The pure land of Tibet and the lothesome Han Chinese
Washington Monthly has an article up on Chinese tourism in Tibet. It is by Pearl Sydenstricker, who is a western (I assume) reporter who does not want to use th...
Category: English
Yes, I watched it.
As Jamie Noguchi said, I see these movies so you don’t have to: my review of 47 Ronin is up at HNN. As expected, it’s a blazing failure, with few de...
Sinology and Simon Leys
New York Review of Books Classics has re-printed Simon Leys’ The Hall of Uselessness: Selected Essays. This makes him the first Sinologist to crack the NY...
Pan-Asianism
Hey, I published something! It is a course reader entitled “Japan, China and Pan-Asianism” I did not write much of it, but it does have my name on it. The reaso...
Confucius does Powerpoint
There is an old Chinese story concerning three young men who are too lazy to study. Their father builds them a hut on a mountain figuring that isolation will h...
How can students relate to Asia?
Miriam Burstein has a typically good post up on her frustrations in dealing with students who want to ‘relate to’ The Tempest. She was frustrated by...
Extra syllabus blogging -Guan Yu meets Qiu Jin on the internet
Bonus syllabus blogging! (( What did you do in a past life to deserve this? )) Since I have received some really good advice about how to teach my classes from ...
Drugs and Empires in Asia -More syllabus blogging
So, as I got some help last time I asked for advice on what to teach next semester, here is what I have for HIST 403 Drugs and Empires in Asia. This is a senior...
Xi'an Walls
The city of Xi’an is in the process of re-building the city wall and adding four new museums, one each for the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties. I was no...
Syllabus blogging for Spring 2014-1
Today is October 10, which is both an important day in Chinese history and also means that I am late in getting in my book orders for Spring. In the past I have...
Vinegar Joe, cartoonist
I did not know that Stillwell’s diaries were transcribed and on-line at the Hoover. Vinegar Joe was the commander of U.S. forces in China during the firs...
The Chinese are topsy-turvy
One common theme that turns up a lot in older Western writings on China is the idea that China is the opposite of the West. Just take our, normal, rational way ...
Kids nowadays…
Need to read more Marx. Well, maybe they don’t, but it would make my job easier. I did a lot of Marx in my undergraduate days at Northern Illinois Univers...
Commander Bradshaw goes to China
Lately I have been going through Project Guttenberg and reading old books set in China. Late at night when you are too tired to go to bed, or in the odd quarter...
Essays (with fewer than 8 legs)
One book that most people here who teach the methods course for majors use is Benjamin’s A Student’s Guide to History. It covers most of the stuff y...