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reading reading reading!
After what seems like forever, I finished my first non-fiction book of the year! The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao by Ian Johnson was a lovely series of essays, using the Chinese lunar and agricultural calendar to break up the sections. It covered a wide range of religions and similar practices: Daoism, Buddhism, qigong, Christianity. It's a really lovely portrait of the struggle that a society has in trying to regain it ethical and social bearings after the Cultural Revolution.
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend once. Her mother said she didn't think mainlander Chinese were "real" Chinese, because the Cultural Revolution had stamped out so many practices and beliefs, and "real Chinese would never have let that go." And it's interesting to read this book, some 9 years after that conversation, which I think shows that no, these practices and beliefs weren't let go. They're truncated, like a three-day funeral process becoming one when handled by urbanized children, and young people aren't as good at the craft as their elders were, but they are living things that change regardless.
I also really loved the language in the book--Johnson knows how to write a lovely sentence and there were several really nice paragraphs that I wanted to take quote.
Other things I've read recently:
NYT on the Kiini Bikini lawsuit, about how the fashion designer who has a rep for taking anyone copying her design to court herself filched the design from a woman while holidaying.
A visit to a GLITTER FACTORY, there are so many great moments in this.
A sensitive answer about how to gently talk to young people about their attitudes. I really liked the framing of puberty and the attitudes associated with it as a symptom of overwhelming feelings, and how the time period is about learning how to deal with it, and the challenge is to deal with it without being antagonizing towards the people one loves.
An important observation on the racial dot map.
Obituary of Zura Karuhimbi, who saved dozens of people during the Rwandan genocide using her reputation as a witch.
A librarian on media literacy, political memes, and the value of librarians.
A new term / meme in China that roughly translates to "poor ugly" and how people using it to express their, uh, millennial mood, I guess.
A look at the bonkers process of Facebook moderation.
Piece on how Vietnamese food in America is essentially trying to remain the same as it was in the 1970s. A symptom of diaspora nostalgia than it is about living culture.
Tiara had a really good take on the hot takes on Marie Kondo's new show.
The Atlantic on "Instagram Husbands".
It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend once. Her mother said she didn't think mainlander Chinese were "real" Chinese, because the Cultural Revolution had stamped out so many practices and beliefs, and "real Chinese would never have let that go." And it's interesting to read this book, some 9 years after that conversation, which I think shows that no, these practices and beliefs weren't let go. They're truncated, like a three-day funeral process becoming one when handled by urbanized children, and young people aren't as good at the craft as their elders were, but they are living things that change regardless.
I also really loved the language in the book--Johnson knows how to write a lovely sentence and there were several really nice paragraphs that I wanted to take quote.
Other things I've read recently:
NYT on the Kiini Bikini lawsuit, about how the fashion designer who has a rep for taking anyone copying her design to court herself filched the design from a woman while holidaying.
A visit to a GLITTER FACTORY, there are so many great moments in this.
A sensitive answer about how to gently talk to young people about their attitudes. I really liked the framing of puberty and the attitudes associated with it as a symptom of overwhelming feelings, and how the time period is about learning how to deal with it, and the challenge is to deal with it without being antagonizing towards the people one loves.
An important observation on the racial dot map.
Obituary of Zura Karuhimbi, who saved dozens of people during the Rwandan genocide using her reputation as a witch.
A librarian on media literacy, political memes, and the value of librarians.
A new term / meme in China that roughly translates to "poor ugly" and how people using it to express their, uh, millennial mood, I guess.
A look at the bonkers process of Facebook moderation.
Piece on how Vietnamese food in America is essentially trying to remain the same as it was in the 1970s. A symptom of diaspora nostalgia than it is about living culture.
Tiara had a really good take on the hot takes on Marie Kondo's new show.
The Atlantic on "Instagram Husbands".