Nicholas Morton’s The Mongol Storm came out October 2022 but I somehow missed it – anyway here we are…
How the Mongol invasions of the Near East reshaped the balance of world power in the Middle Ages.
For centuries, the Crusades have been central to the story of the medieval Near East, but these religious wars are only part of the region’s complex history. As The Mongol Storm reveals, during the same era the Near East was utterly remade by another series of wars: the Mongol invasions.
In a single generation, the Mongols conquered vast swaths of the Near East and upended the region’s geopolitics. Amid the chaos of the Mongol onslaught, long-standing powers such as the Byzantines, the Seljuk Turks, and the crusaders struggled to survive, while new players such as the Ottomans arose to fight back. The Mongol conquests forever transformed the region, while forging closer ties among societies spread across Eurasia.
This is the definitive history of the Mongol assault on the Near East and its enduring global consequences.
Mike Chinoy’s Assignment China is a history of post-1949 American journalism in China….I’m sure many of us will have something to say on some of these journalists!!
Reporting on China has long been one of the most challenging and crucial of journalistic assignments. Foreign correspondents have confronted war, revolution, isolation, internal upheaval, and onerous government restrictions as well as barriers of language, culture, and politics. Nonetheless, American media coverage of China has profoundly influenced U.S. government policy and shaped public opinion not only domestically but also, given the clout and reach of U.S. news organizations, around the world.
This book tells the story of how American journalists have covered China—from the civil war of the 1940s through the COVID-19 pandemic—in their own words. Mike Chinoy assembles a remarkable collection of personal accounts from eminent journalists, including Stanley Karnow, Seymour Topping, Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, Melinda Liu, Nicholas Kristof, Joseph Kahn, Evan Osnos, David Barboza, Amy Qin, and Megha Rajagopalan, among dozens of others. They share behind-the-scenes stories of reporting on historic moments such as Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit in 1972, China’s opening up to the outside world and its emergence as a global superpower, and the crackdowns in Tiananmen Square and Xinjiang. Journalists detail the challenges of covering a complex and secretive society and offer insight into eight decades of tumultuous political, economic, and social change.
At a time of crisis in Sino-American relations, understanding the people who have covered China for the American media and how they have done so is crucial to understanding the news. Through the personal accounts of multiple generations of China correspondents, Assignment China provides that understanding.
The RAS China Journal is now receiving submissions for the 2023 edition. Authors intending to submit an article must send an abstract or article outline to the editor before 31 March 2023, and completed articles will be due 15 June 2023.
The journal generally comprises original unpublished research and observations, essays, book reviews, and other items of interest to our readership. Translations from Chinese into English are also welcome. The scope of the journal is broad: we hope the journal will inform readers about life in China and Asia – past, present and future.
Although authors are welcome to write about any subject of interest to Asia scholars, please note that material contravening the guidelines established by the Chinese government for speech and publications will not be accepted.
For more information about the Royal Asiatic Society and the Journal, please visit https://ras-china.org//
You can view past examples of the RAS Journal at the Royal Asiatic Society China Reading Room at Dongan Lu #888, West Bund, Shanghai. It holds an almost complete set of journals going back to 1858, which document the earliest years of the expatriate community in Shanghai, and the Royal Asiatic Society’s history in China.
GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS
The Royal Asiatic Society China (RAS) publishes the RAS China Journal annually in print and online. The journal comprises original research articles, essays and book reviews on topics of Asian scholarship, with a focus on China.
· All articles must be original and previously unpublished. Articles should be between 3,000 and 8,000 words, including notes and references. Book reviews should contain no more than 2,500 words.
· Authors wishing to have their work considered for inclusion in this year’s journal should first submit, no later than 31 March 2023, an abstract or outline of the intended article to the journal editor, Melinda Liu at: raschina@ras-china.org
· Authors should follow the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) Style Guide when preparing articles, to ensure consistency of style. The MHRA Style Guide is an easy to use and comprehensive guide, and is available as a free download from http://www.mhra.org.uk/style/ Please ensure that British English spelling and grammar rules are used. Articles should be submitted as Word or Pages documents (.doc, .docx, .pages).
· It is the responsibility of an author to obtain any necessary permission for quotation of copyrighted material and for image usage. The author should ensure that permission to reproduce material in all territories and all media (e.g. print and electronic) is granted.
· The text of articles submitted for consideration should be formatted using double-spaced 12-point Times New Roman font. The title of the article and the author’s name should be printed in bold at the top of the document.
· The document file name should include the author’s surname and brief reference to the article’s title.
· Articles should include a reference list to acknowledge work cited, placed at the end of the article and titled “References”. The JRAS does not use bracketed references in the body of an essay. Instead, superscript numbers are used to indicate where other authors’ works are cited in the text, which appear at the end of the article in the Reference section, in the order that they were cited. The reference entries must contain the full reference for the work cited, following the comprehensive guidelines given in the MHRA.
· In addition to numbered references indicating citations of other authors’ works within the text, authors may use footnotes to add brief explanatory notes that will be displayed at the bottom of the relevant page. Authors are requested to keep explanatory footnotes to an absolute minimum.
· Authors submitting essays, which employ a more general tone, may prefer to include a bibliography of appropriate works to inform further reading, in lieu of a reference list.
· All articles are to include an abstract of up to 180 words. The abstract should introduce the major aspects of the article and provide context.
· Authors submitting essays, which employ a more general tone, may prefer to include a bibliography of appropriate works to inform further reading, in lieu of a reference list.
· All articles are to include an abstract of up to 180 words. The abstract should introduce the major aspects of the article and provide context.
· Authors may include images in colour or black and white. In the printed edition, images will appear in black and white, but colour reproductions will be available in the online version. All images should be supplied in separate, well-labelled files in formats such as jpeg or tiff, and should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi (images should be as large as possible). Images should be labelled as “Figures”, and listed in numerical order. A text note in the body of the article should indicate the desired position of each image (eg: [Fig. 1 here]).
· Authors should also include a brief introduction about themselves, including professional and/or academic background and any personal information that relates to their article. This should be no more than a couple of paragraphs (approximately 150 words), and may be edited by the editor to fit with the style of the journal. Authors should not include a CV or a self-portrait photograph.
· Article submission final deadline: 15 June 2023. Please note that authors intending to submit must send an abstract or article outline to the editor before 31 March 2023.
· For further information about the Royal Asiatic Society China Journal and submission of articles, please email Melinda Liu at raschina@ras-china.org
WHAT: “Pearls and Fisheyes: A New Take on Fakes” by art historian Alfreda Murck, an RASBJ online talk followed by Q&A
WHEN: Jan. 18, 2023, Wednesday, 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM Beijing Standard Time
MORE ABOUT THE EVENT: In the first decades of the twentieth century, Reverend DuBois Schanck Morris, while serving as a Presbyterian minister in Anhui Province, acquired almost 500 Chinese paintings. As a novice collector, he purchased some painting purportedly by famous masters that proved to be fake (a circumstance that befell collectors more knowledgeable than Rev. Morris). His collection, which he donated to Princeton University in the 1940s, is a case study of the techniques used to enhance paintings for the market. These techniques included reattributing paintings to famous scholars by changing or effacing the original signature, adding seals of prestigious collectors, repackaging scrolls with new labels, and creating testimonials of authenticity. Some outright forgeries in the collection demonstrate the useful concept of “functional authenticity”: accepting a spurious work in the style of a master because it fits expectations. Despite the dubious paintings—and partly because of them—the DuBois Schanck Morris collection is an important resource for research and exhibition.
This image is a spurious attribution to the Yuan dynasty master Zhao Mengfu, Judging a Horse (Xiang ma tu 相馬圖), undated; 17th–18th century.
HOW MUCH: This event is free for RASBJ members; RMB 50 for members of partner RAS branches; RMB 100 for non-members. Interested in becoming an RASBJ member? Please sign up at https://rasbj.org/membership/
HOW TO JOIN THE EVENT: Please click “Register” or “I will Attend” and follow the instructions. After successful registration you’ll receive a confirmation email with a link to join the event. If you seem not to have received it, please check your spam folder.
Members of partner RAS Branches: Please register 72 hours in advance to allow time for membership verification. You’ll received three emails from us: the first confirming receipt of your registration request, the second requesting payment, and the third confirming receipt of your payment, with a link to join the event. Please check your spam folder to ensure you see all RASBJ emails.
Following on from yesterday’s announcement of my Ultimate China Bookshelf column in conjunction with The China Project let’s kick off with Carl Crow’s 1937 classic, 400 Million Customers….click here
A new year and a new column from me – The Ultimate China Bookshelf in conjunction with The China Project – every week a new book. More details of the column, the Ultimate Shelf and the criteria here. It’s not a ranking but rather a selection of books that, whether we always fully appreciate it or not, have influenced our thinking about China today…Tomorrow I’ll post a link to the first book on the shelf…
Well, just one I reckon. I happened to note that among those books published in 1927 and now coming into the public domain according to US copyright law is HGW Woodhead’s The China Year Book 1926-1927. Now, anyone who has looked at early twentieth century Chinese history will know Woodhead – if you don’t then there is an article I wrote for Visualising China on him here. What I did not know was that as well as a larger-than-life Old China Hand, the editor of the Peking & Tientsin Times, and author of several books Woodhead was also awarded the Order of Leopold II – ‘an order of Belgium established in 1900 and named in honor of King Leopold II. It’s awarded for meritorious service to the sovereign of Belgium, and as a token of his personal goodwill to both Belgians and foreigners, as well as a diplomatic gift of merit.’ Not sure how many other Old China Hands were also Knights of King Leopold II?
Patricia O’Sullivan has been working away writing some amazing women’s history concerning Hong Kong for some time now. As a a writer and researcher on the lesser-known aspects of Hong Kong’s history prior to 1941 she stumbled upon an article concerning the death of her great-uncle in 1918 when he was an inspector in the Hong Kong Police, she quickly became immersed in the social history of colonial Hong Kong. Her research led to her first book, Policing Hong Kong: An Irish History.
She followed this up with a fascinating study of women and the courts in Hong Kong – Women, Crime and the Courts: Hong Kong 1841-1941.
Now, after a break, she’s returing to Hong Kong to speak to Annemarie Evans this weekend (7th & 8th Jan) on her RTHK Radio 3 program on women’s lives in HK’s first prison, also the subject of hertalk on 14th Jan at the TaiKwun arts centre, ‘Incarcerated Women: 90 yrs in Victoria Gaol’. On 12th Jan she is with other authors at the Bookazine branch in Princes Building for an informal session.
