miscellany

is feminism MIA?

2006-08-16T14:25:00.000+01:00

You may remember an email petition about Women in Afghanistan that went around in the late 1990s. It was started by a student at Brandeis university, and I recall it became one of those email chain letter/petitions (if you are the 100th person to write your name at
the bottom, send it to whoever) that served no real purpose - other than bringing attention to the plight of women under the Taleban - the 'signatures' were pointless, and not going to be passed on to anyone in a position to do anything. Note that the feminists who campaigned - rightly - about the suffering of women under Taleban tyranny have gone strangely silent now about the treatment of women in other parts of the Middle East (unless they can blame that treatment on the USA or Israel). As Sarah Baxter wonders here are the feminists of the left too blinded by their anti-Bush, anti-Blair anger to see the abuses of women's rights in the Middle East? Cultural relativism leads to ignorant equivalences being drawn.
As a feminist - or as Hezbollah would put it, 'infidel whore who deserves to die' - I feel we need to keep speaking out against women's mistreatment, even - or especially - when it is committed in the name of religion. Any 'feminist' who stands shoulder-to-shoulder
with Hezbollah and their fundamentalist cronies is betraying the concept of 'women's rights'.

word count

2006-08-01T05:14:00.000+01:00

occasional visitors may (or may not) have noticed that while I haven't written much here lately I have been regularly updating my little word count gizmo at the right.

I am NOT one of those people who churn out 200,000 words for their dissertation and then trim it down (unfortunately). So I am limping upwards towards the word count, very very slowly...

The Facebook...

2006-07-07T00:30:00.000+01:00

...is leeching away my life! Yes I am on there, and if you are reading this
you probably are too. See your world in STALKERVISION, who's been
photographed with who, doing what, especially in the photos where they are
in the background and not tagged as being in it.

ah my dissertation

2006-07-06T12:14:00.000+01:00

Well I am in Sydney and in chaotic typical fashion have no idea what
I am doing but that I went to see Superman yesterday and today spent
all day in the library at the art gallery reading about twentieth
century Chinese and Japanese art. The ideas of modernity and how I
can weave it into my nascent dissertation and not sound either
pretentious or like I have no idea what I am talking about (or both).

brief update

2006-05-30T17:02:00.000+01:00

Having received comment that I had not updated this in a while...
I have updated my nifty little word count on the right, showing my avalanche of progress with the dissertation.
Last week I was been giving myself optic nerve damage going through microfilms of newspapers from Japan in the 1920s. Now I am writing various rambling paragraphs that I hope will give the illusion of knowledge.

I am krill

2006-05-12T14:07:00.000+01:00

During the Truth Laid Bear site redesign, my status has fluctuated from wiggly worm to flippery fish and now to 'multicellular microorganism'. Not really so kind to a girl's self esteem!
(so while I disdain those who panhandle on their sites, asking for PayPal donations or Amazon gifts, I am not above asking for some gratuitous linkage - please pull me out of the evolutionary sludge!)

Grad School Barbie

2006-05-10T00:02:00.000+01:00

Graduate School Barbie? from Apartment 11D.

Optional extras should include 'a guide to working at Starbucks' and bill for overdue library books.

the extinction of the blog?

2006-05-09T22:51:00.000+01:00

An odd piece from Crikey about the fading of the blog fad.

They point out the number of 'dead' blogs, with only one or two posts, several years ago. What is more interesting is that these blogs often managed to attract in their short lives an inordinate number of incoming links, which are still carried on other people's sites.

The comparison made for blogging is to CB radio, but surely the more accurate parallel is to shortwave, ham radio enthusiasts being able to broadcast without knowing if they were being listened to or not.

(It used to be that you could send a reply paid coupon to shortwave radio stations and receive back a card. I wrote once to one in Paris and got no reply. My interest in shortwave is for another post however.)

The early death of many blogs is one thing - I've never liked the word 'blog' by the way, even WEB LOG is a bit technical, nobody refers to their personal diary as a LOG.

Online Journal is better, but seems to have been betamaxed by 'blog' unfortunately.

Asian History Carnival #4

2006-05-05T03:00:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the Asian History Carnival #4!

Several Asian history items - including the MIT furore - were included in History Carnival 30 earlier this week and I have not duplicated those here.

Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions!

Debates & Debunking

The Gavin Menzies issue refuses to die, and another crackpot book has just been released.

I am reminded very much of Erik Von Daniken, who was apparently once asked by a journalist, 'Do you really believe in aliens coming to earth?', and responded with 'Have I shown you my Rolls Royce?'.

Meanwhile, a TV drama in China has sparked off online debate

Discoveries

Anand on a curious note among Nehru's papers

Discussion

John Kennedy on how bloggers haven't been discussing the May Fourth movement

The loss of a traditional Cambodian musical form

Popular Gusts on Korea's April Revolution in 1960

Deconstructing the Long March posted at Simon World.

The use of magnets in traditional medicine in the Philippines at Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan

Chapati Mystery discusses how to teach an introduction to South Asia and which books to use.

Kerim at Savage Minds discusses a Taiwanese commercial and its somewhat problematic portrayal of Taiwan's aborigines as living in an eternally static past.

Meanwhile, at Frog in a Well, Konrad Lawson has been looking at a stabbing incident and world history, with regard to what authors choose to emphasise and what they don't.

Stefan and Dave at Blogging...Walk the Talk offers us evidence of the early development of Hong Kong identity.

Also, Stefan talks about the the influence on sailing technology and the history of trade in Singapore.

More Reviews

2006-05-04T12:06:00.000+01:00

See my reviews of the films Prime and Hell at Local Secrets.

Misquoting Thomas Jefferson

2006-05-01T17:53:00.000+01:00

Misattributions of quotes is common - typically if the question is 'Who first said that?' the answer is likely to be Shakespeare, Dorothy Parker, or Oscar Wilde.
Apparently the line 'A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle' is an orphan - while often attributed to Gloria Steinem, she denies it is hers.
Now we have the claim that 'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism', attributed to Thomas Jefferson. Of course it's tremendously useful if you want to claim Jefferson's figurative support for anything dissenting, and cloak yourself in 'patriotism' while so doing.
But as Mark Steyn argues:

'Thomas Jefferson would never have said anything half so witless. There is no virtue in dissent per se. When John F. Kennedy said, "We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty" -- and, believe it or not, that's a real quote, though it's hard to imagine any Massachusetts Democrat saying such a thing today -- I could have yelled out, "Hey, screw you, loser." It would have been "dissent," but it wouldn't have been patriotic, and it's certainly not a useful contribution to the debate.'

read more here

What amuses and puzzles me is how many people are willing to keep using a debunked quote like this one, when any copy of Bartlett's will offer up a wealth of options to get 'support' for any argument from historical figures.

Asian History Carnival

2006-04-29T19:50:00.000+01:00

As some of you know, I contribute to Frog in a Well on the China side. As you may also know, there is an Asian History Carnival, like the History Carnival

I'll be hosting the next edition of the Asian History Carnival here on Friday 5th May. It's held every two months and this will be number 4. So , anything Asian history related that you've come across (or indeed written your good self) since 6th March can be submitted.

Please get any suggestions to me before then by email

2006-04-28T20:22:00.000+01:00

somehow doesn't seem that way...

2006-04-27T13:32:00.000+01:00

You Are Scary

You even scare scary people sometimes!

How Scary Are You?

...I don't stride in through the saloon doors and see people ducking under tables, while a trembling bartender quaveringly asks if I want a drink.

Have you Overheard?

2006-04-22T19:39:00.000+01:00

As a long-time fan and occasional contributor to Overheard in New York, I was surprised to receive an email from Michael Malice announcing his (apparently unwilling) separation from the site, and his establishment of a new one: New York Overheard.

I don't know any of the people involved or what is going on, I assume Mr Malice had the new site in reserve as some kind of a contingency plan: his email implied he had been dismissed that day and yet his new site was already up - new domains usually take at least 24 hours to come onstream if not longer.

I have always admired his witty, literate and sometimes cryptic headlines on the original site so I wish him well with the new one, and another member of the franchise, Overheard at College

The White Countess

2006-04-05T23:41:00.000+01:00

Read my review here, I tend to forget to link here to things I have written that are elsewhere online.

crazy French kids

2006-04-03T17:07:00.000+01:00

Dominic Hilton discusses the incongruity of the French students' rioting here

While the 'fire any young person within the first two years for no reason' policy seems heavy handed (and discriminatory: what about firing ANYONE within the first two years, regardless of age? although given the French 'jobs for life' system, such a policy would fall disproportionately on the young)

The quote from a young French woman that having completed a degree she has EARNED a secure job is breathtaking. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the young people protesting (the university students) are the ones who are going to get jobs: not the youths of the banlieue who are never going to get into the workforce. The fact that these overprivileged middle class kids are effectively kicking away the ladder for their less advantaged peers is apparently lost on them entirely.

background musings

2006-03-20T23:33:00.000Z

Having a soundtrack to my life is great, the unfortunate thing is that it's Jeff Buckley's Grace

2006-03-20T21:47:00.000Z

Your Fortune Is

Man who walk through airport door sideways is going to Bangkok.

The Wacky Fortune Cookie Generator

More on Museums

2006-03-20T21:34:00.000Z

James Delingpole sums up well the gripes I share about museums, and what I have referred to previously here as the 'scratch and sniff' culture. I hope that some of the right people read his essay, but the idea of turning the ship around from the path of various misguided flashing lights and buzzers 'inclusivity' crap is perhaps too much to hope.

A heartfelt, artistic tribute

2006-03-12T20:14:00.000Z

made from lego

Manhattan Adventures

2006-02-12T22:19:00.000Z

Picture it: a girl in Times Square, in the snow, with a phone out of credit and a cancelled flight. Special thanks to American Airlines for the customer care phrase 'you're on your own', and T-Mobile for not accepting foreign credit cards to top up phone accounts. With wet numb feet and blue fingers (the lost glove at Bloomingdales is a story for another day) I went to Duane Reade and bought a recharge card for my phone, which did not work. At which point I gave in and started crying. (did I mention I had been dragging a suitcase the whole time?)

Finally huddled in a Starbucks, on the fourth attempt, the recharge card on the phone worked! And I called a friend and went to stay there.

Conference at Columbia

2006-02-12T09:01:00.000Z

The past two days, I attended the East Asia Grad Conference at Columbia, which I logged briefly at Frog in a Well.

There is always an interesting dynamic at these things, I felt rather overwhelmed when the moderator of my session said that my paper was the 'most ambitious' of all the papers at the conference. Although the prospect of falling on my face is intimidating, the idea that I might be putting together a decent dissertation is also an appealing challenge.

I met several nice people with whom I hope to keep in touch, and also got a few leads to pursue for my research.

on visiting museums

2006-01-18T13:15:00.000Z

Just on another flying visit to Princeton. I have visited a number of museums in the last couple of weeks. I went to the Constitution Centre in Philadelphia and overall found it quite interesting, although much of it aimed at children visiting it was not too basic. The exhibition for Ben Franklin's 300th birthday is certainly worth a visit, for the number of possessions of his, as well as printed material of the time that they have managed to bring together.
I had been looking forward to the Slavery exhibition at the New York Historical Society but it was a bit of a disappointment. The factual accounts, and things like church registers and shipping logs were great, but it did drift a bit too much towards what I call 'scratch and sniff' displays: those aimed at children with press-this-to-hear-the-lion type features. There was also far too much of that at the Smithsonian American History museum, but they did have Julia Child's kitchen which was fun to look at.
I always go through museums wanting more detailed information about what is on display. I don't object too strongly to having child-focused activities, but I am disappointed when this is clearly done at the expense of providing in-depth information. In the past, museums were seen as educational resources, but not just in the sense of destinations for class trips but for adults to educate themselves. Today the focus is so much on children, the idea that adults might want to really learn something seems to have been lost. In the race to avoid talking down to people, they have lost the goal of elevation. Personally if I found a museum's presentation intellectually challenging rather than patronising, I would be more likely to visit that museum in the future.
An interesting contrast is the Natural History Museum in Vienna. This is old-school. Glass cabinets, with a stuffed cheetah shot in 1892 and a card with the latin name on it. Plain facts. Not an 'interpretation'. (Where did this 'interpretation' nonsense come from anyway? Either it's a Zulu spear or it's not. Museums should trust their curatorial staff to know what this stuff is for a FACT instead of offering up some suggestion and calling it an 'interpretation', which is just ridiculous)

in Philadelphia...

2006-01-05T19:34:00.000Z

I am in the fair city of ~~cream cheese~~ brotherly love for the AHA convention (that's the American Historical Association - so for those of you who may have been wondering, my rarely-mentioned-on-this-page dissertation is in that subject).

On Saturday, Manan from the Chapati Mystery site will be in a panel on blogging and history. It promises to be interesting, and I think there are a lot of interesting and useful paths for historians (and other academics) to take with online journals. While I (obviously) don't really use this page for much academic musing, I also contribute to Frog in a Well group blog on Chinese history.

The debate kicked off on the Chronicle some time ago. I have previously commented on the issue. I feel sorry for the original author of the Chronicle article, who seems to have had abuse heaped on him by indignant bloggers, for merely suggesting that, yes, employers will judge you by anything you make publicly available - including a blog. If you are so brilliant an academic that you can write six books a year/have a Nobel prize/walk on water/etc, perhaps you can afford to have a website on which you rant about your allergies (or indeed coworkers). But if you're actually going to be COMPETING for jobs , as most of us are, why on earth would you want to do something that would run a major risk of turning off an employer? Serious academic blogs are useful, and there are many good ones out there. But too many blogs do fall into the "why does nobody understand my allergy to moondust" variety (I could post links and name and shame but I won't) - and it is the authors of these blogs who seem to be the most offended that someone could dare think less of them for it. OTOH, they are probably doing potential employers a favour by offering a n "I'm a weirdo" heads-up.