Abstract: China is home to roughly half the world’s large dams and probably a similar fraction of smaller ones. These structures alter the flow of thousands of the country’s rivers, creating hydroelectricity, providing irrigation and flood control, and flattening stretches of river that would otherwise be unnavigable. Yet dams are controversial: they can bring significant
Abstract: Railways for passengers and freight offer strategic advantages in terms of energy efficiency and the ease of adaptation to electric mobility. The relatively small infrastructure footprint of modern rail also facilitates integration into densely developed spaces like city centers. These advantages and other benefits—such as the economic revival of regions left behind by globalization—fit well
Abstract: Food and drink have played a central role in Chinese religious and ceremonial life from ancient times to the present. The role of food and drink is conspicuous not only in terms of banquet and drinking etiquette, but also in a wide variety of religious practices observed throughout the Chinese-speaking world. These range from ancestral
Abstract: Nearly ubiquitous in China today, beef was not always so popular. Unlike pork, beef was traditionally a highly regional taste. While people in northern cities like Beijing consumed large amounts of beef, those in many other areas considered the idea of eating beef to be disgusting and even immoral. As beef consumption grew during the
Abstract: From antiquity, Chinese poets wrote about all aspects of food: its cultivation, its preparation, its prominence in celebrations, its importance in ancestral rites, its pleasures, and the pain of its absence. Poets contrasted lavish banquets with hunger and starvation; they crafted allegories and metaphors from food: an orange was compared to a virtuous man, bitter
Abstract: While many new technologies carry the promise of creating a better world, they often have unintended consequences. The promise of blockchains is trust-minimizing and immutable peer-to-peer interactions, but early blockchain platforms have faced a great deal of skepticism regarding their environmental sustainability, and continue to cast their shadow over the technology’s potential today. Citation:
Abstract: The term “impact investing” describes the work of companies, organizations, and funds seeking to achieve measurable social and environmental gains while also generating financial returns. This sector has struggled with how to measure—quantitatively and qualitatively—the impact of investments. The past decade has witnessed the emergence of formal institutions that have achieved some success in
About this podcast In 2009, I wrote in Library Journal that the role of an encyclopedia creator together is to build circles of knowledge. I said that our job is to create a haven of calm within a wild world of information, and misinformation. A haven where readers
Kerry Brown, a leading China scholar based in London, discusses the challenges of 2020 and the growing need to understand China and its history. Berkshire first published This Is China: The First 5,000 Years in 2010. Professor Brown has now updated the book in a second edition with a new chapter on recent developments.
I’ve felt low this week and I’m not sure why. Of course I know why. The world’s in a mess, and my own country is amongst the worst of it. But I’m not sure why it struck me so hard this week. The feelings come in waves: I feel tense, angry, overwhelmed. I just want to