Sabina Knight 桑稟华

@five_books "#Writers from #Taiwan have also produced powerful novels, but I’ve been most struck by the economy of these masterful short #stories." fivebooks.com/best-books/sho…

.@chinabksreview has published my review of Yu Hua's 余华 *City of Fiction*《文城》(2021, tr 2025). "Along w/ other contemporary Chinese works w/ such graphic violence, Yu’s novel does political work by purging the traumas of China’s bloody 20th century." chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/30/fic…

@five_books Want to understand #Taiwan? See my @five_books interview. Mine is not among the "#China on Five Books" list ↑. Maybe because Taiwan, a #democracy, is a separate nation. fivebooks.com/best-books/sho…

@albrgr @charlesjkenny @tylercowen "I find a lot of religious ideas more useful than utilitarian ideas." @tylercowen "There are human leadings that are not personal. That's the religious insight. . . . For many Quakers it's community based." @SabinaKnight1

The bestselling Chinese novelist Yu Hua foregrounds individual suffering in the chaos of modern Chinese history. In his latest novel in translation, gratuitous violence shows the limits of fiction. Read Sabina Knight's review of "City of Fiction": chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/30/fic…

@chinabksreview Thank you for publishing my review!

@LWestwoodAuthor Chen Zhi, the editor, & I were grad school classmates & fellow Chinese-language TAs at UW-Madison. The 2-vol Festschrift is dedicated to William H. Nienhauser, whose year-long "History of Chinese Literature" course we took together. brill.com/display/title/…

Xmas come early!! The Narration of China - two volumes - OPEN ACCESS!

@chinabksreview just published my review of Yu Hua's 余华 *City of Fiction*《文城》(2021, tr. 2025). "Along w/ other contemporary Chinese works w/ such graphic violence, Yu’s novel does political work by purging the traumas of China’s bloody 20th centry." chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/30/fic…

@FairbankCenter “I remember Steve’s insistence that we talk about #China or #Taiwan. . . . Aside from . . . 'talking China,' he had no patience for academic struggles. . . . He advised me to join the @FairbankCenter. . . . and it was at the Center that he mentored me.” @SabinaKnight1

@five_books @smithcollege "Short stories are especially apt for conveying a sense of Taiwan’s colliding cultures and aspirations. The stories reveal the precarity of war & dislocation, the oppression of women, the wages of materialism, the reclaiming of Taiwanese identities, . . ." fivebooks.com/best-books/sho…

@five_books "#Writers from #Taiwan have also produced powerful novels, but I’ve been most struck by the economy of these masterful short #stories." fivebooks.com/best-books/sho…

@NameweeO on cross-strait relations. *The Wall*, from #Taiwan. youtube.com/watch?v=WCLlFA…

At the *#Taiwan Studies +* Symposium @Harvard today, I'll be honoring Steve to open the #geopolitics panel.

How do dictators maintain power for life? I explain in a new book that they can stay in power by forming "Coalitions of the Weak" composed of tainted or inexperienced officials. Not a loyalty-competence tradeoff but one of institutions vs patrimonialism #fndtn-metrics" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">cambridge.org/core/books/coa…

@DilksJay @fundstrat @carlquintanilla 8th-century #Chinese #poetry presaged social media: 新鬼煩寃舊鬼哭 天陰雨濕聲啾啾 杜甫《兵車行》 New ghosts complain; old ghosts weep. Cloudy sky, wet rain, sounds of tweet tweet. - Du Fu, "Soldiers Ballad" translation & watercolor @SabinaKnight1

@vshih2 Major talent currently stateside is also leaving. Insitutions abroad are welcoming the U.S. brain drain. x.com/vshih2/status/…

The best talent will no longer come to this country and we will all be worse off in a few years.

Let's hope you're right. It's odd, though: I remember talking about Sino-Indian negotiations over the perennial border issue with Ananth Krishnan, veteran reporter, and his sense was that China generally prefers to start with the high-level stuff: atmospherics, positivity — while the Indian side wanted to get down to brass tacks first, and then announce something when there was something substantive to announce. Perhaps it's different in dealings with the U.S.?

For what it’s worth, I still think a U.S.-China deal—some form of one—is very much possible in the near term. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s still very much in the works. From what I hear/understand, there’s mutual willingness to deescalate. The catch is this: China prefers to negotiate from the bottom up—starting with lower-level talks to hash out specifics, then gradually building toward a high-level summit, sealed with a Trump-Xi meeting on camera. Xi is unlikely to take the political risk of appearing first. If he shows up and the U.S. changes its mind the next minute, it’s a major loss of face. Beijing wants everything locked in before Xi steps onto the stage. Meanwhile, the U.S.—or more specifically, President Trump?—seems to prefer a leadership-level “call” upfront. That kind of move would project strength and burnish his image as the ultimate dealmaker—especially if it looks like the Chinese leader is coming to him. But such optics would be politically unpalatable for Beijing. And that, it seems, is the real headache...