Ending this writing session with 800 words *fewer* than it started with...is a win.

It's delightful that Endymion Wilkinson's authorial voice carries over from Chinese History: A Manual to his description of his personal library. chinabooksreview.com/2026/05/12/e...

Whoopsies

13 weeks into my History of East Asia course, 2 weeks to go. All we've got left is the twentieth century.

I know it's poor form to assign my own writing to students, but at least I did it for April Fool's?

🛎️ Postdoc opportunity 🛎️ 2-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in history of medicine and medical humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Deadline April 5th. #histmed #histstm hopkinshistoryofmedicine.org/2026/03/06/j...

no notes

On 4/3 I'll be presenting virtually at KU's symposium on Environmental and Economic Challenges in Global Asia. View schedule and register at the link below. My paper is titled, "A Trans-Diluvian History of Environmental Fragility and Resilience on the North China Plain." ceas.ku.edu/2026-spring-...

Looks like there’s a storm blowing from paradise…

Doing the Arrow War in one class and Tie Xuan in another. Interesting times indeed.

While at AAS, I learned about the recent passing of David Buck. To say his 1978 book on Jinan has been an influence on my work would be an understatement. It really deserves more attention as exemplary of a pivotal moment in the historiography of modern China/Chinese cities. uwm.edu/history/uwm-...

Anyone else airport-reading their way to #aas2026?

During #AAS2026, we will have an Accountability Officer on site to respond to any violations of the AAS Code of Conduct. Review our policies and learn how to report violations: https://www.asianstudies.org/conference/conference-code-of-conduct/

Academic history colleagues, list all the different courses you teach. Mine so far are: 1. History of East Asia 2. Premodern Japan 3. Civil War and Reconstruction in 19th Century China (for majors) 4. Empire and Nation in Modern China (grad) 5. Globalization and Modern East Asia (UG research)

Meanwhile, my historiography class on Civil War and Reconstruction in 19th Century China is getting a bit experimental. The students have caught up(ish) with recent historiographical trends (via Meyer-Fong What Remains). Now we're going back in time to Cohen's classic work on Christianity in China.

After discussion of Peter Thilly's book on the opium trade and Eric Schluessel's Land of Strangers, my Empire and Nation in Modern China class moving on to the 1911 Revolution with Zheng Xiaowei. From rites to rights.

We are advertising 4 jobs at York for historians (1 year medieval, 2 years modern Britain and public history, 3 years modern China, and open ended modern Middle Eastern) features.york.ac.uk/history-jobs/

I will not go down the Alysa Liu-Eileen Gu comparison rabbit hole. I will not go... I do hope someone does, though, and does it in a way that gives full justice to both the complex historical and geopolitical contexts surrounding them and their own individuality.

Trump is 79. The Qianlong emperor was 81 when he held audience with George Macartney. I don't think US empire has reached its nadir. But it feels like we're in a moment that produces events that historians will later interpret (perhaps problematically) as leading toward that nadir.

Me: [explains early 19th century Qing fiscal chicanery to wife] Wife: But it worked out in the end? Me: no.......

And this week we’re on to representation/information with Laura Hostetler and @emok.bsky.social

Temporary Assistant Professor in World History who specializes in eighteenth or early nineteenth century history at Cambridge: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista... plus Temporary Assistant Professor in Global Economic History (1600-1850): www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...

You can take the historian out of Hopkins but not the Hopkins out of the historian?

This week in my Empire and Nation in Modern China class, we're reading parts of Millward's Beyond the Pass, Zhang's Timber and Forestry in Qing China, Herman's "From Land Reclamation to Land Grab," and Jenco and Chappell's "Overlapping Histories, Co-produced Concepts." Should be fun!

@cnn.com website refers to the victim of the ICE shooting as a “suspect.” Suspect of what?

“What does ‘had no union with her’ mean?” Not the sort of Christmas morning excitement I need!

The thrill of something you spent a lot of time working on being useful for another task. Merry Christmas to me!

My first public talk in 2026 will be at Northwestern on February 4, on Orwell & China planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/637043

Final exam was a mix of low-stakes take-home short answers (requiring students to provide references to course materials) and an in-class essay. One positive takeaway is that quite a few students carried over citations from the take-home part into the essay even though I didn't require this.

Preferred utensil for eating cranberry sauce from the can?

With this semester wrapping up, I've got to tie up syllabi for new classes on Civil War and Reconstruction in Nineteenth-Century China (a historiography class for majors) and Empire and Nation in Modern China (for MA students). Should be fun!

E (7) to D (4): One of the things I’m most thankful for is my family. And you’re part of my family.

Personnel Management and Political Reform in Early Nineteenth-Century China - myself, Amy Gordanier, and Hou Yueran presenting, with David Porter @dcporter.bsky.social offering comments. 10:30 am on Saturday 3/14.

My object lesson for Cambridge students when demonstrating the importance of adhesion when writing a comparative essay.

Invulnerability rituals!

A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women 🧵

Historians here: Anyone up for joining a panel on early modern translation practices in science and medicine with me and the wonderful Sare Arıcanlı? It’ll be for the 2026 ESHS–HSS Joint Meeting in Edinburgh. Let me know!

I love to see stuff like this because it helps explain to people trapped in tech-sponsored information bubbles the actually obvious fact that universities teach people to know & think things, and AI is a way to produce the effect of knowing & thinking things w/o actually knowing & thinking them.

What a time to be working on Qing salt merchants...

@umich.edu faculty call for an honorary degree for Trump “We have proven that we have no hard moral principles and no hill on which we will die.” www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...

Subheaders are the new m-dash.

Very disappointed to realize that Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce's restraurant 1587 Prime is an homage to neither mathematics nor late Ming history.

Onto unit three of History of East Asia: Brave Neo-Confucian Worlds.

Qing documents hypothesis: the enjoyment derived from reading an imperial edict is directly proportional to the number of rhetorical questions it contains.

When you've decided this will be the morning you start drafting this section, but you've also arranged for tree work to happen right outside your office window.

If a censor was demoted four ranks but left in post, does that mean his reports would/should be taken more or less seriously?

British colonial officials destroyed countless files before decolonisation. But one colony has been neglected by the literature: Hong Kong. My latest paper in @jich.bsky.social examines the past, present and future of Hong Kong colonial government migrated archives: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Given their strong inclination to bolster (certain kinds of) executive power, calling the Court’s majority “conservative” seems imprecise. Maybe better to call them Tories.

I was just thinking to myself: I love those throwback creamsicle kits. But man, the Bucs got good *right* when they changed.