Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Craig Clunas

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 14h

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

1.3K 4.2K 20K

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Buddhas in the West Material Archive @buddhasinthewest.bsky.social · 17h

The Ling Long Chinese Museum in Chicago opened prior to the 1934 World's Fair hoping to draw visitors and help erase the popular view that US Chinatowns were "immoral and dangerous."

The museum housed a large altar in the rear of the main arcade to enshrine an icon of Guanyin. 🧵
🗃️ 📜 #Chicago

The image depicts a colorful interior scene from the Ling Long Chinese Museum, specifically the so-called “Temple of Kung Yin” [sic]. It showcases a seated image of Guanyin on a lotus pedestal. The image is centrally positioned and surrounded by intricate ornamental pillars and panels featuring decorative patterns and red and yellow Chinese text. Two lion statues flank the pedestal, contributing to the symmetrical composition. The background includes a richly decorated wall with intricate artwork. The floor consists of multicolored tiles, adding texture to the scene.
Sort available posts on Bluesky using #Buddhasinthewest | All posts archived here: tinyurl.com/4kmcwp87 🔍 🗃️ 📜

1 11 30

Reposted by Craig Clunas

China Media Project @chinamediaproject.bsky.social · 1d

This one comes with a nice interactive pulldown table of (partial) pen names used in the CCP's official People's Daily. We aim to serve!

5 9

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 1d

I’ve posted JL George furniture before. The firm interests me because they are a good example of a big Shanghai firm that moved to HK in the late-40s. Here a camphor wood-lined & decorated hardwood chest with interior tray made in Shanghai before 1949 at their premises on Avenue Road (Beijing Xi Lu)

2 6

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Catriona Seth @catrionaseth.bsky.social · 4d

This was really fun (see also @thetimes.com)... looking for the real Marie-Antoinette! humanities.web.ox.ac.uk/article/rese...

Research finds 'defining' childhood portrait of Marie Antoinette is really her sister

humanities.web.ox.ac.uk

4 9

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Worn On This Day @wornonthisday.bsky.social · 21h

Worn #onthisday in 1912 by the Olympia Skating Club demonstration team at London's "palatial" Holland Park Rink. "All over the country the skating fever appears to have caught on and it seems to be a healthy form of amusement," the Leicester Chronicle reported in November 1911. #OTD @gettyimages.com

1 4 22

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Richard Taws @richardtaws.bsky.social · 12d

Stellar new issue of Oxford Art Journal in honour of @carscott.bsky.social feat. essays by Alex Potts, Thomas Hughes, Steve Edwards, Katie Scott, Clare Pettitt, Jeremy Melius, Susan Siegfried, Keren Rosa Hammerschlag, T.J.Clark…and of course Caroline herself! academic.oup.com/oaj/issue/48/1

Volume 48 Issue 1 | Oxford Art Journal | Oxford Academic

Publishes innovative critical work in art history from Antiquity to contemporary art practice, with a commitment to the political analysis of visual art and material representation from a variety of t...

academic.oup.com

5 11

Craig Clunas @craigclunas.bsky.social · 1d

"From the Summer Palace"

Queen Olivia III @queenoliviaiii.com · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“The tapes wouldn’t start”

Eleanor G @zaichishka.bsky.social · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“Translate 'yoroshiku onegai shimasu'”.

4

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Dr. Héctor Linares @hectorlinares.bsky.social · 2d

I recently finished reading Mayu Fujikawa’s new exceptional book for an upcoming review. She expertly analyzes a wide variety of visual and material sources to reconstruct and decode the diverse representations of Japanese embassies in premodern Europe.

2 9 33

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Prof Katherine Schofield 🇬🇧🇦🇺🇪🇺 @katherineschof8.bsky.social · 2d

A perennial favourite.

I reckon the bookshop was Galloway & Porter on Sidney Street in Cambridge. Showing my age there.

Poem by Clive James, published in te FT Weekend Magazine:

The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I am pleased.
In vast quantities it has been remaindered.
Like a van-load of counterfeit that had been seized
And sits in piles in a police warehouse,
My enemy’s much-prized effort sits in piles
In the kind of bookshop where remaindering occurs.

12 16 82

Reposted by Craig Clunas

METsky 🏛️ @metsky.bsky.social · 2d

Design for Three Small Elevated Armchairs, early 19th century, by Anonymous, British, 19th century
Class: Drawings
Medium: Pen and ink, brush and wash, watercolor
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/386821

Design for Three Small Elevated Armchairs, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

1

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Prof. Dr. Michael Hö (Sinologist) 何彌夏 🇹🇼🇪🇺🇭🇰 @medievalchina.bsky.social · 2d

#DOTD (11 Oct): Wu Han 吳晗 (1909–1969), #Chinese historian and expert on Ming 明 (1368–1644) history. Author of the play Han Rui (1514–1587) Dismissed from Office 海瑞罷官, for which he was severely attacked and died during the Cultural Revolution #ChineseHistory #文革 #HistoriansTuesday

2 3

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 1d

Only available on microfilm

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 2d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 2d

"The chancellor approved it"

11 26 210

Reposted by Craig Clunas

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 4d

Queen of Hearts, 1909, by Margaret Macdonald, one of the defining artists of the Scottish Arts and Crafts Movement #womensart

Painted artwork of a stylised female figure, a white woman as a queen with a crown and golden robes holding a red rose and surrounded by heart motifs, organic lines and a dashed border

1 60 420

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Jon Howlett @jonhowlett.bsky.social · 4d

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?

What's Good? A Collection of Small Nice Things

Everything is awful, the dynasty is collapsing, and the vibes are fucked. Other people have been here before. Here's a few of Jin Shengtan's favorite things to distract you.

www.burninghou.se

4 14

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Nick Admussen @nadmussen.bsky.social · 4d

The new Nobel laureate Laszlo Krasznahorkai has a pretty interesting novel about traveling to meet contemporary Chinese poets (Xi Chuan, Ouyang Jianghe, others) called _Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens_. Lucas Klein's review in @asiancha.bsky.social here: www.asiancha.com/content/view...

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal - Taken as Strictly True: Neuroscience and Sinology in Destruction and Sorrow beneath the Heavens

Cha is a Hong Kong-based online literary quarterly journal dedicated to publishing quality poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, drama, and reviews written in English, as well as photography an...

www.asiancha.com

1 10 16

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Cha: An Asian Literary Journal @asiancha.bsky.social · 4d

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 to László Krasznahorkai, awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.

While most of Krasznahorkai’s fiction is set in Europe or expresses more universal existential themes, a few of his works reach out to East Asia with striking intensity.

www.facebook.com/AsianCha.Jou...

2 7

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Robert Bickers @bickers.bsky.social · 5d

I've written about the life and just some of the achievements of my former classmate Andy West aka 魏安, Ando, and BabelStone @babelstone.co.uk
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Andy West obituary

Other lives: Expert in encoding scripts for languages

www.theguardian.com

1 12 23

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 5d

An unexpected archaeological discovery in Oxfordshire County Council’s proposed new HQ could transform our understanding of Oxford’s history. Madeline Odent @oldenoughtosay.com unearths a fascinating site – and floats an intriguing possibility…

oxfordclarion.uk/have-we-foun...

Have we found St Frideswide’s Priory?

An unexpected discovery at Oxfordshire County Council’s proposed new HQ could transform our understanding of Oxford’s history. Madeline Odent explains more… Oxfordshire County Council received some u...

oxfordclarion.uk

7 57

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Sarah-Maria Schober @smschober.bsky.social · 6d

Want to work on the history of hair? I am looking for a doc and postdoc to join my project team researching #earlymodern hair, race, trade and multispecies history at the University of Lucerne.

Do apply and spread the word!

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

www.unilu.ch/en/universit...

PhD position in History (100%, 4 years) - Vacancies - University of Lucerne

Assistant or doctoral positions, employment or internship: Looking for a job at the University of Lucerne? Find our listed open positions and apprenticeships here.

www.unilu.ch

5 99 110

Reposted by Craig Clunas

North Ages @northages.bsky.social · 6d

Oct 8: Feast of Cú-Chuimne (†747), monk and scholar of Iona. Together with Ruben of Dairinis, Ireland, he compiled the Collectio canonum Hibernensis, the first systematic western collection of canon law. 📸August Schwerdfeger #medievalsky

Iona Abbey between hills in the background and the sea in the foreground.

2 24

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Ang Li @angli-caa25.bsky.social · 6d

@forarthistory.org.uk

Ang Li @angli-caa25.bsky.social · 12d

CfP for a panel on the polemic of illusion and materiality in the transcultural context for the upcoming AAH annual conference at Cambridge. This panel will be convened by me and Sumi from Kyoto University: forarthistory.org.uk/questioning-...

Questioning the Illusion/Materiality Polemics in a Transcultural Art History - For Art History

Ever since the establishment of the perspectival system in Western art, pictorial illusion has been pitted against materiality. Seminal works such as Erwin Panofsky’s Perspective as Symbolic Form and Hubert Damisch’s A Theory of /Cloud/ have helped to solidify this dichotomy. Panofsky’s Eurocentric perspective may have prevented him from engaging with non-Western examples, while Damisch’s […]

forarthistory.org.uk

1 1

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Paul French @chinarhyming.bsky.social · 6d

A memorial tablet to the Emperor Yongle (reigned 1402-1424) "who moved the urns of empire", photographed c.1923 by "Adam Warwick", the male pseudonym the Peking photographer Juliet Bredon used to get work in America....

2 9

Reposted by Craig Clunas

Association for Art History @forarthistory.org.uk · 6d

We're hiring: Development Manager

We’re looking for a Development Manager to help grow support for the Association for Art History and advance our mission.

⬇️

1 3 3

Reposted by Craig Clunas

The British Academy @britishacademy.bsky.social · 6d

We will be running an ERC Consolidator Grant webinar on 24 November for UK-based researchers in the humanities and social sciences interested in applying for the ERC Consolidator Grants. Find out more and register your interest: https://bit.ly/46RDnVV

A purple colour block banner with the words 'ERC Consolidator Grant webinar’ written on it.

2 3