Things I Do Other Than Blogging – The Scholar's Stage

Soviets, Cybernetics, and China: A Reading Program

01 July, 2023Books and Literature, Complex Systems, Futuristics, History, Russia, Small and Simple Things, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

Two years ago I ran a small reading group that met over zoom. Our reading topic: Leninism. Curious about the claims that modern Chinese politics are an outgrowth of Marxist ideas and practice yet feeling insufficiently familiar with the Leninist political tradition to properly judge its influence on contemporary Chinese politics, I organized a group of China-watching politicos to read both classic Marxist texts and historical studies of the Soviet Union and Maoist China.

2 Comments

Introducing the Center for Strategic Translation

18 November, 2022The Middle Kingdom, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

Many readers have wondered at my low writing output this year. This week I am happy to announce the answer to the riddle: the Center for Strategic Translation.

The Center for Strategic Translation locates, translates, and annotates documents of historic or strategic value that are only available in Chinese. As director of the new center I have had the chance to work with a host of talented translators to make this project a reality.

14 Comments

Talking Very Online Conservatism with Titus Techera

23 April, 2020Culture, Political Theory, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

Two weeks ago I appeared on Titus Techera’s podcast Post-Modern Conservative to talk with him about my article for the National Review, “Learning the Wrong Lessons From Reform Conservatism” and the blog-post that went with it, “Conservatism’s Generational Civil War.” Our discussion was fruitful and wide ranging: over its course we discussed various intellectual currents […]

0 Comments

Blogs I Read, Researchers I Follow, and Podcasts I Listen To

25 November, 2019Things I Do Other Than Blogging

I spent some time this weekend updating the blog roll and other side bars, which I had otherwise left untouched for a year or two. Hypothetically one could use Internet Archive to see how the blog roll has changed since this blog’s inception twelve years ago. Many of the internet’s best blogs simply do not […]

4 Comments

On the Future of this Blog

01 May, 2019Site Announcements, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

A snapshot from the reader survey. This is you, folks. TO THE READERS OF THE SCHOLAR’S STAGE— I started The Scholar’s Stage in 2008. n thee pages I have hosted debates on population centric counterinsurgency, ancient Chinese philosophy, antebellum American history, the ideology of the Communist Party of China, modern American culture wars, and just […]

3 Comments

Every Book I Read in 2018

01 January, 2019Books and Literature, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

Image Source A new year has arrived, and that means it is time to post my annual list of every book I have finished since the last new year’s day. I have kept a list of every book I have read, along with a few short comments summarizing and casting judgment on each title, since […]

3 Comments

Making Sense of Chinese History: A Reading List

23 December, 2018Books and Literature, The Middle Kingdom, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

A picture of a book shelf I own. We often hear of people who will descend to any servility, submit to any insult for the sake of getting themselves or their children into what is euphemistically called good society. Did it ever occur to them that there is a select society of all the centuries […]

12 Comments

Travels and Other Announcements

06 October, 2018Site Announcements, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

Folks, I am going to be in the Washington DC area for most of next week. After that I will be in Northern Utah for at least a month or so. If you are a reader of the blog and would like to meet in person in either of these two locations, send an e-mail […]

0 Comments

Travels and Meet Ups

17 January, 2017Things I Do Other Than Blogging

One quick announcement for the readership: posting will probably be light over the next three weeks, as I will be spending that time away from Beijing, instead criss-crossing my way across America. I will certainly spend at least a week in Utah, and a week in DC, and possibly a bit of time in Texas […]

1 Comment

The Real Reason Chinese is “So Damn Hard”

01 June, 2016Education, The Middle Kingdom, Things I Do Other Than Blogging

The Tropical MBA podcast is one of the few I listen to religiously. Theirs is the premier podcast produced by and for ‘location independent entrepreneurs,’ which I’ll define here as entrepreneurs who have built businesses that allow their owners to operate from just about anywhere on the planet–or at least anywhere on the planet with […]

8 Comments

Category Archives: Things I Do Other Than Blogging