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.

#Ming #MingHistory #LocustPlagues

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.

Universities: investing millions so students ”develop literacy in the language of AI” Also universities: defunding the humanities so students are illiterate in ordinary languages

A special issue that I edited on "Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men" (2025) by Patricia Owens has gone to production – I look forward to seeing the collection published @global-ih.bsky.social! It includes five review articles and a reply article by @whitproject.bsky.social

I keep saying this in dept meetings

One country, one system

GovHK had a grand opportunity here to be part of a united community and be an instrument of goodwill to nurture that unity, and they just had to go and blow it, didn't they? But then paranoia will do that. It's like they're so afraid of their own ppl that they see sedition plots everywhere. 1/5

The arrests in Hong Kong right now are déjà vu for mainlanders like me who were active in civil society in the 2000s: citizens demanding investigations and accountability after public disasters are met not with answers, but arrests and intimidation. #mainlandization #香港加速内地化

This

‘What is to be done?’ Important piece about the British Library. ‘… the new interim chief executive … needs to build a top team and board who have a greater understanding of its academic users – knowledge that is currently held by specialist staff rather than the leadership.’

💦

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for October 2025, Part One "Topics targeted include: sentencing of officials over a detainee's death; environmental issues; Nobel Prizes; the deadly crash of a Xiaomi electric vehicle; the re-sentencing of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan …"

As the lack of English secondary literature specifically dedicated to Gongyang Confucianism #公羊學 makes this School of Chinese Philosophy and #Confucianism rather inaccessible, I have decided that it is time for a bibliography post including introductory and more specific works on Gongyang thinkers.

a new small post on 柏舟 ("Cypress Boat") from the Book of Songs (c 600 BCE). My heart is not a mirror To reflect what others will My heart is not a stone It cannot be rolled My heart is not a mat It cannot be folded away 我心匪鑑 不可以茹 我心匪石 不可轉也 我心匪席 不可卷也 #everynightapoem chowleen.substack.com

OutSavvy - To Your Ear - Thursday 13th November 2025 at St Catherine's Church. Find event and ticket information here - www.outsavvy.com/event/30652/...

Ten years of #Mekong Review #Journal #Publishing mekongreview.com/ten-years-of...

It’s getting dark very quickly.

[“Female Student” (女學生)] was one of 240 works included in the 1930 Poetry of Chin-chuan (金川詩草), making Huang the first Taiwanese woman to have her own poetry collection. www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar...

‘He didn’t ask for permission to center his community—he started with his community at the center and asked the rest of us to meet him there.’ Important message to a world that only allows for difference as long as it fits in reasonably smoothly.

More on the PRC and UK Universities: www.theguardian.com/education/20...

This sounds fantastic, Coraline. Looking forward to listening to them. #LiAng #feminism

Wait, is Blue Sky actually HAPPY?!?!?! I forgot we had it in us.

‘“Palestinians have a right to self-determination. They know how to govern themselves. I wouldn’t even say they should be consulted: no, they should have the leading role here. The people for whom this matters most must be at the table.”’ Navi Pillay www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

The Greenhouse @unistavanger.bsky.social is launching an international Masters Program in Public Environmental Humanities from fall 2026! Taught in English. Please share with all your students, #envhist #envhum colleagues! Learn more about the program here: www.uis.no/en/studies/t...

This case would be a farce if it weren't so tragic. Chow Hang-tung and co are being accused of subversion for organising annual candlelight vigils to mourn the Tiananmen Square Massacre dead and seeking justice for them.

UK universities are being driven to bankruptcy because of Tory sledgehammer legacy and the Labour government's apathy and ineptitude. Of course they'll seek funding abroad, and good luck with expecting them to live up to their humanistic rhetoric. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

I actually think the BBC version does a better job of explaining quite how utterly outrageous this whole story is: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"In total, the documents show Sheffield [Hallam University] had earned £3.8m in 2021/22 from China and Hong Kong." That's how little was enough for them to sell out.

Now reversed, but only after eight months of disruption, cancellation of some work, and threats of legal action. Appalling. My former colleague @arthurkaufman.bsky.social interviewed @lauratmurphy.bsky.social about her work in 2022:

This is as bleak as it gets: ‘China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show’ www.bbc.com/news/article...

Palestine 36 is a masterpiece on the 1936 Arab revolt - https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/palestine-36-masterpiece-1936-arab-revolt

Sorry to miss Beijing Forum on AI next week, but glad to be in Paris tomorrow afternoon for a retrospective on 4 years of DISTAM, a French network on Digital Research for African and Asian Area Studies, led by Prof. Marie Bizais-Lillig For those in and around Paris: distam.hypotheses.org/21048

A reminder that we've not seen (new) photos of Joshua Wong in years as not only is he in prison but the authorities have prevented/barred journalists and others from photographing him (and, for that matter, all of Hong Kong's other political prisoners).

Some day I hope we'll learn the full story of how AI got into schools in England via consultancies, government contracts, think tanks and big tech cash, but for now here's a brief thread highlighting a few key actors and activities

This will be a fantastic opportunity to study environmental humanities and put it into practice with an internship partner. Pass this masters study opportunity along to all your students!

AllAboutMacau (論盡媒體) announced that it will shut down December 20, 2025, after the government revoked its publishing license. Journalists have been barred from the Legislative Assembly since October 2024, with three facing criminal charges.

Where is Minnie Chan? Two years after SCMP defence reporter Minnie Chan disappeared in Beijing, her whereabouts remain unknown. In #China, journalists can be held in secret, without legal rights. At @rsf.org we urge Beijing to reveal her location and release her immediately.

This is a really excellent analysis of not just the pressures and dilemmas around LLMs in publishing but also the larger political economy of "AI".

4-year job opportunity in Modern Chinese History at Oxford University (applications close 9 Jan 2026): my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

If you are working at a university in the US or the UK, can you ask the admissions office to stop requesting TOEFL scores from Singapore-educated students? I just heard from one of our most competent MA graduates that they have to submit TOEFL scores to UK/US graduate schools. I was in shock.

Today's post was inspired by @madpoli.bsky.social's recent piece that maps out tools and resources for East Asian Studies featured in The DO 👇 digitalorientalist.com/2025/09/19/a...

Not usual. And thus very newsworthy, and worth reading.

“The deskilling, denigration, and displacement of teachers and scholars have historically been central to fascist takeovers, since educators serve as bulwarks against propaganda, anti-intellectualism, and illiteracy.” — @olivia.science www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

Agreed: ‘Routinely, studies finding that generative AI “tools” make teaching harder, more labour-intensive, and less successful still conclude with suggestions for how teaching must change to fit the “new reality” of generative AI.’

This Friday marked 4 years since journalist Huang Xueqin was detained. She’s serving 5 years for “inciting subversion.” She doesn’t belong in jail. #FreeHuangXueqin Read her landmark report on sexual harassment now available in English www.circle19.org/2018-the-rep...