Anthony Tao

Opinion | How the World Sees America, With Adam Tooze

"I think we have to be willing to be humble, frankly, in relation to this experience and not quickly extrapolate one way or the other, either our disappointments of ourselves and our glamorization of what they’ve done or the converse"—@adamtooze.bsky.social on China: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/o...

The Other Side (from Kangding) Poetry x Music Band is releasing an album.

Getting closer to album release... here's a music video from #Kangding: anthonytao.substack.com/p/the-other-...

My journey from foreign correspondent to Uber driver in Trump's America I once documented human displacement and desperation; now I am living it

"Today in America my international experience seems to have little value. Worse, it feels anathema to the values marketed by the ruling class." stevescherer.substack.com/p/my-journey...

My band Poetry x Music has just set an official release date for our album — February 14. "All of Those Times" is now available for pre-order (there's a Chinese edition, too, if you prefer). Check it out: poetryxmusic.bandcamp.com/album/all-of...

Via Eric Olander: "China’s ability to influence events in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America is extremely limited, so the assessment that what happened in Caracas was a blow to Beijing may also be overstated."

Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem. Renee Nicole Good, 37, mother to a six-year-old boy, was murdered earlier today by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, a few blocks from her home. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune: [An ICE agent] s…

lithub.com/renee-nicole...

This is another angle of CBP murdering a woman in cold blood.

Our Beijing A reverse poem: Different experiences of the same city.

My first reverse poem, about two different experiences of #Beijing —

Like winter birds, like outsiders
Chasing joy, we spin in circles
Untethered, unrestricted, wild,
Bare, our souls drunk...

anthonytao.substack.com/p/our-beijing

YouTube video by Cole Rooty What Makes a Poem Good?

"Performatively aloof" is a great phrase from Cole Rooty, a cutting critique of Insta poets, w/ wider application too

Of course, ppl will perform any which way to get attn, esp these days. Perhaps better to be aloof than violent

But poetry can push us toward genuine
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m_J...

The Migrating Eel I Met on His Way to the Sargasso Sea By Evan Michael Anderson The first time I ever had sex was a Craigslist hookup against the side of a dumpster behind a Taco Bell in Gentilly. He was just passing through on his way to the Bermuda T…

Evan Michael Anderson wrote quite the short story on @tacobellquarterly.org: tacobellquarterly.org/the-migratin...

So, this is where everyone's been

Life as a Migrant Food Delivery Rider in Shanghai Making ends meet on $1,064 a month, for a separated family of three

Very cheap cigarettes. How a courier in Shanghai gets by with 7,400 yuan per month with a mortgage and a wife and child: www.pekingnology.com/p/life-as-a-...

Fixation on imperial history risks clouding China’s path to modernity, Shiping Tang warned Intellectual closure dressed up as awakening, and a dynasty swap turned into a loyalty test.

"China needs more ppl who care about universal issues, produce universal knowledge, and solve concrete problems—not self-styled experts and scholars who do little more than chant slogans, stay indifferent to (China’s and others’) problems, and ultimately fool themselves” substack.com/home/post/p-...

Thank you, David.

Also, sorry for the late reply

#NowPlaying on #SHMUFM:
"Magpie" by Anthony Tao & Liane Halton
#Wordplay
#IrregularFeature
shmu.org.uk/fm

An amazing night at the Macau Literary Festival featuring Anthony Tao & his band Poetry X Music & the amazing Lisbon Poetry Orchestra and Os Surrealistes, all at the incredible Teatro Dom Pedro V (built 1860) on Largo de Santo Agostinho

Thank you for reading

@KaiserKuo Long-time listener to the @SinicaPodcast (and @ChinaGSProject !), but listening to your recent chat with Anthony Tao convinced me to subscribe to the substance. I could feel the love for Anthony and Beijing in your voice. Thank you.

Very excited to announce the launch of SAGINAW no. 13, featuring Rae Armantrout, Vivekanand Selvaraj, Melissa Eleftherion Carr, Nada Gordon and Anthony Tao. Folks, this is a really good issue. SAGINAW is free to good readers. Reach out if you would like a copy.