Asia

We’re going to inaugurate a new, periodic feature on TIME’s China blog today— guest blogging. Susan Shirk was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State overseeing China policy during the Clinton administration and is now director of the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. She is also the author of a …

With Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s trip to Tokyo imminent, I thought it might be useful for China focused readers to understand a bit of the //Japanese// political backdrop to the bitter Yasukuni Shrine battle between Beijing and Tokyo. The following link is to a piece in an online Japan focused journal that often contains insightful …

Hong Kong has long promoted itself as a shoppers’ paradise, but that title is a mix of reality and hype. The city has malls galore, no sales tax and many bargains to be found, but it’s also easy to get ripped off. Tourists from mainland China, who make up the largest number of visitors, have been learning that lesson recently. Last week …

A friend of mine, who like me has lived a long time in both Japan and China, says that if you made a movie about the two countries it would have to be called “Natural Born Enemies.” I tend to share that glum view. Forget the U.S. v North Korea. Forget China v Taiwan. The most fraught, perilous relationship in east Asia is Japan v …

Here’s an inspiring tale of survival. From Reuters, the story of a woman in Nanjing who fell from her building and was saved by “a convenient pile of excrement.”

One of China’s most colorful figures died Tuesday. Nina Wang, 69, was Asia’s richest woman, but “Little Sweetie” was known for more than her money. Her life is an amazing Hong Kong tale complete with a big fortune, quirky personalities, kidnappers and courtroom drama.

Despite her wealth Wang preferred eat fast food and shop at …

Beijing’s main art district is in a complex of abandoned factories and workshops. Very cool people wearing black, lots of galleries. Fun place to visit now and then to see what’s up in the incredibly hot world of modern Chinese art. Or I should probably say what’s up among the most commercially savvy artists, agents and gallery owners. …

As she is no doubt far to modest to do so, I’m putting a link here to a story by my colleague Jodi Xu on the time.com website. It’s about China’s just-“retired” Prince of Diving, Tian Liang (that’s him smiling so nicely above). He was pretty much chewed up by the Chinese sports machine and spat out, as the storyrecounts. Still, he …

A longtime blogger from Shanghai spoke at Hong Kong University today, so I went to hear his take on the importance of the Internet to China, the future of the Great Firewall that the government uses to block online content, and the fate of the Chongqing nailhouse. Isaac Mao discovered blogs in 2002, and since then has become a big …

So, the Nail House in Chongqing is gone. The owners finally reached a satisfactory agreement with the developer, news reports said, achieving their their aim of getting a commercial property instead of cash compensation. The most interesting aspect of this case (which we wrote about earlier, like every other reporter in China) was the …

My daughter, who is just shy of three years old, goes to a pre school here in suburban Shanghai near where we live. It’s part of a school, grades pre k through 12, affiliated with a local university and as such it’s a thoroughly Chinese institution: this is not a place where ex pats send their toddlers to be minded for $10,000 or …

A reader (“anonymous”) argues cogently that it would be counterproductive to boycott the Olympics:

Boycotting will never weaken the Chinese government, but only make it stronger.

Those who support the boycott fail to remember that hosting the Olympics in 2008 is a matter not just of the Party’s interest, but one of Chinese national

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The actress Mia Farrow has got herself into the news by calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics (she called them the “Genocide Olympics”) because of China’s support for the government of Sudan, which is widely accused of involvement in the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region. This isn’t the first time there has been a call for a …