Who’s Afraid of Peng Shuai?
How Beijing turned a non-issue into an international crisis.
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In Defense of “Sissy” Chinese Men
China’s government regards “sissy” Chinese men as a liability and is trying to get them to imitate the exaggerated machismo of the West. But the more effeminate version of masculinity has enriched China’s culture for millennia and will help it thrive in the 21st century.
The Solomon Islands Torn Between China and Taiwan
The sudden riots in this sleepy Pacific archipelago shows it’s not so easy for China to buy love.
What Happens to the Chip Supply if China Invades Taiwan?
The world is hugely dependent on Taiwan’s foundries for semiconductors, which makes the question of who controls them – and how they use this power – of paramount importance.
Running Amok
A spate of mass killings in Southeast Asia baffled anthropologists for centuries. Can it shed light on mass shootings today?
Don’t touch this.
FICTION | The Feud
When an ordinary man criticizes a famous rapper’s latest album, the rapper sics his fans on him. Things escalate from there.
How Seoul Engineered the Korean Wave
Korean pop culture didn’t get this popular by itself – it’s the deliberate result of a plan by the South Korean government to boost its entertainment industry and its soft power.
The Taming of the Bunyip
Metamorphosizing from a fearsome monster to a bogeyman to a cute cartoon character to a conservation mascot, the Australian bunyip is a metaphor for our changing relationship with nature.
In Detention, the Ghosts Are the Least of the Horrors
Ghosts and ghouls lurk in the popular Taiwanese videogame, Detention, but it’s the dictatorship, and the ordinary humans who aid and abet it, that really chill the blood.
Once You Go Fat, They Never Let You Go Back
Many fat activists have gone beyond body acceptance and are actively discouraging obese people against losing weight, with no regard for the science or their health.
The West Doesn’t Own Whiteness
In much of East Asia, the preference for whiter skin stems not from any desire to imitate Westerners, but from traditional culture.
FICTION | Hogwarts Is a Trade School!
I realized that Hogwarts is actually a trade school – a polytechnic! All we ever learned there was how to cast spells and brew potions.
The Signal in the Noise
Randonautica, a random number generator app, shows us how humans manufacture meaning.
The Risk of Accidental War Is Highly Exaggerated
An excessive and irrational fear of accidental war based on a misunderstanding of historical events is dangerous, especially when it paralyzes people and prevents them from standing up for themselves and for what’s right.
The National Woke Awards
The most prestigious intellectual awards in America are now ridiculously fixated on race. We should be worried.
How Can We Know What’s a Conspiracy Theory and What’s Not?
The Wuhan lab leak hypothesis was initially dismissed as a conspiracy theory before the mainstream started taking it seriously. What lessons can we learn from this about what to believe?
Will the West Fight for Anything Anymore?
Today, Westerners admire violent heroism more than ever, so long as it’s in the distant past or in movies. Is the great heroism of the West now gone to dust and song?
FICTION | Rapture of the Deep
My father warned me that the sea was beguiling, dangerous. The deeper you descend, the more the sea wants to pull you down and keep you.
These violent delights have violent ends.
