Konrad M. Lawson
@konrad.social.coop.ap.brid.gy
Historian of modern East Asia he/him
Lecturer at University of St Andrews
From Stavanger, Norway
Live in Edinburgh, Scotland
Account searchable […]
[bridged from https://social.coop/@konrad on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
Lecturer at University of St Andrews
From Stavanger, Norway
Live in Edinburgh, Scotland
Account searchable […]
[bridged from https://social.coop/@konrad on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
Lot of interesting sources on NDL online collections are embedded in scanned US occupation period files. Example: the 日満支 工業年鑑 for 昭和15 is only available as part of evidence for war crimes trials here: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12922208/1/4 while elsewhere only up to 昭和13 ( […]
Original post on social.coop
social.coop
December 3, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Lot of interesting sources on NDL online collections are embedded in scanned US occupation period files. Example: the 日満支 工業年鑑 for 昭和15 is only available as part of evidence for war crimes trials here: https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12922208/1/4 while elsewhere only up to 昭和13 ( […]
Reposted by Konrad M. Lawson
i hope this email finds you well
November 28, 2025 at 6:27 PM
i hope this email finds you well
Senior permanent position has opened up in Chinese studies here at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It is a very nice place. https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN980/reader-or-professor-in-chinese-studies-ac2219
November 25, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Senior permanent position has opened up in Chinese studies here at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. It is a very nice place. https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPN980/reader-or-professor-in-chinese-studies-ac2219
Lots of updates to this page dedicated to the old“Chinese Literature” journal with its thousands of English translations. Over 200 issues online from 1950s-80s. Added “Search”, “Explore” and an author table with pinyin/hanzi versions of a few dozen of the over a […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
November 13, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Lots of updates to this page dedicated to the old“Chinese Literature” journal with its thousands of English translations. Over 200 issues online from 1950s-80s. Added “Search”, “Explore” and an author table with pinyin/hanzi versions of a few dozen of the over a […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
With some LLM and OCR help, I've extracted the tables of contents for over 200 issues of the old PRC journal "Chinese Literature" and put together a website to search and explore them (still proof-reading and formatting it): https://froginawell.net/chinese-literature/ #china #literature
November 1, 2025 at 10:32 PM
With some LLM and OCR help, I've extracted the tables of contents for over 200 issues of the old PRC journal "Chinese Literature" and put together a website to search and explore them (still proof-reading and formatting it): https://froginawell.net/chinese-literature/ #china #literature
I added a section to our Frog in a Well Primary Source guide to Korean History with some links to open access copies of volumes with Japanese statistics from colonial Korea - https://froginawell.net/frog/sources/primary-sources-modern-korean-history/#japanese […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
October 31, 2025 at 5:33 PM
I added a section to our Frog in a Well Primary Source guide to Korean History with some links to open access copies of volumes with Japanese statistics from colonial Korea - https://froginawell.net/frog/sources/primary-sources-modern-korean-history/#japanese […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
To think I lived my life without having deployed the fantastic excuse of “illness and misadventure” https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/28/brisbane-state-high-school-wrong-caesar-year-12-exam
October 28, 2025 at 11:36 AM
To think I lived my life without having deployed the fantastic excuse of “illness and misadventure” https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/28/brisbane-state-high-school-wrong-caesar-year-12-exam
Four issues of China Pictorial found on eBay just arrived with 34 more issues on their way (misc issues ‘57-60,’65-69,’76-80). Almost all are issues not already in this digital collection but can’t promise when I’ll find time to scan and post to archive.org […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
October 25, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Four issues of China Pictorial found on eBay just arrived with 34 more issues on their way (misc issues ‘57-60,’65-69,’76-80). Almost all are issues not already in this digital collection but can’t promise when I’ll find time to scan and post to archive.org […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
A UFO 🛸 spotting in Trondheim, Norway 1934. Among the treasures of A Shoebox of Norwegian Letters:
https://huginn.net/shoebox/new/index.html?letter=72 #norway
https://huginn.net/shoebox/new/index.html?letter=72 #norway
October 23, 2025 at 6:21 PM
A UFO 🛸 spotting in Trondheim, Norway 1934. Among the treasures of A Shoebox of Norwegian Letters:
https://huginn.net/shoebox/new/index.html?letter=72 #norway
https://huginn.net/shoebox/new/index.html?letter=72 #norway
Fixed a few bugs on this 2010 website I made for my mother's translations of over 200 Norwegian letters from 1911-1956 (including between US and Norway) https://huginn.net/shoebox/letters/ Some really wonderful content to browse there. #norway
October 20, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Fixed a few bugs on this 2010 website I made for my mother's translations of over 200 Norwegian letters from 1911-1956 (including between US and Norway) https://huginn.net/shoebox/letters/ Some really wonderful content to browse there. #norway
History PhD students at Scottish universities may be interested in this upcoming SGSAH Discipline+ Catalyst in person training workshop in St Andrews: Coding Literacy for Historians in the Age of AI - 17-18 Oct, 2025 https://spatialhistory.net/info/coding.html Limited places; registration by 15 […]
Original post on social.coop
social.coop
October 5, 2025 at 8:19 PM
History PhD students at Scottish universities may be interested in this upcoming SGSAH Discipline+ Catalyst in person training workshop in St Andrews: Coding Literacy for Historians in the Age of AI - 17-18 Oct, 2025 https://spatialhistory.net/info/coding.html Limited places; registration by 15 […]
Today enjoyed browsing the UBC collection of Japanese maps of the Tokugawa era: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/tokugawa #japan #maps
September 27, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Today enjoyed browsing the UBC collection of Japanese maps of the Tokugawa era: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/tokugawa #japan #maps
Some (out of copyright?) downloadable Japanese dictionaries of (very) different sorts from postwar at NDL:
最新時事新語辞典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126434/...
最新国際問題辞典 1948 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1444664
ポケットスケッチ事典 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1338675
図解新事典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1169556 […]
[Original post on social.coop]
最新時事新語辞典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126434/...
最新国際問題辞典 1948 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1444664
ポケットスケッチ事典 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1338675
図解新事典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1169556 […]
[Original post on social.coop]
September 13, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Some (out of copyright?) downloadable Japanese dictionaries of (very) different sorts from postwar at NDL:
最新時事新語辞典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126434/...
最新国際問題辞典 1948 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1444664
ポケットスケッチ事典 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1338675
図解新事典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1169556 […]
[Original post on social.coop]
最新時事新語辞典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1126434/...
最新国際問題辞典 1948 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1444664
ポケットスケッチ事典 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1338675
図解新事典 1949 dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1169556 […]
[Original post on social.coop]
Was listening to political commentary about the imminent Norwegian election on NRK radio and they used an expression I like, used by one commentator cautioning against speculation:
“ta seg en bolle” (lit. have a [bread/pastry/sweet] bun) = to chill out, relax […]
[Original post on social.coop]
“ta seg en bolle” (lit. have a [bread/pastry/sweet] bun) = to chill out, relax […]
[Original post on social.coop]
September 7, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Was listening to political commentary about the imminent Norwegian election on NRK radio and they used an expression I like, used by one commentator cautioning against speculation:
“ta seg en bolle” (lit. have a [bread/pastry/sweet] bun) = to chill out, relax […]
[Original post on social.coop]
“ta seg en bolle” (lit. have a [bread/pastry/sweet] bun) = to chill out, relax […]
[Original post on social.coop]
I did a test with a set of (hastily taken, in poor light) photographs of a few Japanese book pages, then ran them on both the ndlkotenocr-lite (which, to be fair, is designed for much older Japanese texts and likely the old form kanji) vs Google Document AI […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
September 6, 2025 at 4:03 PM
I did a test with a set of (hastily taken, in poor light) photographs of a few Japanese book pages, then ran them on both the ndlkotenocr-lite (which, to be fair, is designed for much older Japanese texts and likely the old form kanji) vs Google Document AI […]
[Original post on social.coop]
[Original post on social.coop]
Anyone working with Japanese texts: interested in your OCR experiences. I find usual suspects (tesseract, ABBYY, direct use of LLMs) do rubbish job with 縦書き Japanese text scans (manga-ocr works only on short text). Google Document AI works fantastic but $$. What works well for you? I remember […]
Original post on social.coop
social.coop
September 6, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Anyone working with Japanese texts: interested in your OCR experiences. I find usual suspects (tesseract, ABBYY, direct use of LLMs) do rubbish job with 縦書き Japanese text scans (manga-ocr works only on short text). Google Document AI works fantastic but $$. What works well for you? I remember […]
There is a short Kon Wajirō (今和次郎) lecture clip from NHK 放送大学on 個人と集団 (mention of his challenges with 考現学approach) YouTube filmed 1972, just a year before he passed. https://youtu.be/Xg2qvdcWOP0?si=_TTbqd2PHD_kXwvB
September 4, 2025 at 1:53 PM
There is a short Kon Wajirō (今和次郎) lecture clip from NHK 放送大学on 個人と集団 (mention of his challenges with 考現学approach) YouTube filmed 1972, just a year before he passed. https://youtu.be/Xg2qvdcWOP0?si=_TTbqd2PHD_kXwvB
Just noticed that Nichibunken's open access collection has a full text OA copy of book "Gender and Modernity: Rereading Japanese Women's Magazines" (1998, 152MB) nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/6419 - individual chapters can also be downloaded. Guess I don't need to wait for that inter-library loan.
August 27, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Just noticed that Nichibunken's open access collection has a full text OA copy of book "Gender and Modernity: Rereading Japanese Women's Magazines" (1998, 152MB) nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/6419 - individual chapters can also be downloaded. Guess I don't need to wait for that inter-library loan.
Great title: "A Dinner Party Is Not a Revolution: Space, Gender, and Hierarchy in Meiji Japan" www.jstor.org/stable/42772... (still doesn't beat my current all time favorite: Fascism’s Furry Friends: Dogs, National Identity, and Purity of Blood in 1930s Japan www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...)
August 27, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Great title: "A Dinner Party Is Not a Revolution: Space, Gender, and Hierarchy in Meiji Japan" www.jstor.org/stable/42772... (still doesn't beat my current all time favorite: Fascism’s Furry Friends: Dogs, National Identity, and Purity of Blood in 1930s Japan www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...)
There are now three modes to timeline review tool (mostly for students new to modern China/Japan history): Flashcards (flip through until all correct); Test mode (asks 10 questions, but also records time taken); Sort game, sort the order of events and time recorded […]
Original post on social.coop
social.coop
August 27, 2025 at 7:53 AM
There are now three modes to timeline review tool (mostly for students new to modern China/Japan history): Flashcards (flip through until all correct); Test mode (asks 10 questions, but also records time taken); Sort game, sort the order of events and time recorded […]
I have made some updates to these interactive modern timeline flashcards+testing at Frog in a Well: 1) corrections/additions to some China timelines 2) tweaked the test feature for better mobile experience 3) added a "sort the dates" game 4) added some modern Japan decks […]
Original post on social.coop
social.coop
August 26, 2025 at 12:03 PM
I have made some updates to these interactive modern timeline flashcards+testing at Frog in a Well: 1) corrections/additions to some China timelines 2) tweaked the test feature for better mobile experience 3) added a "sort the dates" game 4) added some modern Japan decks […]
