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James Fallows

James Fallows - James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States, and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. His latest book, China Airborne, will be published in May.
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James Fallows is based in Washington as a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He has worked for the magazine for nearly 30 years and in that time has also lived in Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and Beijing. He was raised in Redlands, California, received his undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in economics from Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. In addition to working for The Atlantic, he has spent two years as chief White House speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor of US News & World Report, and six months as a program designer at Microsoft. He is an instrument-rated private pilot. He is also now the chair in U.S. media at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, in Australia.

Fallows has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award five times and has won once; he has also won the American Book Award for nonfiction and a N.Y. Emmy award for the documentary series Doing Business in China. He was the founding chairman of the New America Foundation. His two most recent books, Blind Into Baghdad (2006) and Postcards From Tomorrow Square (2009), are based on his writings for The Atlantic; he is at work on another book about China. He is married to Deborah Fallows, author of the recent book Dreaming in Chinese. They have two married sons.

Fallows welcomes and frequently quotes from reader mail sent via the "Email" button below. Unless you specify otherwise, we consider any incoming mail available for possible quotation -- but not with the sender's real name unless you explicitly state that it may be used. If you are wondering why Fallows does not use a "Comments" field below his posts, please see previous explanations here and here.

A little more about the "art factory village" of Dafen

By James Fallows
Dec 20 2007, 10:00 PM ET

Because I can't help it, a few more pictures below and after the jump of the "art factory village" of Dafen, outside Shenzhen. All are clickable for larger version.

Plus, two updates: First, thanks to Evan Osnos of the Chicago Tribune for getting his story about Dafen back on line, here. It explains some of the business fundamentals of the place.

And, from Keith Snodgrass of the South Asia Center at the Jackson school at the University of Washington, this background of the Dafens of yesteryear:
[You give] somewhat the impression this is a new activity. As a matter of fact, Chinese artists have supplied mass production art for western markets for at least 200 years. Many early 19th century paintings of George Washington circulated in the US were originally produced in southern China, as were many of the "ship portraits", paintings which look like 2-3 ships at sail in a bay, but which are actually 2-3 different views of the same ship.
Ajay Sinha at Mt. Holyoke college gave a talk on this topic at the University of Washington in 2004. You can find him through http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/misc/profile/asinha.shtml


Now, more pics.

Wall o' art:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/DSCN0058A.jpg

Pick your genre:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/DSCN0059.jpg

Ditto:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/DSCN0054A.jpg

Ditto:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/DSCN0063.jpg

Mr. China shops for art:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r96/jfallows/DSCN0043.jpg

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