Jottings from the Granite Studio

First off, Blogspot is blocked…again. I checked out what Chris Amico has done with Eyes East and I’m sorely tempted to go the same route. Until then, I’m back to using proxies. Bastards.

The People’s Daily reports the discovery of 17 tombs in Hebei from the Song and Jin dynasties. The tombs contain a number of artifacts and grave goods. “including 126 copper coins, 15 china utensils, one silver earring, one copper ring, one crystal bead and a brick bearing a man’s portrait.” The brick is of particular interest. It’s about 12 inches x 5 inches with an ink portrait of a man with a long gown, boots, and swords. Archaeologists say that the dress style suggests the figure is from an “ethnic minority.” What that means in the context of a tomb in this location and from that period is anybody’s guess. Fortunately, if they were ethnic minorities, they surely suffered no discrimination. (This I know, because Xinhua they told me so.)

Andrew Leonard at How the World Works takes a look at the applicability of the Environmental Kuznets Curve to the development models in general, and China’s in particular. Leonard’s piece links to this essay from China Dialogue on environmental policies in Jiangsu province.

Finally, I stumbled across a new blog by a fellow PhD student. Cogs and Wheels: The Material Culture of Revolutionary China is written by Amy Barnes, a student of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. I’ve always been interested in material culture even though my own research goes in a different direction. Anyway, check out this post on CultRev Retro Chic. (Note to Amy, Jeremiah at TPD and I are really the same person. Just ask Alfred the butler.)

Oh yeah, returning to the theme I led off with, Cogs and Wheels is a Word Press blog so…you guessed it…blocked in the PRC.