Dan Wang (@danwwang) / X

Dan Wang

2,480 posts

Dan Wang

@danwwang

The secure transport of light; Breakneck; industrial research at the Hoover History Lab

Ann Arbor/Palo Alto

Joined December 2010

Pinned
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Jan 1
My annual letter: danwang.co/2025-letter/ This year I discuss corgis, compute, and Cold War; the Texas State Fair; DSA; Neue Sachlichkeit; disfiguring the physical past and the end of history; Germanic obedience; Antichrist; wisecracks; Pascal’s Wager; romantasy; and croissants.
2025 letter | Dan Wang
From danwang.co
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Jul 25, 2025
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, out August 26 danwang.co/breakneck/
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Apr 10, 2022
Signs in Beijing: “Do not post pandemic-related messages online.” and: “The internet is full of perils. Exercise caution on the internet.” via WeChat
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Feb 7, 2025
For anyone in New Haven: Grey Matter Books has James C. Scott’s personal collection on sale (donated by his children). Many are about rivers
Dan Wang
@danwwang
May 8, 2020
I write a new column: The inability of the US to make masks, protective gear, and even swabs shows that it has prematurely deindustrialized. The country abandoned manufacturing with gladness, under the delusion that the most valuable work was done onshore.
Why America Can Make Semiconductors But Not Swabs
From bloomberg.com
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Mar 11, 2022
Shanghai is really on edge right now over accelerating Covid cases; I haven’t seen everyone this nervous since February 2020… a lot of rumors are swirling amidst the confirmed news that schools are now closed, flights are being diverted, and public events are getting canceled
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Mar 22, 2022
Replying to @gwbstr and @damienics
Even more dramatic at night
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Jan 1, 2022
Replying to @danwwang
My annual letter: danwang.co/2021-letter/ This year I discuss China as a place that both moves fast & breaks things and moves fast & breaks people; Lem’s ocean; Mozart’s most strange and subtle opera; dynamism; the Sichuan Basin; prophets over pragmatists; Metaverse; and more.
2021 letter | Dan Wang
From danwang.co
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Mar 9, 2020
The biggest COVID mystery to me is why South Asia and Southeast Asia are reporting so few cases. Is it lack of testing (certainly a factor) or validation of the heat theory (virus will burn off when the world warms)? One spells looming disaster, the other cause for optimism.
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Aug 18, 2025
My new book Breakneck will be released next week. Today, the Atlantic is carrying an excerpt of the introduction: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Sep 30, 2022
Sign of the times: Tencent has been surpassed by a liquor company as China’s most valuable firm
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Jan 1, 2021
Replying to @danwwang
My annual letter: danwang.co/2020-letter/ This year I discuss China's institutional strengths as well as its growing repressiveness; technology as a means to avoid decadence & complacency; Proust; the party's main theory journal; biking in Beijing; a culinary ranking; and more.
2020 letter | Dan Wang
From danwang.co
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Nov 1, 2021
I find the situation in China to be very strange right now: it’s never been so hard to get in and out of Beijing. The government is nervous and has become more brutal: a baby was tested 74 times for Covid; one Jiangxi county turned all traffic lights red
Shanghai Disneyland Lockdown Shows China’s Extreme Covid Tactics
From bloomberg.com
Dan Wang
@danwwang
Aug 27, 2022
From Chongqing’s north bank this morning: the Jialing River, one of the major tributaries to the Yangtze, is nearly dry