mrg
@mrg.name
Just some guy with a camera.
Also, I've got a {Chinese, classical Chinese, Italian, Japanese} dictionary and I'm not afraid to use it.
Also, I've got a {Chinese, classical Chinese, Italian, Japanese} dictionary and I'm not afraid to use it.
Reposted by mrg
“You’ll be visited by three spirits.”
The three spirits:
The three spirits:
November 28, 2025 at 4:27 PM
“You’ll be visited by three spirits.”
The three spirits:
The three spirits:
Reposted by mrg
A bilingual Dano-Norwegian/northern Sámi catechism from 1728, afaik the first printed book in Northern Sámi
November 25, 2025 at 10:01 AM
A bilingual Dano-Norwegian/northern Sámi catechism from 1728, afaik the first printed book in Northern Sámi
Reposted by mrg
The Useless Tree is back!
At least for now. I just posted a long piece on my experience last year at the Tenth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations. Come for the politics of Confucian revival, stay for some jabs at Jeffrey Sachs. Good times!
uselesstree.blog/2025/11/22/r...
At least for now. I just posted a long piece on my experience last year at the Tenth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations. Come for the politics of Confucian revival, stay for some jabs at Jeffrey Sachs. Good times!
uselesstree.blog/2025/11/22/r...
Reclaiming Confucius from Autocracy
The largest statue of Confucius in the world, in stolid brass, looms 236 feet above the neighboring sprawl of the Nishan Center for World Confucian Studies just outside of Qufu, Shandong Province. …
uselesstree.blog
November 22, 2025 at 7:41 PM
The Useless Tree is back!
At least for now. I just posted a long piece on my experience last year at the Tenth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations. Come for the politics of Confucian revival, stay for some jabs at Jeffrey Sachs. Good times!
uselesstree.blog/2025/11/22/r...
At least for now. I just posted a long piece on my experience last year at the Tenth Nishan Forum on World Civilizations. Come for the politics of Confucian revival, stay for some jabs at Jeffrey Sachs. Good times!
uselesstree.blog/2025/11/22/r...
Reposted by mrg
piccola lezione
la giacca che indossa Liu Jinsong non è quella alla Mao
nota come "abito Zhongshan"
segue per chi fosse interessato
la spiegazione dettagliata del significato della
"giacca alla Mao"
le quattro tasche del vero "abito Zhongshan" simboleggiano le quattro dimensioni del paese 👇
la giacca che indossa Liu Jinsong non è quella alla Mao
nota come "abito Zhongshan"
segue per chi fosse interessato
la spiegazione dettagliata del significato della
"giacca alla Mao"
le quattro tasche del vero "abito Zhongshan" simboleggiano le quattro dimensioni del paese 👇
November 19, 2025 at 9:36 AM
piccola lezione
la giacca che indossa Liu Jinsong non è quella alla Mao
nota come "abito Zhongshan"
segue per chi fosse interessato
la spiegazione dettagliata del significato della
"giacca alla Mao"
le quattro tasche del vero "abito Zhongshan" simboleggiano le quattro dimensioni del paese 👇
la giacca che indossa Liu Jinsong non è quella alla Mao
nota come "abito Zhongshan"
segue per chi fosse interessato
la spiegazione dettagliata del significato della
"giacca alla Mao"
le quattro tasche del vero "abito Zhongshan" simboleggiano le quattro dimensioni del paese 👇
Reposted by mrg
As one who has spent much time these last few months glaring at texts I can partially decipher but cannot read, I am qualified to recommend this essay.
Edging Toward Japan: What does being literate in Japanese really mean? - The Mainichi share.google/Gw4gLrPrnPyI...
Edging Toward Japan: What does being literate in Japanese really mean? - The Mainichi share.google/Gw4gLrPrnPyI...
Edging Toward Japan: What does being literate in Japanese really mean? - The Mainichi
By Damian Flanagan The other day I had the pleasure of attending a very interesting presentation about antique books by an expert in Edo period litera
share.google
November 17, 2025 at 4:54 AM
As one who has spent much time these last few months glaring at texts I can partially decipher but cannot read, I am qualified to recommend this essay.
Edging Toward Japan: What does being literate in Japanese really mean? - The Mainichi share.google/Gw4gLrPrnPyI...
Edging Toward Japan: What does being literate in Japanese really mean? - The Mainichi share.google/Gw4gLrPrnPyI...
Reposted by mrg
Can we go back to the days when politicians said that they really wanted to help people but it’s very hard and takes time, rather than saying that they want to hurt people and can do it quickly?
November 16, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Can we go back to the days when politicians said that they really wanted to help people but it’s very hard and takes time, rather than saying that they want to hurt people and can do it quickly?
Reposted by mrg
Excited to say that my article on horse names in China's ancient postal system has been published with Early China! 🐎✉️🌿 Meet Skittish Fish, Calm at the Carriage, and, my personal fave, Cinnamon Stick, at the link below:
#animalhistory
#animalhistory
www.cambridge.org
November 14, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Excited to say that my article on horse names in China's ancient postal system has been published with Early China! 🐎✉️🌿 Meet Skittish Fish, Calm at the Carriage, and, my personal fave, Cinnamon Stick, at the link below:
#animalhistory
#animalhistory
Finally someone that engages with what it actually means to learn from a Leninist one-party system.
China’s achievements at scale are undeniable—but scale is not system. Responding to @kaiserkuo.bsky.social’s call to judge by delivery, @messingschlager.bsky.social argues that durable performance depends on independent measurement, contestable feedback, and system integration, not size alone.
Scale Is Not a System: Learning from China without Mimicry
A reply to Kaiser Kuo that weighs China’s achievements against the limits of performance legitimacy and the value of democratic institutions.
madeinchinajournal.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Finally someone that engages with what it actually means to learn from a Leninist one-party system.
OPHANIM אוֹפַנִּים (Optical Photon and Antimatter Imager) is a 3800 megapixel camera used in the AEgIS αἰγίς high-energy physics project at CERN. In this blog post The Owlet of Minerva tries to pick apart the scientific, biblical Hebrew, medieval European and Buddhist iconography of the instrument.
November 10, 2025 at 7:16 PM
OPHANIM אוֹפַנִּים (Optical Photon and Antimatter Imager) is a 3800 megapixel camera used in the AEgIS αἰγίς high-energy physics project at CERN. In this blog post The Owlet of Minerva tries to pick apart the scientific, biblical Hebrew, medieval European and Buddhist iconography of the instrument.
Reposted by mrg
Very proud to have contributed a few chapters to this book on the past, present, and future of neon in HK. The process showed me how it’s so much more than just sappy sentimentality to mourn HK’s lost lights — and that despite everything… neon’s not dead.
Consider backing our Kickstarter campaign ⬇️
Consider backing our Kickstarter campaign ⬇️
A Book: Neon Is Not Dead: The Future of a Hong Kong Icon
It's about the rise, fall, and rebirth of Hong Kong’s living light
www.kickstarter.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Very proud to have contributed a few chapters to this book on the past, present, and future of neon in HK. The process showed me how it’s so much more than just sappy sentimentality to mourn HK’s lost lights — and that despite everything… neon’s not dead.
Consider backing our Kickstarter campaign ⬇️
Consider backing our Kickstarter campaign ⬇️
Reposted by mrg
Whenever anyone gives me a ‘head’s up’ my natural inclination is to keep my head down.
November 4, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Whenever anyone gives me a ‘head’s up’ my natural inclination is to keep my head down.
Reposted by mrg
Super useful tool -- "Chronology of Early China: A Radiocarbon Databank for Chinese Archaeology” out here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Chronology of early China: A radiocarbon databank for Chinese archaeology - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - Chronology of early China: A radiocarbon databank for Chinese archaeology
doi.org
November 3, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Super useful tool -- "Chronology of Early China: A Radiocarbon Databank for Chinese Archaeology” out here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Reposted by mrg
Our new manuscript estimating shares of late Qing degree holders who had kin other than direct patrilineal ancestors who held degrees, and within kin network correlations in degree attainment, based on a new dataset constructed from 同年齿录 and related records. 1/2 osf.io/preprints/so...
OSF
osf.io
November 3, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Our new manuscript estimating shares of late Qing degree holders who had kin other than direct patrilineal ancestors who held degrees, and within kin network correlations in degree attainment, based on a new dataset constructed from 同年齿录 and related records. 1/2 osf.io/preprints/so...
Reposted by mrg
This is my non-Roman Empire
November 1, 2025 at 1:29 PM
This is my non-Roman Empire
Reposted by mrg
Monarchy spiralling downward with sense of inevitability. President Stephen Fry looking increasingly plausible.
October 31, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Monarchy spiralling downward with sense of inevitability. President Stephen Fry looking increasingly plausible.
Reposted by mrg
Contact prints from photos by Frederick J. Foley 傅良圃. These photos were taken in Taiwan; we're guessing in the 1960s. The Ricci Institute has around 85,000 of Foley's photographic negatives that await digitization. They were given to us in 1985.
October 31, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Contact prints from photos by Frederick J. Foley 傅良圃. These photos were taken in Taiwan; we're guessing in the 1960s. The Ricci Institute has around 85,000 of Foley's photographic negatives that await digitization. They were given to us in 1985.
Reposted by mrg
Why does so much of the literature on early agricultural states write as if these sequences of developments are already established and widely agreed upon narratives? Even a Graeber writes as if "as everyone knows." I just need one good "well these bozos over here think X bc Y" lit review.
October 31, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Why does so much of the literature on early agricultural states write as if these sequences of developments are already established and widely agreed upon narratives? Even a Graeber writes as if "as everyone knows." I just need one good "well these bozos over here think X bc Y" lit review.
Reposted by mrg
I added a section to our Frog in a Well Primary Source guide to Korean History with some links to open access copies of volumes with Japanese statistics from colonial Korea - froginawell.net/frog/sources...
October 31, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I added a section to our Frog in a Well Primary Source guide to Korean History with some links to open access copies of volumes with Japanese statistics from colonial Korea - froginawell.net/frog/sources...
Reposted by mrg
@chinabooksreview.com just published my review of Yu Hua's 余华 *City of Fiction*《文城》(2021, tr. 2025).
"Along with other contemporary Chinese works with such graphic violence, Yu’s novel does political work by purging the traumas of China’s bloody 20th century."
chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/30/f...
"Along with other contemporary Chinese works with such graphic violence, Yu’s novel does political work by purging the traumas of China’s bloody 20th century."
chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/30/f...
Yu Hua: Fictional Cities | China Books Review
The bestselling Chinese novelist foregrounds individual suffering in the chaos of modern Chinese history. In his latest novel in translation, gratuitous violence shows the limits of fiction.
chinabooksreview.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:09 PM
@chinabooksreview.com just published my review of Yu Hua's 余华 *City of Fiction*《文城》(2021, tr. 2025).
"Along with other contemporary Chinese works with such graphic violence, Yu’s novel does political work by purging the traumas of China’s bloody 20th century."
chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/30/f...
"Along with other contemporary Chinese works with such graphic violence, Yu’s novel does political work by purging the traumas of China’s bloody 20th century."
chinabooksreview.com/2025/10/30/f...
Reposted by mrg
FYI: Print copies of my book Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke is now on sale for 50% at the Duke University Press website if you use the code: FALL25
October 28, 2025 at 4:47 PM
FYI: Print copies of my book Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke is now on sale for 50% at the Duke University Press website if you use the code: FALL25
Reposted by mrg
My favorite use of 嗨：
自嗨 or 自high (“self-high”) 😅
This term started out as an internet slang around 2010 and is now widely used colloquially with a range of meanings—to get excited or hyper by oneself; to amuse or have fun by oneself; being self-indulgent or narcissistic
川普自嗨 Trump “self-high”
自嗨 or 自high (“self-high”) 😅
This term started out as an internet slang around 2010 and is now widely used colloquially with a range of meanings—to get excited or hyper by oneself; to amuse or have fun by oneself; being self-indulgent or narcissistic
川普自嗨 Trump “self-high”
October 25, 2025 at 3:10 PM
My favorite use of 嗨：
自嗨 or 自high (“self-high”) 😅
This term started out as an internet slang around 2010 and is now widely used colloquially with a range of meanings—to get excited or hyper by oneself; to amuse or have fun by oneself; being self-indulgent or narcissistic
川普自嗨 Trump “self-high”
自嗨 or 自high (“self-high”) 😅
This term started out as an internet slang around 2010 and is now widely used colloquially with a range of meanings—to get excited or hyper by oneself; to amuse or have fun by oneself; being self-indulgent or narcissistic
川普自嗨 Trump “self-high”
Reposted by mrg
This may be my new favorite sign. (Seen today while walking around Hechuan.)
October 23, 2025 at 11:58 AM
This may be my new favorite sign. (Seen today while walking around Hechuan.)
A wonderful personal meditation on East Asian literature and how politics seeps into life.
I completely forgot that when I had trouble falling asleep last night I got out of bed and finished a book.
2025 Book #50
The Kobe Hotel: Memoirs by Saitō Sanki a Japanese author most famous for his haiku.
Translated by Masaya Saito
Stories of civilian life from a hotel in WW2 Japan.
2025 Book #50
The Kobe Hotel: Memoirs by Saitō Sanki a Japanese author most famous for his haiku.
Translated by Masaya Saito
Stories of civilian life from a hotel in WW2 Japan.
October 18, 2025 at 7:18 AM
A wonderful personal meditation on East Asian literature and how politics seeps into life.
Reposted by mrg
My theory is imposter Simba. The official story is that Simba miraculously escaped the stampede, went into voluntary exile and returned years later to claim the throne from his usurper uncle. How convenient for the new Lion regime! The truth is that Simba died in the stampede with Mufasa
October 16, 2025 at 9:35 PM
My theory is imposter Simba. The official story is that Simba miraculously escaped the stampede, went into voluntary exile and returned years later to claim the throne from his usurper uncle. How convenient for the new Lion regime! The truth is that Simba died in the stampede with Mufasa
Reposted by mrg
Crunched some interesting data from a 1938 Buddhist book catalogue, 佛學圖書目錄. Of approximately 3467 books listed, nearly 3/4 were woodblock printed works. This old technology remained in widespread use through the modern era. crta.info/wiki/%E4%BD%...
October 14, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Crunched some interesting data from a 1938 Buddhist book catalogue, 佛學圖書目錄. Of approximately 3467 books listed, nearly 3/4 were woodblock printed works. This old technology remained in widespread use through the modern era. crta.info/wiki/%E4%BD%...