Really enjoyed Peng Hai's article "Re-marking Xinjiang" in November's JAS. He looks at changing representations in film of the PRC incorporation of Xinjiang, showing how narratives of Uyghur participation in their own liberation turned to glorification of a national project

www.asianstudies.org/usaid-closur...

”Khmer practitioners could easily articulate differences between “Western” donors like Germany or the U.S. and “Asian” donors like Japan or China.“

New reading: @profmarycollier.bsky.social wrote about the closing of USAID on #AsiaNow.

#ReadUP @asianstudies.org

Widespread service disruption on TikTok became the first test on how much users would trust the app's new owners. TikTok's new corporate entity (USDS Joint Venture) says it's due to a data center power outage. Users suspect something more malicious.

New by @telliotter.bsky.social and me.

“I made a claim that North Koreans are not just passive victims of a repressive regime, but they are very smart, creative, and resourceful. How does that manifest in their lives? That’s when the concepts of reactive creativity and the hidden script come in.”

campanthropology.org/2024/10/14/s...

moa.ubc.ca/exhibition/e...

“Many of those who identify as Tibetan were neither born in Tibet nor live there, but live in places like India and Nepal, and increasingly in North America and Europe. Canada is home to one of the largest concentrations of Tibetans outside of Asia.”

During your time in Vancouver during #AAS2026, a can't-miss field trip is a visit to the UBC Museum of Anthropology to see the permanent collection and a special exhibit, "Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images."

https://moa.ubc.ca/

When AI algorithms start watching rivers and dolphins. My latest for @thediplomat.com on how China’s AI systems are becoming environmental infrastructure—and what that means

It would appear I am now a columnist at Inside Higher Ed. My first piece focuses on McCarthyism, censorship, and our current moment in higher education. This is an essay I started nearly 6 months ago so I'm glad to finally share it with y'all.

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

🔔 New #OpenAccess Research Article in #JCCA Journal of Current Chinese Affairs

@giga-hamburg.de @sagepub.com

Polakiewicz & @evaseiwert.bsky.social analyzed the triggers that have led to #GermanUniversities reconsidering their relationships with #ConfuciusInstitutes

doi.org/10.1177/1868...

With help from @rhg.com, I mapped 68 factories in the world that are either set up by a Chinese company, by a joint venture with Chinese stakes, or by licensing the crucial manufacturing technologies from a Chinese battery maker.

If "Made in China" still means cheap gadgets from a Shenzhen factory, what should we call the cutting-edge battery manufacturing facilities that are being built by Chinese companies across the world?

You can read more about the trend and interact with our data here. www.wired.com/story/chines...

Fascinating stories of Chinese workers who migrated from rural areas to Guangdong in 2006-15: skillfully collected by the poet Zheng Xiaoqiong, translated by Eleanor Goodman, insightfully introduced by @kaiserkuo.bsky.social—and, thankfully, published by @equatormag.bsky.social.

I wrote about reporters’ refusal to use “act of war,” “invasion” or “coup” when covering Trump’s brazen attacks on Venezuela, instead echoing WH-approved euphemisms, and the broader trend of our press dutifully giving Trump’s lawlessness the vague whiff of international legitimacy when it has none.

Once you understand that you're dealing with murderous liars, you stop entertaining what they say as possibly credible and legitimate. The fight against them is about stopping them from terrorizing and killing by any means, not winning debates about your reality versus theirs.

ICE ended up returning the man, Saly, after realizing he’s a fucking US citizen with no criminal record, per his sister-in-law. These fucking animals.