This has been a tough year for China--as we argue in our forthcoming book, China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, it is the most traumatic year in recent memory. Between the Sichuan earthquake, the Tibetan protests (and international reaction along the Olympic torch route), and the frightening...

The most iconic picture of George W. Bush reading is, sadly, the President holding a children's book upside down. But according to some sources, the President is actually quite a reader; Laura Bush, a former school librarian, is a documented book lover.

Included on one of the...

The theme sound being used to promote the Olympic Games, via everything from schoolyard sing-a-longs to a Jackie Chan video, is "We Are Ready," but are foreign audiences prepared to make sense of what will happen in Beijing in August?

Or perhaps it would be better to say, are...

Thanks largely to the Olympics, 2008 will go down in history as a turning point year for China -- or, rather, one when the country passed several milestones. It'll be remembered as a turning point year in Chinese sports history, due to the country getting its first chance to host...