A few years ago, I called my grandparents' home on my grandma's 90th birthday, mostly hoping to wish her birthday greetings and chat a little, but also, for a brief moment, hoping to accompany her, however implicitly, in the mourning for her younger sister whose death had come not even two weeks earlier. My grandpa…Read more Knit together

When I tell people about my research on late Qing baojuan, I talk about how ordinary lives can animate history. Non-official histories and religious texts can give us a poignant sense of daily concerns and their solutions. My work gives voice again to long-silent popular perspectives on the late Qing, some anonymous, some by named…Read more “What times are these?” (1854)