tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66478582024-03-17T21:40:25.295-04:00外 nothalf-formed thoughts, occasional rants, and muttered sarcastic asidesJonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.comBlogger854125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-79975613598194754882024-03-10T22:15:00.005-04:002024-03-14T10:35:09.456-04:00Need to watch: Fareed Zakaria's CNN special about "Taiwan: Unfinished Business"I saw an ad for this Fareed Zakaria special on Taiwan, but I wasn't able to see it when it was on CNN, so I'm recording it and will watch it later.I saw that some people on Twitter criticized the title, wondering whose "unfinished business" it was--the CCP's? One poster (Isla Island) wrote, "'Unfinished business' parrots Beijing's propaganda that its planned invasion & annexation of Taiwan isJonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-30761229096145668732024-02-29T16:28:00.002-05:002024-02-29T16:28:36.451-05:00Two new books in the former native speaker's libraryUniversity of Hawai'i Press has a clearance sale going, so I bought two books--I think they were a dollar each:Ideogram: Chinese Characters and the Myth of Disembodied Meaning, by J. Marshall UngerFamily Catastrophe, by Wang Wen-hsing (translated by Susan Wan Dolling)I have to admit, though, that I haven't had time to read anything except for student writing since the beginning of the Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-52984433442422017192024-02-03T18:22:00.005-05:002024-02-03T19:15:18.655-05:00Three new books in the former native speaker's libraryNot much to say about these yet because I'm still buried in reading student work, last semester's "sabbatical" a distant bittersweet memory...Memories of the Japanese Empire: Comparison of the Colonial and Decolonisation Experiences in Taiwan and Nan’yo-gunto, ed. Yuko Mio (2023)The Meiji Japanese Who Made Modern Taiwan, by Toshio Watanabe (trans. Robert D. Eldridge) (2023)Words Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-46588754315870772012024-01-20T12:42:00.005-05:002024-01-20T12:42:41.838-05:00A video about the history of trains in TaiwanThink I'll watch this when I get a chance. I tried to get my son the train fanatic to watch this with me, but he lost interest because I couldn't translate it fast enough...Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-14406494068592133122024-01-05T21:52:00.000-05:002024-01-05T21:52:02.415-05:00Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute websiteDespite everything, this is why I stay on Twitter (or whatever they're calling it these days). I saw a link to this 1936 short film: 台中州高砂族內地觀光.It looks like the Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute website is a great resource. But I'm not sure whether I would have come across it if someone hadn't tweeted about it. Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-26365064529429762462024-01-05T11:56:00.002-05:002024-01-09T22:52:33.351-05:00"Sabbatical" reviewBooks read since the end of last spring semester (links are to my posts on the books--I didn't post on everything I read):Hsin-I Cheng and Hsin-i Sydney Yueh, eds. Resistance in the Era of Nationalisms: Performing Identities in Taiwan and Hong KongCarol S. Lipson and Roberta A. Binkley, eds. Rhetoric Before and Beyond the GreeksXiaoye You, Genre Networks and Empire: Rhetoric in Early Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-16209519281296061832024-01-01T07:31:00.003-05:002024-01-04T09:36:18.930-05:00First "new book in the former native speaker's library" post of 2024!This afternoon, I went to the neighborhood 7-Eleven and picked up a book I ordered yesterday from the 博客來 website: it's called 《島國知音:台灣問題專家葛超智其人其事》(An Island Nation's Close Friend: Taiwan Expert George H. Kerr's Life and Experiences). It's a translation of 《沖縄と台湾を愛した ジョージ・H・カー先生の思い出》, which was published in 2018. I have a copy of the Japanese book, but I can't read it, so I was excited Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-2186595464039629832023-12-31T06:57:00.003-05:002023-12-31T06:57:41.676-05:00Some new books in the former native speaker's libraryWe took a short trip to Taiwan during winter break, and though most of our time was spent visiting family and friends after not having been here in five years (!), I did manage to pop into a couple of bookstores. Unfortunately, I didn't really plan well for my book shopping--I went to Southern Materials Center (南天書局) when we were in Taipei, and I was overwhelmed! I spend a few hours just looking Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-58221303048191642502023-12-12T00:06:00.002-05:002023-12-12T10:43:18.754-05:00Mark Mancall oral history recordingI was about to email Mark Mancall to ask him a question about George Kerr, but I was saddened to find out that he passed away in 2020. Dr. Mancall was a brilliant and thoughtful man--I had a chance to talk to him once back in 2017.Linked to the obituary is an oral history interview of Mancall. I'm listening to it now where he's talking about his experience studying with John King Fairbank. Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-17728076547249274762023-11-27T12:00:00.004-05:002023-11-27T12:00:49.075-05:00Notes on Hsin-i Sydney Yueh, Identity Politics and Popular Culture in TaiwanHsin-i Sydney Yueh, Identity Politics and Popular Culture in Taiwan: A Sajiao Generation. Lexington Books, 2017.A while back (OK, it was over three years ago--how the time flies!), I was asking some questions about sajiao (撒嬌) and Taike (台客) in response to an article on Taiwanese communication modes by Todd Sandel. This book by Hsin-i Sydney Yueh goes a long way towards answering those Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-85249287329585519352023-11-24T13:20:00.001-05:002023-11-25T22:44:43.236-05:00Another new book in the former native speaker's libraryI mentioned this book in a previous post as a "future book" in my library, and now it has arrived. Wendy Cheng, Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism (University of Washington Press, 2023)Here's the summary of the book from the website:Island X delves into the compelling political lives of Taiwanese migrants who came to the United States as students from Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-64877505637278374112023-11-22T09:33:00.002-05:002023-11-22T09:33:31.083-05:00To watch: Sayaka Chatani on "Ideology and Emotions: Rural Youth Mobilization in Colonial Taiwan"This is another video I want to watch. Prof. Chatani has done some really interesting historical work on youth and emotions in modern East Asia. (I used to enjoy reading her blog, "Prison Notebooks," but it looks like it is no longer around...)Here's the summary/abstract for the talk:By the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of young men in colonial Taiwan had expressed their loyalty to Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-38826485121826695252023-11-18T14:58:00.002-05:002023-11-18T15:06:08.605-05:00To watch: Allen Chun lecture on YouTubeAs I mourn the waning days of my "sabbatical" and the feeling that I haven't achieved as much as I should, I'm distracting myself by reading up on some things that might help me figure out the conclusion of the paper I'm working on. (So technically, that's probably not a distraction.) I came across notes on a 2018 lecture by Allen Chun, author of a book I'm finding useful--Forget Chineseness: On Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-81066849615902291782023-11-06T21:52:00.002-05:002023-11-08T10:05:08.070-05:00Question re: "The China Tiffin Club of San Francisco and Bay Area"I love to run into these kinds of puzzles, but this one has me stumped. I came across a letter written by John H. Falge from The China Tiffin Club of San Francisco and Bay Area, thanking George Kerr for speaking at the Club on Feb. 23, 1950. (A funny part of his praise of the talk: "The points you developed stood out prominently because the talk was just the right length.") I'm guessing thatJonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-64866449667613386372023-11-01T09:27:00.006-04:002023-11-01T09:27:39.976-04:00Another attempt at National Academic Writing MonthI think the last time I really thought about National Academic Writing Month was back in 2016. As I said back then, I didn't think November was a good month for focusing on academic writing, especially if you're a college teacher in the US. For me, there is always the combined pressure of reading and commenting on student work and the Thanksgiving holiday toward the end of the month, leading up Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-8591791911299007432023-10-24T12:34:00.003-04:002023-10-24T12:36:24.196-04:00Notes on Mira Shimabukuro, Relocating AuthorityShimabukuro, Mira. Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration. University Press of Colorado, 2015. I read this book to see whether it would be good for the comparative rhetoric/"rhetorics in contact" course I'm developing. At first, I was thinking of just finding a chapter that I could use from it, but after reading the book, I think I'd be more interestedJonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-1460057676136893672023-10-19T12:14:00.004-04:002023-10-19T14:45:35.106-04:00Notes on Chu Yu-hsun (朱宥勳), When They Were Not Writing Novels 【他們沒在寫小說的時候】朱宥勳 (Chu Yu-hsun). 【他們沒在寫小說的時候:戒嚴台灣小說家群像】When They Were Not Writing Novels: Portraits of Novelists from Taiwan Under Martial Law. 2nd. ed. 大塊文化, 2023.Note: This isn't going to be a complete discussion of the book--to do that would probably involve writing a post as long as the book itself!In this very readable collection of essays, Chu Yu-hsun focuses on the socio-political contexts in which nineJonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-26404975090690301122023-10-17T16:39:00.001-04:002023-10-17T16:39:39.708-04:00"Sabbatical" updateI noticed that I haven't posted anything yet this month, so I thought I should let my reader know that I'm still working on the projects I'm supposed to be doing this semester. I just sent a draft of my paper to my "mentor" (I'm calling him this; not sure he'd agree with the terminology!). The paper is still a bit of a mess--there's too much I want to say in it and a lot I haven't said. But I Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-11606323743569206862023-09-26T21:31:00.003-04:002023-09-27T13:28:05.012-04:00Notes on A-chin Hsiau, Politics and Cultural Nativism in 1970s TaiwanA-chin Hsiau, Politics and Cultural Nativism in 1970s Taiwan: Youth, Narrative, Nationalism. Columbia University Press, 2021.It's taken me a while to do some writing about this book because I'm not sure how I feel about it. I read five reviews of it that are generally quite positive, from Tanguy Lepesant, Scott Simon, Ming-sho Ho, Evan Dawley, and James Baron. (If you want to Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-76660954859908302492023-09-20T13:11:00.010-04:002023-10-19T09:43:32.858-04:00An anecdote about writing in postwar Taiwan from【他們沒在寫小說的時候】Was going to do some writing on my paper this morning, but instead read a chapter from When They Were Not Writing Novels (【他們沒在寫小說的時候】). The first chapter is about Chung Chao-cheng (Zhong Zhaozheng, 鍾肇政), a Taiwanese author who helped other Taiwanese writers get their work published during the martial law period, where Mainlanders more easily got published. There’s an interesting anecdote (which Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-62003914252823779942023-09-19T22:38:00.006-04:002023-09-19T22:38:44.592-04:00New and future books in the former native speaker's libraryJust got a few books in the mail:Mira Shimabukuro, Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration朱宥勳, 【他們沒在寫小說的時候:戒嚴台灣小說家群像】蔣闊宇, 【全島總罷工:殖民地臺灣工運史】 And two books that are forthcoming:Wendy Cheng, Island X: Taiwanese Student Migrants, Campus Spies, and Cold War Activism (Oct. 2023)Niki J. P. Alsford, Taiwan Lives: A Social and Political History (Feb. Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-38143468669910386502023-09-18T19:17:00.004-04:002023-09-18T19:17:28.200-04:00【台灣演義】episode about TaichungThis is from almost a year ago--somehow I missed it. But I'll post it here mainly to remind myself to watch it when I get a chance...Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-51553933194495155292023-09-04T13:21:00.002-04:002023-09-04T22:24:38.980-04:00Something to watch when I get a chanceThis looks like an interesting episode of 台灣演義 to watch:It's about bookstores and publishing in Taipei during the last 100 years. I wrote a blog post last year about bookstores in Taiwan during the Japanese period, so it'll be good to watch this to get more information on the fate of those bookstores. The discussion of bookstores from the Japanese period begins around 15:15. Su Shuo-bin (蘇碩斌Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-17591948385166344512023-09-02T00:30:00.005-04:002023-09-02T00:30:37.252-04:00Darryl Sterk, trans. Scales of Injustice: The Complete Fiction of Lōa HôDarryl Sterk, trans. Scales of Injustice: The Complete Fiction of Lōa Hô. Honford Star, 2018.I just finished reading this today after starting it a few months ago, which means my memory of some of the earlier stories is shaky. (One of the advantages and disadvantages of reading a collection of short stories is that you can put it down and dip into it from time to time.) So for that reason, Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-76675957767826576122023-08-31T22:42:00.005-04:002023-08-31T22:50:53.277-04:00Nikky Lin, ed. A Taiwanese Literature ReaderNikky Lin, ed. A Taiwanese Literature Reader. Cambria Press, 2020.I started a post about A-chin Hsiau's Politics and Cultural Nativism in 1970s Taiwan, but before I could get into writing it, working out my complicated feelings about Hsiau's book, I picked up Lin's collection yesterday and ended up reading the whole thing in about two sittings. That isn't as difficult as it might sound,Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0