Jeremiah, Author at Jottings from the Granite Studio

“Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Part IV”

January 13, 2016

In one of the great ironies of history, none of the treaties directly deals with the cause of the war: opium. It would take another conflict, the Arrow War of 1856-1860, which resulted in the occupation of Beijing and the looting and burning of the imperial summer palaces, to finally legalize the trade in the narcotic. [Read More...]

In Memory of David Bowie: The China Girl Running Diary

January 12, 2016

In Memory of David Bowie, a running diary of the 1983 Orientalist classic "China Girl." [Read More...]

“Out of Autocracy, Off the Shelves”

January 7, 2016

It is an unfortunate axiom of publishing in China that the best way for your book to gain international attention is to have the Chinese government make it unavailable to domestic readers. Such is the fate of Out of Imperial Autocracy (Zouchu dizhi), the latest book by the eminent public intellectual and economic historian Qin Hui, published earlier this year. [Read More...]

“Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Part III”

January 6, 2016

The HMS Nemesis was 56 meters long and 29 meters wide. She sailed for the China coast in 1839 carrying two guns that fired 32-pound rounds and four that fired six-pound rounds, plus a launcher for rockets and torpedoes. She could operate by either sail or steam, and her shallow draft meant that she could move as effectively on inland rivers as she could in open ocean. Her hull was protected by iron and designed with watertight compartments to keep the ship afloat even if the outer hull was breached. She was a devastating weapon of war. [Read More...]

The Perils of Advising the Empire: Yuan Shikai and Frank Goodnow

December 31, 2015

New post by me at ChinaFile. The Perils of Advising the Empire: Yuan Shikai and Frank Goodnow. [Read More...]

New Post on World of Chinese: Lawyers, Guns, and Money, Part II

December 18, 2015

I started writing a little post for the World of Chinese website on The Opium War. The project has since mutated into a multi-part macro history of drugs and violence on the Chinese coast. I'm having a lot of fun writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it! [Read More...]

New Post on The World of Chinese: “Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money.”

December 10, 2015

I have a new writing gig, I’ll be [Read More...]

Kissing the Smog Monster

December 8, 2015

An FAQ for family, friends, and interested parties on how we cope with Beijing's "Patriotic Mist/Toxic Miasma of Doom" [Read More...]

Sun Yat-sen: The Love Doctor

December 7, 2015

Excerpts from the letters of George "Morrison of Peking" Morrison. The revolutionary Sun Yat-sen is in the midst of mid-life crisis and the head of the YMCA, and family friend to Sun's intended paramour, reaches out to the famous journalist. [Read More...]

The Christmas Convert

November 27, 2015

My wife is a serious professional, with a high pressure job. She is one of the brightest and most rational people I've ever met, well known for her dry and ironic sense of humor. But something about Christmas just brings out the whimsy. [Read More...]