Bu Er Magazine

22/01/2017

"INTERVIEWEES WANTED FOR DOCUMENTARY ON WOMEN IN CHINA.

Beth Atkin is a final year modern history student at St Andrews. She contacted us to invite more inerviewees for her documentary about gender issue in China. For those who are interested in this issues, here are some of her own words about this documentary:

"I am currently making a documentary tracing women's experiences from 1949 into the present day in China. Having already interviewed a number of older Chinese women, I am hoping to get a younger perspective on the issue. I am therefore looking for participants who were born in, have lived in, or have connections to China, to discuss their experiences and opinions on gender equality / inequality in China. If you are interested in being part of the project, do get in touch with myself (bca3@) for more information."

We think it is a great issue to be discussed and documented at our age, please do not hesitate to contact Beth or us if you want to know more about this project!

Thank you and Happy Chinese New Year!

10/05/2016

Recollections of our trip to London #3: a huge thank you to Tessa Qiu for interviewing us for her show "Bang bang bang de qiaomen sheng 梆梆梆的敲门声" at Soas Radio London. It was a pleasure talking about the big international project that Bu Er is: we'll let you know when the episode is up!

10/05/2016

Recollections of our trip to London #2: many thanks to 吾論學社 Imperial Wu-Lun for hosting our workshop BuEr&Wu-Lun Seminar | China had no science ? at Imperial College London, and thanks to all who joined the discussion!

10/05/2016

Recollections of our trip to London #1: a big thanks to CBYA- SOAS 中英青年联合会- 亚非学院 for hosting our workshops Bu Er Magazine presents A Workshop on Taoist Epistemology: Knowledge Wanders North and Bu Er Magazine presents A Workshop on The Great Wall of China: A Modern Mythology. And thanks to SOAS, University of London for allowing us to sell our magazine: we sold all copies we brought from St Andrews!

05/05/2016

Thank you for a great night at the beach, remembering the past, reflecting on the present and looking towards the future of Bu Er Magazine.

06/04/2016

Our very own Dashan Xu is selling the latest issue of Bu Er in front of the St Andrews Library! Come and buy yours!

25/08/2015

Exciting news! Our 4th issue will soon be launched! We kept the tradition of using a painting of an animal as our cover. For this issue, we have "monkey" and "crane" as our candidates. We'd like to invite you to vote for the one that attracts you the most! Please give us your vote by commenting under this post!

05/05/2015

Bu Er had a great year in St Andrews. We started with a bonfire, and now we end with one. Like what Dashan said, we will come back with more events and better magazines. So stay tuned and stay Bu Er :)

04/05/2015

Our first collaboration with The Millennial Voices! Dashan Xu writes a reply to Jenny Williams' piece on 'Western Rationality and East-West Dichotomy', not to be missed! Is rational-based thinking overrated? What's wrong with East-West dualism? Let us hear your views!

Dashan Xu: http://wp.me/p4KQjp-a9
Millennial Voices: http://wp.me/p4KQjp-a7

I'm a mixed race kid- but race has never really been a major factor for me in terms of growing up. I was never discriminated against in the least at school, except for the odd ‘exotic’ thrown in my...

16/04/2015

Our first collaboration with The Millennial Voices, an independent website dedicated to promoting the voices of 'millennials' and young people! :D The article itself offers a personal account of high school education in China (and what's wrong with it), written by Dashan Xu from Hangzhou, China.

Allow me to use my experience to describe how Chinese youths grow under the taming of which education was the name, and how the examination-centred education is practised. This is not to suggest th...

02/04/2015

[ No.5] with Bu Er Magazine: A Distinctly Taoist Painting from the Yuan Dynasty.

“The Way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way;
The Name that can be named is not the constant Name”.
道可道，非常道；名可名，非常名。

Titled "Primordial Chaos" (渾淪圖), this painting was painted the Yuan dynasty painter Zhu Derun (朱德潤) in 1349. What is unique about this painting is that on the one hand, besides the painting of a tree in a quite abstract manner, there are thin lines trailing off the top of the tree; on the other hand, there is a perfect circle smack in the middle of the painting.

Here I only offer one interpretation of this painting by Nika Kartvelishvili, "the perfect circle reflects the main theme of this work: primordial chaos. Primordial chaos is the transcendent reality that exists before the universe comes into being, and it is this reality that the circle symbolizes. The circle is of great significance in many philosophies, including Daoism. Zhu Derun was fond of Daoism, and Daoist influences are apparent in his works. First of all, the circle as a shape represents eternity, because it has no beginning nor end (unlike a line, which is always finite). In addition, the circle is complete in itself; it is perfectly continuous and no matter which angle you look from, its appearance does not change. This conveys the idea that primordial reality is not only beyond time, but beyond spacial dimension as well. The empty background in this picture emphasizes the idea of a transcendent reality, which is beyond forms. Individual forms do not exist in primordial chaos, and yet all forms originate from it.

The fine lines that are trailing off the tree in the painting represent constant transformation in nature and the universe. They portray the philosophical truth that nothing in the universe is permanent; everything is in a state of constant change and transformation. The only thing that remains constant and absolute is the primordial chaos, which is represented by the circle. All forms, including the tree, are temporary expressions of the eternal Absolute".

19/03/2015

15/03/2015-18/03/2015