Roadside Attractions

Issues at the SCMP seem to continue to escalate.  

globalvoices:

A series of recently leaked emails between the chief editor and sub-editor of a leading English newspaper in Hong Kong, regarding the coverage of mainland Chinese political activist Li Wangyang’s staged suicide, has raised concerns that a once well-respected and independent newspaper might be slipping into red territory.

nybooks:

Perry Link, My Disillusionment: China, 1973

The first time I tried to go to China was in 1967, the year after I graduated from college. My father was a radical leftist professor who admired Mao Zedong. And that influence, along with the Vietnam War protests—a movement in which I was not only a participant but an activist—led me to look at socialist China with very high hopes.

A chip off the old block - Ai Weiwei’s father Ai Qing (艾青）was one of revolutionary China’s most inspiring poets and editors, though today much of his work is out of print or only available if you dig through Beijing’s used bookshops.

neighborhoodr-tokyo:

TOKYO— Who is Ai Weiwei? According to Chinese authorities, he is a dissident to be watched, one whose inflammatory blog needed to be silenced. But to others, the Chinese conceptual artist, architect, photographer, and curator — loathed and loved for his human rights activism — is the courageous voice needed in today’s repressive China.

More at ARTinfo

(via soupsoup)