This semester, my first on the other side of the table when it comes to graduate students, I've found myself returning to comfortable old favorites in the Early Modern [Chinese] Fiction course I've been assigned to teach. Lacking any restrictions other than the loose ones posed by the title of the course, I've elected to…Read more Salty olives and sweet wine
graduate school
A long footnote to the last nine years
『又一句是受人之恩忘不得。 忘恩負義之人名叫做昧良心。想想從前如何待你。 你却反而無情。豈不是豬狗不及麼。』 《潘公寶卷》卷上,18a. "And there's another aphorism: Do not forget the kindness you have received. People who forget kindness and betray justice are called those who have no conscience. Think back about how people supported you. If you turn around and are lacking in feeling, is it not worse than being a pig or…Read more A long footnote to the last nine years
Dinosaurs and Dissertation Writing
One of my favorite things and one of my least favorite things. Don't get me wrong, I still love my topic. Perhaps the biggest issue holding me back when it comes to finishing writing about it is that I love it too much to let go of, however briefly that may be before I have…Read more Dinosaurs and Dissertation Writing
Novel learning
One of the components of job application materials for academics is the teaching statement. Given the amount of introspection needed, it is not an easy piece to write, although it is the perfect piece for stewing over indefinitely. Over all these years of learning how to make myself write (with varying degrees of success depending…Read more Novel learning
Thinking about teaching
I spent the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college tutoring and teaching English in my hometown, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, like I had been doing since high school. I biked around the sweltering city from odd job to odd job, cobbling together a workday out of classes with children whose parents who would hire…Read more Thinking about teaching
Sleuthing
When Che Xilun, preeminent Chinese scholar of baojuan (and incredibly kind man, if our email correspondence is anything to go on), compiled his catalogue of baojuan in China, Zhongguo baojuan zongmu 中國寶卷總目, he did so in part by collating previous catalogues into composite entries for each title. Given that his catalogue includes entries for over…Read more Sleuthing
Narrative Compass
In my non-academic reading recently, I've been enjoying the essays collected in A Narrative Compass: Stories that Guide Women's Lives. Though it may sound like a self help book, it's actually nineteen essays written by women academics - professors and students of literature, folklore or history; or librarians - about how some narrative affected them…Read more Narrative Compass
Divinity and Femininity
Last week, I received word from my department that a course I proposed, called "Divinity and Femininity: Women’s Religious Lives in Pre-modern China" has been accepted and I get to teach it next year. This is particularly exciting news! The course abstract: This course focuses on the religious lives of women in pre-modern China, beginning…Read more Divinity and Femininity
On Writing
From the editorial preface to Mackay's From Far Formosa: "To a man of his ardent temperament and active habits prolonged literary work is the most irksome drudgery. He would rather face a heathen mob that write a chapter for a book." (4) -J. A. MacDonald While I haven't faced any mobs lately, there's plenty I'd…Read more On Writing
The glamor of graduate study
When taking my comprehensive exams years ago, at one of the many moments when I lost sight of the forest of Chinese literature for the trees of individual pieces of scholarship on it all, my advisor suggested I go back to the sources themselves. It was just what I needed, although I still managed to…Read more The glamor of graduate study
Far From Formosa 