Teaching Qing History
In comments for the previous post Jonathan Dresner asked if Zelin’s new Merchants of Zigong would be a good book for an undergraduate class on the Qing. I...
Author: Alan Baumler
We have never valued ingenious articles
The generally excellent blog Jottings from the Granite Studio has an interesting post up on practical learning. The post is about the tendency of American unive...
Exporting Maoism
In my Intro to Asian Studies class this semester I am teaching Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Girl From the Coast The story is a fictionalized account of his...
National sudies fever
China’s intellectual world needs to bundle up better, and wear its galoshes, since it tends to catch a lot of “fevers.” The current one is for...
Take grain as the key link
Securing grain supplies and providing food security for the peasants was always one of the main duties of the Chinese state, partly because of their deep concer...
The Buddha goes to war
Xue Yu’s new book Buddhism, War, and Nationalism: Chinese Monks in the Struggle against Japanese Aggressions, 1931-19451 is the first major work I have fo...
Was China stagnant for 700 years?
Brad DeLong has a long post up on the economic history of China. It’s not all that good, but as he is asking for comments people might want to go and give...
Summer must be here
People seem to be too busy doing nothing to post much, but what good is technology if you don’t use it? By a mountain path. Few guests. A huqin‘s so...
Protests and the public sphere
Every society has its own traditions of protest, things that people can do that will get them attention and hopefully enable them to get redress for thei...
The Chinese brand
Daniel Drezner has a post up about the troubles that the Chinese brand name is facing at present. (Dan is thinking about China this week) From tires that kill y...
Drop and give me twenty
While here in Shanghai I have been doing a bit of research. My new project is on 训练 and military training during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and in par...
ILoveShopping
I’m not sure why some people think that posting pictures of the books you just got is blog-worthy, but as I am in Shanghai I have also been testing my wei...
"President" Chiang Kai-shek
So, what is the current status of Chiang Kai-shek in China? He is the most troublesome of the Republican era-figures for the mainland to figure out. Anyone who ...