These stones behind the fence along this gorgeous lawn are magnets for 20-something Chinese photo-shooting teams. Passing by gives me a sense of deja vu, as if I were back in China.

Guess where is this place?

#Netflix
#3BodyProblem

The costume department has not done their research properly.

For instance, something is wrong with these caps, which featured almost all Cultural-Revolution-related scenes in Episode 1.

The cap is a part of what is known as 65# PLA military uniform,…

Very strong opening scene of the #Netflix production of #3BodyProblem . One historical issue:

The scene was set in 1966 (per title card), but the slogan 整党建党 吐故纳新 shown on the banner above the stage was first introduced in October, 1967, one year after the Cultural…

A long time coming. Although journalists and researchers like to translate 中央 (the Center) as the CCP Central Committee, that doesn't reflect its range of use. The Center has always been an ambiguous designation, as reflected by this new definition (1/6)

What is 中央 (the Center)?
What is 党中央 (the Party Center)?
If you do not know the answers, don't blame yourself because nobody knows and nobody had bothered to ask (I tried in private but the question was always dismissed) until now.

For a long time, both terms appeared…

Main forms of Party organizations

Territorial Party committee - installed at every administrative unit, enjoying plenipotentiary power within its territorial boundaries. Its top form is the Central Committee.

Primary Party committee - installed at grassroots work units.…

Not trying hair-splitting here, but there are some inaccuracies in this summary of the PRC political system.

For one, the Party org referred in the para below is called party-group not party committee. The difference is not merely semantic but with substantive implications.

A poignant letter from Dan Wang:

'I wonder why the regime can’t have greater trust in its citizens for free expression. It’s as if the party has so little self confidence that people will be pleased with the goods it has delivered.'

danwang.co/2023-letter/

I've read nothing like this before—a painfully honest piece about the cruelty and patriarchy of academia, viewed through the lens of a grieving wife. Lang Chen remembers the last days of husband Xiaohong Xu, a brilliant, beloved sociologist from China who passed away at age 45.

Was thinking about picking up another language - maybe not a good idea.

Five-Star Card is activated today.

It is the PRC 'green card' for foreign nationals with permanent residency status in the PRC.

50 have been issued so far.

How much do law editors get paid in your country?

PRC Procurators' Press
average annual salary (2022)

3⃣4⃣2⃣5⃣5⃣5⃣ RMB

Why these six countries? And the Netherlands?

Very eloquent explanation from Iza Ding of our, natural(?), tendency to understand the world with the least intellectual labor.

Another example is the prevalent view that the 2018 lift of PRC Chairman term-limit is for Xi 'to stay in power forever'. Ppl just got fixated on it.

Weirdly, I seem to be more impressed by this than seeing rockets being shot to or retrieved from space.

This looks like a perfect visualization of Granovetter's threshold model of collective behavior or of Mao's revolutionary conviction that 'a single spark can start a prairie fire'.

For one thing, the Chinese do not eat soaked flies.
The flies have to be at least marinated and deep-fried.