History Commons^™

China, In Dim Light, Pierre Fuller

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On a train moving across north China last year, a girl, blond hair reaching down to her waist, maybe 15, darted past my bottom perch in the hard sleeper. As much as her hair, it was the colorful ankle-length dress she wore that caught my eye, the kind I’d spotted on girls in places like rural Utah and Nevada. I could have sworn I’d seen an apparition, but settled anyway back into my book.

A House Museum Café: Part 1, Leksa Chmielewski

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In American museums, the museum gift shop or café stands as a constant reminder—before exhibit visits, after them, even in between them—of the dire financial straights in which nonprofits chronically find themselves. Museum gift shops and cafes are multiplying in Chinese museums too, even though the vast majority of Chinese museums are state-affiliated and enjoy full government funding. Chinese academics who work with museums lament that the Chinese museum scene still has much to learn from the American nonprofit-based system—but if that implies budget cuts, layoffs and a proliferation of museum shops selling finger-puppet versions of classic paintings, it’s not …

Liu Xiaobo And The Nobel Peace Prize: Readings And Reactions

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When we heard of Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize win last week, we quickly reached out to a variety of China Beatniks and asked for either their reactions to the news or links to any writings they had done on Liu in the past. Below are some of the responses we received.

Readings On Liu Xiaobo And The Nobel Peace Prize, Part 2

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Many more commentaries about Liu Xiaobo winning the Nobel Peace Prize have been published since we collected an initial round of readings on Friday. Here’s the latest:

First Reactions: Liu Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Here in California, we woke up early this morning to the news that Liu Xiaobo had indeed been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There’s been an outpouring of coverage in the hours since Liu’s win was announced, which will surely continue in the days to come; at the moment, “Liu Xiaobo” and “Nobel Peace Prize” are also in Twitter’s top-ten trending topics worldwide. We’ve been combing through news stories and tweets and put together this quick list of readings:

China’S Population Destiny: The Looming Crisis, Wang Feng

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Observers of China’s rise, when assessing the implications for global peace and prosperity, have largely focused their attention on the country’s economy, on its energy and resource needs, on the environmental consequences of its rapid expansion, and on the nation’s military buildup and strategic ambitions. Yet, underlying all these dazzling changes and monumental concerns is a driving force that has been seriously underappreciated: China’s changing demography.

New Readings On Mega-Events And Matteo Ricci

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Two of the scholarly publications on our radar have new China-related content online:

California Dreamin’ At China’S World’S Fair, Jeffrey Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Shanghai can be a surreal place to visit in ordinary times. This is due to the juxtaposition of buildings, modes of transportation, and lifestyles that seem to belong to not just different decades but different centuries. And this aspect of the city was heightened for me last summer by the presence of the 2010 World Expo.

Coming Distractions: Chinese Whiskers, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Pallavi Aiyar’s 2008 memoir, Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, details the six years she spent living in Beijing, first teaching English and then becoming a reporter for The Hindu. Now stationed in Brussels with the Business Standard, Aiyar’s articles tend to focus on topics such as Belgium’s cultural conflicts and theuneven parallels drawn between India and China. For this reason, I was quite surprised to learn that Aiyar’s second book, to be released by Harper Collins India in early 2011, is a story of Beijing narrated by two cats: Tofu and Soyabean, the protagonists of Chinese Whiskers, share …

Gao Xingjian, Wolfgang Kubin, And The Nobel Prize Debate Ten Years On, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Chinese literature and its significance or insignificance is a continued subject of heated debate in China. From May Fourth, when anti-traditionalist thinkers called on literature to assume a pioneering role in transforming subjects into citizens, to its use as propaganda during World War Two and on both sides of the Strait after 1949, it was seen as a crucial vector of political ideas. During the “Enlightenment” of the 1980s, literature was again called upon to play a central – though politically very different – role in helping society come to terms with the officially still taboo traumas of the Cultural …

Shanghai Mourns Victims Of High-Rise Fire

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Thousands of Shanghai residents gathered on Sunday to mourn the victims of last week’s fire at Jiaozhou Road. Adam Minter has a thoughtful post on the mourning procession (as well as links for further reading) at Shanghai Scrap; Marta Cooper’s blog . . . in Shanghai has photos from the assembly. At the Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report, watch a short video about Sunday’s gathering. On Twitter, users have been marking their thoughts on the fire and its aftermath with the hashtag #jiaozhoulu.

Bill And Warren’S Excellent (Chinese) Adventure, Caroline Reeves

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are throwing a charity banquet in Beijing. On September 29th, the two American tycoons will host a dinner for China’s wealthiest magnates to convince them to give their monies away to charity. This event has caused a stir in the Chinese world. Everyone from movie stars to industry moguls is involved. Doonesbury is talking about it. Some billionaires have publicly declined to dine with the dynamic duo, wondering aloud if the event was planned to publicly part them from their new fortunes. Their response has called into question China’s “charitable impulse” and given rise to …

Anhui’S Barefoot Aids Doctors, Annie Ye Ren

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

For the past four years, I have periodically worked with a Chinese grassroots HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization (NGO) that serves children in Fuyang Prefecture, Anhui Province. The Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association (AOS)gives aid directly to local communities, addressing local needs that are often overlooked or underfunded by large-scale government projects.

Purple Patcher 2010, College Of The Holy Cross

Purple Patcher Yearbook

This is a digitized version of the 2010 Purple Patcher. Physical copies of the Purple Patcher are held by the College of the Holy Cross Archives.

Rubber And Race In Rural Colonial Cambodia (1920s–1954), Michitake Aso

History Faculty Scholarship

THIS ARTICLE TRACES THE DEVELOPMENT OF RUBBER PLANTATIONS IN CAMBODIA and some of their most important consequences for Cambodian society. First, European land claims, often several thousand hectares, and subsequent land clearing radically altered the lives of local peoples and disease ecologies. Second, those engaged in creating plantations were at the same time recreating a rural border society, in particular a racial version of it, and tensions arising from perceived racial differences among the various local groups grew during the colonial period. Third, plantation owners imported large numbers of laborers from northern and central Vietnam thus increasing the circulation of …

Macarthur Highway & Other Relics Of American Empire In The Philippines, Joseph P. Mccallus

Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

"The Last Full Measure Of Devotion": The Battle Of Gettysburg And The New Museum In Schmucker Hall, Bradley R. Hoch, Gerald Christianson

Adams County History

Schmucker Hall offers an unprecedented opportunity to interpret the role of religion in the Civil War and the American expenment in democracy. In particular it can give palpable expression to major themes in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address concerning the battle itself, the conflict as a time of testing, the sacrifices of those who fought here, and the hope these sacrifices bring to the young nation for a new birth of freedom.

Built in 1832 and named for an abolitionist and founder of Gettysburg Seminary, Samuel Simon Schmucker, it is the original structure on the oldest continuously-operating Lutheran seminary in the …

March Into Oblivion: A Footnote, Larry C. Bolin

Adams County History

In the above-titled work in 2006, this writer briefly discussed the possibility that President George Washington traversed present Adams County in October 1794, during his return from Bedford to Philadelphia, a belief long and widely held locally. No credible assertion of the President's presence here in 1794 was possible at that time. Recently however, a forgotten narrative was "rediscovered"; its author, Jacob Eyster, gives some substance to the previous mere speculation. After extensive research, this writer was graciously requested to produce a sequel to his prior speculative writing. [excerpt]

The End Of The Miḥna, John P. Turner

Faculty Scholarship

Why did al-Mutawakkil end the Miḥna? The usual answer to this question assumes that he was acknowledging the inevitable victory of the ulamā. He is seen to be `cutting his losses' by restoring and enforcing orthodoxy as the traditionalist ulamā saw it. In this article I offer a different answer. Al-Mutawakkil ended the Miḥna as one part of his broader effort to establish his position as sovereign and independent of the individuals and structures that had carried over from al-Wāthiq's reign. Eliminating the Miḥna was one strategy deployed in undermining and eliminating the “kingmakers” who had placed him on the …

Independent Republic Quarterly, 2010, Vol. 44, No. 3-4, Horry County Historical Society

The Independent Republic Quarterly

A journal of the Horry County Historical Society, Conway, S.C. Contains local history articles and information covering the entire county. ISSN:0046-8843.

Independent Republic Quarterly, 2010, Vol. 44, No. 1-2, Horry County Historical Society

The Independent Republic Quarterly

A journal of the Horry County Historical Society, Conway, S.C. Contains local history articles and information covering the entire county. ISSN:0046-8843.

Gender And Dormitories At Lindenwood College 1968-1970, A. J. Medlock

Student Scholarship

In the fall of 1969, as a result of the creation of a separate men’s college, Lindenwood College became faced with the problem of intervisitation, the issue of allowing men and women to visit each other in their dorm rooms. The problems of intervisitation at Lindenwood would illustrate the complexities many college administrations experienced with the doctrine of In loco parentis, a Latin term school administrations used to regulate the morals of students. America’s changing social mores forced universities to confront students who demanded control over matters concerning their personal lives, including sexual relations between men and women.

A Statue Gets A Fresh Coat Of Paint: A Glimpse At The Catholic Church And Chicano Activists In The Rio Grande Valley In 1970, Gilberto M. Hinojosa Ph.D

Verbum Incarnatum: An Academic Journal of Social Justice

In December, 1969, at the end of a weekend conference, a group of Mexican American activist students painted a statue of Mary brown, causing an uproar among some priests and faithful. This reaction did not, however, cause the Church to pull back on its commitment to social justice. Indeed, some bishops, priests, and laity took strong positions and acted on issues related to farmworkers and Chicano youth projects in the face of opposition within the Church and among the public. This paper utilizes oral history interviews, newspaper accounts, and documents in archives of the Oblate School of Theology

The Moses Greenleaf Primer, Holly K. Hurd

Friends of OML, Occasional Publications

A childrens "primer" on the life of Moses Greenleaf, Maine's first mapmaker.

I.D.W. Cobb: North Alabama Partisan Ranger, Joseph T. Richardson

Huntsville Historical Review

No abstract provided.

The Redwood, V.106 2009-2010, Santa Clara University

The Redwood

No abstract provided.

Archeological Survey And Survey-Level Testing For The Proposed Juan Seguin Park Plaza Project, Harris County, Texas, Herbert G. Uecker, Nacy F. Porter, Mark B. Wagner, Janet K. Wagner, Carol N. Bookout, Steve Griffin

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

J. K. Wagner and Company, Inc. was retained by Harris County Precinct 2 to provide archeological investigations and historic research for the proposed Juan Seguin Park Plaza Project. The project area is owned by Harris County, and the project will be financed with county funds. The project will consist of new construction to update and modify the existing park.

The proposed Juan Seguin Park Plaza Project area is located on the west side of Texas Highway 134 at the south Lynchburg Ferry landing in east Harris County, Texas, and is approximately two acres in size. As the investigation revealed, the …

National Register Of Historic Places Eligibility Testing Of Site 41le326 Lee County, Texas, Andrea Stahman, Candace Wallace, Linda Ellis, Chris Helligenstein

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Between March 5 and 12, 2007, PBS&J conducted National Register of Historic Places eligibility testing at site 41LE326, under contract to the Texas Department of Transportation Environmental Affairs Division (TxDOT ENV) (CSJ No. 0211-03-032). This investigation was conducted in advance of proposed improvements to U.S. Highway 77 in central Lee County, Texas, under regulations of the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 USC §470 et seq.) and the Antiquities Code of Texas (Title 9, chapter 191, Texas Natural Resource Code). Site 41LE326 is a prehistoric campsite that was initially recorded by PBS&J in October 2006 during a cultural resources …

Intensive Cultural Resources Survey Of The Proposed Wurzbach Parkway Extension Project From Blanco Road To Wetmore Road, Bexar County, Texas, Mary Jo Galindo, Kevin A. Miller, Al Mcgraw

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted an intensive cultural resources survey on behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), of the proposed Wurzbach Parkway Extension Project in San Antonio, Texas. TxDOT proposes to extend the existing Wurzbach Parkway approximately 5.3 miles between Farm-to-Market Road (FM) 2696 (Blanco Road) and Wetmore Road. The undertaking involves the new construction of a four-lane divided roadway within an approximately 250-foot right-of-way (ROW) that is state-owned property. Overall, the Area of Potential Effects (APE) is 27,984 feet long, 250 feet wide, and maximally 10 feet deep. Additionally, the APE covers roughly 51.77 acres of permanent …

Cuatro Vientos- A Reconsideration Of Seven Prehistoric Sites In The Lower Rio Grande Plains Of South Texas Webb County, Steve Carpenter, Michael Chavez, Kevin A. Miller, S. Christopher Caran

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing investigations on seven prehistoric sites located within the Cuatro Vientos roadway project right-of-way in Webb County, Texas. The test excavations, conducted in June 2005, were performed in compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), and the Texas Antiquities Code. The work was designed to assess each site’s potential for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and for designation as State Archeological Landmarks (SAL). The work was performed under Texas Antiquities Permit No. 3755 with Kevin A. …