Huang Xiangyang

Glee at students' deaths reveals desperation

The killing of two Chinese students in the United States last week failed to stir sympathy and grief among some of their compatriots in China.

Chen Weihua

Beijing's bills or Shanghai's coins?

In the United States, a bipartisan Congress group has been pushing for the paper dollar to be replaced with a dollar coin.

Chen Weihua

News sites really need a clean-up

After surfing Chinese websites for about two decades, I think there is one specific area that needs serious attention.

Chen Weihua

Remembrance of things now past

Like many in Shanghai, and probably other parts of the country, the lane where my mother was born and where I was born and lived until I was two years old was an old narrow alley.

Zhu Yuan

Moutai is wrong target for attacks

To drink, or not to drink Moutai, that is the question.

Chen Weihua

New York always plays my kind of tune

An American passenger sitting next to me on the flight to Shanghai said she has only been to Beijing, but she feels Beijing is much like New York.

Zhu Yuan

Lighting the fire of learning for teenagers

Chinese schools do not encourage students to express their own ideas about what they are being taught, instead students are encouraged to accept whatever the teachers tell them.

Chen Weihua

No foul words in public discourse

ESPN, a sports channel in the United States, blundered last week by using a derogatory word in a headline to describe New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin after the team lost to the New Orleans Hornets last Friday.

Chen Weihua

Cultural differences can be hard to fathom

Republican presidential hopeful of the United States, Mitt Romney, last week revealed his ignorance of the reality in China.

Zhu Yuan

The importance of people-first principle

The second edition of Huang Wanli's biography, Lonely Journey Along the River, was published just before Spring Festival.

Chen Weihua

Revealing tale of two Washingtons

During my two trips to Seattle, Washington, I was often reminded by local government officials and business leaders that this Washington is not "the other Washington".

Chen Weihua

Luxury shoppers ring alarm bells

Living in New York, I have the great pleasure of having Chinese friends come from afar to visit. Yet instead of seeing the real jewels of New York, such as St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Broadway musicals, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge and jazz in the West Village, they are desperate to visit the Fifth Avenue and Woodbury Common outlets, about an hour's drive from Manhattan, where some 200 discount luxury goods stores are located. And it is not just the women it's also the men.

Zhu Yuan

Individual efforts count in social progress

Chinese scholar Xiong Peiyun's new book, You The Freedom (Ziyou Zai Gaochu), elaborates on how an individual can live a better life by adopting a positive attitude toward life. "Making the best use of the freedom you have is as important as the efforts to strive for the freedom you want," is what the author said in a recent interview.