Passing the Exams-All in the Family edition
There is a long history of talking about the Ladder of Success in Imperial China, and if the Chinese bureaucracy really was a Career Open to Talent. This was al...
Author: Alan Baumler
Korean sources and look…more Korean sources
For those of you who are interested in such things, our M’eudail Leader, Konrad has added more stuff (links to open access copies of volumes with Japanese...
The 1895 Taiwan Republic and dodgy images
If you want to teach about the rapid spread of “modern” ideas in China after the Sino-Japanese war, the 1895 Taiwan Republic is good to talk about. ...
Qing state capacity
The Qing was quite the Early Modern state, with considerable ability to do things and collect information about how well it was doing. The disastrously expensiv...
Sometimes the flyer is so cool you want to go to the talk
The talk looks interesting too, but it is really the flyer that does it for me.
Oh thank heaven
So apparently 7-11s are becoming a tourist stop in Japan. This actually makes perfect sense to me. I have not done any time in Japan, but I have spent a lot of ...
Teaching in the age of AI -Phantom readings
So, partially because other people are talking about it, and partly because I need to figure out how to deal with AI for next semester. Specifically, I am teach...
Teaching Cao Cao
This semester I am teaching HIST 332 Early China, which goes from Anyang to the Tang.1 One problem with this class is where and how to break it in half. The Sha...
Comparative textbookolgy
One assignment that worked well in this semester’s World History II midterm was having them write comparisons of textbook chapters. The prompt. For this s...
Ignorance is Strength: Or, teaching Laozi in Utah
Utah has apparently become the first state to mandate the Ethics and Public Policy Foundation (EPPF) model legislation on General Education. This will be rolled...
I Wanna be Bob Dylan
A fun book to draw from when teaching modern Japan is Soeda Azembo and Michael Lewis, A Life Adrift: Soeda Azembo, Popular Song and Modern Mass Culture in Japan...
Testing to the teach
Below is the mid-term for my Modern Japan class. You can see the syllabus here. I wanted to think about this a bit, because I am trying to do several things wit...
Yellow Peril!
For those of you who don’t follow American politics, the immigrant scourge is back. This time it is Haitian immigrants eating your pets which has gone fro...
Syllabus Blogging Fall 2024
As is the tradition here, I am posting my syllabi so people can make suggestions, although I m doing so too late to take much advantage of your helpful advice....
Tang cooking
Via Sinologists list, a Chinese news item on a Tang tomb in Taiyuan There is a nice scene of food prep, so if, for teaching purposes, you need a picture of a wo...