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11 Oct 09
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Things seen and noted: Sunday Telegraph edition A joint project between the Harvard-Yenching Library and the National Library of China plans to digitize nearly 51,000 rare books and manuscripts, some dating back to the Song Dynasty, from the Harvard collection. Once completed, the texts will b... |
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08 Oct 09
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Morning Tea: Things read and noted Time reviews Founding of the Republic. I confess, I still haven’t seen the film out of protest over SARFT’s rejection of my suggested translation, The Birth of a (Chinese) Nation. Unsurprisingly, the film reveals just as much about th... |
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07 Oct 09
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WSJ on Manchu language and identity Running between classes today, but wanted to call everybody’s attention to an excellent article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Ian Johnson on recent efforts to revive the Manchu language and Manchu identity in today’s PRC. Be sure t... |
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04 Oct 09
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It’s not “Who do you love?” that matters, but “What do you fear the most?” In class two weeks ago we were watching one of the installments from the documentary series China From the Inside, when one of my students asked, with some reason, that if there was so much hardship and discontent why does the CCP enjoy such broad... |
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02 Oct 09
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60th Anniversary Hangover So it’s October 2nd and Beijing is waking up with a bit of hangover. I went to a parade-viewing party yesterday morning and when I arrived, at 9:00 a.m., the assembled gathering of translators, bloggers, and professional snarkers was alread... |
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01 Oct 09
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Tweeting the 60th Anniversary parade So I headed over to new neighbor Brendan O’Kane’s house to watch the parade and entered a party in full swing. Dave (A.K.A. DavesgoneChina) and Danwei’s Joel Martinson were already there. Eric Abrahamsen from Paper Republic showed up... |
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01 Oct 09
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Bunkered down in Beijing I’m back in Beijing after an extended trip on the Russia/China/Mongolia border. I probably should have stayed there. I’ve stocked two-days worth of food, water, and DVDs and am barricading the gate to the courtyard in honor of the 60 yea... |
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24 Sep 09
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Dissertation Group in Beijing? Yes, I know…I’ve been remiss about writing. But with the whole “earning a living thing” plus feverishly attempting to finish my dissertaton before I’m 40 die student loans are paid off next year, I thought it might be usefu... |
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25 Aug 09
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Seeking truth from whatever… For what it’s worth, David Bandurski and his team at China Media Project absolutely rock, and today’s commentary and translation of a bit of whiny blather from Qiu Shi on “people being mean to China” or some other such spray of... |
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25 Aug 09
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National Pride and Film Festivals Who cares what we believe, just as long as those with different opinions or alternative perspectives shut the hell up.
Comparisons between the riots in Urumqi and 9/11 are not quite right (a closer parallel can be found in the race riots which swept US... |
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27 Jul 09
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Bad History Alert: Wu Sike: “Chinese relations with Arabs and Muslims date back to two or three millennia.” In a rambling recitation of CCP talking points an interview with Al-Jazeera, China’s special envoy to the Middle East Wu Sike attempted to mend fences with those in the Islamic world who might have taken umbrage to the Chinese government’s respon... |
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26 Jul 09
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Debate with Fenqing Characteristics… Who cares what we believe, just as long as those with different opinions or alternative perspectives shut the hell up.
I’ve not seen the movie in question, so I’m not judging it good or bad, but I do think the filmmakers and the organizers... |
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21 Jul 09
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On Eclipses and Astronomy in Chinese history Well as most of my China-based readers know, there will be an eclipse tomorrow morning between 8:30 and 9:30 local time. The local news this evening reminded people not to gaze directly into an eclipse without protective goggles. They should have als... |
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13 Jul 09
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Trip Report #2: China’s Most Beautiful Village — Dehang, Hunan Following our misty mountain hop through Zhangjiajie, we traveled south by train to the town of Jishou. Jishou isn’t really anything, it’s a transportation center masquerading as a fugly provincial town, but it’s a convenient gateway t... |
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09 Jul 09
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Hunan Trip Report #1: On hiking in Zhangjiajie, taxi drivers, and other larcenous primates 45 minutes on this particular trail and we realized that there was absolutely nobody else around. It was an odd sensation for two residents of urban China, where every space has eyes and the flow of humanity is a ceaseless feature of the cityscape.
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08 Jul 09
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Ethnic Tensions, Mad Libs, and other dysfunctional relationships I’m back from Hunan and I’ve got some great posts from our trip, but I did want to take a moment and comment on the recent unrest in Urumqi.
The violence on both sides has been shocking and horrifying and only threatens to worsen as... |
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24 Jun 09
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Off to Hunan It’s that time of the year. Or decade. Or something. The stars have finally aligned and YJ and I actually have time off at the same time,* so we’re packing our bags and heading to the birthplace of Chairman Mao, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongta... |
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20 Jun 09
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Iranian Fenqing? The (increasingly nervous) supreme leader of Iran speaking on the demonstrations this week in his country:
The ayatollah reached beyond Iran to criticize “media belonging to Zionists, evil media” for seeking to portray Iran as divided and accused wha... |
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19 Jun 09
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Why I teach history, Part IX: The Middle Kingdom and Middle Earth? Now some teachers will write about their students, sharing odd or quizzical bits from papers and exams for the sake of humor. I wouldn’t do that to my students, but OTHER people’s students…sure, why not?
From an op-ed on China and Nort... |
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18 Jun 09
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“Apologies for the past are due Chinese descendants” California Assemblyman Paul Fong (D – Mountain View) is seeking federal reparations for the discrimination suffered by Chinese immigrants coming to the United States in the 19th and early 20th century.
From the San Jose Mercury News:
Assemblyman... |
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16 Jun 09
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Green Dam, spring break sorority girls, and Jaime Escalante (yes, there IS a connection.) I’m not a tech guy, but I despise state-sponsored censorship, so I’ve been following the epic fail of the Green Dam software with a certain admitted sense of schadenfreude. The whole thing has been a disaster from the start which is rathe... |
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11 Jun 09
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“Asian Poses” This is either an online photographic archive documenting an interesting cultural phenomenon which touches on a host of issues worthy of further study and research…or a fetish site. Could go either way.
(h/t Sinosplice via Adam Schokora vi... |
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10 Jun 09
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Notes from a non-anniversary: The scene from the Square on Thursday morning Half the town on any given day is wearing white. While Wang Dan may have been going for a 'subtle gesture of protest,' it's possible the 'wear white day' idea was a little too subtle. Kind of like: "If you wish to honor the memory of the Tiananmen dead,... |
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10 Jun 09
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Letters of Hu Shi purchased by Chinese government bureau From The People’s Daily Online:
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) bought the rare manuscripts of Hu Shi’s letters at the price of 5,544,000 yuan in China Guardian’s 2009 Spring Auction Saturday. It is the first time... |
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10 Jun 09
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New Global Times Column: Basketball and Sino-US Relations…no, really. Another week another column for The Global Times. (And in case you’re wondering, my soul feels no less decayed than usual.) This one is on basketball with a little foreign relations thrown in by way of metaphor. Enjoy.
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09 Jun 09
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More terracotta army secrets to be revealed Work in the sites around the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi has proceeded in fits and starts since the terracotta soldiers were first discovered in 1974. In recent years, Chinese archaeologists have held at bay local officials eager to develop tourism at al... |
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09 Jun 09
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Asian history online: CHANT (Chinese Ancient Texts Online) Via Asian Studies WWW Monitor:
Chinese Ancient Texts (CHANT) Database
Research Centre for Chinese Ancient Texts, Institute of Chinese
Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK, China.
A description of, a guided tour, and online contents of:
*... |
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09 Jun 09
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Morning Tea: Five books on the US internment of Japanese-Americans…Pomfret on post-Tiananmen China…The Pampered Test-taker History may or may not itself, (The Propellerheads suggest it does, I disagree but I think it comes close enough every once in awhile to scare the bejeezus out of the human race.) But like flu epidemics and movies starring Colin Farrell, certain rhetori... |
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08 Jun 09
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Now that’s a vintage…9000-year old Chinese recreated in Delaware Jim “Beijing” Boyce called my attention to this piece in National Geographic :
A Delaware brewer with a penchant for exotic drinks recently concocted a beer similar to one brewed in China some 9,000 years ago.
Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head... |
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08 Jun 09
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The Historical Record for June 8, 2009: The Anti-Rightist Movement This date in 1957 marked the beginning of the Anti-Rightist Movement, a crusade launched by the party leadership in the wake of Mao’s rather impetuous call to “Let 100 flowers bloom.”
Like a lot of 20th century Chinese history... |
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07 Jun 09
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Afternoon tea: Gaokao, Bride scams, and the “historical bafflement of the Chinese people.” Just a few quick links from over the weekend while YJ gets Sunday dinner on. Best part about pingfang living? Al fresco dining…May to October.
For those of you who don’t have a high-school aged Chinese student living with you (or missed t... |
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04 Jun 09
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Notes from a non-anniversary: The scene from the Square on 6-4-09 Half the town on any given day is wearing white. While Wang Dan may have been going for a 'subtle gesture of protest,' it's possible the 'wear white day' idea was a little too subtle. Kind of like: "If you wish to honor the memory of the Tiananmen dead,... |
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03 Jun 09
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Voices from China’s Past: Sima Qian on the Wisdom of News Blackouts Ed Note: This post is the first by Sean, a graduate school colleague of mine currently in Taiwan doing research for his dissertation. He’s one of the smartest guys I know and I’m really happy to have him contributing here to the Granit... |
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03 Jun 09
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Back in Beijing in the middle of a blackout Last week I was on an extended sojourn to the Russian borderlands of Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. I’m now back in Beijing and seem to have landed into the middle of a history blackout. I’ve said it before, but nothing makes the CCP lo... |
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24 May 09
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Off to the grasslands… Semester is over but the job’s not done…I’ll be heading off for a one-week trek to the northern reaches of Inner Mongolia (Manzhouli, Hulunbeier) to hang with the Evenki people and possibly get trampled by reindeer. Should the latte... |
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21 May 09
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A Beijing graduation The program I teach for in Beijing had their ‘graduation ceremony’ last night, followed by the usual hijinks of ‘China Night.’ Most of the highlights involved inside jokes so I won’t bore you with them here except to sa... |
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20 May 09
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Another reason not to visit Ancient Persia…or really anywhere else in the ancient world Just read an interesting — if grisly — article in Der Speigel on torture in the ancient world (”The Worst Ways to Die“). It’s a catalog of all the various punishments and execution methods from the usual suspects: Romans... |
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16 May 09
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One from the Archives: Gaokao, Exams, and Social Mobility in Chinese History I’ve been following with great interest the discussion about education in China currently going on at James Fallows’ blog. Given the time of the year, it is unsurprising that the conversation has started to turn toward that ominous date... |
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14 May 09
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List of possible embarrassing revelations in Zhao Ziyang Memoirs due out this summer First Elizabeth Edwards, now Zhao Ziyang…if you really want to screw over the people that wronged you, there’s nothing better than a tell-all book.
Prisoner of the State, The memoirs of Zhao Ziyang, the result of hours of taped conversation... |
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04 May 09
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New Column in the Global Times: May Fourth I have a new column up at The Global Times on, appropriate for the day, the legacy of May Fourth. It’s based, in part, on some earlier posts on the same topic, and the main theme — that the spirit of intellectual dynamism which characterize... |
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02 May 09
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From the Granite Studio Archives: Mao and Chiang are walking down the street… Today a user followed this query to the Granite Studio: "How do Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong continue to influence Taiwan and China today?"
It's obviously a complicated question, but it does recall a comment a Beijing acquaintance of mine made the... |
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30 Apr 09
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Calling all American expats in Beijing… One of my students, Courtney from Bennington College in VT, is doing a semester-long ethnographic and anthropological study of the American expatriate community in Beijing. It’s a part of her senior thesis, and she has been combing the cit... |
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29 Apr 09
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From the department of “Where have I heard this before?”: Ming Dynasty warship sunk off Taiwan From the SFist blog:
It was called the Princess Taiping and its mission was to complete a round trip journey from Taiwan to prove that Chinese sailors may have reached North America before Columbus. Well, sadly (but also comically), in the waters just off... |
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28 Apr 09
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Side-stepping the past at Oberlin: Memorials, Symbolism, and the Boxer Uprising The Oberlin Memorial Arch, erected in 1903 to remember 13 missionaries killed in the Boxer Uprising of 1900, has occasionally sparked controversy and debate at this picturesque and progressive Ohio school. As part of the graduation processional rout... |
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23 Apr 09
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Column in the Global Times This week I have a column in the recently unveiled English-language edition of The Global Times. This is a new gig and we’ll see how it goes. The first column is my thoughts on Timothy Garton Ash’s recent piece in The Guardian discussi... |
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18 Apr 09
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The Historical Record for April 18, 2009: A tale of two leaders April 18th marks the beginning of two administrations in Chinese political history. It was on this date in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established his government in Nanjing following the success of the Northern Expedition and a bloody purge of the Commun... |
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17 Apr 09
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Beijing Taxis and the directionally challenged…progress made? Today I flagged a cab to head over to the new US Embassy (a building with all the charm of a medium-security prison for Midwestern tax cheats glorious symbol of American freedom, F–k yeah!) and my driver was perplexed even though I had careful... |
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17 Apr 09
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The Historical Record for April 17, 2009: Treaty of Shimonoseki On April 17, 1895, Japan and the Qing Empire signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ending the Sino-Japanese War. The war had been a disaster for the Qing from start to finish. The war began as the Qing court and the Japanese government vied for the role ... |
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15 Apr 09
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The Historical Record for April 15, 2009: The Death of Hu Yaobang Today marks 20 years since the death of Hu Yaobang, former General Secretary of the CCP and one of Deng Xiaoping’s key allies in inaugurating the Reform and Opening Era. Hu was a fascinating figure, he was one of the youngest survivors (barely) o... |
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13 Apr 09
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Yeah, but “Terracotta Cabana Boys” just doesn’t sell as many tour packages… From Xinhua:
A Chinese history academic is refuting the modern interpretation of the First Emperor’s terracotta army, saying the figures are servants and bodyguards, instead of warriors as many people believe.
“The clay figures should be... |
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