MAO ZEDONG, STILL THE CORE OF THE CORE: COMING UP ON THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY AT NINETY

MAO 
THERE AT 

THE BEGINNING 

STILL THE ESSENTIAL 

THE MONUMENT TO THE SEMINAL VICTORY 

AT JINGGANGSHAN (JINGGANG MOUNTAIN) 

 JIANGXI, CHINA, 1928 

WITH A POEM ABOUT THE BATTLE 

BY MAO ZEDONG 

INSCRIBED IN HIS OWN HANDWRITING 

TIPTOEING TOWARDS... THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY

COMING SOON 

THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY 

THE SHANGHAI 

CHILDREN'S PALACE 

PUTS ON A SHOW, JUNE 1981 

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was officially founded on July 1, 1921, and the People's Republic of China (PRC), of which the CCP is unapologetically the ruling party, is in the middle of a long celebration of the ninetieth anniversary. 

With the above photograph from my first trip to China, in 1981, for comparison, I was rather amused -- or bemused -- to find this photograph of the current celebrations in the New York Times. 

A photograph of the interior of the site of the First Congress of the CCP, the founding Congress, can be found here. 

A photograph of the most recent Congress, the Seventeenth, in action, can be found here. 

"FOOD IS THE PEOPLE'S GOD": CHINA THEN AND NOW

MORE 

FOOD SAFETY  

FEARS 

IN CHINA 

MOTHER & DAUGHTER & CHOPSTICKS 

XI'AN, CHINA, 1981 

Barbara Demick has a powerful article in the Los Angeles Times about food safety scares in China today, with this quote from one  Xiao Andong: "We have a saying in China that 'food is the people's god,' so obviously it is very scary for ordinary people when things like this happen" (for details, see here). 

Above, a photograph of the pleasure of eating thirty years ago, at the start of "Reform & Opening Up"; here and here, two samples of one free market in food at the same time (Eat Fresh!  Eat Local). 

one in a series on 

CHINA THEN & NOW 

"POLLY" AND HER PARROT

PARROT 

TO 

PERSON 

REACHING UP TO 

COMMUNICATE 

WITH ONE'S HUMAN  

Fifth in a Series of  

PEOPLE & THEIR PETS 

AT THE VET'S 

TRACKING THE CHINESE TRAINS OF THIRTY YEARS AGO

TRACKING 

THE CHINESE 

TRAINS OF 

THIRTY YEARS AGO 

BOY WAITING BY THE TRACKS 

CHINA, 1981 

One in a series 

CHINA THEN & NOW 

More on the railroads here 

& 

here 

HITCHING A RIDE? ONE OF THE CREW? MORE CHINESE RAILROADING OF THIRTY YEARS AGO

AT THE  

STATION 

HITCHING A RIDE?  ONE OF THE CREW? 

PACKAGE TRANSPORT AND PEOPLE 

ON THE PLATFORM 

RAILROADING 1981 

One of a series on 

CHINA THEN & NOW 

SING A SONG OF CHINESE RAILROADS: AND WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE BACK THEN

A PAEAN TO 

CHINESE RAILROADS 

(HIGH-SPEED, COMING) 

AND WHAT SOME OF THEM 

LOOKED LIKE THIRTY YEARS AGO 

(A Chinese Train Photographed 

from a Moving Chinese Train) 

Keith Bradsher's NYT hymn to China'a "steadily expanding high-speed rail network" and the bullet-train bonanza he sees coming can be found here. 

YELTSIN & THE COUP AS TOLD BY YELTSIN INSIDER GENNADY BURBULIS

A YELTSIN'S INSIDER'S 

VIEW OF 

THE COUP OF 

AUGUST 1991 

 

GENNADY BURBULIS (L) & BORIS YELTSIN CLASP HANDS 

ALEKSANDR KORZHAKOV RISES, LOOKS ON 

[under construction; Burbulis's piece on the August, 1991, coup, is here] 

"RUSSIA REDUX" 

MARSHAL KUTUZOV & WAR AND PEACE: THE 500TH POST

THE FIVE HUNDREDTH POST 

DONALD GRAMM 

as 

MARSHAL MIKHAIL KUTUZOV 

in 

SARAH CALDWELL'S 

production of 

SERGEI PROKOFIEV's 

opera 

"WAR AND PEACE" 

based on 

LEO TOLSTOY'S 

novel of the same name 

Photographed for TIME Magazine 

Another of Caldwell's singers, 

PLACIDO DOMINGO, here 

For a photograph of the production overall, 

see here 

THE LADY WITH THE DOG HAVING A DOWN DAY

THE LADY 

WITH 

THE DOG 

HAVING A DOWN DAY 

This is a veterinary hospital, after all; 

not every pet can come only for a shot 

(or a well-puppy visit?). 

Fourth in a Series of 

People & Their Pets 

at the Vet's 

The Short-Haired Man 

with 

the Short-Haired Dog 

is here 

The Long-Haired Lady 

with 

the Short-Haired Dog 

is here 

The initial Lady 

with the Dog 

-- and Chekhov's -- 

are here 

THE MAN WITH THE DOG

THE SHORT-HAIRED 

MAN 

WITH THE SHORT-HAIRED DOG 

Third in a Series of 

People & Their Pets 

at the Vet's 

The Long-Haired Lady 

with 

the Short-Haired Dog 

is here 

The initial Lady 

with the Dog 

-- and Chekhov's -- 

are here 

ANATOLY CHUBAIS IN THE NEWS

IN THE NEWS 

ANATOLY CHUBAIS 

Chief Executive of the 

Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies 

(quoted by Scientific American on 

"Big Plans for Nanotechnologies in Russia") 

Many Formers: 

First Deputy Prime Minister under Yeltsin 

(with Boris Nemtsov) 

Chief of Staff for Yeltsin 

[etc.] 

 

BUD COLLINS b. June 17, 1929

BUD COLLINS
b. June 17, 1929


ARTHUR W. ("BUD") COLLINS, JR.

INDUCTED INTO THE
TENNIS HALL OF FAME, 1994

From the Citation:

"As a journalist and television commentator, as an esteemed historian and a vibrant personality, as a communicator unlike any other in his time, Bud Collins has been at the forefront of tennis since the early 1960s. Collins has covered more major championships than any American reporter, and has always conveyed his voluminous knowledge of the sport with an infectious enthusiasm."

BUD COLLINS' own website here

Photographed for Women's Wear Daily (indoors!); article by Lee Wohlfert (only the first part of the article is shown above).

KATHARINE GRAHAM b. June 16, 1917

KATHARINE GRAHAM 

June 16, 1917-July 17, 2001 

KATHARINE ("KAY") GRAHAM 

"Legendary" Publisher (of Watergate fame especially) 

and later Chief Executive of the Washington Post 

photographed in the Post's headquarters 

Washington, D.C. 

Winner, Pulitzer Prize for Biography or 

Autobiography, 1998 

for PERSONAL HISTORY (1997) 

Citation here 

Gone almost ten years now 

A sampling of the (rival) New York Times' obituary: 

Mrs. Graham was a socialite mother of four when her husband, Philip L. Graham, committed suicide in 1963. Her father had given Mr. Graham control of The Post and when the latter died, his widow found herself in a mysterious thicket of corporate politics dominated by men unaccustomed to a woman in the boardroom and highly skeptical of her ability to run a newspaper. 

Much more from the New York Times here 

Some appreciations from the Washington Post here 

And from NPR here 

With a bit from Ben Bradlee here 

And one obituary from the other side of the pond here  

CHINA AS A SEA POWER: AND THIRTY YEARS AGO III

CHINA 

AS A 

SEA POWER 

III 

SHANGHAI, 1981 

1st in series, here 

2nd, with discussion, here 

"HERE BE GIANTS"