Hip Hop in the Home of Hot Pot | Sixth Tone

on November 17, 2017

Hip Hop’s popularity is exploding in China. Wu Yue, a video journalist at Sixth Tone, follows Y.O.U.N.G, a 21-year-old rapper from northern Chengdu, whose life story seems to mimic many stereotypes of American hip hop artists. Y.O.U.N.G (Yang Jiankun) was raised by his grandmother in a rough part of Chengdu plagued by rampant drug abuse and high crime rates. While many Chinese rappers are seeking fame and fortune, Y.O.U.N.G says he just wants to be “badass.”

Migrant Schools Shut Down in Beijing | Caixin Media

on November 17, 2017

On the outskirts of Beijing, beyond the city’s Fifth Ring Road, a string of schools that used to serve the children of the capital’s migrant workers have been closed for demolition in the last few years, in coordination with the municipal government’s depopulation plan. Photographer Yang Yifan captures abandoned schoolyards once bustling with students.

Overfishing in Shandong | Greenpeace

on November 17, 2017

China consumes more fish than any other country in the world. In 2016, Greenpeace documented the intense overfishing of juvenile and “rough” fish—fish of little or no market value as human food—in Shandong province, one of China’s busiest fishing regions. Up to one third of China’s total annual catch, or 4 million tons, is “rough” fish. Unfit for human consumption, rough fish is used as feed for China’s aquaculture industry, the largest in the world.

"A Man Who Makes Things Happen": Chinese State Media's 8,000-Word Profile on Xi Jinping

on November 17, 2017

Chinese president Xi Jinping officially became the most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong at a recently concluded Communist Party congress. Now, you can read all about why Xi is so great in a lengthy profile published today (Nov. 17) by state news agency Xinhua.

Media, Politics
Xi Jinping, state news agency Xinhua

Daniel R. Russel

on November 16, 2017

Daniel Russel joined the Asia Society Policy Institute as Diplomat in Residence and Senior Fellow in April 2017. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service at the U.S. Department of State, he most recently served as the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Prior to his appointment as Assistant Secretary on July 12, 2013, Russel served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council (NSC) Senior Director for Asian Affairs. During his tenure there, he helped formulate President Obama’s strategic rebalance to the Asia Pacific region, including efforts to strengthen alliances, deepen U.S. engagement with multilateral organizations, and expand cooperation with emerging powers in the region.

Prior to joining the NSC in January 2009, he served as Director of the Office of Japanese Affairs and had assignments as U.S. Consul General in Osaka-Kobe, Japan (2005-2008); Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague, Netherlands (2002-2005); Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus (1999-2002); Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering (1997-1999); Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (1995-1996); Political Section Unit Chief at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Republic of Korea (1992-1995); Political Advisor to the Permanent Representative to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Pickering (1989-1992); Vice Consul in Osaka and Branch Office Manager in Nagoya, Japan (1987-1989); and Assistant to the Ambassador to Japan, former Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (1985-1987).

In 1996, Russel was awarded the State Department’s Una Chapman Cox Fellowship sabbatical and authored America’s Place in the World (Georgetown). Before joining the Foreign Service, he was manager for an international firm in New York City.

Russel was educated at Sarah Lawrence College and University College, University of London, U.K.

Mementos of 1949

An Excerpt from ‘A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949’

By Kevin Peraino on November 16, 2017

Bodies jostled, elbow to elbow, angling all morning for a spot in the square. Soldiers clomped in the cold—tanned, singing as they marched, steel helmets and bayonets under the October sun. Tanks moved in columns two by two; then howitzers, teams of ponies, gunners shouldering mortars and bazookas. On the flagstones, in front of the imperial gate, men and women craned their necks toward a platform above a portrait of Mao Zedong, painted in hues of blue, hanging beside tubes of blue neon. Underneath, a sprinkling of yellow streamers rippled in the crowd. Nearly everything else in the frenzied square was red.