Jottings from the Granite Studio

As most are aware, an earthquake last month near Taiwan damaged several undersea cables that–for reasons passing understanding–constituted most of China’s principal internet connection with the rest of the world. The China Daily earlier this month reported that the connection would be up and running again by January 15. I’m not sure why [...]

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Greetings from Tianjin…
Sorry for the lack of posts this week. The internet here, like in much of China, has been spotty at best. I’m three days behind on my emails and my fantasy NBA team is in absolute shambles. I suppose this would be the time to wax philosophical on the meaning of [...]

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I’ve arrived in Beijing. As I stepped onto the jetway I was sure the plane had caught fire during the descent…no, that’s just the pollution, I forgot that Beijing always kind of smells like this.
My early morning flight out of Boston had all the chaos and drama of the last helicopter leaving from [...]

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Sorry for the quiet week, I was traveling for work down to New York and Washington and was a little too busy to post. On top of that, I think I’m getting sick with a sore throat…
But it doesn’t matter because this weekend I’m packing to move back to Beijing on Monday. Actually, YJ and [...]

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Every few weeks we see an article on public manners in China. I’ve written about it recently myself. It’s the LA Times’ turn today. In the run up to 2008, there appears to be no shortage of public campaigns in Beijing against ‘rude behavior’ and ‘backwards habits’ about which to write. But what the articles [...]

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“A man has only one death. That death may be as weighty as Mount Tai, or it may be as light as a goose feather. It all depends upon the way he uses it.”
Sima Qian, China’s most famous historian, and one of the greatest historians the world has ever known, wrote these words in [...]

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I’m in New Hampshire this week visiting family. Last saturday it was snowing: a full on late December snow squall that covered the whole state in white.
Today it was 69 degrees (21 celsius) at Manchester Airport. In New Hampshire. In January. I swear I saw a polar bear treading water in the Merrimack River.
Now I [...]

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Via CDT, an interesting piece that argues the Tang dynasty may have been done in by climate change. (The full report can be found in the journal Nature, but is available to subscribers only.)
According to a collaborative effort between scientists from Germany and China, between 700 and 900 CE the climate changed, the winter monsoon [...]

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According to this morning’s edition of Inside Higher Education, it’s not that easy getting in and once you’re there, be prepared to stay awhile.
Citing a study by the American Historical Association, IHE reports:
History departments in the United States with doctoral programs received an average of 74.1 applications for the fall 2007 term and anticipate enrolling [...]

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YJ called me this morning and asked, “What does ‘epitomize’ mean?”
“集大成, I guess?”
“Oh, okay.”
I wondered about the random vocab word, until I read the China Law Blog today. YJ and I usually read the CLB daily but I’d been busy the last few days and so had not had the chance to read this [...]

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