“But in your country, at least you get to choose your leader.” my coworker told me over drinks once. Jaded and privileged first world communist that I am, I just kind of shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t really mean anything.” I said. “You just choose from this guy or that guy and they’re both the same... Continue Reading →
Recently I visited a gentrified little place near where I live here in Panyu District, Guangzhou, and I had a little thought. This place was built out of a repurposed Mao-era factory. It was a small neighbourhood, a local commercial hub for shopping, eating and taking selfies and cute videos for social media, with hipster... Continue Reading →
A question: why did the Hong Kong protests fail? First: a story. In 2016 Yau Wai-Ching and Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang, of the localist, independence-advocating group “Youngspiration”, were elected to the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s, um legislative body. This was a big step for the localist movement – it seemed to reflect the general changing... Continue Reading →
For a moment - just a moment - after waking, there was the bliss of life without sentience. Here she existed as a perfect being in accord with nature and with the myriad kami of the existing world who dwelt in all places and gave life to all things who in themselves were pure without... Continue Reading →
“We declare that the splendour of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath...a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.” – F.T. Marinetti... Continue Reading →
“The physical life of an individual person is limited, but the life of the masses united as an independent social-political organism is immortal.… Only when an individual becomes a member of this community can he acquire the immortal social-political life.” – Kim Jong-il -INTRODUCTION: FOOTSTEPS- There are three countries called the Democratic People’s Republic of... Continue Reading →
! lots of spoilers ahead for basically everything metal gear ! “GO AHEAD, SOLID SNAKE!” – Beginnings – Metal Gear 1 and 2 In 1987’s Metal Gear for the MSX, you play as rookie soldier Solid Snake (lmao) of the special forces organisation Foxhound, deployed to the South African military base Outer Heaven on the... Continue Reading →
It feels a little like déjà vu. Early 2020 was the big one, do you remember? The Wuhan lockdown, Li Wenliang, all of China freezing in place. Cases in your country but not yet in your country. The heady days where you could publish an article entitled “Why Democracies Are Better At Fighting Outbreaks” and... Continue Reading →
I don’t believe Xi Jinping is a genius. This might be the only point where my sympathetic but sometimes critical perspective on the PRC and its modern politics dovetails with that of many Chinese dissidents. The ranks of the dissidents of modern China are filled with critics of “the great accelerator” or “the chairman of... Continue Reading →
To quote Homer Simpson: Wake up, everybody! It's World War Three! So here we are, in Interesting Times. Western civilisation has been pushed to the brink, existential collapse beckoning as Putin’s tanks roll forward. After premature comeback announcements re: The War On Terror, North Korea, Syria, China, Donald Trump etc., history has finally returned to... Continue Reading →
Last year I read the novel Spaceman of Bohemia, a scifi tale of the Czech Republic’s first astronaut venturing into deep space for a dangerous solo mission, a man doing so trying to atone for his family’s communist past, who runs into trouble and meets an alien and thinks a lot about home. It was... Continue Reading →
“Shanghai Disneyland is authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese.” – Bob Iger There’s many restaurant chains in China that offer Sichuan-style spicy hotpot, and in the middle of dinner at one of them it’s possible you might get a surprise. As you’re choking on a piece of especially peppery beef, reassuring your Chinese friends -who are... Continue Reading →
Video City 