Speaking of China...

Wang Hui was -- until recently, when he was pushed out of his job -- coeditor of China's leading intellectual journal, Dushu (Reading), and the author of a four-volume history of Chinese thought. He's also a central figure among a group of writers and academics known in China as the New Left. The New Left (not a term that Wang Hui embraces) advocate a "Chinese alternative" to the neoliberal market economy, one that will guarantee the welfare of the country's 800 million peasants. Unlike China's better-known (in the West, anyway) human rights dissidents and pro-democracy activists, the New Left views the Communist leadership as a likely force for change. They see themselves as "critical intellectuals" working for reform.

Want to learn more? Wang Hui is speaking in Harvard Square today, from 4-6 pm. Click here for details.