Lindsay Waters is the executive editor for humanities at Harvard University Press. His book Against Authoritarian Aesthetics: Towards a Poetics of Experience was published in Putong Hua (Mandarin) by Peking University Press (2000).

Recent articles

President Bush has rallied his troops for what he calls “The first war of the 21st century”. What is your view of this crisis, where, briefly, do you stand? This is the question we are putting to people around the world, especially those with their own public reputation and following. Our aim, to help create a truly global debate all can identify with.

See also "Writers, artists and civic leaders on the War: Part II"

Behind the formalities of academic exchange between China and the US are deep human experiences and longings. An American scholar sees the story of his own visits to universities in Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing as emblematic of the need for people of both countries to mingle freely in trust.

Does America need even more than critical self-examination after its ejection from the previous decade's slumber? An experienced observer argues that a deeper transformation is needed, through the recuperation of art as a source of imaginative truth.