Teaching Late Imperial Chinese cultural history
Update So I think I have figured this one out, with a little help from my friends, both here and via e-mail. I will be using Tim Brook’s Troubled Empire t...
Author: Alan Baumler
How to teach classical Chinese thought?
This is more ruminations than anything important, but it is a topic I have been thinking about lately. I usually have to teach Waring States Chinese philosophy ...
Bombing makes China modern
One thing that made China truly modern in 1932 and then again in 1937 was that its cities were being bombed. Here is a cartoon by Sapajou, the White Russian car...
Manhua Journey to the West
I have mentioned Nick Stember before, but now he is doing a full translation of Zhang Guangyu’s manhua version of Journey to the West. This is worth looki...
Literary Detectives (SO-27) OR The Strange Affair of the Flesh of the Bosom
If you have not read David Lodge’s Small World you should. It is a fine comic academic novel. At one point our hero is in a bar with a bunch of drunken Ja...
History of Pigs
As we seem to be the internet center for Chinese history and pigs I thought I would call to your attention Pigs, Pork, and Ham: The Practice of Pig-Farming and ...
The cult of Madame Chiang
Chiang Kai-shek used his wife Soong Mei-ling, as an important part of his attempts to reach out to the Americans and encourage them to see China as a modern nat...
Modern media culture was born in China. In 1931.
Did you know that Charles Lindbergh, the biggest media star of the 1930’s, went to China? Well, I didn’t. He was there in 1931, after he had become ...
Heroes and big swords in Shanghai
The 1932 Shanghai War produced its share of heroes, since any war needs heroes, both for domestic and foreign consumption. I just found two stories of a Chinese...
Salt, China, and Wikipedia
Slate has a post up on the abolition of the Chinese salt monopoly, and they are amazed that something that has existed for 2,600 years is now being abolished. ...
Shen Fu vs. Zhang Daye
One thing I always have to do as a teacher is figure out what books to assign. Since I always find this hard to do, I thought I would think it out in terms of M...
Teaching Asia, Fall 2014
Wow, I forgot to write a syllabus post! There is something of a tradition here at the Frog of posting our syllabai and asking for advice about how to teach a pa...
Teaching in Japan
So, we are getting into the late middle of the Fall semester here in North America. If you are finding the whole teaching thing is getting you down, here is som...
Its hard out there for a party historian
Xie Chuntao, the chief historian at the Central Party School has recently expressed an opinion that some parts of China’s history are closed, and likely t...
Frog in a Well enters the Five Dynasties phase
This blog is currently going through a Tang-Song transition sort of thing: a somewhat confusing period of change from which it emerges better than ever…ma...