‘Béri and Kristóf trekked through the forest on the Austrian border under cover of darkness. Béri carried their four-month-old daughter, Zsuzsanna […] and Kristóf two bags, one filled with nappies, bottles and baby clothes, the other with German dictionaries.’
![The "New, Complete and Detailed Map of Taiwan (新撰臺灣明細全圖)" was published in Tokyo by the Kyubei Tsujimoto, bearing an imprint date of July 18, Meiji 28 [1895]. The beautifully rendered and hand-coloured lithograph showcases a reasonably accurate depiction of Taiwan, even if it not scientifically precise. Gone is the former bulbous shape preferred by antebellum cartographers, as the island assumes the elongated, pointed shape familiar to the modern observer. https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~352851~90120086:--New%2C-Complete-and-Detaile?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&mi=7&trs=156&qvq=q:Formosa;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1#](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2ql6xoc2ldggspigh5uscs65/bafkreicrviunojrgjoxgmv3kg5skrrxixi4zhw2ytgiddos7am2w4d4ne4)
The "New, Complete and Detailed Map of Taiwan (新撰臺灣明細全圖)" was published in Tokyo by the Kyubei Tsujimoto, bearing an imprint date of July 18, Meiji 28 [1895]. The beautifully rendered and hand-coloured lithograph showcases a reasonably accurate depiction of Taiwan, even if it not scientifically precise. Gone is the former bulbous shape preferred by antebellum cartographers, as the island assumes the elongated, pointed shape familiar to the modern observer. https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~352851~90120086:--New%2C-Complete-and-Detaile?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&mi=7&trs=156&qvq=q:Formosa;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1#
#Taiwan had never been properly surveyed prior to 1895; early maps depict various bulbous permutations. The new Japanese regime moved with alacrity to create more accurate maps to plan where to deploy resources to suppress local dissent. This was published about 6 weeks after Taiwan became a colony.
A black and white line drawing: Christ crucified, in the centre, is flanked by small biplanes. Below him are Nazi (R) and Fascist (L) troops, and tanks in the foreground. At the margins are barefoot men in shorts, fleeing. A text in Amharic in the upper left corner explains that Fascism and Nazism are defeating the British in the name of Jesus. The text has been translated into Italian in a pencil note at top right.
An extraordinary piece of Italian propaganda from the East African campaign in 1940: fascism and Nazism advance in the name of Christianity, destroying the British and Haile Selassie's supporters
Hey historians 🗃️ : what's your favorite microhistory, and why?
www3.archives.pref.okinawa.jp/VBO/
Transcription and oral history audio from the Battle of Okinawa has been made available on the Okinawa Prefectural Archives website.
A Kansas publishing house sold 300 MILLION affordable books during the Depression. Here are a few
But also, the great poet Langston Hughes apparently spent the summer of 1933 in Shanghai, meeting literary lights and jazz musicians, and in 1937, shortly after the Japanese invasion of China, he published a poem called "Roar, China!" So Li Hua's woodcut is part of this greater arc.
I've posted a linked up list of tables of contents for the 1944-5 issues of Azad Hind, the Japanese-supported Indian National Army and Provisional Government of India's newspaper, issues of which can be found on Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons:
froginawell.net/azad-hind/
Please share! EHR is hosting a free one-day symposium at St John's College, Oxford, on Friday 17 April, 10-6, on the theme 'When there are no sources'.
Further details and how to sign up here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/when-there...
'Turbulence is a concept which plays an important role in fluid dynamics. Once particles reach a certain speed of movement within a channel, turbulence can arise. Spiral-like, producing complex and beautiful patterns, turbulence cannot be entirely predicted and still poses explanatory challenges. The effect of turbulence is to mix particles of different kinds, and this is another reason why engineers find it interesting. For non-scientists, it is more familiar through the effects of wind and water: perhaps the most famous example is the tidal bore that every now and again enables surfers to surf on the River Severn. Clouds, too, produce wonderful turbulent patterns.'
Lyndal Roper on turbulent times.
(Issue 100, @historyworkshop.org.uk) academic.oup.com/hwj/article/...
#1: 知人登陸日本 by 海部陽介
First book of 2026! This volume, translated from Japanese by 李雨青， documents the author's experimental archaeology project to determine whether humans settled the Japanese archipelago by paddling from Taiwan over 30,000 years ago — a fascinating insight into paleolithic seafaring.
Escaping the End of Times by Brigid Vance
Dedication: “For you”
New from the innovative CUHK Press, looking forward to reading this one!
If AI bots looked like this we might actually like them. Photo by Emilipothèse at Unsplash.
AI bots are taking Oxford University websites offline by attempting to scrape scholarly databases. Bodley's Librarian, Richard Ovenden, said: “It's the result of massive bot activity, downloading data at a scale which our infrastructure has found challenging.” status.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/detailed/
Couverture de revue lettrée en bleu clair sur fond blanc : Texte SINOPHONIES Shu-ici SHIn Le concept de «sinophonie» Piette-Mong LIm Les études sinophores, recherche d'un dehors (de la Chine) Coraline JORTAY Décoloniser les études taiwanaises ? Camille Wu Des féminismes incommensurables: Tarwan, Chine, Hongkong Entretion avec Shu-mei SHIn «La Chine a été, et est, un empire!» Pierre-Henri CASTEL Spinozifer la psylacanyse? Francis WOLFF La puissance du temps Benoît BASSE La justice doit-elle savoir pardonner? Philippe BERTHIER Concordia discors: Breton et Graca Julicn BOUTONNIER Journal d'un tfort: Vinclair et le prosimètre REVUE GÉNÉRALE DES PUBLICATIONS FRANÇAISES ET ÉTRANGÈRES
Vient de paraître : le dernier numéro de Critique dédié aux études sinophones coordonné par Pierre-Mong Lim, "Sinophonies"
Avec un entretien avec Shu-mei Shih +divers articles pour comprendre le dialogue qu'elles entretiennent avec les études francophones, féministes, postcoloniales et décoloniales
really exciting that Taiwan Travelogue is nominated for the International Booker! I wrote about Yang Shuang-zi's earlier work, baihe/GL, translation history and intergenerational textuality in 2023 -- open access here ✨ www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10....
In July 1981, the CCP turned 60. Coincidentally, the July issue of Lianhuanhua bao run a comic that contextualized three generations of party members and asked what it actually meant to be a Communist. Read it in original and in my new #ChinaComx translation here: chinacomx.github.io/translations...
“A multi-layered meditation on language & longing & the many ways in which we travel only to arrive where we started.” My review of #InternationalBooker2026 long-listed TAIWAN TRAVELOGUE byYáng Shuāng-zǐ’s @ftweekend.com @andotherstories.bsky.social @thebookerprizes.com
www.ft.com/content/0164...
OTD in 2019, MSC Gülsün, then the largest container ship in the world, was launched.
From the HW archive, Hege Høyer Leivestad explores the shipping container from the ground, and what histories of capitalism might be found in the docks.
‘With sumptuous food writing, laugh-out-loud dialogue and metafictional twists, this novel was impossible to put down.’
– #InternationalBooker2026 judges
Out today in UK and Europe, the International @thebookerprizes.com longlisted Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ (tr. Lin King)🍜
so good. enjoyed this too on printed errors, to spur on your complying adamsmyth.substack.com/p/pronting-e...
I got a discount code for sales of my book in March!
Why did Chinese scientists in 1975 embark on an expedition to discover mermaids?
My new #ChinaComx translation offers answers! It is also a great example of how the Reform Era drive toward mass science popularization was realized on small scale.
Read it here: chinacomx.github.io/translations...
|| NEW CALL FOR PAPERS || To mark the 50th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s death, we are planning an issue on memories and lessons from the Mao era. We invite contributions revisiting overlooked experiences, questioning established interpretations, or reflecting on what Maoist China can teach us today.
A poster with the text: "This talk examines how Japanese settlers reimagined and branded Mt. Asahidake, Hokkado's highest peak, to advance colonial goals. For the Ainu, it was a sacred and distant realm, but after Hokkado's annexation in 1869, settlers replaced Ainu cosmologies with new narratives. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Hokkaido government, educators, journalists, and alpine clubs sought to bring the mountain closer everyday life by promoting its sublime beauty and accessibility, while the Imperial Japanese Army elevated it as a symbol of Japanese spirit. These redefinitions transformed Mt. Asahidake into a symbol of Japanese imperial identity, illustrating how mountains served as tools of dominance and regional assertion within the empire. Chris Tsui Shuen Lau is a historian of modern Japan and a postdoc at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her research focuses on cultural, social, colonial, and global history. Her current project explores modern mountaineering in the Japanese empire, using Mt. Asahidake in Hokkaido and Yushan in Taiwan as case studies to investigate how mountains were reimagined and repurposed for colonial objectives."
Tomorrow at HKU! All are welcome.
A talk by Chris Tsui Shuen Lau: "From Ainu Cosmologies to Imperial Symbols: The Colonial Narratives of Mt. Asahidake in Hokkaido, 1900s-1930s"
Date: March 4, 2026 (Wed)
Time: 17:00-19:00
Venue: CRT-5.41, 5/F, Run Run Shaw Tower,
Centennial Campus, HKU
"Solitude is an elemental necessity of intellectual life, but it has been replaced by a technocratic vision of learning."
Joshua Hall on the work of literary critic Mark Edmundson: lareviewofbooks.org/article/mark-edmundson-l...
Watch now on YouTube: Taoiseach of Ireland @micheal-martin.bsky.social announces Professor Alvin Jackson as first Childers Professor of Irish History @cam.ac.uk
Speeches also from Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice and @lucydelap.bsky.social
@trincolllibcam.bsky.social
🔗 youtu.be/rNynCzuh0CA?...
Blue book cover reading "Immunity on Trial: Ethiopian Courts, Chinese Corporations and Contestations over Sovereignty", Miriam Driessen
Introduction section of the book (available following the link on the publisher's website). It reads: "Introduction Everyone had retreated to rest in the scarce shade when Benli Li mounted a loader parked on the construction site.! He was bantering with an Ethiopian laborer under his direction and dared him to step into the machine's bucket. The worker complied, perhaps hesitant to go against his expatriate manager's request or eager to prove his courage. The Chinese foreman ignited the engine. The machine shot forward. Within moments, the young man lost his balance and landed on the ground. Unable to bring the machine to a halt, Li drove over him. On July 24, 2016, the Supreme Court of Amhara, Ethiopia, summonsed the twenty-six-year-old site supervisor to a hearing of its mobile bench at Debre Tabor, a mountain town in South Gondar. The state prosecutor demanded a prison sentence, charging Li with homicide caused by severe negligence. Li, however, did not appear, and the local police failed to find him. Months went by before the court arranged a new hearing. Yet again, the police officers of Farta Wereda, the rural county in which the incident occurred, visited the Chinese camp and returned empty-handed. They requested another adjournment. "This time", they wrote in their note to the Supreme Court, "we promise that we will bring him to court."3 They failed yet again. As procedure requires, the court then turned to the national press agency. It placed a public summons in the English-language newspaper The Ethiopian Herald and its Amharic counterpart Addis Zemen, calling"
Happy pub day to @driessenmiriam.bsky.social 's "Immunity on Trial: Ethiopian Courts, Chinese Corporations, and Contestations over Sovereignty," a labour of love and heartbreak, with fieldwork in Ethiopia spanning 2011-2020, by a brilliant colleague who's one of the finest anthropologists I know ✨💫
Formosa Files: first English translation of 1898 Austrian traveler in Formosa
www.kaohsiungtimes.com/recently-on-...
‘In 1995, thousands of people attended a three-day outdoor festival in the ruins of a Banqiao distillery.The Taipei International Post-Industrial Arts Festival (臺北國際後工業藝術祭) featured some of the most notorious Taiwanese and international noise groups of that time[..]abrasive noise, and bodily senses’