Kevin Wei Luo

you should make a flyer at AAS lol

would love to know too! Did Michigan not have a full catalogue?

Characters build character!

imagine being a psychiatrist and having to write 鬱 a million times

back in Taiwan in elementary school the first assignment of the year was to write our names a hundred times. My name in traditional characters is 40 strokes. I remember passing out crying that night. So yeah put off writing as long as you can.

200 for me today lol

my two worlds collide

also, the unfortunate effect of having lived in Toronto is that you confuse leaves with leafs 😅

It was great talking with Lisa from CBC last week. I would also cautiously argue that the full implications of this latest purge of will not be understood until we know who Xi taps for the CMC to succeed Zhang. Back to reading tea leafs again!

My Minneapolis An ode to a city that knows who it is

Minneapolis is a place that means a lot to me, so I wrote a short Substack about the city, its people, and what we all owe them.

benansell.substack.com/p/my-minneap...

"in communist China, fried pork falls from the sky"

Zhang Youxia: Purge of China's top general leaves military in crisis Zhang Youxia had been seen as a close ally of China's leader, Xi Jinping.

The People’s Liberation Army is in crisis… a piece from me.
#China.
CLICK link to read:

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Twice this week when meeting a new person I've gotten an excited "Wow, it must be an exciting time to be a political scientist!" and both times I've answered "Not really. That's like telling someone it's an exciting to be a surgeon when there's a 63 car pileup on the highway."

Message from the University of Minnesota leadership, in response to the killing of our alum Alex Pretti today.

I stayed for 45 minutes and left because my ears were burning in the cold. Props to Minnesotans for braving the weather.

thank you comrade

I teach a class called Democracy Under Threat. I also live in Minneapolis.

China in the Year 2050: A Look Backwards - Society This article discusses China’s political history from 2025 to 2050. In 2025, there was strong support for the political system due to measures that curbed corruption, reduced pollution, and alleviated...

Daniel Bell has always been weird. Here's another crazy recent essay from him: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Constitutional crisis For all the hand-wringing about the controversial recall efforts in early 2025, there was never any question about their legality. The procedures for our recalls were clearly laid out in the electi…

The Sage of Nangang speaks! Is Taiwan now having a constitutional crisis?

This: 'On a side note, one of the strangest things about this whole episode is how blasé society seems to be about it.'

frozengarlic.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/c...

Along with wonderful colleagues @jeanhong.bsky.social, @dnsltr.bsky.social, @yuhuawang.bsky.social, and Ann C. Lin, we would like to call your attention to the Asian Political History Workshop to be held on May 4– 5, 2026 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Apply here by Jan. 20, 2026. forms.gle/H9zPa6r2H1Ke...

China’s Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint New data reveal how China’s foreign police training programs have become an integral part of Beijing’s strategy to remake global security.

Delighted to share a new @carnegieendowment.org report on China’s Foreign Police Training: A Global Footprint. Over 50 entities in China have provided training to at least 138 countries, forming a major pillar of Beijing’s drive to reshape global security:
carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

What a loss, but his timeless work will continue to inspire the next generation of China scholars. 5/5

I haven't known Joe for very long, but bonded with him over discussions of party history and the methodological challenge of 'studying China from afar' - some of his great insights are included in this compilation edited by Andy Mertha at SAIS: scgrc.sais.jhu.edu/wp-content/u... 4/5

Forging Leninism in China Cambridge Core - East Asian Government, Politics and Policy - Forging Leninism in China

His latest 2022 book Forging Leninism may seem like a weird pivot back to history, but as he argues the (violent) early years of the CCP's founding is instrumental for understanding recurring organizational dynamics in party history www.cambridge.org/core/books/f... 3/5

I actually just assigned a chapter on neoconservatism from his 2001 book China Since Tiananmen this semester for my undergrads, which of course included some amazing foresight into elite intellectual trends today. www.cambridge.org/core/books/c... 2/5

I've been sitting with this sad news the whole day. Many of Joe's students have written very touching stories about his life and mentorship, including my friend Clyde here. He is, to me, one of the scholars who took "China as method" seriously. As they say, will never find another like him. 1/5

My dearest mentor, Professor Joseph Fewsmith, unfortunately passed away this week. I wrote this little tribute with great pain. But no writing is enough to express my love and gratitude for Joe.

"this may change in the future: younger cohorts in our database tended to be more diverse with regard to gender, educational background, and geography.""

Cool paper: "An analysis of publicly available data of 2,200 experts on Chinese politics worldwide, compiled through a bottom-up snowballing nomination process, reveals that this China Watcher community is globally connected and diverse but also continues to be dominated by male US-based academics."

the Cuomintang has lost the mandate of heaven