An unexpected development has taken place in the seven-decades-long dispute between the Tibetan exile leadership and China’s government. In early July, for the first time since 2010, Chinese authorities reportedly held direct talks with the exile Tibetan political leadership, based in Dharamsala, India.
Lumière Rouge (Red Light 赤光), the Chinese Communist Party journal edited by Zhou Enlai in France, from 1922-1925.
Li Shizeng at Peking University, 1918. Li (in Western dress) stands at the center of the front row. Peking University’s president, Cai Yuanpei stands to Li's right.
The author’s mother (right) with her three younger siblings in Badong, Hubei, 1941. The siblings stand near a mountain cave which hide the KMT military factory headed by the author's grandfather during the Sino-Japanese War. Left to right: Hangsheng, Lusheng, Dongsheng, Hansheng.
Uncle Lusheng in his PLA uniform, early 1950s
Grandpa and Grandma in Fularki with their two young daughters, Huisheng, 11, and Kangsheng, 7, in 1956.
For educated Chinese people, the late 1910s and early 1920s was a period of intense ideological exploration and political agitation. Both inside and outside China, all sorts of groups were vying to influence the minds of China’s future élite. The Chinese student communities in France were no exception.
Shirley Xinyi Cai is a researcher in comparative politics and political theory, pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science at McGill University. One of her ongoing projects is about the caili (彩礼, i.e. bride price or betrothal gift), a deep-rooted marriage custom that calls on the family of the groom-to-be to pay a sum of money to the bride’s family.
