The mountains of Myanmar, beautiful, bountiful, terrain that has protected some of the ethnic resistance groups for decades. Threatened by explotation.
Edith in her latest #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar history thread gives a great overview of the part mountains have played in Myanmar's past & present.
Black and white Photo of Deng Yuzhi with caption (white on grey): Labour Activist and Christian Diplomat: Deng Yuzhi's International Thought. A SOAS History Seminar with Jennifer Bond (UCL), Wed 15 APril 2026, 5pm, C426 Image: public domain - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deng_Yuzhi#/media/File:%E9%84%A7%E8%A3%95%E5%BF%97.jpg
We are happy to announce our next SOAS History seminar on Wednesday 15 April 2026, 5pm in C426 or online.
Jennifer Bond (UCL) will speak about 'Labour Activist and Christian Diplomat: Deng Yuzhi's International Thought'.
Go to www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/... for more info and registration link.
Remembering Harriet Zurndorfer (1946-2026)
Longtime Association for Asian Studies member Harriet Zurndorfer passed away on 18 March 2026 in Leiden. Harriet arrived at Berkeley to study Chinese history in the late 1960s....
#国际妇女节
向失去自由的女性人权捍卫者致敬！
Black and white photo of Marjane Satrapi with the quote: "The world is not divided between East and West. You are American. I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same."
Once again.
This is critically important for our future. The struggle over ethical parameters for AI use will determine whether authoritarian states can enact mass surveillance of their populations at granular level and allow machines to decide to kill people.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Mozilla will allow Firefox users to entirely block current and future generative AI features on the browser after user feedback revealed many who wanted an AI-free browser experience.
On Feb 7 2020, Dr Li Wenliang, known as one of the first whistleblowers on COVID, died from the disease in Wuhan.
How is environmental history doing in Asia? It's thriving! Read Mu Cao's beautiful account of the Asian Association for Environmental History (AAEH) conference in Japan last year.
AAEH is a biennial conference, so keep an eye out for the next one in 2027!
#envhist #envhum #history
I have done so little For you. And you have do little For me. That we have good reason Never to agree. I, however, Have such meagre power, Clutching at a Moment, While you control An hour. But your hour is A stone. My moment is A flower. -Langston Hughes, "Poet to Bigot"
I, however,
Have such meagre power,
Clutching at a
Moment,
While you control
An hour.
But your hour is
A stone.
My moment is
A flower.
-Langston Hughes, "Poet to Bigot"
#everynightapoem As ever.
It's now January 24th in Hong Kong, which means it's Chow Hang-tung's 41st birthday. First arrested on June 4th, 2021, for promoting an unauthorised assembly on the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, she has spent her 37th, 38th, 39th, 40th and now 41st birthday behind bars.
Eight years ago today, bookseller Gui Minhai was arrested again and later sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Chinese Communist government. Since January 2018, his family has been unaware of his whereabouts and health status.
N.B. Gui is a Swedish citizen who was "disappeared" in Thailand.
‘This is the destruction of one civilization by another’ (Liu Tuo) - in the name of misguided ‘development’.
#resettlement
#SacredLandscapes
#heritage
What an amazing, moving interview: ‘Jimmy Lai’s last interview as a free man in 2020’
This billionaire tested China's limits. It cost him his freedom www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Oooh I have some fun material here. One of the things HKers did to support the paper financially was to buy up classified ads, which became a whole new genre of soft-protest. A small thread -
The eight Palestine Action hunger strikers have now been held without trial for months, and three have been hospitalised. Here's a toolkit with 11 proposed actions you can take to support them.
Just published: OA piece about #inclusion and #attainment in HE based on concrete practice at #SOAS by my fabulous colleagues @e-newbigin.bsky.social and Sarah Tucker:
One country, one system.
If Xi had any decency, which he doesn’t, he would let Lai live out his life in exile.
Prominent Tibetan Buddhist reincarnate lama and educator from Amdo detained and his vocational school abruptly closed, with families instructed to collect their children immediately. Report: tibetwatch.org/prominent-bu...
Jimmy Lai turned 78 today. He is still behind bars -- specifically, in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Hong Kong -- and his national security law trial has yet to conclude.
Certainly within the university context it’s a clear sign than the system needs to change to become genuinely inclusive. It’s the lack of flexibility, the failure to allow divergence, that is pathologising.
