China Is Now Looking to California–Not Trump–to Help Lead the Fight Against Climate Change

Jessica Meyers
Los Angeles Times
Governor Jerry Brown met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a rare diplomatic coup that catapults California into quasi-national status as a negotiator.

Books

05.15.17

A World Trimmed with Fur

Jonathan Schlesinger
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, booming demand for natural resources transformed China and its frontiers. Historians of China have described this process in stark terms: pristine borderlands became breadbaskets. Yet Manchu and Mongolian archives reveal a different story. Well before homesteaders arrived, wild objects from the far north became part of elite fashion, and unprecedented consumption had exhausted the region’s most precious resources.In A World Trimmed with Fur, Jonathan Schlesinger uses these diverse archives to reveal how Qing rule witnessed not the destruction of unspoiled environments, but their invention. Qing frontiers were never pristine in the nineteenth century—pearlers had stripped riverbeds of mussels, mushroom pickers had uprooted the steppe, and fur-bearing animals had disappeared from the forest. In response, the court turned to “purification”; it registered and arrested poachers, reformed territorial rule, and redefined the boundary between the pristine and the corrupted. Schlesinger’s resulting analysis provides a framework for rethinking the global invention of nature. —Stanford University Press{chop}

Sinica Podcast

05.12.17

What It Takes to Be a Good China-Watcher

Kaiser Kuo & Bill Bishop from Sinica Podcast
China-watching isn’t what it used to be. Not too long ago, the field of international China studies was dominated by a few male Westerners with an encyclopedic knowledge of China, but with surprisingly little experience living in the country or...

Mega-Mansions in this L.A. Suburb Used to Sell to Chinese Buyers in Days. Now They’re Sitting Empty for Months

David Pierson
Los Angeles Times
At $9.8 million, the recently built property is a relative bargain. A similar-sized home in Beijing would cost twice as much. Yet two months after it was placed on the market, the house remains unsold. Not long ago, real estate like this would have...

Silicon Valley’s Culture, Not Its Companies, Dominates in China

Paul Mozur
New York Times
Looking to break from a rigid workplace culture, Silicon Valley has captured the minds of China’s young entrepreneurs and investors

Chinese Team Expresses Interest in California High-Speed Rail Program

Xinhua
The Chinese High Speed Rail Delivery Team is among 35 U.S. and foreign entities that expressed their interest in participating in the California High-Speed Rail(CHSR) program.

Wealthy Brother of Top Chinese Corruption Suspect Lived Quiet Life in California

Richard Winton, Julie Makinen and...
Los Angeles Times
Jason Wang was a golf enthusiast and was memorably friendly, neighbors said.

China Seeks Businessman Said to Have Fled to U.S., Further Straining Ties

Michael Forsythe, Mark Mazetti
New York Times
Ling Wancheng is the younger brother of Ling Jihua, who for years held a post akin to that of the White House chief of staff.

Culture

12.19.14

‘One Day the People Will Speak Out for Me’

Sheila Melvin
The ongoing exhibition “@Large: Ai Weiwei at Alcatraz” is both revelatory and heart-wrenching, a stunning and sobering work by an artist who understands firsthand the fragility and pricelessness of freedom.Detained without warning or charge for 81...

San Gabriel Valley’s El Monte Getting a Boost from Chinese Investors

Frank Shyong
Los Angeles Times
Trucks loaded with construction materials park in front of a vacant lot in El Monte, where a homeless man slumbers on the sidewalk next to a mountain of rags and trash bags. Overhead, colorful flags whip in the breeze, advertising opportunities for...

600-Year-Old Chinese Book Found in California

Lian Zi
China Daily
The manuscript of a unique volume of the Yongle Encyclopedia (Yongle Dadian), a 16th century Chinese encyclopedia, was uncovered by a Chinese archivist at the Huntington Library in southern California.

A New Kind of Spy

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
New Yorker
Greg Chung worked on NASA’s space-shuttle program. Then, in 2010, he became the first American to be convicted of economic espionage. He was eager to help China: “He has a big heart,” his wife said.

Love of Sun

Reuters
“Love of Sun” is an invitation to join an exploratory conversation that investigates systems of influence between two world leaders in contemporary culture: California and China.  

Books

07.31.13

Pacific Crossing

Elizabeth Sinn
During the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of Chinese men and women crossed the Pacific to work, trade, and settle in California. Drawn by the gold rush, they brought with them skills and goods and a view of the world that, though still Chinese, was transformed by their long journeys back and forth. They in turn transformed Hong Kong, their main point of embarkation, from a struggling, infant colony into a prosperous, international port and the cultural center of a far-ranging Chinese diaspora.Making use of extensive research in archives around the world, Pacific Crossing charts the rise of Chinese Gold Mountain firms engaged in all kinds of trans-Pacific trade, especially the lucrative export of prepared opium and other luxury goods. Challenging the traditional view that this migration was primarily a “coolie trade,” Elizabeth Sinn uncovers leadership and agency among the many Chinese who made the crossing. In presenting Hong Kong as an “in-between place” of repeated journeys and continuous movement, Sinn also offers a fresh view of the British colony and a new paradigm for migration studies.   —Hong Kong University Press {chop}

Governor Brown Wants China Aboard California’s High-Speed Rail Project

Anthony York
Los Angeles Times
Chinese interest in California’s project is a welcome boost for Brown. Although state voters approved $10 billion in bonds for a high-speed railway in 2008, they have soured on it as cost estimates have ballooned. This is just one of many ways Brown...

China And California Sign Deal To Boost Investment

Associated Press
A new joint task force composed of officials from the California government and China's Commerce Ministry identified sectors for potential expanded investment and trade including infrastructure, environmental protection, agriculture...

San Francisco Strengthens Ties With China Despite Washington Suspicion

Rory Carroll
Guardian
San Francisco’s courting of Chinese partnerships contrasts with Washington suspicion towards China. Last year the House Intelligence Committee urged U.S. firms to avoid partnering with Chinese telecom firms, to safeguard customer data. 

Reports

10.12.12

Chinese Direct Investment in California

Daniel H. Rosen and Thilo Hanemann
Daniel H. Rosen
Asia Society
To build the case for a robust response to these opportunities and looming risks, this report analyzes Chinese investment in California in depth, mining a unique database for insights about California’s comparative advantages, the Chinese firms most...