J.S. Mill at Tsinghua U.

Please excuse the blatant nerdiness of this post. Just came across an interesting article in Dissent-- "Teaching Political Theory in Beijing." Daniel Bell, the author, is one of the very few academics working on comparative Chinese and Western political thought, the field I'm planning to study when I start graduate school in the fall. Although Bell's particular academic interests and mine are quite different, this article might be somewhat useful for those of you who've asked me questions along the lines of "so, what is it you're going to do for the next 7-8 years of your life and probably beyond?" and have been frustrated by my vague and incoherent answers.

Even if the words "China" and "political theory" in close proximity to each other don't get your pulse racing the way they do mine, this article is worth reading: an interesting portrait of academic culture in China and of the experience of being a Western academic there.