If names be not rectified, language will not be in accordance with the truth of things. —Confucius, The Analects Names are prickly creatures, which Confucius contended must be firmly “rectified” for language to maintain its proper function and truth. The problem, however, is that a word, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed, “is not […]
Архивы рубрики ‘THE GREAT WALL’
On Origins
Everything must have a start, even a tradition. —William Edgar Geil, The Great Wall of China (1909) On the final day of President Obama’s 2009 trip to China, he was taken on a tour of the Badaling section of the Great Wall just outside Beijing, where he posed for what White House aides celebrated as […]
"Even a Tradition"
The Wall, as Obama observed, is often perceived as a symbol of the “sweep of history.” To appreciate the significance of the Wall’s historical connotations, we may begin by looking beyond the media’s representations of Obama’s visit to Badaling and consider instead its broader historical context. On October 1, 2009—approximately a month and a half […]
New Walls
Obama’s visit to Badaling discussed above came on the heels of not only the four China-related anniversaries, but also the twentieth anniversary of the fall of perhaps the ultimate symbol of border barriers in the modern world: the Berlin Wall. Obama himself addressed the significance of the Berlin Wall in a 2008 speech in front […]
One World
On the mountainside directly behind the Badaling section of the Wall there is a large sign with the English-language phrase, “One World One Dream.” Echoing the title of the 1985 charity anthem “We Are the World” (with which a People’s Liberation Army band had hilariously serenaded Obama at a state dinner the night before his […]
Citation
Upon concluding his Badaling photo shoot, Obama reportedly followed up his “sweep of history” remarks with an unscripted aside: “I also think I’m glad I didn’t carry a camera.” The president was presumably expressing his relief at not having to hold a camera on that bitterly cold day, but his remark could also be seen […]
A Unity of Gaps
In this way, the system of piecemeal construction makes sense. . . and as inconsequential as it might first appear, this is actually a central question relating to the entire construction of the Wall. —Franz Kafka, “The Great Wall of China” (1917) A structure of notoriously vast proportions, the Wall is frequently cited as a […]