As many, if not both, of my readers by now know, I have joined forces, Avengers-style, with my fellow China-based bloggers Brendan O’Kane, Dave “Davesgonechina” Lyons, Will “Imagethief” Moss, and Yajun to form a new group blog called Rectified.name. Yes, that’s both the title and the url. It’s been a great experience and I’ve really enjoyed both the opportunities (and challenges) of collaboration.
What does that mean for this space, Jottings from the Granite Studio? Well, I’ve written this blog since 2006 and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it so I’m not going to close up shop anytime soon, but one reason for deciding to team up with Rectified.name was a fear that with teaching, research, and life, maintaining a blog was becoming…work. I started this blog because there were things I wanted to write for which I didn’t have a suitable channel in my academic career. I never wanted it to become something I felt I had to do. Sometime last year I reached the point.
The good news is, however, that writing for Rectified.name has kind of reinvigorated my desire to write and already I’m finding there are things I want to post which might not fit even on a blog as eclectic as Rectified. So, to mix metaphors, while we’ve decided to form a minor China blogging super group (less CSN&Y and more West, Bruce, and Laing) I think I’ll have enough material for some solo efforts that I hope you’ll enjoy. In fact, look for one later this week on Chinese historical teledramas and the Manchu language – the kind of blending of nerd rage and arcane information which was the original point of this blog.
I’ll also be cross posting posts so anything I put on Rectified will also be linked here. Thanks for all of your support.
Ps. In the meantime, check out some of these recent posts from Rectified.name:
The Game of Thrones guide to the 2012 leadership transition, Part 1 and Part 2
Bo Knows Hollywood: Brendan and Jeremiah try to pitch the year’s craziest political story as a potential movie project.
So Bye, Bye Bo Xilai. Tripped up by your wife and a dead Laowai. Because you can never have enough Bo Xilai jokes.
The Last Scoundrels: Translation and commentary on the state of Patriotism in China today.
“Authoritarian modernization always works until quite suddenly it doesn’t”
