Category Archives: Culture

Are Categories Like Immigrant Fiction and ‘New American’ Fiction Valid or Worthwhile?

By PANKAJ MISHRA and FRANCINE PROSE  JULY 1, 2014

Each week in Bookends, two writers take on questions about the world of books. This week, Pankaj Mishra and Francine Prose discuss whether categories like immigrant fiction are useful or meaningful labels.

By Pankaj Mishra

Many of the writers who have revitalized American literature in recent years neither disown nor reclaim the past.

“I am an American, Chicago born,” Augie March declares in Saul Bellow’s 1953 novel, “and go at things as I have taught myself, free-style, and will make the record in my own way.” “The Adventures of Augie March” Continue reading

The Debate Over Confucius Institutes PART II

GREGORY B. LEE, MICHAEL HILL, ZHA DAOJIONG, STEPHEN E. HANSON, MARY GALLAGHER, MARSHALL SAHLINS, MOBO GAO 07.01.14

(China Photos/Getty Images)
Statues of Confucius and his 72 students inside the Chongshengci at the Temple of Confucius in Beijing, first constructed in 1302.
Last week, ChinaFile published a discussion on the debate over Confucius Institutes–Chinese language Continue reading

The Book We’re Talking About: ‘California’ By Edan Lepucki

Posted: 07/01/2014 4:41 pm EDT Updated: 07/01/2014 5:59 pm EDT

CALIFORNIA EDAN LEPUCKI

Maddie Crum
[email protected]
Continue reading

The 10th Hong Kong Literature Festival

Enchanting English Poems-Cities and Memory

The 10th Hong Kong Literature Festival

Kubrick Poetry

時間 Time:2014/6/29 (Sunday) 11:00am-12:30pm

地點 Venue:香港中央圖書館地下演講廳/ Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre, G/F) Continue reading

Leftover Women-The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China

Leta Hong Fincher

After the 1949 revolution in China, Chairman Mao famously proclaimed that ‘women hold up half the sky.’ In the early years of the People’s Republic, Continue reading

Meet the Chinese women standing up to inequality

Activists have ‘occupied’ men’s toilets, donned wedding dresses splashed with red and shaved heads to raise awareness

Continue reading

Banned Books Around the World

October 4, 2012 Jen Rickard Blair

As Banned Books Week comes to a close, we shift our gaze upon the censorship of authors on an international scale. Below is a list of 17 books that have been banned in the last decade. The original version of this list can be found in WLT’s censorship issue published in September 2006. Continue reading

Perry Link Commented the Confucius Institutes

Monday, June 23, 2014 – 1:07pm

Bob Kapp is right that China has a “marvelous cultural repertoire,” that Americans should learn more about it, that Chinese culture is best learned through Chinese language, that Chinese-language programs in North America need more resources, and that it would be nice if China pitched in. Continue reading