Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · 5d

In August, I saw media coverage of how most companies are making ZERO money back from AI investments. The only companies making are Nvidia and the like. So, this idea is more than just a BlueSky bubble.

www.axios.com/2025/08/21/a...

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/b...

95% of organizations got zero return on AI investment in MIT study

Companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in generative AI with little to show for it.

www.axios.com

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · 5d

It has been in the headlines for weeks, Bank of England, J. Dimon, all warning that AI stocks are overpriced, and a “correction” is coming sooner or later.

But. Messaging from banks is usually meant to signal something more than to describe objectively.

And the stock market is not the real world.

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Brendan O’Kane @bokane.org · 8d

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...

Mid-Autumn, Tiger Hill, Late Ming

"Everyone was perfectly silent, even the mosquitoes."

www.burninghou.se

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Alexis Lycas @lxslcs.bsky.social · 8d

publication day for my *Documents géographiques de Dunhuang*, a social and cultural history of geographical knowledge, and probably one of the only medieval history books published in France during the ephemeral Lecornu government, which you can freely download here: books.openedition.org/cdf/20307

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Craig Clunas @craigclunas.bsky.social · 14d

Coming (quite) soon
reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/sons-of...

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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham @mauracunningham.bsky.social · 14d

“It’s not about nostalgia; it’s about making sure we remember.” Photographer Song Zeyi visits the abandoned factories of Mao's Third Front—a movement that had consequences for generations of Chinese workers, including Song's own family. At @sixthtone.bsky.social.

The Factory Workers Who Helped Build a Nation

A photographer strives to protect the memory of China’s Third Front Movement and the families who dedicated their lives to it.

www.sixthtone.com

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Chinese Animal Studies Network @casntweets.bsky.social · 14d

CfP for an exciting animal panel at the upcoming Association of Art History Conference (University of Cambridge, 8-10 April 2026). A great opportunity for Chinese animal / art scholars! 🎨🐝🐸

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Chinese Animal Studies Network @casntweets.bsky.social · 14d

Call to submit papers to the Environmental Graduate Symposium at Yale University! Link to submit: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Wolfgang Behr / 畢鶚 (氒/厥/攸) @behrwolf.bsky.social · 15d

12 Phd/ 17 Postdoc positions (fully funded) in the new Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster at LMU Munich: www.lmu.de/crosscultura... (apply by Oct 21).

Planned Research Projects

Here you can find an overview of all research projects and the corresponding job vacancies in the Cross-Cultural Philology Cluster of Excellence.

www.lmu.de

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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 16d

Attention Medievalists: @barbararosenwein.bsky.social (who likely wrote your medieval studies textbook, among many other things) is on Bluesky. Welcome to one of the best historians of premodern emotions that we got!

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · 17d

One of my posts started to attract weird interactions. I deleted it.

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · 18d

Thanks. That’s useful advice.

This dissertation is already defended and deposited. The committee missed it, so all the evidence is now already in the archive.

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · 18d

I am shocked at the malpractice of the advisors.

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eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · Sep 22

One of my favorite poems since childhood, and a poem I share every #autumnequinox.
By the 12thc warrior poet Xin Qiji 辛棄疾, sidelined during peacetime, demoted, drifting through a decade of minor posts in remote lands.
Poetry, then, is that which is left unsaid.
“My, what a cool and lovely autumn.”

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Reposted by Jason Protass

Elke Papelitzky @elkelitzky.bsky.social · 20d

My department is hiring! Apply to join me in Oslo :)
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Tenure-track position in contemporary Chinese society (283182) | University of Oslo

Job title: Tenure-track position in contemporary Chinese society (283182), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, October 27, 2025

www.jobbnorge.no

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Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 21d

My tribute to Paul Cohen as historian & mentor to many www.asianstudies.org/in-memoriam-... cc @lmansley.bsky.social

In Memoriam: Paul A. Cohen (1934-2025) - Association for Asian Studies

Paul A. Cohen, who died on September 15, 2025 at the age of 91, made significant contributions to both the interdisciplinary field of Chinese studies and the discipline of history. The most obvious wa...

www.asianstudies.org

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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 22d

My review of Ayoush Lazikani’s ‘The Medieval Moon’, in the latest @historytoday.com

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Hilde De Weerdt @hildedw.bsky.social · Sep 14

"drastic plans to halve the intake of humanities students at one of China’s most prestigious institutions, Fudan University, divided opinions among scholars." Has anyone seen more on this?

University World News @uniworldnews.bsky.social · Sep 12

China has unveiled a new plan to accelerate highered alignment with national priorities - but some academics & students expressed concern at the sweeping restructuring, Amber Wang reports from Beijing
www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?sto...

New plan to speed up HE alignment with national priorities

China has unveiled a new plan that goes further and faster in aligning higher education with national economic and strategic priorities. Its issue by ...

www.universityworldnews.com

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · Sep 13

Excellent. Thank you!

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Society for the Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasties Studies @ssycds.bsky.social · Sep 11

The Fourth Middle-Period China Humanities conference in Hong Kong, summer 2026. Hope to see many of you there!

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · Sep 6

I remember reading something about mechanical Nianfo by … Natasha Heller, maybe?

And I’ve read about sacred sound and architecturedesign in medieval France, cool work by Sheila Bonde studying how bells and other sound move in valleys and monastery landscapes.

Would be interested to learn more.

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · Sep 6

Updated question : can the garden in China provide ways to think about the environmental ethics of Buddhist temples in Ming-Qing southern China?

Now gathering essays on Buddhist estates as / in / and gardens.

End of a research and writing week.

Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · Aug 27

How do aesthetics connect to environmental ethics?

Has anyone written a study of how Buddhism is figured in early Chinese photography?

End of a long research day.

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Made in China Journal @madeinchinajournal.com · Sep 4

From Sanmenxia and Three Gorges to the Yarlung Tsangpo Dam, China has long relied on monumental hydropower to prove state capacity. @zenel25.bsky.social and @pguer.bsky.social show how such projects, while promising development and security, often deepen the very insecurities they claim to resolve.

The Technopolitics of China’s Yarlung Tsangpo Dam Project and the Paradox of Hydropower | Made in China Journal

Three years after announcing their intent to construct a mega-dam along the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River as part of the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan, Chinese officials gave their approval to proce...

madeinchinajournal.com

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · Aug 29

Just cracked open four double-yolk eggs in a row.

If the odds of one are 1-in-1,000 …. should I buy lottery ticket?

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Jason Protass @protass.bsky.social · Aug 28

One more for the bibliography here, focused on Christian missionary image-making practices. Might make an interesting compare/contrast example to practices of Buddhists.

Joseph W. Ho, /Developing Mission: Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China/ (Cornell, 2022)