Mass weddings in China-New Life Movement
This is a picture from a New Life Movement Mass Wedding in Nanjing. Couples could be married for a fee of only $20 after filling out a few forms and being check...
Category: Culture
A brief note on Google Culture
Google Culture is apparently producing some original content: “A brief history of Kimono” https://shinpaideshou.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/fun-link-fr...
Who will Xi Jinping be?
If you have been following the Olympics (which I mostly have not) you probably watched the closing ceremonies, and saw Japan’s Prime Minister Abe zip thro...
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...
Reading Note: Oleg Benesch, “Inventing the way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan”
Before I praise Benesch’s book, a complaint: Oxford UP pricing is absurd. Now that’s not unusual for academic hardbacks, monographs that go to libra...
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 ...
Ungraded Love or Double Standards? Stanley Fish, Stephen Asma, and Confucius
Stanley Fish, no stranger to controversy, has a piece on the New York Times online blog, Opinionator, Favoritism Is Good (January 9, 2013). Fish is known for su...
Rustic poetry
The contrast between the center and the periphery is a common theme in Chinese literature. To be an official sent from the capital to the provinces, or a sent-d...
Credentialism and Other Modern Traditions: It's a Post-Authentic World
A note to those who are imprudent enough not to follow the Japanese side of Frog in a Well: Jonathan Dresner has a smart, witty, and informative piece, Credent...
From all the junks, the one I need more is music
Slate has a piece up on the Asian-ization of Western classical music. It’s more historically informed than you might think for a Slate piece, although it ...
Dragons, Dragons Everywhere! But They Don't Shake the World
This week you run across dragons just about everywhere. President Obama welcomed the Year of the Dragon from the White House (here), while Paul French did likew...
Dragons in the News: Is a Long a Dragon?
The Year of the Dragon is upon us – should we be afraid? Around the English speaking world, magazine covers and editorial writers rely on the dragon as a colorf...
Zhang San and Li Si's Excellent Adventure
China Hush reports that the Chinese film and TV industries have been ordered to stop making time-travel dramas, on the grounds that “The producers and wri...
Year of the Hare… um "Rabbit"?
February third is the Lunar New Year, celebrated in East Asia as the New Year or Spring Festival. The Reuters article “Chinese Ready for Upheaval, Sex in ...
Great Expectorations: Puke, Spitting, and Face
What’s the difference between puking and spitting? Is one involuntary and the other on purpose? Joel, at China Hope Live reports that maybe you see the di...