Recent readings IV

James Burnham Sedgwick, "Memory on trial: constructing and contesting the 'rape of Nanking' at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 1946-1948," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 5 (2009), pp. 1229-1254.

A. J. Stockwell, "'The crucible of the Malayan nation': the university and the making of a new Malaya, 1938-62," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 5 (2009), pp. 1149-1187.

Gagan D. S. Sood, "The informational fabric of Eighteen-Century India and the Middle East: couriers, intermediaries and postal communication" Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 5 (2009), pp. 1085-1116.

Gayle Curtis Anderson, "China in the Japanese radical gaze, 1945-1955," Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 43, No. 5 (2009), pp. 1255-1286.

Benjamin Geoffrey White, "'A question of principle with political implications' - investigating collaboration in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, 1945-1946," Modern Asian Studies, 30 pp.

Sarah Cheang, "Selling China: Class, Gender and Orientalism at the Department Store," Journal of Design History, 2007, Vol. 20, pp. 1-16.

Paul Dobraszczyk, Useful Reading? Designing Information for London's Victorian Cab Passengers," Journal of Design History, 2008 Vol. 21, pp. 121-141.

Mike Esbester, "Designing Time: The Design and Use of Nineteenth-Century Transport Timetables," Journal of Design History, 2009 Vol. 22, pp. 91-113.

David L. Porter, "Monstrous beauty: eighteenth-century fashion and the aesthetics of the Chinese taste,"Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 35, No. 3 (2002), pp. 395-411.

Kevin Blackburn, "Recalling war trauma of the Pacific War and the Japanese occupation in oral history of Malaysia and Singapore," The Oral History Review, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2009, pp. 231-252.

Joshua A. Fogel, "A decisive turning point in Sino-Japanese relations: the Senzaimaru voyage to Shanghai of 1862," Late Imperial China, Vol. 29, No. 1 (June 2008), pp. 104-124.

Melissa Macauley, "Small time crooks: opium, migrants, and the war on drugs in China, 1819-1860," Late Imperial China, Vol. 30, No. 1 (June 2009), pp. 1-47.

Jo Robertson, "The leprosy asylum in India: 1886-1947," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Vol. 64, No. 4 (2009), pp. 474-517.

Kate Lovema, "Books and Sociability: The Case of Samuel Pepys's Library," Review of English Studies, September 2009, 20 pp.

Did you know...

1. Life is not fair. Get used to it.

2. The real world won't care as much as your school does about your self-esteem. It'll expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself

5. No matter what your daddy says, you are not a princess...

7. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He won't have tenure, so he'll tend to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to as you how you FEEL about it.

9. Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn't.

11. After you graduate, you won't be competing against rivals who were raised to be wimps on the playground.

16. Your parents and your little brother are not as embarrassing as you think. What's embarrassing is ingratitude, rudeness, and sulkiness.

17. Your parents weren't as boring before you were born as they are now.

18. Life is not divided into semesters. And you don't get summers off.

21. You're offended? So what? No, really. So what?

22. You are not a victim. So stop whining.

24. Batman's girlfriend is right: "It's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you."

26. A moral compass does not come as standard equipment.

29. Learn to deal with hypocrisy.

33. Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could. [additional remarks by Bill Swanson: a person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person.]

37. Being connected does not mean you aren't clueless

38. Look people in the eye when you meet them...

39. People in black-and-white movies were in color in real life. And no, the world did not begin when you were born.

41. You are not the first and you are not the only one who has gone through.

44. Your colleagues are not necessarily your friends, and your friends aren't your family.

47. You are not perfect, and you don't have to be.

49. Don't forget to say thank you.

50. Enjoy this while you can.

from Charles J. Sykes's 50 rules kids won't learn in school : real world antidotes to feel-good education (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2007).