2024 Year end review
Our anniversary post and details on paid subscription.
Dear subscribers and readers,
It has become a tradition for us to come up with our Year end review. March 2022 was the time The Araniko Project was launched in Substack and little did we know that in three years, the Project would become an important part of our identity being perhaps the only institution solely dedicated to research on Nepal - China relations in Nepal. Moving forward, our ultimate goal is to keep steady growth of The Araniko Project to support more detailed, evidence-based understanding of China from one of its neighbors: Nepal.
In our year-end review in 2023, we emphasized on transitioning our blog from translations and archiving of historical documents, to more research, analysis and grounded studies that helps contribute to evolving discourse on China from Nepal. We started 2024 with our first Himal Southasian article arguing that Chinese academia is still far behind when it comes to understanding South Asia due to lack of fieldwork opportunities and too much reliance on ‘desk research’. Later, we presented this idea in two places: at Tsinghua University’s South Asia Forum in Beijing, and Martin Chautari in Kathmandu. Apart from the fact that there is limited fieldwork and grounded research, limited South Asian native faculties and also South Asian countries’ lack of engagement to invest or collaborate with Chinese universities hinders the understanding of each other in the region.
We continued with translations of historical and current affairs: from Li Xiannian’s gift of Lotus Sutra to King Birendra in 1984, to Zhou Jianren, brother of one of China’s most influential writers Lu Xun, who helped establish China – Nepal Friendship Association. However, as we mentioned in the article, we still do not have any information or archive on the China – Nepal Friendship Association and it would be with our utmost gratitude if any of our readers and subscribers could shed a light on the association.
A significant event this year was the Prime Minister KP Oli’s visit to China that happened from December 02 – 05, 2024. In coming years, it will be interesting to observe the progress of the BRI implementation plan that was signed during his visit thus, reaffirming Nepal’s commitment to BRI.
Read more of that here:
In our recent summary article, we showed how young Chinese are flocking to Nepal in search of affordable training, and not just tourism. Given the current state of Chinese economy, we can only expect such trends to continue among young Chinese people and its best for Nepal to capture that market.
We also had the incredible China Week 2024 this year that covered topics on Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, and Chinese Media with over 5-days session, 3 guest speakers including 1 Chinese speaker and more than 100 registered participants in Kathmandu. It was the only program of its kind in Nepal running for 2 years and we are looking to continue this trend in 2025 and subsequent years. Hence, we welcome potential collaborators for running the China Week.
Our growing presence
A significant boost this year has been on our coverage. Our subscribers grew almost double and more than 1k+ followers on substack compared to last year. Similarly, by our Year-end review of 2023, our work was read in 35 countries, and that has covered to 58 countries this year. Given that we work in such a niche field and having this vast range of audiences interested in the work we do is incredible and inspiring! We would like to thank our readers and subscribers for following our journey.
The Araniko Project subscription update
In three years, the success and support The Araniko Project has achieved and recieved is something we take utmost pride in. While we continue to work on translations, archiving and history, culture in the future, it is also a reality that running a newsletter at the scale of The Araniko Project can prove to be a strain on time and resources.
Given the scale and scope of China coverage in not just Nepal, but also South Asia, we are hoping to continuously expand our newsletter and provide relevant information that is hard to find elsewhere. However, this is only possible through a proper financial support!
So, consider going paid!
Starting after the Year-end review 2024, The Araniko Project will provide paywalled content for its paid subscribers.
While all our archives and historical articles will remain free, paid subscribers will have access to current issue translations, our analysis and other exclusive content.
Read our About us page for more!
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