Innehållsförteckning för Vol.68/No.40-41 från Beijing Review

Xinjiang had been known as the Western Regions in China and governed by different dynasties for roughly 2,000 years. Throughout this long history, a key feature of its administration has been the respect for the customs of local ethnic groups. In 1955, six years after the People’s Republic of China was founded, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was established as part of the country’s efforts to promote equality, unity and mutual assistance among the country’s 56 ethnic groups. The Han people make up some 91 percent of China’s population; the 55 other ethnic groups are collectively known as the ethnic minorities. In ethnic autonomous areas, local people’s congresses are the state organs through which they exercise self-governance. These legislatures can formulate autonomous regulations and local-specific laws. A major principle of this…

SCI-FI WRITER WINS MAJOR AWARDS Novelist Yang Wanqing won the top award at the 16th Xingyun Awards for Chinese Science Fiction (sci-fi) on September 20 for his novel Jintao (Golden Peaches). The fable, set in China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907) and intertwining humanity, machines and history, claimed the Novel of 2024 golden trophy. It tells a story about a super algorithm inspired by ancient Chinese mathematical classics that drives the functioning of ancient civilizations. The Xingyun Awards, also known as the Chinese Nebula Awards, were established in 2010 and have now become widely recognized industry awards. A day earlier, Yang won the Galaxy Award, China’s oldest sci-fi accolade, for the same novel. Yang, 42, works in the finance industry in Kunming, Yunnan Province. High-Altitude Outrage Workers’ Daily September 23 Local authorities…

On the evening of September 19, Chinese President Xi Jinping held phone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump for nearly two hours. It was their second direct dialogue since June 5, and Beijing characterized the call as “pragmatic, positive and constructive.” Compared with earlier phone calls between the Chinese and U.S. leaders, this conversation seemed more focused on specifics, such as China’s massive military parade on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Recalling China and the U.S. had stood as allies in World War II, President Xi said the Chinese people will not forget the valuable support from the U.S. and other anti-fascist Allied nations in the war of resistance against…

As the box opened, golden rays burst out, with the medal inside gleaming like sunlight. At the center of the medal is a dove spreading its wings above Earth, circled by flower petals. “Here we have the Friendship Medal, which my mother received in 2019. It’s the highest honor China gives to a foreigner,” Michael Crook, a 74-year-old British and Canadian dual citizen born in Beijing, told Beijing Review. Michael Crook’s mother is Isabel Crook (1915-2023), a Canadian educator who lived and worked in China for more than 90 years. She witnessed and participated in the development of China’s foreign language education. For him, the medal represents not just his mother’s service, but the family’s century-long devotion to bridging cultures through education. A family of educators For more than a…

Grain Harvest China is expected to secure a bumper grain harvest this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on September 23. To date, nearly 20 percent of this year’s autumn grain has been harvested nationwide. A stable summer grain output and an increase in early rice production laid a solid foundation for the country’s annual grain harvest despite the droughts and floods it experienced earlier this year, the ministry said. The summer grain output reached 149.74 million tons, and the early rice output came in at 28.52 million tons, up 340,000 tons from last year, data from the ministry showed. Autumn crops are the mainstay of China’s annual grain production, and their planting area has been expanded and they are growing better than average. Technological advancement…

At 69, many writers will choose to slow down. But that does not apply to He Jianming, one of China’s most renowned nonfiction authors. Even after stepping down as vice chairman of the China Writers Association, he continues to produce 4,000 to 5,000 words a day—a rhythm he has maintained for decades. For him, the act of writing is a kind of “joyful pain.” The pain comes from the overwhelming number of stories he feels compelled to narrate; the joy from witnessing China’s transformations, which are too important to leave untold. For half a century, He has been a leading voice in reportage literature, a form of narrative nonfiction rooted in fieldwork and firsthand testimony. His career spans more than 60 books, with honors such as China’s Lifetime Achievement Award…

‘No other conference in the world can do this: It brings together people from Ukraine, representatives of NATO, and even voices from Russia, all on the same panel, talking to one another. It is fantastic of the Xiangshan Forum!” Jean Christophe Iseux von Pfetten, President of the Royal Institute for East-West Strategic Studies in Britain, said. Speaking in Chinese at the 12th Beijing Xiangshan Forum in Beijing on September 18, his words carried the weight of his emotion. The annual Beijing Xiangshan Forum is China’s top security and defense conference, aiming at providing an equal, inclusive and diverse platform for participants to engage in constructive dialogues and build consensus and trust. Over three days from September 17, more than 1,800 participants from over 100 countries and organizations gathered under the…

When discussing cross-cultural communication, Frances Owen, an American teacher at Ocean University of China, referenced the book The Hero’s Journey. “Everyone who embarks on a cross-cultural journey is a hero in their own right,” she told Beijing Review. Back in 1998, when Owen decided to leave the U.S. for China alone, her motivation was simple: As the youngest child in her family, she had always been well-protected, and this time, she wanted to prove to herself that she could take on a significant challenge—building a life and career in China. At the time, almost everyone around her thought she was crazy. “They told me I didn’t speak Chinese, wouldn’t be able to adjust to the food, didn’t know a single Chinese person and would never last,” she said. Where the…

In late September, a number of Western countries including Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Portugal, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco announced their formal recognition of the State of Palestine. This follows similar announcements by Ireland, Norway and Spain last year, meaning that 157 out of 193 United Nations member states now recognize Palestinian statehood, which was originally declared by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1988. That these Western countries, longstanding supporters of Israel, have finally chosen to extend formal recognition to Palestine is a significant development, and reflects the growing international revulsion at Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, which has to date resulted in the deaths of at least 65,000 people, the majority of them women and children. Gaza’s infrastructure has been systematically destroyed, with hospitals, schools, water and power supplies…

The autumn sun bathes Dahuchenjia Village in Zhaoyuan, a county-level city in Yantai City, Shandong Province, in a golden glow, transforming its rolling hills covered with vast vineyards into a glittering panorama. As grape harvesting season arrives, the air becomes thick with the sweet scent of ripe fruit. The village served as the main venue for activities celebrating the eighth Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival, which fell on September 23. The festival, established in 2018 and observed annually on the Autumn Equinox, stands as China’s first national holiday dedicated to farmers. This year’s festivities were particularly lively, featuring 58 key activities nationwide. Dahuchenjia hosted 12 of these, including a celebratory gala and an exhibition highlighting the remarkable achievements in consolidating poverty alleviation efforts and advancing rural revitalization. Rural revitalization, a strategy…

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had always been, in my imagination, a land whispered about in stories and celebrated in songs and with photographs so vivid they seemed unreal. Its beauty seemed distant and almost mythical, and I carried with me this longing to go there for years. So when the opportunity arose to visit the region on a weeklong study tour, I seized it without hesitation. From the moment we arrived, I felt time stretch. In Bole or Bortala, a steppe city in north Xinjiang that was our first stop, evening light lingered well into the night, as though the sun too was reluctant to leave. There was a golden hour that seemed to last for ages, casting a honeyed glow on everything. Though we had no formal plans that…