A page A day

A prolific American academic once said: "write a page every day, and you will have 30 books in 30 years." This is very stimulating and tempting. It sounds true and this idea has been lingering in my mind for weeks and months. Excluding weekends, public holidays, occasional holiday trips, funerals and wedding banquets, one should at least be able to produce a monograph (or maybe a series of essays) with good discipline and perseverance. I pay tribute to this diligent professor. Squeezing a min or two could actually produce a paragraph with or without sense. Like this one perhaps.

The Decline of the English Department

William M. Chace's The Decline of the English Department: How it happened and what could be done to reverse it, The Epoch Times, November 5 – 11, 2009.

Reading this stimulating piece is sad because it led me to feel bad about the unparalleled rapid growth of library facilities across all HK uni, e.g. buying up all Oxbridge and Ivy Leagues presses books (which, from my experience, decidedly outnumbered almost all British university libraries), and switching to Web 2.0 (which is too novel to Oxbridge), but not the minds of our uni and faculty...

Recent readings VII

Brian Stanley, "The Church of the Three Selves: A Perspective from the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 36, No. 3, September 2008, pp. 435-452.

"The evidence submitted to the commission and the commission's report to the conference suggest that progress towards the Protestant ideal of a self-supporting, self-governing, self-extending indigenous church was extremely uneven: quite rapid in Korea, Japan and parts of China; decidedly patchy in Africa; and extremely slow in India. The commission explained these differences in part by appeal to 'racial characteristics', yet the report's use of the category of race was loose and ambiguous: the commission both deplored the failure of the indigenous churches to develop their own distinctive 'racial' character and blamed racial deficiencies for the failure of churches to advance more rapidly to autonomy." (p. 435, abstract)

真性情

嚴志雄：〈「周策縱教授紀念專輯」弁言〉，《中國文哲研究通訊》，第17卷第3期（2007年9月），頁1-4。

「我初謁師門時，師已七十餘，身體猶壯，健飯，能盡三大碗......開車率性任為，極危險。」（頁3，粗體另加）

Illustrated catalogue of the Chinese collection of exhibits for the International Health Exhibition, London, 1884

Illustrated Catalogue of the Chinese Collection of Exhibits for the International Health Exhibition, London, 1884 (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1884. Published by the order of the Inspector General of Customs).

Chapter XVII: Chinese books: 1. Translations &c., from the Peking College, 2. Translations, &c, from the various Protestant Missions, 3. Translations &c, from the Shanghai Arsenal, 4. Books lent by His Excellency the Marquis Tseng. (why non-health-concerned books included?)

Chapter XXII: 1. Restaurant and Tea-House, 2. Edibles, &c, served in the Restaurant (this is funny)

敘述史學與夫子自道

引自盧建榮的〈黎東方的敘述史學〉（《史學彙刊》，第21期（2008年6月），頁125-140）。

「中國現代史學誤把濫用徵引文獻以進行歷史書寫當成科學治史方式，黎東方逆轉潮流，主張以轉述文獻法來呈現歷史，在二十一世紀的今天看來，一方面顯示黎氏的勇氣，另一方面又見證了黎氏具有遠見，知道史學終有回歸敘述史學的一天。」（頁125）

「像顧頡剛的《秦漢方士與儒生》（1933；1954）、張蔭麟的《中國史綱：上古篇》（1941）、黎東方的《新三國》（1942）和《細說清朝》（1962），以及黃仁宇的《萬曆十五年》（1982）等五部史著，構成當代敘述史學的五大豐碑」（頁126）

「主張科學治史的權勢派（傅斯年、陳寅恪為代表）...以徵引大量資料為能事，卻美其名曰：「科學治史」，強調史家不講話，史料會自己說話。而主敘述史學的史家多能消化史料，然後以饒富自己風格的語言加以轉述，其間即令有所徵引資料，但衡之全書比重所佔分量微乎其微。」（頁126）

「徵引和轉述本來是學術社群中人賴以從事知識生產的兩大技巧，本不宜偏廢，可是飾以科學外衣的權勢派卻認定，將史料加以轉述會有扭曲原文原意的風險，乃因噎廢食，不允許史學同業採用轉述技巧寫史。他們把對科學的誤解，濫用成規定史學同業的操作規範：凡使用轉述寫作技巧者，即違反科學此一天條。虧得上述顧頡剛、張蔭麟、黎東方，以及黃仁宇諸輩不信此邪，以致他們的著作才能在書市歷久不衰、允為出版社的常青樹，即令在政治分裂的海峽兩岸，這五本書可以越界流通、毫無阻滯。相反地，傅斯年和陳寅恪作品只縮限在業界供人當學術史料研讀，書市一般讀者是連看都不想看的。」（頁127）

「學閥傅斯年」（頁129）

「有節制地引文，在歷史書寫上是一項優點，相反地，毫無節制地引文，除了暴露為文者不會寫書之外，更讓讀者望而卻步、不忍卒讀，不，不忍開讀！」（頁130）

「生在二十一世紀的我們，倘若仍迷信徵引可與科學畫上等號，那無形中等於相信傅斯年的史著優於司馬光的《通鑑》。這樣將是乾坤顛倒、是非不分了。」（頁130）

「黃仁宇之後的敘述史著的另一個轉折是由盧建榮所創的、藉由書中角色扮演多元敘事觀點的媒介。」（頁131，註引盧氏唐代五部曲）

This article resonates with a book on my desk by a story-telling historian at Yale, Maya Jasanoff's Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005). In her acknowledgements, she wrote "[t]he project evolve into a Ph.D. dissertation at Yale University, where I was fortunate to learn about history in an academic environment that value narrative writing." (p. 323)

The Ugly Truth about Hybridity

In order to expose myself more to the cruel reality (which is apparently a self-torture), I watched The Ugly Truth last weekend, which is very intriguing, funny, and up-to-the-point. I strongly recommend it to my friends and students who have been so much frustrated by male-and-female relationship. I can assure you that it is a completely different experience to pay to admit the ugly truth about men and women before working on it.

What's more stimulating, and literally uglier were the side dishes, the hate-it-or-love-it trailers of True Legend (蘇乞兒) featured by Jay Chow's bizarre costume, MJ's posthumous concert-movie This is it (which I was deeply drawn to watch it but stopped by a rational head), and the Japanese- and Eurasian-starred (Joe Odagiri and Maggie Q) The Warrior and the Wolf (狼災記) (I wonder if they would speak Chinese in the movie).

The last one is particularly related to an article I have just read today, Emma Jinhua Teng's "Eurasian Hybridity in Chinese Utopian Visions: From 'One World' to 'A Society Based on Beauty' and Beyond," Positions, Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring 2006, pp. 131-163.

I have the least intention to draw my readers, if any, from reading the original paper by reproducing my summary. Let me jump to the conclusion at once: "hybridization does not challenge the existing racial order, but rather reinforces notions of racial hierarchy while palying into the politics of 'lightening.' Thus, if the idealizations of the Eurasian examined here disrupt the boundary between yellow and white, they simultaneously create a new boundary between the yellow/white and the darker races: hybridity's effect is less a disruption of binary categories than a displacement." (p. 158)

Take a break, reading an out-of-your-field article won't cause you a penny.

Recent readings VI

〈毛漢光教授訪談回憶錄〉，《中正歷史學刊》，第10期（2007），頁1-12。“歷史學的核心就是時間”，“沒有辦法找到時間的動能，那就不能算是歷史學”，“沒有發現時間在這整個事件發生過程當中所具有的影響力”，“跟我們現代的社會學研究沒有兩樣，只是一個橫剖面”。

〈雷家驥教授訪談回憶錄〉，《中正歷史學刊》，第10期（2007），頁13-25。“學界門戶之嚴、同黨化異之切”。

秦曼儀：〈書籍史方法論的反省與實踐──馬爾坦和夏提埃對於書籍、閱讀及書寫文化史的研究〉，《臺大歷史學報》，第41期（2008年6月），頁257-314。

裴英姬：〈《燕行錄》的研究史回顧（1933-2008）〉，《臺大歷史學報》，第43期（2009年6月），頁219-255。

大木康：〈從出版文化的進路談明清敘事文學〉，《中國文哲研究通訊》，第17卷第3期（2007年9月），頁175-178。

陳潔儀：〈西西《我城》的科幻元素與現代性〉，《東華漢學》，第8期（2008年12月），頁231-253。

陳維新：〈雍正皇帝遣使赴俄外交禮儀交涉－－兼論清朝官書不載托時、德新使俄問題〉，《俄羅斯學報》，第9期（2008年12月），頁1-32。

洪國鈞：〈電影這小玩意兒……：電影／評論／歷史的消費遊戲〉，《中外文學》，第31卷，九月號（2002年9月），頁54-68。

Guo-Juin Hong (洪國鈞), "Framing Time: New Women and the Cinematic Representation of Colonial Modernity in 1930s Shanghai," Positions, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Winter 2007), pp. 553-580.

Fabio Lanza, "Politics of the Unbound: 'Students' and the Everyday at Beijing University, Positions, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Winter 2008), pp. 569-599.

Rebecca E. Karl, "Journalism, Social Value, and a Philosophy of the Everyday in 1920s China," Positions, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Winter 2008), pp. 539-567.

Mary Backus Rankin, "Alarming Crises/Enticing Possibilities: Political and Cultural Changes in Late Nineteenth-Century China," Late Imperial China, Vol. 29, No. 1 (June 2008), pp. 40-63. using Chinese newspapers as key sources.

Review of Modern Foreign Languages provision in higher education in England By Professor Michael Worton, Vice-Provost, University College London, for Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)

Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2009 by Institute of Fiscal Studies.

Recent readings V

1. Marjorie Dryburgh, "Rewriting collaboration: China, Japan, and the self in the diaries of Bai Jianwu [白堅武]", Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 68, No. 3, August 2009, pp. 689-714.

2. Vanessa Alayrac-Fielding, "'Frailty, thy name is China': women, chinoiserie and the threat of low culture in eighteenth-century England," Women's History Review, Vol. 18, No. 4, September 2009, pp. 659-668.

3. Miyako Inoue, "Things that speak: Peirce, Benjamin, and the kinesthetics of commodity advertisement in Japanese women's magazines, 1900 to the 1930s," Position, Vol. 15, No. 3, Winter 2007, pp. 511-552.

4. Gennifer Weisenfeld, "'From baby's first bath': Kao soap and modern Japanese commercial design," The Art Bulletin, Vol. 86, No. 3, September 2004, pp. 573-598.

5. Larissa Heinrich, "How China became the 'cradle of smallpox': transformations in discourse, 1726-2002," Position, Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 2007, pp. 7-33.

6. Diran John Sohigian, "Contagion of laughter: the rise of the humor phenomenon in Shanghai in the 1930s," Position, Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring 2007, pp. 137-163.

7. Chris Goto-Jones, "The Kyoto School, the Cambridge School, and the history of political philosophy in wartime Japan," Position, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 2009, pp. 13-42.

8. John Namjun Kim, "On the brink of universality: German cosmopolitanism in Japanese imperialism," Position, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 2009, pp. 73-95. Miki Kiyoshi (三木清, 1897-1945)

9. Susie Jie Young, "What (not) to wear: refashioning civilization in print media in turn-of-the-century Korea," Position, Vol. 15, No. 3, Winter 2007, pp. 609-636.

10. Hajime Nakatani, "The empire of fame: writing and the voice in Early Medieval China," Position, Vol. 14, No. 3, Winter 2006, pp. 535-566.

11. Glen Peterson, "To be or not to be a refugee: the international politics of the Hong Kong refugee crisis, 1949-55," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 36, No. 2, June 2008, pp. 171-195.

12. Catherine Ladds, "'Youthful, likely men, able to read, write and count': joining the foreign staff of the Chinese Customs Service, 1854-1927," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 36, No. 2, June 2008, pp. 227-242.

13. Susan Pedersen, "The Maternalist Moment in British Colonial Policy: The Controversy over 'Child Slavery' in Hong Kong, 1917-1941," Past and Present, No. 171 (May 2001), pp. 161-202.

14. David M. Pomfret, "'Child Slavery' in British and French Far Eastern Colonies 1880-1945," Past and Present, No. 201 (Nov. 2008), pp. 175-213.

15. Daniel Asen, "'Manchu Anatomy': Anatomical Knowledge and the Jesuits in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century China," Social History of Medicine, Vol. 22, No. 1, 2009, pp. 23-44.

Greensleeves...

Currently reading Heidi Netz Rupke and Grant Blank's "'Country Roads' to globalization: sociological models for understanding American popular music in China" (The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2009, . 126-146) which drawing on the English teaching experience of Rupke in Chinese higher educational institutes argues that Chinese students are overwhelmingly attracted to easy listening, country, romance, and soft oldies music which have been generally considered to be associated with low levels of education and status, such as Country Roads and Yesterday Once More rather than the current hits on American charts because of "their [easy listening, country, romance, and oldies music] high cultural capital [apparently, the medium of English], resonant themes [folk themes], easy retrievability [pirated CDs], and political suitability [, importation, and consumption of American popular culture controlled by the government]". (p. 143)

It reminds me of the century-old English folk song Greensleeves, which had been used in the English listening examinations in HKCEE and HKALE for a decade as a prelude to entertain, if not bore, the candidates and relieve, if not intensify, their nerve. The good old days has gone because students is no longer familiar with this super oldies anymore and listen to this song only because of the examinations.

Did you know what you missed in grad school?

Read insiders' views, Paul Gray and David E. Drew's What they didn't teach you in graduate school : 199 helpful hints for success in your academic career (Sterling, Va. : Stylus Pub, 2008).

Foremost: "We consider professor to be the best job available on the planet...It is both a thrill and an honor to contribute to knowledge through your own scholarship...You are given the rare opportunity to guide the expansion and development of young (and older) minds and ideas over your entire lifetime." (p. 119-120)

Hint 2. 100 powerful people. Most academic fields are dominated by fewer than 100 powerful people. These people know one another and determine the course of the field. Early in your career you should get to know as many of them as possible. More to the point, they should know who you are. You want them to see you as a bright young person at the forefront of your field. (p. 7)

6. Specialize. Get known for something. It helps visibility. (p. 8)

39. Teaching is a great personal satisfaction and an important public good that you perform. However, publications are your only form of portable wealth. (p. 33)

45. The death rate among aunts and grandmothers of college-age student is phenomenal, far beyond anything actuarial. It is skewed toward exam time. A death in the family is the standard excuse for missing classes and examinations. Although some students are remarkably inventive at concocting stories, most are not. (p. 35)

47. Teaching can be a dangerous profession. It doesn't happen very often, but a student can come into your office or your building and shoot at you or do other physical harm. (p. 35)

73. Academics generally [hoito: I must say "genuinely"] avoid risk. We grant that exceptions exist, but most people going into university teaching are risk averse. (p. 55)

74. Contracts are given to faculty for nine months. The other three months are supposedly for you to do with as you please. (p. 55) [hoito: I almost have not summer break]

90. Be aware that as an academic you are a public person. Your students spends 40 hours or more a semester doing nothing but looking at you while you talk. This experience makes an indelible impression on them. You will find that several years later when they approach you and call you by name they will expect you to remember them. You, of course, usually will not. Their appearance and dress will be different. The important point is that your behavior in public place is noticed when you least expect it. (p. 63)

91. We firmly believe that people should be free to express their views on public issues, whether the views are mainstream or not. But understand the associated career risks. The conventional wisdom that academics are free to say what they please may well be the reason why you chose your career. However, our observations of what really goes on leads us to a different take for untenured faculty. (p. 63-64)

119. Myth 1 [about academics] "I envy all the free time you have. You mean you actually get paid a full salary for working only 12 hours a week?"...Actually, most professors work well over 40 hours per week, and that includes not only the time on campus but also the time at home in the evenings and on weekends. (p. 79)

120. Myth 2: "All professors are political Leftists. Our universities are controlled by radicals and liberals." Most surveys how that the majority of professors are either conservative or middle of the road. (p. 79)

154. Learn new things over time. Universities are notorious for not spending money on faculty development. Universities assume that, because you earned a PhD, you learned all you ever need to know. The are not consumers of their own educational product.

157. Learn time management...One of our colleagues, who published well over 30 books in his career, advised: "If you write only a page a day, that's a book a year!" (p. 111-112)

159. The rich get richer holds in academia as well as in society in general. Once you establish a reputation, people will pursue you to do things...To reach this position you must earn your reputation. If you do reach it, remember that fame is transitory. You must keep running, doing new things, to keep the demand going. (p. 115)

160. Treat students as though they are guests in your home. (p. 115)