Epidemic Proportions

By Aaron Deemer on May 8, 2012

Approximately 100-120 million Chinese live with chronic hepatitis B infection. Most acquired the disease at birth, through transmission from an infected mother, or during early childhood. Hepatitis B has touched the lives of virtually every family in China. Without long-term medical care, 15-25% of those infected will eventually die from liver cancer or liver disease. Each year, more people die in China from hepatitis B-associated liver disease than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.

The Benches of Tiananmen

By Gilles Sabrié on May 7, 2012

Tiananmen Square. Center of China, theater set of the Chinese Communist Party’s biggest political shows, Mecca of millions and yet a void in the city. No Beijinger in his right mind would ever suggest “meet me at the Square.” Tourists find no place to sit; they can only walk through the Square, conscious of the watchful gaze of security officers—both in uniform and out—who monitor the space for signs of protest. No Agora, Tiananmen Square is a black hole that sucks life and only allows the transient. Yet during summer nights, at its outer fringes, it becomes the People’s Square again.

My Uncle, My Father

By Edwin Koo on May 6, 2012

In Aguwa village, Yunnan province, the Mosuo continue to practice their ancient tradition of matriarchy. Women rule the tightly-knit families as heads of households, while men practice “walking marriages,” fathering children whom they seldom help raise. Instead, these men are duty-bound to stay with their families and take care of their sisters’ children, so as to keep family bonds intact. These “uncle-fathers” serve an important role in the Mosuo culture even as it slowly disappears. —Edwin Koo

Chinese Firms Try Scoring with Spanish Soccer

on May 4, 2012

When NBA journeyman Damon Jones signed a shoe deal with sporting goods maker Li Ning in 2006, he became the first in a long line of American basketball players to win a sponsorship from a Chinese company.

Today, China’s Peak Sport Products leads other domestic companies in terms of quantity, having signed deals with more than a dozen current NBA players. Other firms have focused on superstars: Anta signed 14-time all-star Kevin Garnett, Li Ning has sponsored the now retired four-time NBA champion Shaquille O'Neal, and Erke became a Los Angeles Lakers corporate partner.

The Ruins of Yuanmingyuan

By Sheila Melvin on May 4, 2012

On a balmy, moonlit evening in the autumn of 2010, I took my son out to Yuanmingyuan to wander among the ruins. The 150th anniversary of the destruction of “The Garden of Perfect Brightness”—often called the Old Summer Palace—was approaching and I wanted him to see what remained.

We savored the wind in the willows, bought spun sugar in animal shapes from a vendor near the entrance, gaped at the gargantuan lily pads that carpeted the lakes, and gawked at a black swan floating in their midst.

Science

on May 3, 2012

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From their website:

Science has been at the center of important scientific discovery since its founding in 1880—with seed money from Thomas Edison. Today, Science continues to publish the very best in research across the sciences, with articles that consistently rank among the most cited in the world. In the last half century alone, Science published:

  • The entire human genome for the first time
  • Never-before seen images of the Martian surface
  • The first studies tying AIDS to human immunodeficiency virus

A trailblazer in online publishing as well, the Science family of publications has grown to include two online journals, Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling—and the bold, new open-access journal, Science Advances.

Science Translational Medicine is an essential platform for peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary research driving the latest medical advances. Science Signaling offers original review articles, protocols and teaching resources for the growing field of cellular signal transduction. Science Advances represents the next generation of online publishing, with rapid publication of significant, full-length research that is available free to readers.

The Science family of journals is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s oldest and largest general science organization. The nonprofit AAAS serves 10 million people through primary memberships and affiliations with some 262 scientific societies and academies.

A voice for science and scientists everywhere, AAAS fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” by communicating the value of science to the public, helping governments formulate science policy, promoting advancements in science education and diversity, and helping scientists develop their careers.

London Review of Books

on May 3, 2012

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Since 1979, the London Review of Books has stood up for the tradition of the literary and intellectual essay in English. Each issue contains up to 15 long reviews and essays by academics, writers and journalists. There are also shorter art and film reviews, as well as poems and a lively letters page.

A typical issue moves through political commentary to science or ancient history by way ofliterary criticism and social anthropology. So, for example, an issue can open with a piece on the rhetoric of war, move on to reassessing the reputation of Pythagoras, follow that with articles on the situation in Iraq, the 19th-century super-rich, Nabokov’s unpublished novel, how saints got to be saints, the life and work of William Empson, and an assessment of the poetry of Alice Oswald.

Debacle in Beijing

By Ian Johnson on May 3, 2012

The story of a blind Chinese lawyer’s flight to the US Embassy in Beijing is likely to ignite accusations and recriminations until the US presidential election in November. But what few will acknowledge is a harsher truth: that for all our desire to effect change, outsiders have little leverage to shape China’s future. This isn’t to say that China is permanently stuck in an authoritarian quagmire and outsiders can only watch.