Vox Populi: The Most Popular posts of 2025
Since mainland China blocks western media, I was very surprised a few months ago when a flood of visitors from China began clicking on Vox Populi.
Ma Yongbo: Three poems translated from Chinese
The horse drawn cart hasn’t gone far, it will carry away
the love of the land, and one or two shy grasshoppers.
At this moment, her hanging sickle
reflects the white light of winter arising in the distance.
Yongbo Ma: Midway Stop
It was an autumn long ago
I was still young then, still in love with something
Video: Heading South
In this poignant understated film, eight year old Chasuna travels from her home on the Mongolian grassland to visit her father who lives in the big city.
Jianqing Zheng: The Dog Years of Reeducation (excerpt)
When the sampan glides to shore, the bird lands back on the shoulder of the rowing girl while lotus leaves whisper in the morning sunshine.
Alfred W. McCoy: Cold Wars, Hot Planet, and New Geopolitical Firestorms
With so many mesmerized by the conflict in Ukraine and the possibility of another over Taiwan, world leaders largely ignore the rising threat of climate change.
John Fetter: China Will Decide the Outcome of Russia v. the West
Is Putin the Face of the Future or the Final Gasp of the Past?
Jeffrey C. Isaac: The Fascists Are Rising in the Name of Defending Democracy—They Must Be Called Out and Stopped
Of course, Trump and his supporters do not mean by “democracy” a liberal democracy. They mean the popular sovereignty of “true Americans.”
William Astore: Back to the Future at the Pentagon
‘It hardly occurs to us to question how the Pentagon’s mad military scenarios about near-peer wars could indeed end in nuclear annihilation.’
Alfred McCoy: Washington’s Delusion of Endless World Dominion
China and the U.S. Struggle over Eurasia, the Epicenter of World Power
Julianne Chung: To be creative, Chinese philosophy teaches us to abandon ‘originality’
Creativity isn’t conceived as aiming at novelty or originality, but rather integration. Instead of aiming at something new, it aims at something that combines well with the situation of which it’s a part.
Karen J. Greenberg: While Rome Burns, Trump Gets What He’s Always Wanted
In unsettling ways, the crisis is working for him as previously untenable policy options are becoming essential to curtailing the coronavirus.
John Feffer: After Trump
Centrist liberalism is dead, and Trump is a disaster. But progressives can use what he’s done to remake America and its place in the world. Donald Trump has shaken up … Continue reading
Joan E. Bauer: River Dolphin of the Yangtze
We sailed on a river boat down the Yangtze twenty years ago—before the Three Gorges Dam & the rising water lowered the mountains. That day the peaks shrouded with … Continue reading
