Political theorists in the early 20th century coined the term “state of exception” for an authoritarian state’s use of crises to normalize extraordinary extralegal measures — and keep them in effect indefinitely. In China, Mr. Xi first put Xinjiang in a state of exception, and more recently has used Covid-19 as justification to do the … Continue reading Quote of the Week: Xi Jinping’s Eternal “State of exception”
Category: Quote of the Week (本周精彩语录)
Odesa: Czar Vlad’s Obsession
“Putin wants to save me — a gay, Jewish, Russian-speaking man living in Odesa — from Nazis!” Mr. Grudev says. “Please.” (Excerpted from "Odesa Is Defiant. It’s Also Putin’s Ultimate Target")
On the Death of Taiwanese Freedom Fighter Peng Ming-min (彭明敏)
“The Chinese,” he wrote, “must learn to distinguish ethnic origin and culture from politics and law, and to discard their archaic obsession to claim anyone of Chinese ancestry as legally Chinese, however far removed from China.” He continued: “The real issue is not independence for Formosa but self-determination for the people there. And the Formosan … Continue reading On the Death of Taiwanese Freedom Fighter Peng Ming-min (彭明敏)
Quote of the Week: Russian Spin
Die Zensur liebt den Krieg und wird in der Schlacht als Erste zur Pflicht gerufen. (Can Dündar #ÖZGÜRÜZ)
Speaking Chinese in Vladivistok
"I recently spent 7 years living in Russia and was the acquaintance of a very high level person in the Foreign Office who reported at the senior level. One time I was invite to his Dacha for sashlick. On that visit I pointed out to him that during the Song Dynasty, China controlled a large … Continue reading Speaking Chinese in Vladivistok
Desmond Tutu: Speaking Truth to Power
“Mr. Zuma, you and your government don’t represent me. You represent your own interests. I am warning you out of love, one day we will start praying for the defeat of the A.N.C. government. You are disgraceful.” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking in 2011 during Jacob Zuma's period as President of South Africa, as quoted in … Continue reading Desmond Tutu: Speaking Truth to Power
Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Nobel Speech: “A kind of beauty”
. . . writing cannot be just about battling and polemics, however invigorating and comforting that can be. Writing is not about one thing, not about this issue or that, or this concern or another, and since its concern is human life in one way or another, sooner or later cruelty and love and weakness … Continue reading Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Nobel Speech: “A kind of beauty”
Writing Fiction: “A Degree of Possession”
Whether or how much a book draws from real life isn’t strictly quantifiable . . . Part of this mystery is due to the chaotic consciousness native to the novel-writing process, which requires a degree of possession . . . To dig a book out of the ground can be backbreaking, hand-tearing work; you need to forget what you … Continue reading Writing Fiction: “A Degree of Possession”
Quote of the Week: A Shipwrecked Mother Tongue
For me, linguistic displacement is a mark of origin. When I was five years old, I learned French at the Alliance Française in Santiago; at seven years old, when we moved to California, I learned English and forgot my French. From that moment forward, I have remained sandwiched between Spanish and English, feeling comfortable to a … Continue reading Quote of the Week: A Shipwrecked Mother Tongue
Quote of the Week: Querying the Maori Canon
Canons have real-world effects. When I first talked about teaching Māori literature in an English department in New Zealand, a number of people questioned whether there would be enough writing to justify a whole course, let alone a whole job. This assumption is not accidental – it grows out of a colonial view that Indigenous … Continue reading Quote of the Week: Querying the Maori Canon
Altaic Storytelling 