Jottings From The Granite Studio -- China With An Historical Perspective
Best new China blog: Jottings From the Granite Studio. Only three months old, it has already become one of my essential reads. Its subheading is "A Qing historian reads the newspaper" and that is exactly what it is: an historian's take on current events in China.
Its writer describes him or herself as "a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in the history department at a large public university in Northern California. My research currently focuses on anti-foreignism and colonialism in the coastal ('treaty port') cities of the Qing Empire." Are there any "large public universities in Northern California other than Berkeley?
I love reading this blog to gain an historical perspective on today's China. I am always describing my knowledge of Chinese history pre-Cultural Revolution as about the equivalent of someone who has completed a Chinese History 101 course. I am hoping my reading Jottings from the Granite Studio will eventually allow me to claim Chinese History 201, but in any event, it makes for a fun and interesting read.
Comments (8)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endFern R - October 15, 2006 2:01 PM
Well, the people at San Jose State, San Francisco State, Sacramento State, UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis would all be a little miffed that they were left out of your "large public universities in Northern California" list. All of them are public, and all but one (UC Santa Cruz) have approximately 30,000 students. UCSC only has 15,500 but I think that number of students still puts them in the large public university category.
China Law Blog - October 15, 2006 2:34 PM
Fern R --
Thanks for checking in and pointing out all that I missed. Mea culpa.
So which of these schools give Ph.d's in Chinese history?
Fern R - October 15, 2006 2:58 PM
Well, none of the CSUs can offer PhDs, so that leaves UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis as possibilities. I checked all of their websites and it looks like they all offer graduate programs in History with an emphasis in Chinese history.
China Law Blog - October 15, 2006 3:04 PM
Fern R. --
Thanks. So we've got it down to three. Not quite as exciting as searching for Chinabounder (Sex in Shanghai), but.... I have definitely heard of UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz but my CA geography is so poor I simply did not know they were North.
Fern R - October 15, 2006 5:58 PM
I'm generally not a big fan of outting bloggers who use pseudonyms. That being said, if it weren't for your mention of Chinabounder I would have missed out on 30 minutes of both interesting and hilarous reading about the internet vigilantes determined to uncover his/her/their identity.
J From the Granite Studio - October 15, 2006 7:21 PM
First, I want to thank CLB for their too kind comments about my small project. The blog is kind of a hobby and it's been a pleasant surprise to see the response. The CLB has always been for me something of a model China blog--focused, well-written, topical, and consistently interesting.
I didn't mean so much mystery surrounding my identity but as a graduate student who does research in China, I have to be a little careful about broadcasting my name throughout the internet. Also, again as a grad student, I don't often mention the name of my university because I would not want the views expressed confused in any way with those of my school or my department.
But to end the mystery: I am a student in the history department at UC Davis.
Again, thank you for the posting. I really appreciate it.
China Law Blog - October 15, 2006 8:08 PM
Fern R --
Happy to oblige.
China Law Blog - October 15, 2006 8:11 PM
Granite Studio --
No thanks needed. Just calling 'em as I see 'em. My apologies for my horrendous CA geography. [Shh -- I thought UCDavis was near LA].
Thank you for all the kudos. On our one year anniversary I am going to do a post on CLB and I'll be sure to quote you: "focused, well-written, topical, and consistently interesting." I like it.
Do keep up the good work. Different perspectives on China benefit us all.