Columns category: Culture

The Worldwide Wire of Wisdom: Learning Chinese Through the Internet

by Sean Nelson

The study of the Chinese language in the West, especially in the United States, has definitely taken off as of late. However, the shortage of qualified teachers means that there is still much to do...

The Chinese Year of the Rat: What is your Animal Symbol?

by ChineseSavvy

The Year 2008 in the Chinese calendar is The Year of the Rat. For those born in the Years of the Rat, you are lucky–this will be an enjoyable and prosperous year! To understand Chinese animal signs...

What's a Little Matter of $1.4 Trillion Between Friends?

by Sean Nelson

The monetary elephant in the room is the US$1.4 trillion in currency reserves that the Chinese government currently holds...

NBA China ( China )

by Sean Nelson

My parents were lucky enough recently to see a Celtics vs. Rockets game in Boston recently and e-mailed me to say how much they enjoyed seeing Yao Ming play....

Beijing 2008 Olympic Venues

Mentioning Beijing National Stadium and Beijing's Olympic swimming center tends to illicit little more than an uninterested shrug from most. But bring up Beijing's "Bird's Nest" or the "Water Cube" and eyes light up in recognition. The Bird's Nest (a.k.a. Beijing National Stadium)...

"No, That's Your Carbon Molecule!"

by Sean Nelson

Let's say that there are only two countries in the world, Country A and Country B. Country A has recently become the world's largest polluter due to the growth of that country's manufacturing base…...

A New Age in Strategic Cooperation?

by Sean Nelson

Anyone interested in China's growing power in world politics would be well-advised to take a look at the new issue of Foreign Affairs. Three of the articles provide useful recommendations for the United States to proceed with its bilateral relations with China...

Watching and Hearing the Lines Blur

by Sean Nelson

A common criticism of the globalization of culture today is that it ultimately erases difference and makes every culture more like every other culture. An issue such critics forget is that such cultural forces that we see today are hardly unique in history. In previous decades, anthropologists used to conceptualize of various nations' cultures as totally separate entities......

Is the Narrative the Message?: Western Reporting on Urban and Rural China

by Sean Nelson

Perhaps the most ubiquitous, and not coincidentally most annoying, cliché of travel writing is the hackneyed phrase "a land of contradictions." Then how does a foreigner write about "the real China?"...