Patriotic, airminded, Mahjong
Via Peter Harmsen’s WW2 In China blog I found a link to this post from Mahjong Treasures. The post describes a mysterious Mahjong set that left China in t...
Author: Alan Baumler
The Chinese as children of Japan
Above is a nice image that I use in class. I think I got it from Fairbank. I am not quite sure where it comes from, but it is clearly dealing with the Anglo-Jap...
Women and jewlery
Here is a great picture of Madame Chiang Kai-shek via Getty it’s an interesting picture, at least for me, since it ties in with a couple of interesting t...
The Chinese in Chicago
Do you want to see a bunch of old Chicago Tribune pictures of life in Chinatown? Of course you do. Here is Anna May Wong visiting Chicago And Mei Lanfang Protes...
Yuan Mei, Food Network star
As Yuan Mei’s Garden of Accord Food Book is now available in English translation, I have been reading the whole thing. One of the things that strikes me is how...
Folding Beijing
One of the primary sources I assigned for my History of East Asia class this semester was “Folding Beijing” a Chinese science fiction story by Hao J...
The Garden of Accord Food Book
Yuan Mei’s Garden of Accord Food Book has been translated into English. This is one of the classic Chinese texts on cooking, and by reading it I have alre...
Oriental Women
I have been reading about Lee Ya-Ching, who is billed (incorrectly) by Wikipedia as the “First Chinese civilian aviator.” In her various tours of No...
Syllabus blogging
As is something of a tradition here, I am asking for help with my classes. This one is HIST 206 History of East Asia, (i.e. Rice Paddies.) This has not changed ...
Digital Sinology
Looking for something fun to read? Shuge.org has a whole mess of interesting old Chinese books, all totally free to download. So if you want ethnography of mino...
Li Bai and the whale
One of the books I will be using in class this Fall is Sanyan Stories by Feng Menglong. In class we will be using the much condensed version from University of ...
Zhuangzi’s brain
I have been reading Wilt Idema The Resurrected Skeleton: From Zhuangzi to Lu Xun. The book is a translation of various versions of the story of Zhuangzi and th...
Confucianism Today
Taisu Zhang has an interesting piece on China File analyzing the recent Jennifer Pan and Yiqing Xu paper on ideology in China. Zhang is trying to figure out why...
Wang Wei and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
I have been reading Sarah M. Allen’s Shifting Stories: History, Gossip, and Lore in Narratives from Tang Dynasty China. One of the main texts she is look...
Understanding China
Understanding China through Comics Volume 4 is out! As I have reviewed the other volumes, I was sent a free copy of this one. This volume deals with the Ming a...