Protests
in Hong Kong continue after over a month of confrontation between
authorities and groups calling for open elections. Intertwined in this
conflict are three interpretations of local identity representing three
different potential futures for the former British colony, argues
sociologist
Ho-fung
Hung. He draws this from an analysis of three intellectual
figures, Jiang Shigong, Chan Koonchung and Chin Wan, whose views vary from
seeing Hong Kong as part of a revitalized Chinese empire, defending the
heterogeneity of a city within China, and defending it against
non-institutional homogenizing forces from the mainland. Hung reinterprets
the current confrontation in light of the emergence of new forces and
movements in Hong Kong over the preceding decades.
Alongside its enormous
"black" energy system, China is building a renewable energy
system that is now the largest and fastest-growing in the world.
John
A. Mathews and Hao Tan document the startling transformation of
the electric power system. They argue that China's increasing reliance on renewable
energy is driven by a concern to enhance energy security as a product of
manufacturing rather than of extractive activities.
Since 9/11 and the two ensuing
wars, it has become increasingly obvious that the American state is in
internal conflict between two governments: one ruling through the
persuasive power of openness, egalitarianism and democratic ideals, and
another through violence towards expansionism and imperialism.
Peter
Dale Scott dubs the latter the "deep state." Linking
important events such as the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Iran
Contra and 9/11 with political and economic forces driving increased
military action overseas, he argues that in the struggle between these two
modes of governance since the Reagan administration the deep state has won.
A key voice in Japan's proletarian literature movement of the 1920s and
30s, Kuroshima Denji (1898-1943) is best known for his anti-war writings.
These include a number of short stories depicting Japan's participation in
the 1918-1922 Siberian Intervention, as well as
Militarized Streets
(
Busō seru shigai, 1930), a novel set during Japan's 1928 military
intervention in China. Literature scholar Michael Bourdaghs
translates and introduces a short story depicting a tragic incident
that befalls an impoverished farming family, "
The
Two-Sen Copper Coin."
