Monkey business
by liberal japonicus Despite the title, this post has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Actually, nothing to do with anything but 2 monkeys and their connections.
Asia
A future so bright
by liberal japonicus Been watching the videos of Dr Jonathan Tam, and if I had come to them through his channel page, I would have hesitated, cause his brand is doom and gloom about Asia, oh, and by the way, it’s coming for everyone else. We are all screwed. And like and subscribe to my … Read more
Materialism, rights and Japan
by liberal japonicus Nous commented The capitalist industrial world is very much a materialist paradigm. I wonder, though, if some of the more animistic cultures still retain a bit of that sense of spooky aliveness that might lead to wondering what an object might have to say for itself. I know there’s still a strong … Read more
The penny drops
by liberal japonicus Here in Japan, one reason Takaichi decided to call an election was to support her goal (and the goal of her mentor, Abe) of revising the constitution. link Sanae Takaichi, who was re-elected prime minister in the Diet on Feb. 18, expressed strong determination to pursue revisions to the Constitution and the … Read more
Xi and China’s military: an off the wall theory
by liberal japonicus Just a quick post. Been reading a bit of Xi’s purge of the military. If it weren’t so deadly serious, would be pretty hilarious. For example, we have Xi’s Military Purge Makes War Over Taiwan More Likely in the same newsfeed as Xi’s military purges will make him wary of invading Taiwan. … Read more
When will someone take this approach with our administration
by liberal japonicus Via Language Log, this jaw-dropping article analyzes video footage of appearances of Kim Jong Un’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, to draw conclusions about her place in the North Korean inner circle. Using facial-recognition technology driven by artificial intelligence, Nikkei identified scenes in which Kim Ju Ae appeared out of 14,115 hours of … Read more
An interesting map
by liberal japonicus This is an illustration from issue 372 of Sino-Platonic papers (pdf link) which consists of S. Robert Ramsey’s book The Japanese and Their Language: How the Japanese Made Their Language and It Made Them. Sino-Platonic papers is “a monograph series…[whose] chief focus of the series is on the intercultural relations of China … Read more
¿Qué quieres decir cuando dices China, por favor?
by liberal japonicus Following up on my comment about whatever it is that the US did in Venezuela and what it means to China, some discussion, a couple of links and other stuff as background. This Guardian article and this BBC piece lay out the basics. I don’t have any inside information or special insights, … Read more
Ramsayer, Korea and me
by liberal japonicus This paper dropped, which has a lot of interesting stuff for me, but I might have to put it in context for people not marinating themselves in these topics. J. Mark Ramsayer is an American legal scholar who is the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard. He first broke thru … Read more
Chinese corruption
by liberal japonicus More China stuff. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m skeptical about narratives that argue that China is collapsing because [insert reason here]. One of those reasons has often been that China is corrupt from stem to stern. A few links to get an idea of the arguments, here, here and here There was … Read more