MATT KIRSCHNER discusses the impact of the DOJ’s China Initiative on Chinese Professors in the U.S. and the mass return of Chinese talent to China. On January 14, 2021 at 6:30am, federal agents stormed the home of Mechanical Engineering Professor Gang Chen at MIT. The agents woke his wife and daughter, handcuffed him and put Chen in jail. What crime could Chen—an esteemed professor who hopes … Continue reading Reverse Brain Drain – U.S. to China
ZILING CHEN discusses her original research into the tradition of funeral mourners in China. Professional wailers, or funeral mourners, are performers paid to present the eulogy at a funeral and lament the deceased through weeping and singing. Surprisingly, this seemingly out-of-no-where career has a history dating back 2000 years to the Han dynasty and is deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture. On one hand, wailers … Continue reading Paid to Cry: Chinese Professional Wailers at Funeral
Discover a new translation of the correspondence of author Wang Xiaobo by XINNING SHAO. Translator’s Note For a long time, my most conspicuous quirk was to watch people sleep: a stranger next to me nodding away on a train, a security guard on night shift, hand-on-chin, giving in to exhaustion, a friend snoring on a sofa amidst booming party music. They curl up and soften, … Continue reading The Letters of Wang Xiaobo: A New Translation
