Kate Merkel-Hess
@katemh.bsky.social
Also 梅凯悦. Historian of Modern China.
Books: Women and Their Warlords (2024), The Rural Modern (2016).
Books: Women and Their Warlords (2024), The Rural Modern (2016).
Yesterday's daily poem from The Poetry Foundation (Beehive by Jean Toomer) feels resonant:
"And I, a drone,
Lying on my back,
Lipping honey, [...]
Wish that I might fly out past the moon
And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower."
"And I, a drone,
Lying on my back,
Lipping honey, [...]
Wish that I might fly out past the moon
And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower."
December 27, 2024 at 2:06 PM
Yesterday's daily poem from The Poetry Foundation (Beehive by Jean Toomer) feels resonant:
"And I, a drone,
Lying on my back,
Lipping honey, [...]
Wish that I might fly out past the moon
And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower."
"And I, a drone,
Lying on my back,
Lipping honey, [...]
Wish that I might fly out past the moon
And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower."
On this full moon eve, sharing a few lines from the #China poet Zhang Qieying, translated in Susan Mann's book, The Talented Women of the Zhang Family:
Ten years of weeping
Have made me thin and haggard.
Leaning toward the old moon's chill beams,
I ask: who taught you to be so perfectly round?
Ten years of weeping
Have made me thin and haggard.
Leaning toward the old moon's chill beams,
I ask: who taught you to be so perfectly round?
![From the magnificent dwellings of the immortals, no news;
If your soul returned, it would be hard to recover those brilliant gifts [of writing].
The single slim volume of your poems in my writing case
Is my only source for recovering your feelings.
Ten years of weeping
Have made me thin and haggard.
Leaning toward the old moon's chill beams,
I ask: who taught you to be so perfectly round?
The night is deep, the wind is sharp, piercing my body,
Over the Clear Bright Hall flies a crisp snow.
When I roll up the bamboo screen to gaze,
Who takes pity on my pair of cold sleeves?
In the frosty glitter my wind-tossed hair is a shadow;
Events long past come unbidden to my mind.
I dare not complain that the night is long;
Knowing how you suffered so much more.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vviqtb2n4vr7dwudpuw3zolz/bafkreifmop6nbtmezzn72qyv5oboj7ueh2i7iq6rwhmooeizymkmnvehpq@jpeg)
November 15, 2024 at 6:02 PM
On this full moon eve, sharing a few lines from the #China poet Zhang Qieying, translated in Susan Mann's book, The Talented Women of the Zhang Family:
Ten years of weeping
Have made me thin and haggard.
Leaning toward the old moon's chill beams,
I ask: who taught you to be so perfectly round?
Ten years of weeping
Have made me thin and haggard.
Leaning toward the old moon's chill beams,
I ask: who taught you to be so perfectly round?
The cover depicts that first PRC minister of public health, Li Dequan (she would serve in the post for 16 years), ca. 1925 with her husband, the so-called "Christian General" Feng Yuxiang, dandling their daughter against his chest. She's the subject of Chapter 3.
November 9, 2024 at 2:05 AM
The cover depicts that first PRC minister of public health, Li Dequan (she would serve in the post for 16 years), ca. 1925 with her husband, the so-called "Christian General" Feng Yuxiang, dandling their daughter against his chest. She's the subject of Chapter 3.
Here's the lead image for the themed page on "Tractor Girls." So fabulous.
October 18, 2024 at 1:04 PM
Here's the lead image for the themed page on "Tractor Girls." So fabulous.
Autumn campus is the best campus.
October 17, 2024 at 1:21 PM
Autumn campus is the best campus.
Reading Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang. Listening to Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan by Ruby Lal. Both great.
September 27, 2024 at 1:25 PM
Reading Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order by Yuan Yang. Listening to Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan by Ruby Lal. Both great.
Really excited to have a copy of my new book, Women and Their Warlords, in hand! Will be released September 3, but you can preorder with a 30% discount with code UCPNEW at the University of Chicago Press website: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
August 6, 2024 at 1:45 PM
Really excited to have a copy of my new book, Women and Their Warlords, in hand! Will be released September 3, but you can preorder with a 30% discount with code UCPNEW at the University of Chicago Press website: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
The book cover for my new book, Women and Their Warlords: Domesticating Militarism in Modern China, is now up at University of Chicago Press website. Out in August 2024. So grateful to all at the press for turning this into a reality! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
April 2, 2024 at 8:02 PM
The book cover for my new book, Women and Their Warlords: Domesticating Militarism in Modern China, is now up at University of Chicago Press website. Out in August 2024. So grateful to all at the press for turning this into a reality! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...