Coraline Jortay 喬海霖
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qiaoj.bsky.social
Coraline Jortay 喬海霖
@qiaoj.bsky.social
3.5K followers 880 following 580 posts
History of language politics in China & Sinophone Asia -- literary feminism and translation history -- Research Fellow, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (& 🏊🏻‍♀️🚴🏼‍♀️🏃🏼‍♀️) -- She/her
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On #RemembranceDay, my yearly reminder that an estimated 140,000 Chinese men were sent to labour in Europe amidst hefty war casualties, and linking to what remains one of the most touching life stories I've had the privilege to research for @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandm...
lace edged silk cushion cover, delicately embroidered with floral patterns and measuring about two feet long and wide, the piece features a calligraphed dedication in Chinese and, at its centre, a watercolour painting reading “Memories from Péronne” in French.
November 11, 2025 at 10:45 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Bonjour @franceuniversites.bsky.social, merci pour votre réactivité sur le colloque du Collège de France. Je découvre au passage que votre site géobloque les connexions depuis Taiwan ce qui empêche les collègues de l'ESR (notamment en UMIFRE) ici de vous lire - y a-t-il une raison pour ce blocage ?
Webpage reading "connection denied by geolocation setting"
November 10, 2025 at 11:43 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
And here's the programme of the conference (in French) if you want to see for yourself what was to be talked about:

www.college-de-france.fr/sites/defaul...
Conference poster (see pdf link for full alt text in French), the title of which reads "Palestine and Europe: weight of the past and contemporary dynamics")
November 10, 2025 at 11:03 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Merci à l'équipe pour son accueil, c'est toujours un plaisir de faire de la radio ! (et un vrai défi amusant d'essayer de dire les choses clairement en allant à l'essentiel sans faire de périphrase de chercheur !)
Studio d'enregistrement de radio, un fauteuil bleu à l'avant-plan devant une table de mixage.
November 6, 2025 at 7:38 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Nice little chill Sunday hike in Maokong to kick off what is hopefully a long series of Sunday hikes while I'm here ☀️

And a big shoutout to @taiwantrailsandtales.com - fabulous to be able to pre-screen hikes by shade level with weather like this 🕶️

taiwantrailsandtales.com/2017/08/16/y...
A small temple nested into the rock amongst lush tropical vegetation Ridges of tropical forest seen from above, less dense sections of bushes in the front
October 5, 2025 at 11:47 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
I was out of my usual cereal bars heading into my long run this morning so I grabbed some dried mangoes I had around, and it was *so perfect* I'm now considering fueling my entire marathon on dried mangoes...

Brb calculating how many 芒果乾 one does need to get 60g/hour of carbs 😁
Lifelike drawing showing many varieties of mangoes, from small to big and green to red
October 4, 2025 at 2:23 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Thanks again for the advice, to Baifu and back was a perfect 30k and the views were just lovely!
A wall covered in red and yellow flowers along a cycle lane A river in the morning sun with four tall identical buildings in the distance, clear skies. Shaded path along a river, bright skies.
October 4, 2025 at 1:42 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
The view from the workshop:
Rooftop terrace of an old Provence building with a table and chair, blue skies Inside courtyard with barren trees
September 26, 2025 at 2:55 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Lots of other really moving moments, including Tai Po-fen's tribute to her grandma and women like her who worked as coal miners in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial era and the postwar years in dreadful conditions -- the book weaves oral history, family history and sociology and looks fantastic!
Cover and title of the book.
September 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Quick shot of Huang Chong-kai's prize-winning speech today at the Golden Tripods awards for Anti-Gravity, a novel about resistance in 1970s Taiwan -- ending with a lovely tribute to the enduring need for the kind of anti-gravitational dreams that help break free from the pull of authoritarianism
A man standing on a stage, holding an award, against a light gold background featuring the winning book cover.
September 24, 2025 at 2:23 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Lovely exhibition on comparative histories of manga/manhua publishing in pre/post WW2 Taiwan and Japan at the National Taiwan Museum of Comics in Taichung.

Lots of items on loan from Japan, reprints one can flip through, and thoughtful curating around issues of censorship and visual culture.
Exhibition poster: "A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan's Youth" Lawn with a huge banyan tree in the background, clear skies. First issue of the 1946 Manga Man and 1947 The Elephant's Kindness, both in Japanese, on display. Case display featuring a 1966 licence for comic censorship by the National Institute for Compilation and Translation in Taiwan
September 19, 2025 at 10:48 AM
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Solo instance checks out, but I'd suggest higher level requirements considering the risk of getting crushed between treacherous compact stacks... 👀
A bilingual Chinese-English library board reading "You have entered the special instance: Maze of Shelves"
September 16, 2025 at 8:03 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
A défaut d'avoir "Chronique d'un produit" sous la main présentement dans le train, quelques poèmes ici en version anglaise dans des traductions d'Eleanor Goodman (images) et Zhou Xiaojing (lien)

www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Woman Worker: Youth Pinned to a Station Zheng Xiaoqiong Translated from the Chinese by Eleanor Goodman Time opens its enormous maw the moon on the machine rusting tired darkened turbid its inner danger gurgles past the cliff of the body collapses into mud and splintered stones the splinters of time turbulent waters fill a woman's body wild tidal waters no longer fluctuating with the season she sits at her station the flowing products and interlocking time are swallowed up quickly aging ten years flowing past like water enormous weariness floats through the mind for many years she's stuck by the screws one screw two screws turning to the left to the right fixing her dreams and her youth to some product look at her pale youth running from an inland village to a factory by the sea all the way to a shelf in America fatigue and occupational diseases build up in the lungs get caught in the throat a lifetime of irregular periods fierce coughing the distant development zone of factories the clear-cut green lychee trees the machines by her side shivering she rubs her swollen red eyes and sticks herself back into the flow of products
September 8, 2025 at 3:56 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Un autre recueil de Zheng, "Chronique d'un produit", paru en 2020 aux éditions Caractères dans une traduction de Chantal Chen-Andro, est passé trop inaperçu en français à cause de l'épidémie de covid alors qu'elle est très largement traduite en anglais et en allemand.
Première de couverture de l'ouvrage "Chronique d'un produit"
September 8, 2025 at 3:44 PM
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Quatre beaux poèmes de Zheng Xiaoqiong 郑小琼 dans le nouveau numéro de la revue Café ! 💪🏻

Un numéro intitulé "Résistances" d'utilité publique en 2025 pour une immense poétesse de la vie d'usine qui gagnerait à être mieux connue en français. Bravo à la traductrice, Lucie Morel !
Main tenant une revue à la couverture rose sur laquelle le titre, Résistances, apparaît dans un souffle blanc. Table des matières : CAFE, c'est à chaque numéro une sélection de textes littéraires du monde entier traduits depuis des langues minorées. Pour ce numéro, c'est un breuvage qui réveille les consciences avec seize fragments traduits avec ténacité depuis des langues qui résistent à la domination et à l'hégémonie par Mathilde Abadie, Samira Agrade, Prunelle Blanc, Julie Bonin, Mariéva Chalvin, Noémie Coppey, Chantal Dauphin, Angelo Ferreira de Sousa, Aude Fondard, Pierre Girard, Olivia Gutherz, Aurélie Journo, Lucie Morel, Ozsu Riv, Samme Sheikh et Marie Van Effenterre Les Oiseaux fuient la banlieue* - Ptice beze iz predgrada Titanics africains - تيتانيكات إفريقية Boulangerie Barsi - مخبز برسي Dans le lojman - Lojman Les Cygnes - Labuté Kathmandu - Kathmandu Pressentiment - Aavistus Une lerme florale - سفر الإختفاء ONZE Le Vieux Dur d'esprit - 99-5051 Premiers jours de la trève - أول أيام الهدنة Drame et autres poemes一剧，安慰，何丽，村庄 Dans les ateliers d'écriture, il y a longtemps - Когда-то давно, на уроках литмастерства Préambule ; Ma conscience; Ouvrez la porte - Utangulizi; Dhamiri Yangu; Fungueni Mlango J'ai gravé mon nom sur les murailles de Diyarbekir - Min navê xwe kola li bircên Diyarbekir Méthodes révolutionnaires pour nettoyer votre piscine - Lumumba n'est ni vivant, ni mort - Lumumba ma Noola, mana Dhimaney par Yahya Ashour, Cabdi Muxumed Amiin, Ibtisam Azem, Rojen Barnas, Iryna Des textes coriaces, indomptables, qui n'ont pas fini de nous résister écrits Batakova, Lívia Lemos Duarte, Mira Aurelia Eskelinen, Ana Marija Grbié, Hussam Némec, Ebru Ojen, Abdillahi Qarshe, Thöndrupgyäl et Zheng Xiaoglong Hilali, Haawa Jibril, Alexandra K*, Euphrase Kezilahabi, Abu Bakr Khaal, Jan
September 8, 2025 at 3:36 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
I'm on writing deadline so I'll do myself a favour and not go down a research rabbit hole to verify the historical accuracy of this anecdote, but 😂😂

Also, if anyone has the Chinese edition at hand, I'd love to know what the original phrase was!
Section from Xiao Ch'ien's "Traveller Without a Map" (in J. C. Kinkley's translation), reading: "A story was going round there that the War Office had asked an English Sinologist to suggest a Chinese phrase to be sewn onto the uniforms of British pilots, so that if their planes were shot down by the Japanese over Malaya, local people of Chinese background might be persuaded to assist them. No doubt the Sinologist was very learned in his field of ancient Chinese. He wrote out a four-character phrase for the ministry: 'Detainest-thou not this honourable pilot of ye Airborne Dragon'. Someone should have told him that even the Chinese had moved on in the last two thousand years."
September 6, 2025 at 8:17 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Was browsing the Ginling College files for a talk I'm giving at BACS tomorrow and stumbled upon a 1924 birdwatching report for Nanjing.

Thought y'all birders out there would enjoy it! 🦉
GINLING. COLLEGE 'MAGAZINE The Birds of Ginling By NORMAN A. WOOD The birds of this region must have been astonished at the sight of so many large buildings where before there were none, but they seem to have approved and at least two have decided to accept them as convenient sites for their future homes. The first year, a magpie built its rough-stick nest on top of the Seience Building and in Mareh, 1924, another pair built a nest on top of the Central Building. The House or Tree Sparrows also found the protected cornices fine places • to hide and nest, and no doubt large colonies will become established in the future. When we realize the small number of habitats the campus affords, we are surprised to learn the number of different species that visit; or make it their home. This number will increase, if all visitors are noted closely each year, as the conditions become more favorable. Birds must have cover, and the protection afforded by the growth of the many trees and shrubs that have been planted will be quickly appre-ciated. In the tall thick grass on Reservoir Hill the Common Quail and the Ring-necked Pheasant have been seen, and they no doubt will continue to nest on the campus, as both are resident species. Here too the Rustic and Yellow-throated Buntings have found food and shelter. Flocks of Red-tailed Ousels found food on the hill, which was visited also by some Fan-tailed Warblers in November and December. The Collared Crow is a daily visitor on the campus and one built a large stick nest in the top of a tail pine just at the edge of the grounds. This large crow is.black. with a white collar and bib and walks about as though proud of himself and of the grounds. Another bird that occasionally feeds on the campus is the Streak-eyed Wagtail, a small gray and white bird with black cap and throat. visitant The Pied and Black Jackdaws fly over the campus in flocks, and even light on the buildings and on the The Pied Jackdaw looks like a small Collared side is … 6 GINLING COLLEGE MAGAZINE A very common resident of the region is the Spectacled Laughing Thrush, a large brown bird of 13 inches. Its black forehead and patch around the eyes suggests the name. They seem to go in family parties and keep near the ground, in thiekets and bamboo groves. The Brown Laughing Thrush was seen only on Purple Mountain in December. Both are favorite cage birds with the Chinese people. The Daurian Redstart is common winter visitant and several were seen very near the campus. black and white. The male is a handsome bird, dressed in gray, The Osprey or Fish Hawk is a resident, but not common. On November 26 the writer saw one flying over the woods near the temple northwest of the campus. This bird had a carp of about two pounds in his talons when shot. Two species of Marsh Hawk were taken, the Marsh Harrier and the Eastern Marsh Harrier. These fly. low over the rice fields and marshes and pick up mice and small birds for heavier hawk is the Harrier Buzzard occasionally The Woodeock is not common about Nanking; on Purple Mountain 1 and one seen west of Ginling- Fan-tail Snipe is quite common in the wet rice fields about the eity, and the writer saw two on March 18, at a large pond just north of the campus. Both the Snipe and the Woodcock are game birds and have beautifal plumage of black, gray and brown. One of the most remarkable birds of this region is the Pheasant- tailed Jacana, a water bird and feeding on all the larger It is colored white, yellow and dark brown and has a ten-inch The Herring Gull and the Common Gall are birds that live about the river and large ponds, and if seen at Ginling are only passing over. The Great Eagle Owl is the largest owl (24 to 26 inches) and is all common though it is resident. One was taken by Mr. Deiterich near the wall of the eity on December 21. It destroys hares, pheasants and chickens and is most injurious. A young bird covered with down was brought to Ginling on and was doubtless batched early in Janu… 8 GINLING COLLEGE MAGAZINE only other one noted is Webbs's Crow-tit. Both tlese species were found in the tall reeds about the ponds outside the wall, while the Webb's Crow-tit has been seen near the campus. The Chinese train these to fight. A common winter bird is the Black-headed Hawfinch that comes from the far north and lives on the seeds of berries and the buds of some trees. It has a thick heavy bill, looks like our Grosbeak, and goes in flocks like them. The Buntings are a numerous family of small finch-like birds of which eight species have been noted during the past fall and winter here at Ginling. The Gray-headed is one of the rarer and is found usually near the water. The Painted is also quite rare, but the Rustic is very common, seen in flocks in woods and fields. The Little Bunting is the smallest (only five inches), although the Chestnut is only a half inch longer. The Yellow-throated is common in flocks and is one of the handsomest; as it has a black crest and yellow forehead. The Yellow-breasted is a migrant only, but was common through the Fall. The Reed Bunting is the last, but not the least; a beautiful black and white striped bird, seen at the edge of ponds in tall reeds, of which it eats the seeds. As this is written Spring is at hand and the songs of the birds will soon be heard in the land. We hope to see and hear many new species at Ginling.
September 2, 2025 at 6:38 AM
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Also, because we all need a little bit of lighthearted fun in current times, and because we all love a good academic pun, best made-me-crack-up literature review moment of the day goes to...

Li Xiaorong's "Where Have All the Guixiu Gone? Chinese 'Women of Talent' at the Turn of the 20th Century"
August 29, 2025 at 12:11 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Thanks again to everybody who kindly sent advice!

My problem finished solving itself today - there's a kind soul who logs their (absolutely savage, all in the 30-80km range) training runs, all starting at Sinica, so I'm more than all set.

(also, I'd like to meet the guy/gal - legend!)
Course map of a run with elevation and map, reading 81,61km (distance) and 2475m (ascent)
August 28, 2025 at 12:12 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
The Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (莱顿华语酷儿文献收藏) are currently accepting donations of primary source materials (publications, archival materials, imprints, ephemera,...) and running a crowdfunding campaign to support the expansion of the collections

www.library.universiteitleiden.nl/news/2025/06...
Screen reading "Queer Chinese is Beautiful" with a donation counter currently at 1385 euros
July 24, 2025 at 7:19 PM
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Archival trip, day 2: super cosy reading room, more delicious tempeh & fighting with a seagull (pictured) to keep said tempeh to myself
Small bowl of tempeh and aubergines wrapped in aluminium foil, with a seagull in the background Reading room with small dark blue comfy-looking chairs against a background of red metallic shelves displaying magazines
July 22, 2025 at 4:51 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Day 1 ✅
Superb time at IISG: great finds, super helpful archivists, facilities among the best I've used so far. Should have brought antihistamines for all of the dusty papers though (I never seem to learn...)

Tomorrow: more archival musings at the Institute on Gender Equality and Women's History!
Open, well lit hallway with a pillar covered with International workers' day posters Calm sea in a harbour with lightly cloudy skies, some small boats in the centre, and a building in the background Automatic doors (with more posters on the bottom part of the doors) opening out to a sunny day
July 21, 2025 at 4:06 PM
qiaoj.bsky.social
An academic summer treat: best view in the archives + tempeh rendang ☀️
laptop, yellow notebook and stack of materials on window table overlooking a waterfront A ceramic striped blue and while bowl with tempeh rendang, rice and vegetables.
July 21, 2025 at 11:14 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
Random research nugget of the day: former Chinese Minister to France Chen Lu 陳籙 (1876-1939) maintaining a dignified posture in front of the camera while bathing with family on Beidaihe Beach in 1929.
Group of people bathing. Chen Lu is second to the left, wearing glasses.
June 28, 2025 at 10:56 AM
qiaoj.bsky.social
The second one, "National Language Movements in China" is a fascinating account of (attempts at) language reform in the late Qing and early Republican era.

Note how this one features an additional credential "Member of the National Congress on Kuo-ü" (i.e. the national language) on the title page
Complementary thesis cover - Les mouvements de la langue nationale en Chine
June 26, 2025 at 2:36 PM