For you fans of Chinese reality-TV

In the spring of 2007 I
wrote about a campy / idealistic Chinese reality show called
Win In China, which was designed to select, train, and motivate future entrepreneurs. The film maker Ole Schell has produced a documentary about the program and its aftermath, which will be shown at the Asia Society in New York on Tuesday evening, June 2. Details
here.
I haven't seen the film, though I was one of the "what it all means" interviewees, but I watched Ole Schell getting lots of background footage as the show was underway. I think this should be very interesting. Make your Gotham travel plans accordingly!
JFK Library event, Boston, January 25
On Sunday, January 25 (tomorrow as I write), I will be at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston for a Kennedy Library Forum presentation moderated by Dr. Lincoln Chen, at 2pm. Discussion about China, my recent
book, Presidential speeches, and so on. Information
here. See you there.
If you're in the DC area on Wednesday night...
... you can meet the
people responsible for the book that I
keep on
lauding,
America's Defense Meltdown -- plus get a free copy of the book, by coming to a book-launch reception. You have to pay for your own beer, but it's at a place I have been many times and whose beer quality I can vouch for.
Details: Wednesday, December 3, 6pm, at the Officers' Club at Fort Myer, across the river from downtown Washington in Rosslyn, Va. This same site has for several decades been the location for weekly beer sessions among the defense-reform community that originally featured the famous, late Col.
John Boyd. Further info about the event, including instructions for RSVPs, at the Center for Defense Information site
here. I'd be there if I weren't on the other side of the world. Have a beer and get a book for me.
Something I had forgotten....
.... in the seven years since my wife and I moved away from Berkeley, CA:
This really is the nicest place on earth.
Yes, you have your Tuscanys and your Cape Towns and your Vancouvers and all the rest (including
Duluth!). But when it comes to a locale that is actively beautiful and human-scaled and full of creature comforts and with mild climate,
and where first-rate work of importance to the world is also underway, Berkeley is hard to beat.
Which leads me to: if you happen to be in Berkeley today, Thursday, Sept, 25, I will be there too. Barrows Hall, 4pm,
talking about US-China relations. Then.... back to Beijing to keep learning about that topic.
If you happen to be in Claremont, CA today...
... that's Tuesday, Sept 23, I will be there too. Will be speaking from 6:45pm to 8pm at the Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College. Free and open to all comers; location here. Stated topic is the right foreign policy for whoever succeeds GW Bush. Also intend to talk about recent news out of my current homeland of China (Claremont being part of my original homeland of the SoCal "Inland Empire"), and even the upcoming presidential debates. See you there.
If you happen to be in Beijing this evening (May 27)
I'm going to be at the Beijing Bookworm at 7:30pm to talk about the Atlantic, the U.S. media, politics, writing projects, and so forth. This is part of the Bookworm's long-established and active program of presentations by writers in the vicinity.
(Address: Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chao Yang District.)