CHINA ARTICLES by Brian Hennessy
Demolishing history
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. August, 2016. Modern Chongqing is a booming metropolis containing 6.5 million residents (within a municipality of 30 million people). It straddles the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers upstream from the Three Gorges Dam, is 1600 kilometres west of Shanghai, and is the Beijing government’s hub for growth in the hinterland […]
On worrying about China: 2016
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. September, 2016 Western analysts are reporting that the Chinese economy is a worry: too much debt, misallocated capital, a pegged currency, and a political system which refuses to reform itself. The fear is: if China sinks, the rest of the world may go down with her. Is a collapse […]
Turpan: on the Silk Road
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. Sept/Oct, 2015 Turpan used to be a stopover on the northern Silk Road in what is now the province of Xinjiang in western China. It is adjacent to the eastern Tian Shan (Heavenly Mountain) on the edge of a Taklamakan desert depression called the Turpan Basin. It is 154 […]
Dunhuang: on the Silk Road
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. September/October, 2015 Located near the eastern end of the Silk Road, Dunhuang and its ancient Mogao caves contain an extraordinary number of religious artifacts, shrines, and secular manuscripts. Together they open a window into China’s fascinating history. Here is a little bit of it to whet your appetite (click […]
Bamboo Sea
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. May, 2015 I had been thinking about visiting the Bamboo Sea (Zhu Hai) near Yibin for years. You know how it is: places close to home (in this case, three hours by road from Chongqing) never seem as exotic as those further away. Nevertheless, when my friend Xiaojin who comes from […]
To Danba: in West Sichuan
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. May 2015 Dānbā (丹巴) is an isolated county in western Sichuan populated by Qiang and Tibetan peoples. I had hoped to visit this mountainous area and its famous watchtowers a few years ago, but the 2008 Sichuan earthquake had destroyed the roads. In 2015, I was able to travel there by […]
In China: what is truth?
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. April, 2015 It’s always difficult to comment on China. Paradoxically, this rigid Confucian society appears to change from one day to the next. Whether this is cultural reality or personal confusion, I am not sure. Nevertheless those of us who have lived in the Middle Kingdom for a long time have […]
Xi Jinping’s plan
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. March, 2015 China’s president, Xi Jinping, is an enigma. On the one hand he presents as a modern leader who many hope will guide his nation away from the social and political strictures of a command economy toward a more open society. On the other hand, he appears to be buttressing […]
Wind and rain bridge
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. April, 2010 Sanjiang is about a five hour journey from Guilin, and a two and a half hour bus-ride from Longsheng near the Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces. It is the last sizable township in the province of Guangxi before entering neighbouring Guizhou and is the centre of the Dong […]
On Confucius, culture, & government
Brian Hennessy. An Australian in China. May, 2014 Although Western people have heard many jokes about Confucius, very few understand his main ideas and how important his thinking has been to Chinese culture and society. If we are serious about understanding China it is imperative that we acquaint ourselves with this ancient sage. On […]