This is the personal blog of William A. Farris. I started this blog in 2012 (there are posts dated earlier than that, but those were items I posted at a later time and pre-dated to appear closer to the time they were actually relevant).
The name "Fei Chang Dao" is taken from the first line of the Dao De Jing (道德經) – 道可道，非常道, with the latter three characters "Fei Chang Dao" variously translated as "not the eternal Way," "not the ever-constant Way," or "not the enduring and unchanging Way."
I post on this blog with no assistance, encouragement, or funding from anyone, including my employer. I'm solely responsible for all the content, for good or ill. It does not necessarily reflect the views of my employers - past, present, or future - and their endorsement is not implied and may not be inferred.
I received my Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese Studies from Grinnell College in 1992, and my Juris Doctor from Stanford University Law School in 1998. I was an associate at Latham & Watkins in San Francisco and Hong Kong from 1998 to 2002. From 2002 to 2007, I was a staff member at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. From 2007 to 2024 I was an in-house legal advisor for Google based in Beijing and Taipei.
In 2022, I published a free, downloadable casebook - "State Prosecutions of Speech in the People's Republic of China: Cases Illustrating the Application of National Security and Public Order Laws to Political and Religious Expression." Volume One contains unofficial translations of over 100 documents produced by agencies of the government of the People's Republic of China between 1998 and 2020. Volume Two contains the original Chinese language versions of these documents. You can find more information about the casebook and links to download full, no-DRM, PDFs here: www.feichangdao.com.
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