I happened across this cover for the January 1957 edition of China Reconstructs, an ‘external propaganda’ publication for overseas readers. Featuring a flyover from Song Qingling (宋庆龄) in a dove-shaped jet(!), it captures many of the key features of 'external propaganda' (1/8) 🧵 #skystorians #china

This Friday and Saturday (UK time) we'll be hosting a public symposium on "Global Samurai" at SOAS University of London, as part of the programme of the British Museum exhibition "Samurai" Event page, including programme and registration information: www.britishmuseum.org/events/globa...

Out today in the UK buijones.com/books/everyt... … cc @uselesstree.bsky.social @fromtga.bsky.social (should be available at Blackwell’s on Broad Street ) @prashantrao.bsky.social @peterfrankopan.bsky.social (and some London bookstores too)

Just back from #AAS2026 in Vancouver - saw some brilliant research papers, caught up with old friends and met some wonderful people.

Excited to be heading to Vancouver next week for #AAS2026🛫 Come see our panel 'Beyond Immigration Controls: The Politics of (E)migration in Transnational East Asia' - 3.30pm in VCC room 112. I'll be introducing my research on displaced stateless Europeans leaving Mao-era China in the 1950s-1980s.

Monday repost: historians of modern China - come and join us in beautiful York #skystorians

Three-year Lectureship in the History of Modern China - please share widely! jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/lect... #China #Skystorians #History

Good news for the weekend! Four posts in History at York: Lecturer (Modern Middle East after 1800) Lecturer (Medieval History c.1100-1450) Lecturer (Modern China) Associate Lecturer (Modern British History and Public History) Find out all about them here: features.york.ac.uk/history-jobs/

With the Year of the Horse approaching at a canter (sorry…), I was delighted to stumble on this excellent 1983 series of paintings of the Nine Marshals of the People's Republic of China at the brilliant Chineseposters.net. chineseposters.net/themes/nine-... #China #History #Chinesenewyear #horses

Two full PhD scholarships in Hong Kong history at the University of Bristol: www.hkhistory.net/2025/11/17/h...

My daughter Emily (7) is raising money for youth homelessness charity Centrepoint. Please support her if you can! www.justgiving.com/page/howlett...

If your Thursday needs a boost, can I recommend the delightful Jin Shengtan's 金聖嘆 "Thirty-three Nice Things", translated by @bokane.org? www.burninghou.se/p/whats-good — if that’s not nice, what is?

For the Mid-Autumn Festival, I translated the 17th century failson, epicure, and memoirist Zhang Dai's account of the annual Mid-Autumn singing competition on Tiger Hill in Suzhou. www.burninghou.se/p/mid-autumn...

Brilliant new research from York's @mrmhurst.bsky.social on the 88,000 Hong Kong colonial government records that remain at Hanslope Park, contributing new insights on how outgoing colonial officials handled records towards at end of the British Empire. #history www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Brilliant to see York PhD student @mrmhurst.bsky.social win the @chinesestudies.bsky.social Early Career Researcher Prize last week for his work on the Hong Kong colonial government migrated archives at Hanslope Park - huge congrats Matthew!

Great to be welcomed so warmly in Whitehall at the Treasury today putting Uk-China relations in historical perspective (not my usual Tuesday!)

Monday's third annual York Asia Research Network PhD Conference was brilliant - we had 16 speakers from across ten different departments and centres. Their exciting work took us from conserving ponds in northern India to Shakespeare in China and melon seeds in medieval Merv. Thanks everyone!

The British Association for Chinese Studies has announced the call for its 2025 Early Career Researcher Prize www.facebook.com/bacsuk.org.u...

In 1981, the Chinese science-fiction monthly 奥秘 (Aomi) featured Russ Manning’s first run of Star Wars comic strips. Collected and re-arranged to fit a fullpage format, the comics remained virtually identical to their American original—if not for one key difference. Let’s look at one exemplary strip.

Join us at the University of York on 2 April for a research seminar by @viviankonghk.bsky.social with the intriguing title 'In and Out of Marginality: An Anglo-Chinese 'Brothel Keeper' in Cornwall, Hong Kong, and London, 1889-1942'. www.york.ac.uk/history/abou... #York #history #chinesehistory

74 years ago, in March 1951, ‘Rose, Rose I Love You’ (玫瑰玫瑰我愛你), sung by Yao Lee (姚莉, pictured) became the first Chinese record to become a hit in Britain and America. (1/8)

Great to be back at @uobrishistory.bsky.social yesterday to talk to the wonderful Asian History Seminar Group about decolonisation, refugees, Hong Kong and even Tom Hanks at one point... Thanks @bickers.bsky.social, @viviankonghk.bsky.social and @sulinlewis.bsky.social

The National #Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) holds an annual open call for #zodiac prints. Here are this year's winning #snake art 🐍 首獎 蘇宜琳 〈蛇彩繽紛〉: Colorful 優選 黃昱慈〈蛇麼都順〉: May Things Go (Slither) Your Way * homophonous play on words for 蛇: 色 and 什

Opportunity at the University of Glasgow, historians of China particularly encouraged to apply: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer-in-asian-history-c-1500-2000-focussing-on-either-east-asian-history-slash-history-of-china-or-history-of-the-indian-ocean-world-r-and-t-track

After 3 years and multiple job/country changes for us all, THRILLED to announce that the conference of the China Academic Network on Gender is back for a 4th edition! ✨ Join us on 17-18 June in lovely Paris with fab keynote speakers (Howard Chiang and Rachel Harris 💫 ) for "Voicing Gender in China"

A great read to shake off the Xmas-New Year torpor:

A Christmas thread featuring Shanghai, Communists, Christmas trees, and Ded Moroz: -- I was surprised to see this heavily decorated Christmas tree in this collection of New Year posters from 1950s socialist Shanghai: chineseposters.net/posters/d85-...

Here's the unlikely century-long story of how a non-gendered pronoun became gendered, and then got itself re-de-gendered. This one's got everything! Poetry! Grammar! Love songs! Queer communities! Unicode! and ... Y.R. Chao! What more could you want? #langsky 🀄️📚 1/

My new favourite historic form: do you exist? Can you prove it? Do you have a form to say so signed by a church minister, magistrate, doctor or banker?

New blog post by York PhD student Yutong Wang on slums and policing in Shanghai

New to Bluesky: @Vischina -- Historical Photographs of China at the University of Bristol hpcbristol.net

I've put together a list of resources available in English for teaching and research on the People's Republic of China - designed with undergraduate dissertation students in mind: jonhowlett.com/resources/

Finding a new home for another ♻️'d #history thread from THAT PLACE... (original stuff from here on - promise...) Introducing Communist China’s first English-language daily, the Shanghai News #china

Please excuse the recycled content from THE OTHER PLACE but my blank Bluesky wall needs some content. And it is #strictly season again, so why not? Revisiting a book market find: ‘Concise Social Dancing for Beginners, an instructional pamphlet published in Shanghai in 1953: #china #history