Welcome back to day 3 of the AHC (click here for Part I & Part II)…the stirring conclusion to the 20th Asian History Carnival, and what better day for a grand finale? Today marks the 603rd anniversary of Zheng He’s first voyage and Gavin Menzies will no doubt be celebrating in St. Louis, MO. Why St. Louis? Well, everyone knows that Chinese people eat Chinese food using chopsticks. Most chopsticks are made of wood. Wood grows on trees. Now, it is a little known fact that St. Louis, MO has both Chinese restaurants AND trees. Ergo, Zheng He discovered the Mississippi River and St. Louis, MO. Q.E.D.
On to the links…
What’s an Asian History Carnival without the token Orientalism post? Ryan Morrison at Neojaponism rethinks Said with a little help from Junichiro Tanizaki in “Performance of East West Discourses in Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows.”
There’s a map of China making the rounds whose origins appear to be part of larger piece of “analysis” which those with bigger budgets and an interest in that sort of thing can purchase if so inclined. Frog in a Well however suggests that those who do might not be getting their money’s worth, and in high dudgeon Alan Baumler explains how the map is exhibit #3743 in the robot error of ‘changeless China.’
Also from Frog in a Well these past months, Jonathan Dresner gives us “Studying Emperor Meiji,” which includes a link to his chapter guide, scholar Konrad Lawson, now on the sunny island of Formosa for the summer, writes on “Martial Arts and the Korean Police in 1938,“ Guest contributor Sayaka Chatani blogs about “Korean War Criminals in the Movement to ‘Set History Straight,’” the above-mentioned Alan Baumler has two other posts worth highlighting: “Qing China’s Modern Economy,” and “The Battle of Qufu,” Finally, C.W. Hayford’s “Five Things That Didn’t Happen (But Might Have)” is a must read for fans (or foes) of counter-history.
At her own cheerily titled blog, Prison Notebooks, Sayaka Chatani provides a useful–and dare I say comprehensive–bibliography of sources related to the 1938 Korean Special Volunteer Soldier program.
Nostalgia for the Mao era is one of the more perplexing (for foreigners) phenomenon in modern China, but there are many articles and posts in the Chinese blogosphere that seem almost wistful for a time when corruption was scarce, prices were low, and equality was guaranteed. Okay, so everybody was equally poor, but you get my meaning. Buxi at Blogging for China has a translation of a popular example from this genre, “Prices in the Mao Era: A Peasant’s View.”
Matt at Gusts of Popular Feeling blogs on an obscure 1953 book, I Married a Korean,
Tim Johnson of China Rises has compiled a partial list of Chinese inventions, based on an appendix in the new Simon Winchester book about Joseph Needham.
Frog in a Well contributor, Konrad Lawson writes on his own blog Muninn about anti-Korean sentiment in Taiwan.
Mao Zedong’s daughter in law, General Shao Hua, passed away in Beijing late last month. Xinhua has the (brief) obituary. Has anyone done a book on the Mao kids? It’s striking how little that the Mao family v. 2.0 and v. 3.0 have exploited their positions, especially compared with the progeny of other state leaders known as the “Princeling Clique.”
Some movie madness. My colleague Wu Ming highly recommends the new movie Mongol while Chinese audiences are lining up this week to see the John Woo epic Red Cliff. (Though some are claiming that Director Woo engaged in a little scenery stealing…) On a more intellectual note: Chris at A Ku Indeed! blogs on Confucianism, Taoism, and the films of Kurosawa.
I’ve gotta add a plug: if we’re discussing great epics about Asian History, how can we leave out the Howard Hughes/John Wayne classic…The Conqueror!
From low-brow to high-brow, Xia Shi writing at The China Beat, looks at the 21st century relevance of Qian Zongshu’s 1947 novel, Fortress Besieged (围城).
Michael Turton at The View from Taiwan posts some 1953 images of the People’s Daily that suggest China’s territorial claims haven’t always been consistently maintained in the Party’s mouthpiece/newspaper.
Speaking of mindless government mouthpieces, the CCTV program Culture Express last week posted a report on three new parks in Xian which aim to capture the glories of the Tang Dynasty and “are intended as leisure cites for the people of the city and for tourists.”
A new book has just been published by former Time Magazine and AP photographer Liu Heung Shing. China: A Portrait of a Country is a pictorial record of China since liberation, including rarely seen photographs and archival pictures long since ‘forgotten’ in the PRC. Speaking to the IHT: Liu said “When China won its bid for the Olympics in 2003, that was the catalyst. I said, ‘Wow, it’s going to be China’s coming out party, but what will the world see of China – just Rem Koolhaas’s building and all those fancy cars?’”
It’s been over a decade since Hong Kong returned to China, but that doesn’t mean that issues of identity and nationalism have disappeared. Thomas Crampton interviews journalist Stephen Vines on Hong Kong’s Schizophrenic nationalism.
Peony blogs about cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, and internationalism from the perspective of the Tang Dynasty. A great new blog from a translator based in Japan. Also worth perusing is her four-part series on translation.
The New York Times reports on the Japanese government’s decision to officially recognize the Ainu as an ‘indigenous people.’ (h/t Japundit.) Also from Japundit, Edward Chmura summarizes a study on what Japanese people think are the greatest cultural attributes of Japan. Check out his post “We Japanese…”
The Duke University Library has launched an online collection of historic photographs from China shot between 1917 and 1932 by Sidney Gamble. The searchable site contains over 5000 photographs.
The Washington Post has a story on Hu Jie, a Chinese filmmaker who has made a documentary about Lin Zhao. Ms. Lin was arrested and executed during the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957-1958. She continued writing even while in prison…using her own blood as ink. Fascinating story. (h/t Hao Hao Report)
Finally, while it’s not history yet, the Olympic preparations certainly have a number of us wondering how future historians will remember the Beijing games. My buddy Froog offers his thoughts here and here. (Links contain some PG-13 language.)
[...] Asian History Carnival #20 Part III [...]
Great website! (and thanks for the link)
Topic of your thesis sounds great. Many myths to be debunked in there!
Delayed and spaced over three days it may have been, but damn, that’s gotta be the most comprehenisve round up in the history of the AHC. More than enough in there to keep a man productively distracted for a day or ten. Good on ya.
[...] Asian History Carnival 20, in three parts, is up at Jottings from the Granite Studio: Part I, Part II, Part III! [...]
[...] Chinese history buffs, a treasure trove of links to recent blogging on the Middle Kingdom’s storied past. [Jottings from the Granite [...]