Senators Push Chinese Culture

Senators Lamar Alexander and Joseph Lieberman, neither of whom fit comfortably in their own parties, have joined forces to promote the study of Chinese language and culture [via Simon World]. Naturally, I'm thrilled, and if this passes I'm going to make sure that my institution figures out a way to get in line for some of that $1.3B: we need a Chinese historian (though there's no obvious support for that in the bill) and we need to expand our language offerings (for which there is plenty of support) and exchange programs. Yours should too. As Danwei notes, the bill's sections are named after prominent Chinese cultural figures: Two Tang-era poets (Du Fu, who I deeply respect, and Wang Wei, who's only so-so in translation; I would have picked Li Bai, myself), Jin Dynasty calligrapher Wang Xizhi, Ming-era Muslim eunuch explorer Zheng He, Han-era eunuch Cai Lun (inventor of paper and of paperwork), revolutionary Nationalist Sun Yat-sen, Peking Opera singer Zhou Xinfang and Chinese-American architech Ieoh Ming Pei. There is no connection between the names and the sections: Zheng He, for example, is attached to the Language Instruction section, instead of the Exchange Program or Travel Enhancements Act.

North Korean Non Sequitur: I've said it before: when a country is this desperate and well-armed, creative solutions are called for.