“The past is what happened, history is what is written about it.” This favorite quote from James Carter, Professor of modern Chinese history, has weighty implications for society and governance broadly. It also arises in less flashy, if not less important, venues. The questions raised are the same no matter the context. What is the past? Who gets to document this past in our histories for today and tomorrow? Spring Dawn over the Elixir Terrace, Lu Guang, 1369, Metropolitan Mu

Labels will be the death of us. They strip away humanity. They cloud judgment. They are weaponized in a zero-sum quest for dominance. They are devilishly effective and dangerous. Because of this, label warfare must be vanquished. America epitomizes this truth. The United States of America is fast becoming an oxymoron. We just celebrated a tense, politicized 250th anniversary. Society has suffered a collapse in civics. In this environment, Liberal, Conservative, Capitalist, So

Are China ‘s recently-released “Regulations of the State Council on Outward Investment” a manifesto calling for Chinese divesture from America? Though some of the frothier online headlines (particularly on YouTube and Facebook) scream yes and even more tried-and-true media (Bloomberg and NikkeiAsia) lean that way, I do not believe the answer is that simple. There are two explicit targets inside the new regulations and one under the surface. As for the first two, the Chinese g

I was in China the past month. My last day coincided with the Presidents of China and America holding a summit in Beijing on Thursday. Did this summit, potentially the first of several this year, matter? And if so, to whom and why? I see a disconnect between the macro of the political theater on the national and global stages and the micro of the day-to-day concerns of the Chinese middle class. U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of

“Promote Civility and Cultivate New Social Norms” (Zhengzhou, China) “A successful society is one that is supported by a majority of the people.” This comment during a recent conversation led us down a new path. I would add that a successful society is also one in which the people are proud, confident, and satisfied with their place in the world. By this metric, the People’s Republic of China is currently more successful as a society than the United States of America. In othe

Who am I? How should I act? Why? These questions keep coming to mind lately. Maybe because I have now entered my seventh decade of life. So, I am stepping aside for a moment from the onslaught of daily news fraught with unrelenting disquiet. Pondering briefly the self in culture and belief on the long and winding road of life. What of the individual in the Confucian and Buddhist traditions of China? Landscape painting with poem alluding to virtuous and lowly men, by Gong Xian

The China Chronicle China’s healthcare revolution lives and breathes on data. Part One of this series explored how China transformed its domestic healthcare system. Part Two looked outward at how China is growing and reshaping global healthcare norms. This Part Three examines governmental collection, management, and control of personal information in China’s healthcare model and why this unnerves America. Data Banks in Guizhou Province, China (www.asiatimes.com) Information

Healthcare is part of China’s expanding global footprint of influence and power. Part One of this series explored how China transformed its domestic system. This Part Two looks outward at how China is growing and reshaping global healthcare norms. Part Three will examine the control mechanisms embedded in the Chinese model. (www.marketingtochina.com) China and Global Health China is a force to be reckoned with in global healthcare. Being active in global health deepens and e

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 34 A reflection on peaches in Chinese culture, symbolism, and myth and what...

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America , Vol. 3, Issue 32 Michael Pillsbury’s The Hundred Year Marathon lays out a stark, urgent premise worthy of a John le Carre novel: that China has been quietly and brilliantly executing a long-term, covert strategy to displace the United States as the world’s dominant superpower by 2049. According to Pillsbury, this is not just geopolitical rivalry. It is a methodical, calculated effort rooted in ancient stratagems and cloaked in de

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 31 Americans are taught to fear China through government and media...

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 30 China has always been molded by its land boundaries. Throughout recorded history, this is where the Han people of China encountered, fought, conquered, were conquered, and co-existed with numerous cultures and civilizations. China’s peripheries are fault lines. Borderlands that have been absorbed, resisted, erased, and reasserted over time. This was as true when a smaller, historic China was centered in the heartla

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 29 Electric vehicles are taking the world by storm. Well, most of the world....

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 28 A friend and I were discussing the recent temporary tariff pause in the de...

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 27 I recently returned from almost a month in China, primarily spent in Henan...

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 26 March. Mid-Spring. My exploration of a transcultural appreciation of art...

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 24 “Another scientist/engineer of Chinese descent, long in America, has...

Andrew Singer Talks About China and America, Vol. 3, Issue 23 History. The boring subject school kids dread; the consequential topic that...

Gund Kwok , the only Asian Women Lion & Dragon Dance Troupe in the U.S., ushered in the Year of the Snake with an innovative and...

(image by www.royalmint.com ) The Lunar New Year is today, January 29, 2025. It is the Year of the Snake. This begins Spring Festival...