Jottings from the Granite Studio

This is a subject near and dear to my own heart and research.
On this date in 1856, French missionary Auguste Chapdelaine (1814-1856) was executed in Guangxi province on the orders of the Xilin County magistrate. Prior to 1860, missionaries were forbidden to travel outside of the ‘treaty ports,’ an injunction that many routinely ignored at […]

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Liu Bang becomes Emperor Han Gaozu
On this date in 202 B.C.E., Liu Bang was named emperor of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) following the defeat of his chief rival, Xiang Yu. Previously Liu had used the title “King of the Han,” but after consolidating control over all the territory of the fallen Qin dynasty […]

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I have a new post up at The China Beat on Chinese reactions to foreign criticism, “Prejudice Made Plausible: Foreign Criticism and Chinese Sensitivities.”
Why does concern about the Olympics, criticism of Chinese government policies, or even a news story about the effect of air pollution on athletes, provoke such a visceral response from many Chinese?
Obviously […]

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“People ask for criticism, but they only want praise.” - Somerset Maugham
“As a scientific truth, Marxism fears no criticism.” - Mao Zedong
Like so many other shotgun marriages, by 1956 the relationship between Mao and the Party had begun to suffer from a seven-year itch. Still only in their first decade of rule, the CCP were […]

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I have another post, based also on an observation by Liang Qichao, over at The Peking Duck which will likely generate a bit more commentary than this brief meditation on the joys of urban parks, but after a pleasant post-brunch stroll through Ritan Gongyuan, I thought parks to be worth a post of their own:
As […]

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I flaked on Froog last night. I was completely beat from a day of translating documents and just didn’t have the energy to go out after midnight to watch the FA Cup game between Manchester United and Arsenal. I have a hunch that I’m in for a raft of crap about how my tepid support […]

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…is up at Frog in a Well, Korea. Many thanks to Konrad Lawson for his hard work putting it together and for the kind words directed at this little hobby of mine. I wanted to particularly call people’s attention to the list of online video and audio history resources, kudos for pulling that together.

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This week was Valentine’s Day, and no matter what you think of market-driven holidays, it does provide a good occasion to take your wife out for a quiet dinner in an otherwise hectic week. Wanting to avoid the overpriced and crowded Valentine’s Day “specials” at the Chaoyang restaurants, we decided to go local: Dongcheng style, […]

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Today is the birthday of Emperor Yingzong (r. 1063-1067), born in 1032. Yingzong came to the throne by a somewhat atypical route, he was not the son of his predecessor, Emperor Renzong (r. 1022-1063), who towards the end of his long reign had committed the huge imperial faux pas of getting sick without siring any […]

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Zhou Dynasty founded 557
On this date in 557, Yuwen Hu, a general in the court of the Western Wei Dynasty (535-557), forced the emperor to cede the throne to a cousin, Yuwen Jue, and so began the Zhou Dynasty (557-581). If you’re thinking this sounds familiar, it’s because February 13th marked the founding of another […]

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