Sept. 20,
2016

ISSUE
No. 80

AMS Weekly Newsletter
Dedicated to the development of the future stewards of U.S.-China relations
We had an excellent event with Dr. Arthur Ding last week, and will be posting the podcast soon. Subscribe 
here.
 
Weekly Reading

Sunday, the People's Daily [人民日报] ran a series of three articles on the drivers and effects of U.S. foreign policy. These are the kind of articles that serve two useful purposes. First, they provide a means of reflecting on U.S. policy through the lens of a critic not predisposed to agree with our assumptions or good intentions. Second, these articles illustrate important elements of how the Chinese party-state analyzes the world beyond. Although th ese are not authoritative articles, run together like this with an overarching Xinhua article they wield more authority than any one article/author would by themselves. Marxist-Leninist interpretations of politics retain their salience in China, and its worth understanding how they have been updated for the 21st Century.



俗语 in Xi Jinping's  Speeches

如数家珍
rú shǔ jiā zhēn

Meaning: to be very familiar with something (lit. like counting one's family treasures)

On Sept. 9 Xi Jinping made a visit to Beijing's 8-1 Middle School, his alma mater, where he made a speech on education. He used this chengyu to express how familiar everything felt to him. It is a useful chengyu to use if any of you return to your place of study in China!

Original:  在老校园照片前,习近平指着照片上一处处熟悉的建筑,追忆往事,如数家珍。看到自己小学的学籍档案、当年同老师同学的合影、1992年母校45周年校庆时自己的贺信和赠送的礼品,习近平动情地说,母校给予我很多知识熏陶和精神滋养,我怀念那一段难忘的岁月,也铭记着老师们的教诲,希望母校越来越好。

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-09/09/c_1119542262.htm
Video of the Week
 
This week's video is quite short, just over two minutes. It is a simple animated music video, "家风家训", by the Central Discipline Inspection Committee promoting a clean culture against corruption. There are some other obvious political undertones, but the song joins the growing number of propaganda ditties that seemed design to soften the party's image while promoting good values.
  Job of the Week
 
The  Eurasia Group is seeking an experienced and distinguished China political economy expert to serve as a research director of their China practice. The ideal candidate should have a strong grasp of Chinese elite politics and understand the political dimensions of macroeconomic policymaking and implementation. 
Support the American Mandarin Society!

If you appreciate the effort we put into organizing Chinese-language policy events, providing robust language and policy resources on our website, and the kind of content you see in this newsletter, please consider supporting us with a tax-deductible contribution--every bit helps!
The American Mandarin Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.