News from JMS
Welcome to our blog, where we plan to feature news, views and translation clues. Things like: did you know that English cats say ‘meow’, German moggies ‘miau’, French felines ‘miaou’, and Spanish Siamese ‘miau’. Pause for thought…
More Chinese mirrors and whispers
Xi Jinping’s inspection tour of Guangdong province in the south last year was full of symbolic significance. He was replicating the famous tour of Guangdong and Shenzhen made twenty years ago by the then reformist leader of China Deng Xiaoping, a trip that helped to reinvigorate the country’s economic reform agenda . Xi visited villages, companies, the armed forces and research institutes. Standing on Lotus Hill, the site of a statue honoring Deng Xiaoping, he promised to push towards reform and opening up. In another interesting scenario, Xi went on a much reported, mysterious taxi ride recently, ostensibly to see what the traffic in Beijing was like, mirroring the habit of Qing Dynasty emperors to travel incognito among the people. The taxi ride itself turned out to be all smoke and mirrors itself, as it was subsequently denied.