Jottings from the Granite Studio

Interesting new site maintained by Gotelind Müller-Saini from the Institute of Chinese Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Arguing that discourse on history does not just occur in the academy, this new site explores the way Chinese history is portrayed and represented in popular media. The site is in its infancy, with […]

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And I’m not talking about the elections…I have a stack of ‘em on my desk and they’ve gotta find their way back to the students by the time I get on the plane to LA this weekend. Right now, the exams are just sitting there in my inbox staring at me–like some sort of evil […]

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To slake its thirst for natural resources, the PRC–like the Qing Empire whose territorial legacy Beijing continues to claim–looks west.
To satisfy the energy demands of its fast-growing coastal cities, China is building a 4,200-kilometer, or 2,600- mile, pipeline from here that will traverse the craggy steppes and sparsely populated villages of the old Silk Road, […]

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Quick update 1/13/07: A site called Buzz Feed.com picked up this story but I wanted to point out that the post was discussing a historical situation NOT a prediction for the future. (I’m a historian, not a futurist.) ——————————————————————————–From the Reuters China desk–who must be in the middle of a slow news cycle this week–comes […]

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Provocative essay in the LA Times last month by Niall Ferguson, author of Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire. Ferguson’s basic argument is that if America wishes to pursue a policy around the world that apes the empires of the past, then it needs to start looking at why those empires did or did not […]

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I’ve tried to stay out of the fray on the current political dispute in Taiwan. First, I’ve never been there. Second, there are bloggers out there far more in touch with the state of affairs in Taipei than I am.
But yesterday on CDT, I read a Financial Times piece on Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian’s […]

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Nearly six centuries after Zheng He first reached the Horn of Africa, China once again turns its attentions to the African continent.
Leaders of 48 of the 53 African countries, including 40 heads of state, plan to arrive this weekend for perhaps the biggest diplomatic event China has ever organized.
The official purpose […]

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I’ve mentioned it in this space before, but one of my all-time favorite China blogs has to be Big Trouble in Little China written by Brett: native New Yorker, pantheon-level raconteur and bon vivant, and a helluva writer to boot. Of the more recent posts, I’d have to recommend his trip report to the […]

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