Yesterday, a group of prominent Chinese citizens issued an open letter to China’s government calling on it to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. While open letters are a venerated form of protest and speech, this group made waves when they chose to share their message on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. As [...]
[The following is an op-ed, and does not necessarily express the opinions of the editors.] The controversy surrounding Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize in Literature quieted somewhat in the last couple of months as more pressing news of China’s once-in-a-decade leadership transition took precedence. However, as soon as the new laureate landed in Stockholm earlier last [...]
[Note: The following is a Tea Leaf Nation op-ed, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors, or of the U.S. government.] “We need a Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel is consolation. It’s proof. It’s a sort of affirmation. Even more, it’s the starting point for a new beginning.” Are these the histrionics of a [...]
The Royal Academy of Sciences has announced that Chinese author Guan Moye, who uses the pen name Mo Yan (莫言, which literally means “don’t speak”), has won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature. Chinese media–mainstream and otherwise–have been saturated with the news since the October 11 announcement. On Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, the country’s intelligentsia [...]
Chinese authorities’ heavy-handed censorship often makes headlines, but another force does just as much to obscure the truth and control the media. That force is fake news. Something must fill the void left by the deleted, blocked, and discouraged content, and fake news is often that “something,” as fiction is more flexible than fact, and [...]
Chinese authorities’ heavy-handed censorship often makes headlines, but another force does just as much to obscure the truth and control the media. That force is fake news. Something must fill the void left by the deleted, blocked, and discouraged content, and fake news is often that “something,” as fiction is more flexible than fact, and [...]
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