I propose DC solve its budget shortfall by impounding and auctioning off all cars with license plate covers
Alexander Boyd
@alexludoboyd.bsky.social
Associate Editor at China Books Review // Peace Corps China Clique // ex-China Digital Times // personal blog: www.ramble.media
a good rule of thumb: if an essay uses euphemism to endorse actions they are unwilling to describe, it's shit writing.
Really delighted by this essay on nuclear weapons by Tong Zhao on the costs of secrecy, past and present. Or should I say "chuffed" @samuelwa.de (though I've never heard you say that I don't think???) chinabooksreview.com/2026/05/07/t...
The Bomb is Back | China Books Review
The myth of China's nuclear restraint obscures the dangers of its rapidly expanding arsenal. A trio of recent books take us from the bomb’s origins in Lop Nur to the present arms race.
chinabooksreview.com
My translation of ADRIFT IN THE SOUTH, the debut memoir of Chinese worker-poet Xiao Hai 小海, out with Granta Magazine Editions today. A landmark work of the migrant worker literature movement, it showcases one of China’s liveliest emerging voices. #XiaoHai #chineseliterature #translatedliterature
The President is wandering the White House gluing coins to doors?!
Dusted off the writing cap for a...listicle! Five new china books, an eclectic bunch that pretty much sums up my reading interests... hope they interest you too! chinabooksreview.com/2026/04/28/n...
Changing China | China Books Review
Five new books deal with efforts to transform China: from the conquests of the Warring States to nationalist internet fantasies, all the way to campaigns against superstition.
chinabooksreview.com
Really astounding conversation. The stupidity and, frankly, depravity is just unbelievable. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/o...
Opinion | ‘The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?’
nytimes.com
It's an impressive piece of organizing, but is it really so objectionable that this parking lot next to a substation be turned into a data center? It's already an industrial lot? Are there any health downsides to data centers other than noise pollution, which of course is very annoying?
Brian Merchant@bcmerchant.bsky.social · 4mo agoI also want to shout @lataco.bsky.social's great feature on the organizing in Monterey Park, aptly titled "How to Stop a Data Center in Your Backyard":
D.C. is failing kids like Jahari Alford — in the space of one week, he (a 10-year-old!) was robbed at gunpoint & intentionally run over by an ATV gang. Unbelievable, and so grim.
Really glad to see this fearless book by Dongxian Jiang. Cheers to those who would 49年入国军, unbowed by the maxxing-tides, and yet willing to admit that their principled and reasoned stands “may well end up a joke.”
Person picks up hammer for first time. Bends a few nails, drives others in crooked. Person then declares: "this hammer is useless!" State of the AI discourse on here.
Media literacy really is dead. this profile is scathing, in Sánchez Bezos’ own words. Learn to read.
Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 4mo agoburn it all down.
sports writers live in such a bubble. At what point was Tiger Woods one of the three or four most recognizable men on earth????
hosted the latest China Books Podcast, let me know what you think! chinabooksreview.com/2026/04/07/e...
Confucius and Women, with Erin Cline | China Books Review
Misogyny and patriarchy are a later misreading of The Analects, argues the author of a new translation of the Confucian classic.
chinabooksreview.com
Read Yi Liu's Q&A with Liang Hong in the latest installment of What China's Thinking: chinabooksreview.com/2026/03/10/w...
“The key question,” the guest and hostess interject nearly simultaneously, “did you steal it?” “I did actually,” Michael (a perennial good sport) affirms. “Good,” goes the guest, “because capitalism sucks.” Once (over)wrote about this. www.ramble.media/p/saffron-ta...
Saffron Tagliatelle
A malarial wet portends thunder and the fevered return of memory.
ramble.media
bendwalsh.bsky.social@bendwalsh.bsky.social · 5mo agomy prediction is this kind of gleeful anti-social, low-trust behavior is going to be stigmatized by Woke 2.0 www.curbed.com/article/whol...
@beijingpalmer.bsky.social best chance to test the phrase, "there are no atheists in a foxhole" is the Sino-Vietnam war of 1979... so did people pray during that conflict? and to what?
A Day in the Life of an Internet Censor China’s social media boom let its people speak out — but its censorship network silenced them. One of those censors reveals what happens behind the curtain. Read the excerpt from Yi-Ling Liu's new book "The Wall Dancers": chinabooksreview.com/2026/02/05/c...
Our new column What China's Thinking is underpinned by the work of my former colleagues at @chinadigitaltimes.net The superlative Chinese team & my friends/role models @samuelwa.de @cindycarter.bsky.social have contextualized so much of recent Chinese history chinabooksreview.com/2026/01/27/w...
Zhang Feng on China's New Media | China Books Review
The prolific social media blogger explains how censorship works in the era of WeChat, and talks us through a changing media landscape, in our new column on the biggest ideas out of China.
chinabooksreview.com
real China heads know that is not the case @jmzbeijing.bsky.social
Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social · 7mo agoMe pitching a train ad campaign
My favorite part of this piece on the ever-more relevant Orwell by @jwassers.bsky.social brings us into the potential literary inspirations of his nightmares of a tri-partite world... prophetic? I hope not... theconversation.com/how-george-o...
How George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four predicted the global power shifts happening now
Orwell is feted for the farsightedness of his geopolitical vision as long ago as the 1940s. But a lot of writers were thinking along similar lines.
theconversation.com
a hero who paid the price, what an obituary. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/w...
Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program
nytimes.com
nothing on my favorite D.C. version of this: "我附近的草店" (above the equally delightful NBDUB, a post-Wizards must)
Steve@steveuntilnextyear.bsky.social · 7mo agoIncredible piece of Search Engine Optimisation
insane. trump officials want to speed when driving into the city (they all live outside it) — and don't care about the lives of anyone who lives here. terrible. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...
DOT wants to put the brakes on DC traffic cameras
The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate automated traffic camera enforcement in the nation’s capital.
politico.com
Trump is collaborating with Maduro's regime because he's upset Machado accepted the Nobel. Everything, everything, everything is greed, spite, bile and malice. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
The Jan 6 pipe bomber was inspired by The Troubles in Ireland
The best China books of 2025, across nonfiction and literature, as selected by experts and the editors. Read the full list: chinabooksreview.com/2025/12/18/b...
One of my favorite columns — Translated Chinese Literature — need to check out Diablo's Boys. Hunter was a personal favorite! chinabooksreview.com/2025/12/09/t...
Translated Chinese Literature: New Fiction | China Books Review
2025 has seen a bumper crop for Chinese literature in translation. We recommend five recent titles, from gritty tales of the northeast to conjoined fiction from Hong Kong.
chinabooksreview.com