Asia Times - Anna Chen

Anna Chen Asia Times Shakespeare Wars of the Roses

Wars of the Roses: Shakespeare First Folio 400th anniversary

Leave a Comment / Asia Times, Shakespeare, The Wars of the Roses / By Anna Chen / 24/11/2023

Review of Shakespeare’s The Wars of the Roses — Henry VI parts 1 & 2 and Richard III. That’s us, that is.
On this month’s 400th anniversary of the First Folio’s publication, what looks like a simple squaring up of combative parties is more a dodecahedron of feuding interests.
Shakespeare’s history play cycle, a cynic’s take on human relations in favour of the strong leader who will restore equilibrium and God’s order, strips bare the mindset that kicked off Britain’s empire now wheezing into a comeback effort. First time as tragedy, second time top-and-tailing the empire years with added farce.

Don Quixote in the White House

Leave a Comment / Asia Times, Joe Biden, USA / By Anna Chen / 01/10/2023

Asia Times 29 September 2023: Now that the Writers Strike is over, I can pitch my script for that blockbuster version of Cervantes’ classic crying out to be made: Don Quixote in the White House, updating windmills to stray weather balloons, complete with paranoia & moustache-twirling villains. (Oh. Democrats don’t do facial hair?)

The B-story is a light romance set in the world’s seat of power. He loves Xi but the sweethearts fall out over a misunderstanding that Xi wants to ditch him and run off with Europe.

Across the world, every two-bit, dime-a-dozen demagogue, any politician or public figure in need of a reputation cleanser or career booster realizes they can play the China “Get out of jail free” card, ready made for every grade ‘n’ shade of no-goodniks.

Zoo time at Operation Circe

Leave a Comment / Asia Times, China, propaganda, US / By Anna Chen / 16/09/2023

Zoo Time at Operation Circe: How the Wolf Warrior was invented, first published by Asia Times, 5 September 2023

Accusations had been blasted at China in a character-assassination broadside by both sides of the House from which neither facts nor history could save it. China, not Trump, had reneged on the trade deal. China was stealing IP. It was a currency manipulator, despite the fact that, far from undervaluing the yuan, China was spending vast amounts of its reserves propping it up. China, not the top one percent of the US that now owned as much as the bottom 90 percent, was the cause of America’s misery.

You might suspect, from all the invective in high places, that the US didn’t actually want a stable relationship with its successful partner.

We’ll always have Beijing: from hero to villain

Leave a Comment / Asia Times, Bruce Lee, China, culture / By Anna Chen / 24/08/2023

In the half-century since Bruce Lee’s early death in July 1973, the image of Chinese in western culture and business has come full circle with an added twist of spite.

Prior to the martial arts deity’s explosion onto cinema screens in the 1960s, Chinese men were barely seen except as anonymous hordes reminiscent of the wave warfare that kept America at bay in Korea. Their ultimate sacrifice was presented in the west as an antlike lack of humanity rather than the collective courage we recognise from the allied storming of Normandy beaches.

Is whitewashed Doctor Strange about to morph into Dr Strangelove or be eclipsed by Fu Manchu redux?

Anna Chen’s debut piece in the Asia Times