Heather Cox Richardson on the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

Heather Cox Richardson is a history professor at Boston College.

Barbara Tuchman on politics

First 10 minutes, in particular:

"I have to confess that I am neither philosophically nor politically a Republican" got applause!

Summer work update

I'm still working on my paper for the North American Taiwan Studies Association conference in July. Here's the schedule for the conference--I'm part of Panel B. Here's the proposal that I submitted for my presentation:

Formosa Delayed: George H. Kerr's Struggles with Scholarship and Advocacy

An early International Journal of Taiwan Studies forum on “Linking Taiwan Studies with the World” discussed a position paper by Shu-mei Shih that argued Taiwan should be studied through “relational comparison” with other countries, notably, the US. In fact, Shih argues that “Taiwan should be included in all American studies disciplines” (215). Not all of her interlocutors agreed: Mark Harrison disagreed with Shih’s emphasis on the Taiwan-U.S. nexus but concluded that Taiwan Studies “continues to need method; but that scholarly requirement is nothing less than a representation of the creation of an identity as Taiwanese by all the people around the world who identify with Taiwan” (219). And Kuei-fen Chiu connected the history of Taiwan Studies to Taiwan’s post-martial law “nation-forming project. It sought to redefine the status of Taiwan and retell the story of the past and the future of Taiwan” (221). Both quotes suggest that the distinction between scholarship and advocacy in Taiwan Studies is blurred. Chiu makes the clearest connection between Taiwan’s political opening-up and the scholarly project of studying Taiwan as a way of helping form a distinctly Taiwanese national identity. In this paper, I will explore two threads from the above discussion—the Taiwan-U.S. nexus and the blurred distinction between scholarship and advocacy—through the writings and struggles of George H. Kerr in the early years of the Cold War. Kerr’s work at this time and his uneasy relationship with scholarly objectivity anticipate the complex relationship between scholarship and advocacy that characterize Taiwan studies as a field.

Speaking of struggles, I am struggling myself with getting from Point A to Point B in my paper. I tend to get stuck in the weeds and have to try to dig myself out of the details to make a broader point about what I'm supposed to be discussing. This will be especially important since I only have 12-14 minutes to talk this time! Guess this means taking out all the jokes about how to pronounce Kerr's last name and whether Kerr is the father of American Taiwan Studies, its godfather, or its curmudgeonly uncle... [Insert bad pun about GHK as "Kerrmudgeon..."]

The Economic Resources and Development of Formosa, by Norton S. Ginsburg

I came across a reference to this paper published by the IPR in 1953. Fortunately, someone posted a copy of it to the Internet Archive. 

Another new book in the former native speaker's library

陳翠蓮 (Chen Tsui-lien), 自治之夢：日治時期到二二八的臺灣民主運動 (The Dream of Autonomy: Taiwan's Democracy Movement from the Japanese Occupation to February 28). 春山出版, 2020.

I came across some excerpts from this book when Googling an article by Huang Chengcong (黃呈聰) in the 臺灣民報 (Taiwan Minbao):

• Excerpt from Chapter Two
• Excerpt from Chapter Four
• Excerpt from Chapter Five

The excerpts looked interesting, so I bought the book. I managed to get an ebook through Amazon for only $9, which wasn't too bad considering what postage would have been had I ordered it through Books.com.tw. (Another advantage of the ebook is that the text in it runs horizontally from left to right instead of vertically from right to left, which makes it a little easier for me to read.) 

I haven't found any reviews of the book, but just from starting to read it, I think it's written for a more general audience rather than being a "scholarly" book, but that's OK with me. Hopefully, that will make it easier for me to read and I'll actually get it done!

A bit of progress

Despite a splitting sinus headache and a feeling that working on a paper about George Kerr in the aftermath of yesterday's massacre at Robb Elementary School in Texas is rather pointless, I managed to get some writing done. I realized I have to keep the paper down to between 1500 and 2000 words (I've only got 15 minutes to speak), so I am trying to keep the long quotations down to a minimum and try to stay out of the weeds ("how many titles changes did Kerr's manuscript go through?"). 

Every once in a while I like to check out YouTube to see if there are any videos about Kerr. I found this "Wikipedia Reader" one yesterday, in which the speaker says, "George H. Kerr H. Kerr H. Kerr" about a million times. At least they pronounce his name correctly...

More (non)progress

Had a good talk with my brother last night about the conference paper I'm working on. Same old problem, trying to go from the trees to get the forest in perspective. Trying to figure out this time which forest it is that I'm looking at and how that forest can be the forest that I alluded to in my conference proposal. Anyway, worked out a lot of ideas on the phone, most of which I promptly forgot after hanging up. *sigh*

Writing (non)progress

So since I last wrote I've developed some sort of sinus infection, chronic cough, etc. I'm on some medications that are knocking me out. I've spent most of my waking hours sleeping...

The Peasant Movement and Land Reform in Taiwan, 1924-1951

I just finished reading Shih-shan Henry Tsai's The Peasant Movement and Land Reform in Taiwan, 1924-1951 (MerwinAsia, 2015). The main feeling I got from the book is reflected in Tsai's conclusion, where he writes about the Japanese-era peasant movement led by Chien Chi (Jian Ji 簡吉), 

Invariably, peasant movements and land reform, like war and politics, are a question of power. Without power, one can make fiery speeches, but they do not fundamentally change anything. Lacking real power, Chien Chi's tenant union could and did conduct an attention-getting social movement, even including a few petitions and bloody skirmishes, but it accomplished little. The Japan Peasants Union and other left-wing groups sent advisors, money, and Bolshevik know-how to assist the Taiwanese cause, but to no avail. In the end, it was the JCRR experts, power, money, and the New Deal know-how that finally lifted underprivileged Taiwanese peasants out of semi-serfdom and found a way to fully fulfill Chien Chi's vision and advance his cause.

That said, the details in Tsai's history tell a somewhat more nuanced story that makes it hard to compare the effectiveness of the Peasant Union with that of the JCRR. The main difference I saw between the two was that the Japanese colonial government did not seem at all interested in meeting the demands of the peasants because it wanted to Japan and its zaibatsu to profit off of the work of the Taiwanese. In the case of the KMT, on the other hand, despite the regime's use of terror, coercion, and propaganda to quiet the Taiwanese people, the government also grudgingly cooperated with US advisors to institute a land reform program that successfully allowed peasants to own the land that they tilled. Postwar Taiwan had no zaibatsu cartels to appease; instead, the government had to appease the Americans who were supporting the KMT rulers ideologically, militarily, and economically.

In terms of Tsai's narrative, I also noticed that the discussion of the Japanese era peasant movements focused a lot more on individuals than that did his story of postwar land reform. This makes sense, I suppose, since the peasant movement was more of a bottom-up attempt to confront the agricultural policies of their Japanese rulers. This necessarily involved various personalities such as Chien Chi, Fuse Tatsuji (布施辰治), Chang Yu-lan (Zhang Yulan 張玉蘭), Yeh Tao (Ye Tao 葉陶), and others.

At the same time that the movement was "bottom-up," its leaders relied a lot on their Japanese mentors in the Japanese peasant movement. According to Tsai, this also moved at least some members of the Taiwanese movement to the left and eventually to Communism. Here Hsieh Hsueh-hung (Xie Xuehong 謝雪紅) makes an appearance along with other Taiwanese Communists, and here Tsai ties the peasant movement in Taiwan to some other leftist movements in the world, although, as some reviewers have pointed out, he doesn't spend much time making comparisons to peasant movements in other countries. 

Tsai also ties the peasant movement of Chien Chi to the Taiwan Cultural Association and people like Chiang Wei-shui (Jiang Weishui 將渭水), whose worry about the increasing leftism of the peasant movement led him and other more moderate members to break away from the movement and the TCA. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it as an introduction, particularly to some of the personalities involved in the peasant movements in Japanese-era Taiwan.

Here are a couple of reviews of the book:

• Alsford, Niki. “The Peasant Movement and Land Reform in Taiwan, 1924–1951. SHIH-SHAN HENRY TSAI . Portland, ME: Merwin Asia, 2015. Xx + 248 Pp. $55.00. ISBN 978-1-937385-80-4.” The China Quarterly, vol. 227, Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 844–45, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305741016000989. 
• You, Jong-sung. “The Peasant Movement and Land Reform in Taiwan, 1924–1951, by Shih-Shan Henry Tsai. Portland, ME: Merwin Asia, 2016. Xx+232 Pp. US$65.00 (cloth).” The China Journal (Canberra, A.C.T.), vol. 78, 2017, pp. 225–27, https://doi.org/10.1086/691706. 

Summer writing project, 2022

I'm not going to write daily notes about my summer writing this year (probably won't, anyway), but I wanted to post this to mark the beginning of what I hope will be a more productive summer of writing. I won't be teaching at all this summer, and I have a conference presentation in July, so I have more opportunity and motivation to work on at least one of the two papers I want to draft this summer. 

Unfortunately, I also managed to get Covid right at the end of the semester, so although I am somewhat better than I was last week, I'm still feeling some of the brain fog that seems to result from this virus. Hopefully, I'll be able to write my way out of it.

Today I did a few hours of writing in the morning, including reconnecting with my fellow Kerrdashians. We've been out of touch a bit during the past year, but I hope we will stay in touch now. Every time I hear from them, they've published something or are finishing up something for publication. It makes me feel like such a slouch... Anyway, I'll try to use that feeling to push myself to finish something this summer!

Wish me luck!

L'esprit de l'escalier

I just figured out a response to a question a professor asked me after a conference presentation I did 18 years ago. Should I try to find his email to give him my answer?

New book in the former native speaker's library

柳書琴主編，《日治時期台灣現代文學辭典》聯經出版社， 2019

Liu Shuqin, ed. Dictionary of Modern Taiwan Literature of the Japanese Period. Lianjing Publishing, 2019.

I bought this through Google Play, so it's an online book, though I sort of would prefer the physical book in my hands. I guess this will be a good format for me, though, because I will need to search through the text to find the information I need. It's always easier to do that with an online book. But it would look so cool on my bookshelf! Look at it...

I came across it when I was searching Google for information about a certain text written during the Japanese period. This is for one of my summer writing projects. I'm going to take off from teaching this summer and (I hope!) do some writing. After I finish grading, I'll try to write something up here about my plans.

Saturday trip to the Quincy Shipyard to look at trains

This afternoon my son and I were looking for something to do while we were in Quincy, and of course his thoughts turned to trains. He wanted to find some kind of abandoned railway or something in the area, so I was googling around for something that wouldn't be too far away. We came upon some information about the Fore River Railroad near Braintree and decided to go there. 

I guess I didn't look at the information on that link very carefully because on our way to where the GPS was taking us, I was surprised to pass the Quincy Shipyard.

After driving around a little, I thought we might as well go into the shipyard because we had seen some tank cars on railroad tracks there, as well as a diesel engine or two. I'm always a little hesitant to poke my head into one of these kinds of industrial sites because I'm not sure I belong, but I didn't see any "no trespassing" signs.

We parked the car near a couple of cabooses (caboosi?) that were sitting on some tracks.

I saw a sign about the USS Salem, which sounded like it was a ship you could visit, so I aimed my son in that direction. As we walked to the ship, we passed some more tank cars.

My son studies a tank car with fascination.

I nudged him along until we got to the USS Salem, a Navy ship built in Quincy that is now a museum.

We went aboard, equipped with a guide, and wandered around the ship for as long as my son's attention span would allow (about 20 minutes, though I successfully kept him on board a bit longer). 

I had to explain "Kilroy" to my son, who thought this was a picture of Squidward. 

I took a lot of pictures of the ship and its guns, etc., but since my son was more interested in the trains, we'll turn back to those briefly. He was interested in this diesel engine, which he explained to me is a switcher (a kind of engine that stays in the rail yard and shunts cars around--also called a "shunter").

He enjoyed looking at the engine, but fortunately he didn't try to climb on it, since an employee came by to warn us not to climb on the trains.

The engine above is, I think, out of service (though I might be wrong). The engine below is, I'm pretty sure, still in service. My son is admiring it safely from afar.

So he got to see his trains, and I got to see my ship. A good way to spend the last afternoon of April.

New book in the former native speaker's library and a book I want to get...

It's been an incredibly busy month; even last week's spring break was spent just trying (unsuccessfully) to catch up on work. I did manage to find some time to do a little writing on one of my decades-long projects, but as I said in my journal as I was working on it,

The problematic part is trying to figure out how to fit this stuff together. And how to write it in a way that I’m not going back into that old text and getting stuck in its rhythms and ideas and wanting to just keep everything. It’s really my fear that I’m going to look at that text and get drawn too much into it and become paralyzed so that I don’t know how to put the new ideas to use. I feel like I want to write as much of this as possible in a fresh way so that while I’m drawing on old ideas and information, I’m not getting stuck in that like you get stuck in quicksand. That’s an interesting problem. I don’t mind blowing the whole thing apart, so to speak, but I feel like even just a little contact with it is going to get me so utterly mixed up that I won’t be able to move forward.

Anyway, I bought another book that might be of use to me for this project (or for some other future permanently unfinished/unfinishable paper):

Shu-mei Shih, Lin-chin Tsai, eds. Indigenous Knowledge in Taiwan and Beyond. Sinophone and Taiwan Studies 1. Springer, 2021.

I managed to get a hardback edition at about half the price it's going for on the Springer website, but that was still expensive! 

I tried to order another book (or actually a set of books) through the NU library, but I haven't heard from them yet, so I'm not sure if I should just wait or order the books myself:

劉維瑛, 黃隆正, 六然居資料室, eds. 【現存臺灣民報復刻】. 國立台灣歷史博物館, 2018.

Maybe I'll just wait until the end of this week to decide, since last week was spring break. 

Wednesday walk

Today was fairly warm, up to the upper 60s (really the calm before the storm, since they're predicting 6" of snow for Friday). So this afternoon the little guy and I drove out to Millis to take a look at an old train station. 

There's some good info about this train station on this site. One thing it doesn't answer, though, is if the station was built in 1886, why does it say "1885" above the windows on the turret? 

Front of the Millis Train Station

Side of station

"All aboard!" shouts the diminutive would-be conductor.

Instead of waiting for a train that was clearly quite late, we headed southwest along the tracks. 

We came upon a number of levers along the way that controlled the switches. This switch stand was patented in 1930. (If you're fascinated by this kind of stuff, check out this PPT on switching and other equipment. Slide 8 contains more information about this particular switch stand.)

The tracks from the station go by a warehouse at 1073 Main St., Millis, a little over half a mile away.

End of the line

All in all, it was a nice walk on a beautiful afternoon. I found some more information about this train station here. Now the wind is howling outside, and the temperature has dropped 30 degrees. Love me that New England weather...

Two new books in the former native speaker's library

Well, they're not "new," per se. But I did get new copies of them--and for pretty good prices.

• Politics of Difference in Taiwan, ed. T. W. Ngo and Hong-zen Wang (Routledge, 2011). This cost me only $10.57 + tax for a hardback edition. (Unfortunately, it's now back up to $165...)
• Tanners of Taiwan: Life Strategies and National Culture, by Scott Simon (Westview, 2005). This cost only $6.02 + tax for a paperback. I see it's selling now for $4.99, but delivery for that is $5.99. So...)

I'm contemplating not teaching this summer, which would give me some time to read some of these books, which might just be a fantasy, like the one I had about finishing my dissertation and having lots of time to read my pile of books. The pile of books has grown, but the time for reading them hasn't. (The other worry about not teaching this summer is that I'm afraid we might have to 喝西北風.)

New book in the former native speaker's library

In lieu of telling you how my writing plan is going (badly), I'll tell you that I just received a new/old book: Maritime Taiwan: Historical Encounters with the East and the West by Shih-Shan Henry Tsai (M. E. Sharpe, 2009). 

I think I saw it cited somewhere and thought I should check it out. Unfortunately, since M. E. Sharpe's collection is now owned by Routledge, there were no copies I could find on Amazon for less than $50. As John Ross wrote in his succinct review, 

For the fun of it, I went to eBay and was happily surprised to find a copy for only around $22 from a shop called Zuber. So I ordered it, and it came today. It wasn't quite what I expected (the image they used on eBay was of the new Routledge edition), but I'm not going to be picky when the alternative is to spend up to $150 just for a fancier cover. (I do see there was a complaint a couple of years ago about Zuber's tendency to send different editions than what appears to be advertised. If that's the case, I'll have to be careful in my interactions with them.)

Anyway, I'll be sure to get into reading this book to further put off my writing!

Semester writing plan

Classes start tomorrow--I have to go in for one in-person class that I'm teaching. This time I'm taking the commuter rail instead of driving. I'll probably wear about 30 surgical masks on the train.

I'm in a writing group this semester. We meet virtually Monday mornings and tell each other what we plan to get done, then write for 2 hours and come back after that to tell each other what we did. One of the things I did during the two hours was to decide that I'm going to go back to getting up earlier in the morning, at about 5:30, for a half hour of writing as many times as I can in a week. I'll try to mention here when I've succeeded in doing that, just for the sake of accountability. Gonna try to get one of my papers done this semester, if I can get over my imposter syndrome. Wish me luck!

2022 New Year's Resolutions

This year I resolve to use fewer ellipses and to have fewer parenthetical comments in my writing. (I've decided to go for the low-hanging fruit this time around...)

Top post of 2021

Don't think this will change by the end of the day: I was amused (or is it bemused?) to see that the most-visited posting on this blog from 2021 was a one-word negation of the hope expressed on the last day of 2020 that I would be more hopeful about 2021 on the first day of the new year. I'm not going to link to that posting because I don't want to push up the hits more than necessary; you can just look for a one-word post.

Coming in a distant second, with less than a third the number of hits as Number One, was a posting from July about how to interpret supposedly graphically violent language in a speech by Xi Jinping. Not sure why that got more hits than the other stuff I posted. It's a big mystery. 

Anyway, I don't know what 2022 holds for us. I'm getting too jaded to be hopeful, though. I'm guessing it's more of the same or perhaps an accelerating downward spiral. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, though.