The author Pankaj Mishra has traveled to far-flung parts of Asia for his reporting.Credit Courtesy of Pankaj Mishra
Six years before the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong began reshaping the city’s political and social landscape, Pankaj Mishra wrote in a travel essay for The New York Times that “Hong Kong is a great clamor.”
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That became the title of his latest book, published in 2013, which collects his recent writings on China as well as Chinese societies outside the mainland. For his reporting, Mr. Mishra, an Indian author who lives in London, traveled to far-flung parts of Asia — taking the high-speed train to Tibet shortly after it opened in 2006, for example. His interviews with intellectuals in China reflect not only his interest in the debates taking place at the heart of that nation, but also the changes occurring at its peripheries that have become central to questions of China’s identity and the narrative of control by the Chinese Communist Party.
Although Mr. Mishra has written more on India than any other country, he has had a long-running interest in China and in particular its intellectual history. “From the Ruins of Empire,” the book that preceded “A Great Clamour,” is an ambitious historical account that links the works of several Asian intellectuals who were critical figures in forming nationalist identities that responded to Western colonialism, including Liang Qichao, who pushed for new models of Chinese governance in the late Qing dynasty. In an interview, Mr. Mishra shared his thoughts on capitalism and politics in China, and on Hong Kong’s relationship to the mainland: Read more…
James Tien, the head of Hong Kong’s pro-business Liberal Party, was removed from a largely powerless but prestigious organ of China’s government, Michael Forsythe and Alan Wong report. Read more »
Athletic, charismatic and with a sexy sneer, the Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-fat has long been wildly popular in Asia. His association with the film director John Woo in hard-boiled thrillers and with Ang Lee in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” has brought him Hollywood fame, too.
Now another quality appears to have been added to Mr. Chow’s repertoire: political courage.
Chow Yun Fat on China’s alleged ban on pro-Occupy celebrities: “Then I’ll just make less!” http://t.co/4mSjrLfAYM http://t.co/vFx9oRs4Vb
Villagers in Fuyou, Jinning County, displaying police shields and other equipment they confiscated after a clash with construction workers on Oct. 14.Credit Wong Campion/Reuters
Twenty-one people have been arrested in connection with a violent clash over a development project in southwestern China that left nine people dead and 24 seriously injured, the authorities announced.
The Oct. 14 incident was one of the deadliest such conflicts in recent years, and the extent of the brutality — some of the victims were set on fire — shocked a country that has has seen regular, if more limited, violence over land development.
Those arrested included six employees of a construction firm and 15 local residents, the Kunming city government said on Tuesday. The announcement added that the death toll had climbed from eight to nine after one severely injured worker died in a local hospital. Read more…
James Tien, the leader of the pro-Beijing Liberal Party, is expected to be expelled from a prestigious Chinese government advisory panel, Michael Forsythe reports. Read more »
A man’s arrest over posts about the pro-democracy demonstrations raises concerns that the authorities have begun to patrol the Internet, Michael Forsythe and Alan Wong report. Read more »
An employee viewing the Port of Shanghai, the world's busiest, from an office window.Credit Carlos Barria/Reuters
Container ships from China laden with cargo for the rest of the world disperse more than toys, televisions and other exports. They are also a serious, often neglected, emitter of pollution from the cheap fuel allowed under Chinese rules, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, a United States-based environmental advocacy group.
Except when they approach and dock at ports that require cleaner fuel, such as in the United States or Europe, oceangoing ships plying trade through Chinese ports usually use cheap “bunker” oil, a grade of fuel that is heavy in sulfur and leaves a dense trail of fine soot, ozone and nitrogen- and sulfur-based pollutants, said the report, which was released on Tuesday.
“Regulation of air emissions from ships is virtually nonexistent today in China and the rest of the developing world,” the report said. Read more…
Much of the muscle-flexing over disputed waters in the region is political. But China is also interested in the oil and natural gas that might lie below the waters, Chris Horton reports. Read more »
Xu Caihou, a high-ranking target of an anticorruption campaign, is described as having taken “particularly huge bribes” in return for promotions and favors, Chris Buckley reports. Read more »
The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has introduced a fish that eats mosquito larvae, in an effort to control its worst-ever dengue fever outbreak, state news media have reported.
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Mosquito fish, seen here in an aquarium in Virginia, are being deployed in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to help fight dengue fever.Credit Associated Press
Some scientists have warned that use of the nonnative mosquito fish could have unexpected consequences, while others say that mosquito fish are already found in Guangdong waters and the environmental impact might not be significant, but that the effectiveness of the fish may also be limited.
As of Monday, the number of dengue cases in Guangdong Province this year had reached 41,155, the local health authorities reported, with six deaths. The province has seen 200 to 300 new cases a day in recent days. That is lower than the more than 400 per day last week and the more than 1,000 per day the week before that, offering some hope that the outbreak is beginning to ease. Read more…
