Contemporary Chinese Writers

I've been lying low lately trying to catch up on several disparate projects. Not to mention picking up some slack at home due to a slightly slowed-down spouse. One of NPR's China hands, Louisa Lim, has produced an excellent series on contemporary Chinese writers: one in his sixties, one in his forties, and one in his twenties. I've listened to the first two segments and look forward to hearing the third tomorrow. The forty-something writer, Yu Hua, is one of my favorite contemporary writers. Here is a link to a page that provides an overview of each of the stories and links to the audio segments. Incidentally, NPR is now offereing free mp3 downloads of such segments. I remember when one had to pay a hefty fee and send off for audio transcripts on cassette tape.

Skritter

My colleague and friend Shen Lei recently directed me to a new website for studying Chinese characters. Skritter is quite useful, and a bit addictive. They give you a two-week free trial. Thereafter, reasonably priced monthly subscriptions are offered. Be sure to check out the "Resources" link on their site. They link to and review several web-based dictionaries and other applications I use regularly for online reading and translation.

Afterquake

Tomorrow, May 12, is the anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck western Sichuan last year, killing over 88,0000 people and leaving over five million homeless or relocated.

Last week I overheard part of an interview with Afterquake on NPR's "All Things Considered" and finally found time today to get back to the story. The work Abigail Washburn and Dave Liang have done and are doing in Sichuan is both aesthetically stunning and genuinely compassionate. Spend some time exploring their website. I highly recommend the music--it is downloading to my iTunes as I type this.

World Leaders on Facebook

Check out Sage Stossel's very amusing piece in The Atlantic here. If you don't live in a cave, and if you've ever used Facebook, or are remotely familiar with it, Stossel's dark humor should prove entertaining.