Global interplay and irony

Extract

In recent times ET has received many articles on English in China, and published as many as feasible, but the sheer volume has led to a strangely serious question: How many such articles can we publish without ET becoming English in China Today? Inevitably, therefore, we have been publishing only some of the publishable submissions received. It is therefore ironic to bring out the cover article for this issue, whose subject matter looks Chinese but is about something happening to English outside China. The article is not about English in China or Chinese in a world dominated by English, but describes the work of a Chinese artist in effect playing Sinocentric games with the global language.