DC Meetup + Tweets of the Week
Craft Beer, Brain Export Controls, Ray Dalio, Lingling Wei, Property Taxes, Taiwanese Indie Rock, Temples and Yellow Dishes
I’ll be in DC Nov 8-11 and am planning on hosting a meetup on Monday Nov 8th from 5:30 to 8ish at Haikan on 805 V St NW. Please respond to this email if you’re interested in either the meetup or getting together at some other point while I’m in town!
And now, China Twitter Tweets of the Week makes a triumphant return.
Sign of the times: Beijing's craft beer Homebrewer's Society was snitched on and shut down for being, and I kid you not, an "illegal NGO." The use of coercive state power for personal gripes and vindictive "revenge" is so depressingly common now: mp.weixin.qq.com/s/I5ykMZ6Q_SGc…
Every element of why this is wrong is fascinating
1-That Dalio thought this story was somehow profound
2-That Wang Qishan thought it was true and reflected well on China
3-That Dalio thought he should include it in his book
4-That Dalio didn't know that it was FACTUALLY WRONG
Matthew Brooker @mbrookerhk
So the takeaway is that after Xi nothing will be the same!?
I was totally bewildered learning Yuanfudao, once one of the most successful live tutoring platforms, is exploring manufacturing down jackets. protocol.com/newsletters/pr…
Then a comment answered all my qs: "Are the jackets for surviving the nuclear winter for ed-tech?"
the fact that senior party members constantly use @Lingling_Wei as therapy to complain about Xi is just the funniest thing
Martijn Rasser @MartijnRasser
Thread on property taxes in China: the thorniest of thorny issues and crucial to China's development! Even Xi may not be able to knock enough heads to get this one done…
1/Many in China received their homes as compensation for Zhu Rongji's SOE layoffs in 90's...
Lingling Wei 魏玲灵 @Lingling_Wei
Great thread
omg i'm such a soft indie boi
btw i just caught up on @ChaoyangTrap 's new season and again it's just brilliant! it's so interesting to see my own personal life experience in a broader and historical context
chaoyang.substack.com/p/taiwanese-in…
Chaoyang Trap House is the best English language content on mainland Chinese culture and all of you should subscribe.
Xi gave a speech at the first Central Works Conference on the People's Congress 4 days ago and nobody seemed to notice, but I think this could signal big changes on the way.
Put simply, this could be a way to overcome the many hurdles for Xi's bid for a 3rd term:
Remember his best friend Putin, who has been staying in power for the past 20+ years through the ingenious Russian doll arrangement of alternating terms of President and Prime Minister?
The Chinese equivalent could be alternating terms of President and NPC SC Chairman.
Very trippy official Space Day of China art from 2019:
2019 saw a psychedelic Chang'e Moon Goddess, flanked by a Temple of Heaven, Long March Rocket, and with motifs of Silk Road along the bottom.
Held in Changsha, Hunan, the 2019 edition saw significant international attendance, including both @DongFangHour hosts 🇨🇳🛰️🚀
(3/6)
My grandpa is 88 this year & worked in a factory in China his whole life. He gave me these last year, they’re his most prized possessions, tools he used at work for decades. He thought maybe my husband or I could use them. Didn’t have heart to tell him probably not.
Maybe my favourite temple in China?
Lingyan Temple 灵岩寺 by itself is a marvellous prospect - fronted by this Song hall with original Song arhats somehow surviving the millennium since they were wrought in clay. 1/4
Incredible thread.
Also:
Jinan has a gorgeous cathedral - one of the best in China - built with proceeds from the boxer indemnity in the early 20th century.
The massive gothic Sacred Heart Cathedral (洪家楼耶稣圣心主教座堂) is the centre of the Catholic Jinan archdiocese (Archidioecesis Zinanensis).
Small Dish with Yellow Enamel, 1736-1795 clevelandart.org/art/2003.261 #cmaopenaccess #clevelandartmuseum
