In 2011, the Obama administration unveiled a much-publicized “pivot to Asia”—a grand strategy to strengthen America’s position in the region through the overt use of military, diplomatic, economic, and cultural instruments. “Pivot” is an appropriate title; it is a definitive break from past policy. Waxing engagement and waning containment characterized American strategy towards China in the 1990s and 2000s. Now, it seems, the U.S. government is refocusing on military balancing.
Translation of Li’s Poem “Cicada”
August 15, 2012 by · Leave a Comment
Just translated another Li’s poem and I feel it’s really hard to keep the poem’s original tone. There’re only five syllables in each line in the original work, while iambic pentameter barely allows me to extract most literal meanings. Therefore, I let go all his fancy language, which is almost untranslatable. The original poem doesn’t have any pronoun, which makes it mostly consist of many pictures rather than the poet’s conversation with a cicada.
A Possible Reason for Li Shang-yin to Write Vague Poetry
August 12, 2012 by · 1 Comment
Before started the research this summer, Li Shang-yin to me was no more than a celebrated, talented and may be unfortunate poet. I loved reading his poetry, but I didn’t think too much about why he got so distinct writing styles, how those styles might be connected with his life experience, and why the poetry written during his late years are so vague.
A student and a teacher
September 6, 2011 by ·
I spoke with a fellow teacher (who is currently a student at a Beijing Public School) at CMC about the government and the possibility of a Jasmine Revolution, and he had this to say: