“他能派飞机来炸我吗?”——爱逗闷子的北京人

除去"吃了吗?"北京人见面还爱问一句:"现在混得怎么样?"我有个朋友在机关里上班,很久没见,一次路过他单位门口,便进去看他。见了面,我问他:"现在混得怎么样?"他说:"不怎么样。"我为他惋惜道:"你呀,哪儿都挺好,就是太爱说,到今天你还没混起来,吃亏就吃亏在你那张嘴上了。"他笑着说:"你真是一语中的,与贫嘴张大民他师傅教训他时说的     

血管里的汽油:男人为什么嗜车如命

小车带有男人的某种"性征",所以,如果我们要给汽车定"性"的话,它应该是"雄性".据美国的一个统计数字显示,"车床一族"里,女性往往是最初的始作俑者,她们更喜欢在这样"性感的地方"接受爱情的洗礼.有位女士说,在其他地方你可以跋扈、粗俗、唠叨,奇怪的是,一上小车,整个人就变了:口气温柔、举止优雅、目光曼妙,就好比你在一个小食杂店里会叉腰与商贩讨价还价,可是走进铺红地毯的商场,就会情不自禁地文明礼貌起来一样.     

心灵中的宝贝

正12月13日,曹禺老师已经离开我们整整20周年了,在这个令人思绪万千的日子里,他生前的一席讲话仿佛仍然清晰地响在我的耳边。众所周知,曹禺老师创作上在很长的时间里都像是受了某种束缚,放不开手脚,既不能符合客观环境的要求,又不能与自己的心灵和洽,可以说是处于一种非常痛苦的状态。这种痛苦的现象之一就是在议论创作问题时,他常常会"王顾左右而言他",或者会"话到嘴边留半句",不大愿意把心里话和盘托出。然而,经过"文化大革命"地狱般的折磨和考验,到了上世纪80年代初期,他有了很     

我们不是孤岛(外一章)

我正在读的一本英文书里,有这样一句话:"No man is an island",我们不是孤岛.     

落在后面的是什么

如果把灵魂简单理解为"精神",那么"灵魂没有跟上来"就成了一个泛义的、具有发散型性质的概念。也可以说它是个"筐",什么都可以往里装。凡是落后于时代发展的观念,都可以说成是"灵魂没有跟上来"。     

前洼村辽宁首座城市化别墅村

早听说大连庄河市徐岭镇有个闻名退迩的前洼村好的不得了,富的不得了.可究竟好到啥程度,富成啥样,脑子里还是模模糊糊.11月中旬,我们来到了这座被称为"东北农村致富第一村"的前洼村进行采访. 　　在庄河市区北郊8公里处,向西刚刚越过一座小山梁,我们便被山洼里一片整齐划一亮亮堂堂的即使在大都市郊外也并不多见的别墅群所震惊了! "这就是前洼村",随行的镇政府小胡告诉我们.……     

百年富有是书生

舅舅有个外号叫"文曲星",不过我们背里却叫他"酸舅舅",盖因其全身上下满是那种"太白遗风"式的酸烙印.     

写信(外二章)

M:你好! 写信就像播种,接到回信就是收获.我愿意这样想. 我想不起来自己是什么时候开始写信的,大概是上小学的时候,表姐去上海工作,来信问我们想要什么礼物,在那个物资贫乏的年代,上海的产品就是世界名牌.什么样的礼物我忘记了,只记得我把"啰嗦"写成了"哆嗦",让大人们取笑了好一阵子.     

把爱当成一种习惯

当新婚燕尔的温情随着时间的推移而淡出我们的感觉后,我和老婆便认真地吵起架来.我发现,她仿佛一夜之间出奇地会唠叨了,那个唠叨呀,像蚊子一样在耳边不停地飞舞、交鸣,"嗡嗡嗡"的声音可以让你整夜整夜地无法入睡.她惊异于我的懒惰,恨到牙痒痒,她对我的懒惰进行精辟地概括:你就是一条"秋蛇",连家里扫帚倒了都不会去扶一下!     

总有一刻,不同寻常

那天,我转过街角的时候,见一个孩子站在超市门口,呆呆地望着那个卖冰激的人,不走. 是一个六七岁样子的乡下孩子,穿戴很不整齐.他望着各色的冰激凌从铁机器里出来,又装在花花绿绿的尖筒里,好奇而又神往.他不禁舔了舔嘴唇,说:"妈妈,我要那个!"他顺手指了一下那充满诱惑的冰激凌.     

Grand Strategy of ‘Restrainment’

With the end of the Cold War, the subsequent global war on terror, the global economic recession, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, one would think that the United States would have formulated a grand strategy for dealing with these problems. This, however, is not the case. This article advances a grand strategy of “restrainment,” as a guiding concept for our approach to international politics. It builds from the principle that U.S. policy must seek to restrain—individually and collectively—those forces, ideas, and movements in international politics that create instability, crises, and war.     

China's Energy-Driven ‘Soft Power’

Energy security has prompted China to turn its strategic gaze to the seas for the first time in six centuries. For now, Taiwan remains Beijing's uppermost priority, but there are signs that Chinese leaders are already contemplating the “day after” matters in the Taiwan Strait to resolve them to their satisfaction. In the meantime, China is attempting to shape the diplomatic environment in vital regions such as Southeast and South Asia using “soft power.” By invoking the voyages of Zheng He, the Ming Dynasty's “eunuch admiral,” Beijing sends the message that it is a trustworthy guarantor of Asian maritime security. But the success of this soft-power strategy remains in doubt.     

‘Unlawful Combatants’: The West's Treatment of Irregular Fighters in the ‘War on Terror’

The West's treatment of irregular fighters in the “war on terror” was highly problematic. This article contends that we must look beyond the assumption that political and strategic considerations compromised the law and led to the “invention” of the category of the “unlawful combatant.” Rather, the law of armed conflict itself includes strong exclusionary mechanisms towards irregular fighters. These exclusionary strands in the law came to dominate the West's strategic decision-making on the treatment of irregular fighters. Moreover, the fact that irregular fighters became such a vital issue post-9/11 was not a result of the war on terror being a new kind of war, as has often been argued. Rather, this article suggests that it reflects an identity crisis of the West's regular armed forces at the start of the twenty-first century.     

From ‘Rustless Screws’ to ‘Nail Houses’: The Evolution of Property Rights in China

This article addresses property rights in China under four headings. I begin by placing the Chinese case within the larger context of property rights literature. The second section reviews the existing scholarship on property rights in China and identifies existing lacunae. The third section provides the broad contours of the contemporary Chinese intellectual and political discourse over property rights in China. And finally, I offer several cases of property rights that illustrate the variation in the scope of the concept of property rights in China and suggest possible avenues for future research.

The right of property is the guardian of every other right, and to deprive the people of this is in fact to deprive them of their liberty.- Arthur Lee, Virginia, 1775

You reproach us with planning to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels¹

The fact that a legal or economic model does not exist for an activity or a behavior is no reason to oppose it, because the laws can develop out of experience and practice.- Wu Guoping, Yangtze Water Resources Commission²

     

China's ‘Peaceful Rise’ Enters Turbulence

This article seeks to place recent developments in China in a larger context through three arguments. First, Chinese military policy has indeed made a major turning over the past decade; second, this turning is based on a fragile and unrealistic strategy that is already eliciting counterreactions that will make achievement of its apparent goals increasingly difficult. Finally, this strategy's failure will present China with unwelcome choices about how far to take her use of force. The “rise” of China is now encountering turbulence that may undo it.