Even though Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, officially he is still the “Eternal President” of North Korea.  So when official visitors call, they are expected to present not one but two gifts, one to Kim Il-Sung and the other to his son, the country’s current ruler, Kim Jong-Il.  All of these gifts are reverently collected […]

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[UPDATE:  In November 2009, The Atlantic published an interactive online feature I authored called “The Nine Nations of China” (九色中国).  Due to a revamp of their website, I decided to migrate all the material to this blog.  You can access descriptions of each of the “nine nations” by clicking on the links in the chart below.  The original Atlantic […]

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