By Richard Pedersen On December 9th, 2020, President Daniels shared an email with the Johns Hopkins community that shattered previously-held notions regarding our institution’s founder and namesake. For decades, the Hopkins community believed its founder had been an ardent abolitionist dedicated to human freedom and equality. However, the reality is more complicated. Research on Johns... Continue Reading →
Black Skin, Black Eyes, and You
By Fatou Sow Growing up in a black city and having attended majority black schools from elementary to undergraduate has afforded me a privilege: I know who I am as a person (not just a Black person). When I say that I grew up learning about black history, I’m not talking about the beginning of... Continue Reading →
The Evacuation of Friendship and Knowledge 一场友谊与知识的撤离
By Austin Frenes 冯翱森 HNC students evacuated from China last year (clockwise from top left): Cooper Brehm, Nick Kaufman, Daniel Wethli, and Austin Frenes 去年从中国被撤离的中美中心学生：裴治雄，高宁，文丹，冯翱森 NANJING, CHINA — Strange doctors on subways, an evacuation car ride through the countryside, quarantine on a military base, tears in Bangkok, and a normal train ride to Shanghai. This... Continue Reading →
Transforming workers into spenders: Chinese cities call for longer weekends 把员工转变为消费者：周末延长政策将何去何从？
By Phyllis Brown 铠凌 NANJING, CHINA — When French director Chris Marker released the classic short film “Sunday in Peking” in 1956, the concept of a weekend was still alien to China. Since urban workers only had Sundays off, households often pitted against time to complete errands that had accumulated all week. Likewise, a rest... Continue Reading →
What Chinese Reactions to “Mulan” Reveal About China’s Cultural Exports 从电影《花木兰》在中国的反响，谈及中国文化输出
By Ran Zhao 赵然 NANJING, CHINA —— In September 2020, Disney released the highly-anticipated, live-action remake of “Mulan.” The film was likewise expected to attract many Chinese moviegoers, as the younger generation had been deeply impressed with the Mulan animation released earlier in 1998. Furthermore, Chinese people often enjoy seeing foreign reinterpretations of Chinese cultural... Continue Reading →
Has the American Media learned Anything Over the Last Four Years?
By Adam DuBard The 2016 presidential election was a shocking upset by all accounts. Apart from a few outliers, most media pundits and political experts predicted a Hillary Clinton win. Only two significant polls predicted a Donald Trump victory, and Nate Silver, the vaunted pollster guru, gave Trump a 28.6 percent chance at victory. Clinton’s... Continue Reading →
In the face of grand historical narratives: Documenting my grandmother’s past 祛蔽和重构：我的外婆小传
By Lui Zhuoran 刘卓然 In the 1980s, the literary trend of “individual historical narration” was born in Mainland China. At that time, enlightenment ideals were introduced once again into China; the state had no longer controlled private life as strictly as before, and restrictions on thoughts and speech were gradually relaxed, causing various ideological cultures... Continue Reading →
The Return of Street Vendors: Wuhan’s Post-Pandemic Revival 地摊的回归:一座城市疫情后的重生
By Wei Baipei 魏百佩 NANJING, China — The year 2020 introduced the city of Wuhan to the world in the most tragic way. The COVID-19 epicenter was placed on strict lockdown from the end of January to mid-March. As fears of contracting the deadly virus spread from door to door, stay-at-home restrictions silenced the once-buzzing... Continue Reading →
The legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: pushing boundaries through public service
By Bailey Bischoff and Adam DuBard The venerable Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on Friday, September 18th, resulting in an outpouring of emotion across the United States. The impact of her life’s work and the vacant seat left in her absence is deeply felt by many Americans, especially those in the SAIS... Continue Reading →
North Korean Special Economic Zones: an untapped opportunity in nuclear negotiation
By Ashley Curtis WASHINGTON — When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un over Easter weekend of 2018, he offered North Korea “prosperity on par with our South Korean friends” in return for denuclearization. A survey of the country’s late 20th century history... Continue Reading →