A Few Readings around the Web This Week…

1. Rebecca MacKinnon yesterday posted a marvelous wrap-up of Charter 08, with many links included. We usually use a rather light touch with these recommendations, but this time…head on over. If you read one thing on China today, it should be this.

2. To follow up, there are a few related readings that are worth a jump, early writings by some of the figures MacKinnon mentions in her piece: “That Holy Word, ‘Revolution’” by Liu Xiaobo, and “Thirsty Dragon at the Olympics” by Dai Qing. For another take on Charter 08, check out the piece we ran at China Beat by Jeremy Paltiel last month.

3. For other quality reading around the web this week, you might check out the newly relaunched Sino-Japanese Studies. Browsers may find the archives, with links to full-text articles, particularly appealing.

4. Regular China Beat readers will recognize Geremie Barme’s name. At ArtAsiaPacific this month in a piece titled “Shock of the Obvious,” Barme reflects on the changes in the Chinese art world since the publication’s debut fifteen years ago:

In 1993, the centenary of Mao Zedong’s birth, the chi-chi Beijing eatery Maxim’s de Paris organized a celebratory buffet for 200. The invitations bore the slogan “Long live Chairman Mao!” and patrons were requested to wear Mao suits. The restaurant was decked out with pictures of the chairman and Cultural Revolution posters. While the food was European haute cuisine, the evening’s entertainment featured an excerpt from The White-Haired Girl, a showcase production of the Maoist era…

5. And finally, here are a few oldies but perhaps new-to-you, in case you have a hankering for book reviews: the book review section at Modern Chinese Literature and Culture and a site of reviews and essays maintained by the Chinese history graduate students at UCSD. Both are well worth some browsing.