Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Secure Border: In Canada Religion & Politics Don't Mix, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

The article focuses on the separation of religion and politics in Canada. It cites that Canadian politicians are collectively nervous about introducing religious issues in the political arena. It notes that reelected Prime Minister Stephen Harper has an affirmed intellectual attachment to religion. It states that religion, particularly Catholicism, surfaced at several points during the election, around the editorial table, or in caucus.

China Beatniks In Beijing

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A group of China Beat contributors will be in Beijing this weekend for the Beijing Forum and other events. Jeff Wasserstrom, Ken Pomeranz, Susan Brownell, and Yong Chen will all be speaking at the Forum, which is an annual event that brings together scholars from around the world.

In addition, Jeff Wasserstrom will be making a presentation to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China on “Tales of Two Cities: Public Participation in Urban Politics in Beijing and Shanghai” at 10 a.m. on Monday, November 10. Admission for non-members is 50 RMB. More details are available here (look on the right-hand …

The Last General Of The Red Army, Ed Jocelyn

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

General Xiao Ke, who died last month in Beijing at aged 101, was the last surviving commander of the Chinese Red Army that made the legendary Long March. Only 27 when he led his troops out of their Communist base in south China, Xiao never reached the career heights promised by his youth and ability. Instead, his later life became notable for a commitment to principle that put him at odds with political reality.

Xiao Ke was born in Hunan Province to a scholarly family that had fallen on hard times. Three of his eight brothers and sisters died in …

Obama Elected, China Reacts

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Chinese reactions to Obama’s election range broadly, as exemplified in this morning’s news coverage. Dominant themes include racial equality, financial security, a changing international profile for the U.S., and trade implications. [Please let us know if you find outstanding coverage elsewhere that you feel should be flagged–either by submitting a comment or by sending an email [email protected].]

From Jim Yardley’s piece (it is the last piece before the comments section begins) on Chinese reaction to Obama’s election, at The New York Times:

…Mr. Tang, 23, admitted that the American election had been a serious distraction during his Wednesday morning classes. …

Literature Prizes: Chinese Writers Make The List

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The short list for the Man Asian Literary Prize was announced last week. The Man Prize is awarded to a work that isn’t available in English (the award partly covers translation of the work), but an excerpt translated into English is read by the judges. The award, which debuted last year when it was awarded to Wolf Totemby Jiang Rong, has named another Chinese writer to its short list this year: Yu Hua. For those interested in learning more about Yu Hua and his writing, an excerpt from his nominated work, Brothers, has been posted at the Man Prize website. …

Diplomacy Meets Conflict: Darfur, Sudan And The Limits Of International Diplomacy, Tinacho Chitongo

Global Studies Student Scholarship

Despite claims that the world is generally more developed and stable than previous times in man's history there are places on earth where war is still the name of the game. Tactics such as rape, murder, vandalism and ethnic cleansing are still prevalent. The paper studies the complex issues confronting Africa's largest country, Sudan. The country stands on a fragile ceasefire that ended a 2 decade civil war in 2002. The main focus is on the Darfur region which is in Western Sudan. Rebels there began fighting in 2003 and the region has been something of a conundrum of violence. …

"Our Woman In China": Louisa Lim, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Louisa Lim’s life as National Public Radio’s Shanghai correspondent is characterized by extreme variety. Much like China itself, Lim takes on many roles: hard-hitting investigative reporter, insightful trend spotter, art connoisseur, mother and even restaurateur. It turns out, she’s an excellent email-writer as well.

In a wide-ranging Web 2.0 interview, in between covering the Beijing Olympics and the ever-growing melamine disaster, she described her experiences in her three years as the Beijing correspondent for the BBC and then two with National Public Radio. She talked about the challenges of breaking news but still providing depth of coverage, the West’s growing …

A Better Life In New Shanghai?, Maura Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

During the two years I recently spent in Nanjing as a student at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, Shanghai became an increasingly frequent choice when I needed to get away and wander the streets of China for a bit. With the introduction of CRH express train service in 2007, travel time between Nanjing and Shanghai fell to only two hours, and I rejoiced in the improved accessibility of Shanghai’s malls, restaurants, bookstores, and cultural events. However, I often found that I ended my Shanghai sojourns as eager to return to Nanjing as I had been to leave it only a day or …

China In 2008: What’S Inside

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

While our forthcoming blog-to-book, China in 2008, contains some content that regular China Beat readers will find familiar because versions of the pieces have either run or been linked to at China Beat (though many of these have been expanded or revised also), about one-third of the book is brand-new. Below, find the table of contents listing the essays included in the book’s fifteen chapters. Each chapter also includes additional, brief excerpts from the blog which are not listed here. China in 2008 will be published in early 2009.

Now He Belong To The Ages: Memorializing Abraham Lincoln, Jonathan Jeffrey

SCL Faculty and Staff Publications

Reviled by many of his fellow Kentuckians while he was president, Abraham Lincoln became Kentucky’s, and America’s, idol during the 20th century. The Commonwealth is home to a growing list of notable Lincoln memorials. This article examines the history and folklore surrounding a number of these monuments.

Advocate, November 2008, Vol. [20], No. [3], Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

From the Editor's Desk: The Road Ahead (p. 2)

Political Analysis: The Other November Election, Michael Busch (p. 3)

CUNY News in Brief (p. 3)

Adjuncting: Adjunct Project Wants You to Have More Money!, Renee McGarry and Jesse Goldstein (p. 5)

Grad Life: The Long View from the Ivory Tower, Alison Powell (p. 6)

What’s So Democratic about American Democracy?, Advocate Staff (p. 7)

Forgetting Iraq and the Discourse of Responsibility, Steven Pludwin (p. 9)

What’s Happening to America?, Chalmers Johnson, Bill Ayers, and Amiri Baraka (p. 11)

Book Review: Democracy’s Demons: Inside the Mind of the …

Blogging China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One week ago, China Beat founders Jeff Wasserstrom and Ken Pomeranz participated in a conference at the University of California, Irvine called “Public Spheres, Blogospheres.” The day-long event mixed academics with bloggers (and a few people who could claim both titles) for a discussion about the past and future of blogging. You can download each of the day’s sessions here, and a full list of participants here.

The clip below is very lengthy. If you’d like to speed through to the parts about China, jump to 25:00 (to about 51:00). The session was a comparative one on blogging and the …

China On My Mind: Last Days Of Old Beijing

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few weeks ago, those of us based at UCI had the pleasure of hearing author Michael Meyer talk about his new book, The Last Days of OldBeijing. Accompanied by the evocative photos of Mark Leong, Meyer described his experience living in the ancient hutongs of central Beijing and how he tried to convey that experience–threatened by Beijing’s rapid development–in his recent book. Here, Tom Mullaney, who teaches history at Stanford, chats with Meyer about his book. Scroll down to enjoy Leong’s photos while you listen.

The character “chai” (to demolish) is painted on houses marked for demolition.

If you’d …

Wednesday Reading

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The tainted milk scandal has stayed on the front pages, particularly in recent days as the type of tainted products expanded yet again (to include eggs, see below). Here are a few readings on the subject, in case you missed them:

1. Anna Greenspan wrote this piece on the milk scandal for our forthcoming book,China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, but we’re delighted that its up for reading right now at The Nation. Check it out here.

2.Though most stories on the tainted baby formula have emphasized that its devastating impacts are the result of falling rates of …

Wow In China And The U.S.

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

World of Warcraft (WoW) is the most popular massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) ever created, with more than 10 million players worldwide—half of them in China. Before WoW launched in 2004, conventional wisdom placed the potential playerbase for MMOs numbering in the hundreds of thousands. WoW quickly broke those numbers, drawing in new gamers with its cartoonish graphics, tongue-in-cheek storylines, and mix of collaborative and solo player options. Stories on WoW in China a few years ago emphasized a phenomenon known as “gold farming”—sweatshop laborers in China playing the game to raise in-game currency to then sell for real …

1948 & 2008: The George E. Morrison Lectures And Beijing’S Years Of Great Significance, Geremie R. Barme

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The 69th Morrison Lecture, “Reporting the Olympic Year,” was presented by Jane Macartney, The Times’ correspondent in Beijing, on October 22, 2008. The Morrison Lecture is an annual event in the academic calendar and public program of The Australian National University in Canberra. As 2008 was a major year for China, and Beijing in particular (something that will be marked by an upcoming publication by the editors of China Beat, China 2008: A Year of Great Significance), the Morrison Lecture Committee invited Jane to make this year’s presentation. As Jane noted in her précis of the Lecture, “The Olympics were …

The Best Reporting On The Sichuan Earthquake You’Ll Never See, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Busan, Korea – Pan Jianlin’s documentary about the earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 made a quiet debut on a Sunday morning, at 10 a.m., the third day of this year’s Pusan International Film Festival.

With its not-so-great timing and grim title, Who Killed Our Children was a blip on the festival calendar’s 315 films and 85 world premieres. And if you happened to miss the documentary in Korea, it’s possible you will not have an opportunity to see it again.

Pan’s film’s subject is as simple as its title, examining the collapse of one of the many …

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 1882-1945 (Sc 1786), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1786. Signature of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Governor of New York on unknown official document dated 18 June 1930. Collection contains lower portion of document only.

Ritter, George Kinslow, 1866-1947 (Sc 1782), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1782. Certified tally of votes cast in the Sartain Precinct, Barren County, Kentucky for all the candidates running in the statewide election of November 1899. Signed by George K. Ritter, one of the election judges.

Sampson, Flemon Davis, 1875-1967 (Sc 1792), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1792. Correspondence with family members of Flemon D. Sampson, former governor of Kentucky, and a deed for a large tract of land in eastern Kentucky.

On The Train To Tibet

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As part of our on-going series of reading recommendations and conversations about Tibet and Tibetan history, we are today featuring a short excerpt from occasional China Beat contributor Alex Pasternack about his recent ride on the new train to Tibet. Pasternack writes regularly for Treehugger, where this essay was published in its entirety.

China’s – and the world’s – reach to the highest plateau on earth grew in summer 2006 with the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway (Qingzang Tielu 青藏铁路). An engineering marvel that China itself once ruled impossible, the $4.2 billion line traverses an region known for earthquakes, low …

Wiki-Ing China: The Discussion Continues

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Charles Hayford shared the link to his recent China Beat pieces (Parts 1 and 2) on using (and altering) Wikipedia with the Asia Scholars listserv, H-Asia. A brief discussion ensued there, which included references to several new (to us) resources. Though we won’t mention names or specific discussions, we did want to share some of the resources we learned about as a result of listening in:

1. At this website, Vincent Pollard has written a student guide on internet credibility that could be easily adapted to an exercise on testing/editing/using Wikipedia.

2. One contributor noted a particularly outstanding Wikipedian (not …

Creel, Milton Pinckney, 1851-1913 (Sc 1793), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1793. Two 1898 political letters from Dr. Milton P. Creel, Central City, Kentucky announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the state's Third District U.S. Congressional seat.

China In 2008: A Year Of Great Significance

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last month, we announced our forthcoming book, China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, to be published by Rowman & Littlefield in early 2009. With the manuscript beginning to take its final shape (and 2008 far enough advanced that we felt somewhat—but only somewhat, given what a crazy year it’s been so far—safe beginning to reflect on it), we thought we would share a little bit from the book with you. In the coming weeks, we hope to share with you a preview of the table of contents as well as perhaps snippets of other new pieces from the …

Greatball

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Taiwanese baseball has just been giving a powerful shot in the arm, with three consecutive shots out of the park by the Brother Elephants’ star player Peng Chen-min 彭政閔 during his team’s 7-1 victory over the LaNew Bears in the first game of their playoff series.

For video highlights, please click here. I especially like the announcer’s comments about a home run ball resembling a girlfriend who has just had a change of heart — neither is coming back (In the case of one of Taiwan’s 40-something superstars, Chang Tai-shan 張泰山, this is modified to include a reference to his …

Painted Skin: To Scare Or Not To Scare?, Haiyan Lee

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It may come as a surprise that movies about ghosts and monsters are strictly speaking illegal in China, a land that has given us such an enchanting array of supernatural figures as the White Serpent Lady, the Weaving Girl, the three-headed Nuozha, and, of course, the delightful trickster Monkey. Gods and ghosts do show up on the Chinese screen, but they have to be framed as “characters” of folklore or fanciful creations of the “primitive” mind, something of ethnographic interest but no longer relevant to our sense of self and world. However, if they end up unsettling our secular confidence …

Fakeball

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Taiwan baseball world has been rocked by yet another game-fixing scandal, this time involving the dmedia T-Rex team. A total of three players (including a former MLB pitcher) are out on bail, while some bookies, gangsters, and team officials (including coaches, the assistant manager, and the team spokesman) have been detained. The guilt of those involved has yet to be proven, but there have certainly been some suspicious incidents. During one game on July 11, the dmedia’s normally accurate U.S. hurler lasted only three innings, managing just 32 strikes out of 84 pitches (an almost unheard of ball-strike ratio), …

China Annals: Factory Girls

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last weekend China Beat contributors—and longtime Beijing neighbors—Susan Jakes and Leslie T. Chang caught up to talk about Chang’s newly released book,Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. The book, which builds on stories Chang wrote as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal (and currently garnering glowing reviews and widespread coverage), follows the lives of young rural women making new lives for themselves in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan.

Susan Jakes: How did you decide you wanted to write a book about migrant workers in China? What did you want to try to figure out? …

Jenkins, William Marshall, Jr., 1918-2002 (Sc 1748), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1748. Unpublished manuscript, "Mr. Democrat," written by William Marshall Jenkins Jr. about the political career of Alben W. Barkley, former U.S. Representative and Senator from Kentucky and former Vice President under Harry Truman. Chiefly excerpts from his speeches and remarks made on the floor of the House and Senate.

Part Ii, Improving Wikipedia: Technique And Strategy For China Folk, Charles W. Hayford

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

How do we improve the coverage, reliability, and balance for China? With all the objections listed in my previous post, in the end, clearly we can’t achieve perfection, only make improvements. If you are already participating, you have doubtless come to terms with the culture of the natives; if you now join, remember to respect our perhaps outlandish ways. Like members of any other cult(ure), we have to live with each other. Some Wikipedians are nuts, some are smart and generous, most are trying to be useful, some are all of the above. Wikipedia enthusiasts simply accept that the project …