia (Uyhgur Language): In late June, the Education Department in Xinjiang’s Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian) prefecture issued a five-point directive outlawing the use of Uyghur at schools in favor of Mandarin Chinese “in order to strengthen elementary and middle/high school bilingual education.” Under the directive … Continue reading Xinjiang’s Hotian Education Department Issues Directive Limiting Use of Uyghur in Schools →

穆拉特詹·萨本主: “我的父亲与新闻自由正在土耳其受审”

我的父亲与新闻自由正在土耳其受审 — 欧洲，别撇开眼睛！ 12 名《共和国报》受押采编人员法庭受审，警醒各方：民主与人权正陷入四面楚歌原文发表于英国《卫报》2017 年 7 月 24 日（英文全文在此） Muratcan Sabuncu（穆拉特詹·萨本主）撰文 (Muratcan Sabuncu 为土耳其《共和国报》总编 Murat Sabuncu 的儿子，以及法国的索邦人权协会会长) 这个故事想必大家都熟悉，有个暴君身着盛装在大道上游行，臣民都在曲意奉承他，突然有个小孩子大声疾呼：“皇帝并没穿什么衣服呀！”。这孩子就像当下土耳其同样正直敢言的人。谁说出真相，谁才是爱国忠良，才称得上国家良知，因为他们拨开乌云，让蒙在阴霾下的人重见天日。家父，Murat Sabuncu（穆拉特·萨本主），直言勿讳，担任 Cumhuriyet (《共和国报》）日报总编，持异见之声，却广受赞誉，在土耳其媒体中，实属罕见。他与11名 Cumhuriyet 同僚，九个月羁押期刚满，将于周一 [7 月 31 日]在伊斯坦布尔接受法庭审理。在押仅满五个月，Cumhuriyet 新闻工作者及该报社其他从业人员才获悉他们所面临的指控。罪名是与恐怖组织有关联，有可能被判处7.5到43年监禁。然而，翻开起诉书，内容仅仅是报刊标题、消息、报道、专栏和推文。由此可见，新闻业和新闻自由才是此案真正的受审者。 Cumhuriyet 自 1924 年在土耳其创刊以来一直坚持倡导民主共和、世俗主义等价值观念。该报新闻工作者坚称其批评文章，旨在对抗危机，维护秩序，为效忠祖国之根本。连同家父在内，他们让公众认识到，诚实准确与公平是如何被颠倒的。他们深信消息通畅可以开阔公民视野，使其三思而后做决断。显然，从家父及同僚们笔尖流露出的是他们的报国精神与爱国情怀。我父一贯执笔支持民主，正义与良知。他曾反对1997年土耳其军方利用 “备忘录” 逼迫亲伊斯兰政府下台的；反对头巾禁令；不支持以反对世俗主义为借口解散执政的 “正义与发展党”的企图；以及反对 2016 年 7 月 15 日未遂政变的图谋。小时候，我记得父亲密切关注过刺杀赫兰特·丁克（Hrant Dink）编辑的事件以及随之而来的谋杀审案，并去锡利夫里 (Silivri) 监狱探望朋友，记者纳迪姆·塞内尔（Nedim Şener），他在额尔古纳昆（Ergenekon）案中被捕并遭到指控。我父亲深知异见记者要冒失业，入狱和死亡的危险，他曾经向我调侃道，从 Cumhuriyet … Continue reading 穆拉特詹·萨本主: “我的父亲与新闻自由正在土耳其受审” →

非漂出版专讯: 2017.7 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs

Cartographer Alexander Akin asserts that an ancient Chinese map of Africa — proudly cited by China as proof of early Sino-African ties — may be a copy of a Korean version, and not based on the expeditions of the explorer Zheng He (1371–1435). The way media in other parts of the world — including China … Continue reading 非漂出版专讯: 2017.7 AfroLit4China Newsbriefs →

Turkey’s Purge: Kurdish Suffer along with Suspected Gülenists

In Amid Turkey’s Purge, a Renewed Attack on Kurdish Culture, Patrick Kingsley reports from Diyarbakir: Across southeast Turkey, where most people are Kurdish, Mr. Erdogan’s government fired over 80 elected mayors and replaced them with state-appointed trustees. Here in Diyarbakir, the spiritual capital of Turkish Kurdistan, the trustee not only fired most of the city’s … Continue reading Turkey’s Purge: Kurdish Suffer along with Suspected Gülenists →

Feminist: A Dirty Word in Xi Jinping’s China?

Chimamanda Adichie is hot. Not just in her homeland Nigeria, and the US where she spends much of her time nowadays, but in China too. Witness the fact that four of her works have been translated into Chinese, including her moving portrayal of the Biafran war, Half of a Yellow Sun (半轮黄日), The Thing Around … Continue reading Feminist: A Dirty Word in Xi Jinping’s China? →

The Xinjiang Gold Rush, Uyghur Scavengers and a Kind of Freedom

In a discussion of Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World — about Southeast Asian refugee immigrants and white Vietnam War vets picking mushrooms in Oregon — Darren Byler is struck by the way the mushroom pickers speak of freedom. He writes: In a corner of China, several thousand kilometers from … Continue reading The Xinjiang Gold Rush, Uyghur Scavengers and a Kind of Freedom →