A Self-portrait

I was fond of literature from childhood. But I wasstudying hard to become a doctor and never thought ofliving off writing. I began my writing career from the May FourthMovement in 1919. At first, as a member of the FemaleStudents Federation, I wrote some articles for publication.At that time the turbulent Chinese youth's patrioticmovement and the new cultural movement brought me outof the home and campus. I began to witness the pressing     

DOES A GOOD CENTRAL BANKER MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

The personalities of central bankers moved center stage during the recent financial crisis. Indeed, several central bankers even became “superstars.” In this article, we investigate whether superstar central bankers have an impact on economic performance. We employ school grades given to central bankers by the financial press, defining as superstars those central bankers receiving the top grade. First, we explain the grades in a probit estimation with measures of economic performance, institutional features, and personal characteristics. Second, we employ a matching approach to account for the endogeneity of grading with respect to economic performance. Using entropy balancing, we identify credible counterfactuals for top‐graded central bankers, that is, nonsuperstar central bankers who face similar situations. Comparing the economic performance of both groups, we find that superstars do indeed matter: a top‐graded central banker faces a significantly more favorable output‐inflation tradeoff than his peers. This effect is driven by outstanding central bankers in both advanced and emerging economies and is especially prevalent in the precrisis subsample. (JEL E52, E58)     

A Love Hotline

ONE day last October, I interviewed a woman in Quancheng, Jinan, who had struggled with death for more than twenty years. Despite her physical frailties, however, this woman had started a hotline to provide psychological counseling for others. Currently, she helps nearly 40 people every day.     

A Permanent Memory

My mind is filled with unbearable sorrow when I recall my dearest mother. The calender on the desk where mother worked still shows November 29 1995, the day my mother went out and was killed in a traffic accident. I leave the calender at this date because a very important part in my life stopped still on this day also. Mother was the only daughter in her family. My grandmother lived with my parents after my grandfather passed away. I was born during the War of     

A De'ang Wedding

Every wedding is different, but somehow they are all the same. That is what I felt when I attended the wedding of Yang Yubu, a De'ang young woman who is an acquaintance of mine. Chudonggua Village is located at the eastern part of Santai Township. It is about 30 kilometers away from tile seat of Mangshi. When I learned that Yubu was going to get married, I jumped onto a shuttle bus that would take me past the foot of the mountain where the village sits. Halfway along the journey, I disembarked and started     

A Lady's Tailette

THE young lady in the photo is attending to her toilette. About 130 years ago, ladies like her sat unhurriedly before their dressing table every day to have themselves elaborately made up. It was their necessary daily work. At that time, old China was on the verge of turbulence and change. After its failure in the Opium War in 1840, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was in decline. Moreover, the invasion of the great worldpowers and the introduction of capitalism was shaking the foundations of the feudal empire. Though the ladies in the photo still dressed in tidy lace-edged garments and wore their hair in smooth buns, we can     

A Love Story

LI Zhijun, a platoon leader, was injuredand became blind when he led hismen to remove an unfired gun in1981. Wang Ping was his then fiancee. LiZhijun was in a dilemma-if he told her hehad lost his sight, he was afraid that it woulddevastate her; if not, how long could heconceal the truth? After several days of mentaltorture, he decided to tell her the truth and toask her to leave him.     

A Physics Teacher

~~A Physics Teacher@尚雅萍     

A Decade-Long Partnership

THE Children's Choir of the China Central Philharmonic Society was founded in 1983 by Yang Hongnian, a leading conductor and a professor at China's Central Conservatory of Music. The 160 members of the Choir are from various mid-     

A Private Controversy

DISCUSSIONS on privacyflamed at the 1998 book fair.Absolute Privacy waspublished at the beginning of the year,immediately followed by SinglePrivacy and Very Private. And thereare others: Inside Marriage andBeyond, Observations of Lovers, andmore. Most are written by journalists,     

A Wine-Water Container

This exquisite bronze object is a combination wine container and water container. It was excavated from the tomb of Zeng Houyi, a prince of the State of Zeng. The upper part is a wine container, measuring 30. 1 cm tall and the lower part is a water or ice container, measuring 58 cm in diameter. The two parts resemble a     

A Hainan Singer

HAINAN, the youngest province inChina since being added to the list of areasgranted economic favors by thegovernment, holds a secret it adores. CaoShijuan is famed as "the province's lark"and when the area celebrated its tenthanniversary, she held in its honor the firstever solo concert the province had everseen. Originally from Hunan, Cao wasenrolled into a local Xiangju opera troupe     

A Scholarly Director

TDWN Head Zhao: "How tired and good-for-nothing I am! To help ordinary people become richer, I got the money by a deal using my own son against my conscience. But now they think I'm a town traitor. High leaders demand that I build a big free market,     

A Brave Man,His Wife and A Noble Animal

APAIR of dedicated and hardworking law students when they met, Duan Qinghao and Zeng Jing went on to become a happy, model family but that idyll was destroyed when Duan Qinghao gave his life while protecting the majestic pantholops hodgsoni at the young age of 36. Leaving a young son and a promising career behind, his dedicated wife Zeng Jing had always shown great understanding of her husband's diligence in protecting the endangered species. In July, 1999, a conference on the Prevention and Control of International Environmental Crime was held in Geneva by the United Nations Environment Programme, International Criminal     

Creating A New Career

SOBBING, the workers from the Fengfeng canvas Producing Factory in Hebei Province could not hold back their tears upon hearing the factory's bankruptcy declared by the manager. It was November of 1992. The factory was then running at a loss due to the changing market economy. Stop production completely: we all knew what this meant.     

A White Marble Buddha

During Buddhism’s over 2,000 years'history in China,Buddha has been one ofthe most welcomed divinities amongordinary Chinese people as it is believed tobe infinitely merciful,able to ward offcalamities,eliminate difficulties,help grantone’s wishes and deliver all beings fromharm.The first Buddhist sculptures were male.     

营养保全A计划

你知道吗？我们从超市里精挑细选的各种食物,经过储藏、清洗、烹调,到吃进嘴里,很多营养成分已经悄悄地溜走了。怎样才能有效地留住营养,让家人吃出健康呢？     

A Woman With Will

KNOWN as the woman who "dares to eat crabs" (meaning courageous), Liu Weican was the first person to bring in foreign investment to China 17 years ago, causing a sensation and catching the attention of the press. Now 70 years old, Liu Weican is chairman of the board of directors of the Sino-American joint venture Huamei Cigarette Company Ltd. Liu's company of 320 workers has earned a profit of 1.7 billion yuan since 1988. Liu herself has been cited as a "National March 8 Pacesetter" and awarded the "National May 1 st Labor Prize," the highest award for outstanding     

A Queen's Dressing Set

All women love beauty,in ancient or modern times.Of allthe unearthed ancient dressing sets,the one found in 1968 inthe tomb of Don Wan,wife of Liu Sheng,the King ofZhongshanjing in the Western Han Dynasty.is the mostexquisite. Small and intricate.11.2cm tall and 9.5 cm wide(seepicture),bronze is rarely seen with such vivid shapes—amythical rosefinch carrying a ring in its beak standing on theback of a tiger-like beast,linking the twin tall-stemmed cups.