I currently use iFlash for my vocabulary review. I’m particularly partial to iFlash because its developer was one of two who implemented interval study in a way that is almost identical to my old Flashcard Wizard application. I am always interested in the development going on around the web of similar kinds of software, and like an old timer telling war stories on his porch when he wasn’t really ever much of a soldier to start with, I again feel like sharing my thoughts on some of these applications.

To this end, I have created a new weblog over at the old Fool’s Workshop website:

Fool’s Flashcard Review

Here I will occasionally post reviews of flashcard software, to begin with mostly for Mac OS X, and I will especially focus those applications which attempt to implement some kind of interval study. My goal is to give language learners a resource to compare what is out there but even more importantly, to hopefully reach some of the developers who are working on this kind of software and convince them that these applications need to have certain basic features to be useful to those of us using their software to learn and maintain the languages we have studied, especially when we are away from the native language environment.

C. W. Hayford has posted a wonderful collection of links at Asian History Carnival #18.

One of the many things he noted is what looks like an interesting new journal with articles available free online: Taiwan in Comparative Perspective.

He also noted that the Gutenberg-e collection of online dissertations is now Open Access!! This is wonderful news as there are some very interesting dissertations hosted here. If the project was still ongoing I think I would have applied for my own as-yet-unwritten dissertation to be considered. Here is one of hte Gutenberg-e projects pointed to by Professor Hayford: How Taiwan Became Chinese.

The creator of this video podcast is Michael Hurt, who writes at one of the best Korea weblogs out there, the Scribblings of the Metropolitician. He is especially good discussing issues of race and identity in contemporary Korea.

I have at once lauded but also complained about severe flaws in Google’s book search in an earlier posting here at Muninn and also at a Frog in a Well posting. My two biggest complaints at this time are:

1) Not all books which are clearly out of copyright are fully viewable at Google search. Sometimes only partial view, or “snippet view” is available.
2) Though there is the wonderful feature of PDF download on Google book search for books that they recognize as out of copyright, once you download the book, you cannot search the document within your PDF viewer because Google does not supply the text layer for these documents.

Microsoft’s book search has neither of these problems as far as I can tell:

1) All of the books I have clicked on can be downloaded as a full PDF
2) The PDFs I have downloaded are fully searchable on the text layer.

This is wonderful news and I hope Google Books will respond accordingly. Microsoft book search still seems a bit rough around the edges and doesn’t have the nice new smooth scroll view that Google Books recently added, but I am very happy to see that there are two competing services in this area. I hope the Microsoft search will continue to add books, and also, hopefully, consider adding materials out of copyright for later periods when this can be determined.

Angola is the kind of situation that made me think very differently about sovereignty, and about the kinds of politics, both conservative and leftist, that mark the achievement of sovereignty as the initial and necessary condition of achieving prosperity and freedom. Sovereignty is the material resource that the Angolan elite controls and sells, not oil. They are rentiers who extract wealth from selling permission for extraction. But they are no different than a car thief who hotwires a car parked outside a suburban home, drives it fifty miles, and then sells the car on eBay. The difference is not in what they do, but in the legal and governmental mechanisms that permit what they do. The car thief is going to run into trouble establishing a title that can be transferred legitimately. The Angolan elite has no such difficulty.

All the international institutions which exist recognize them as possessing title to sovereignty. They are the ones who send representatives to the United Nations. The are the ones who fill embassies around the world. They are the ones that the World Bank or NGOs speak to and reach agreements with. That as not a conservative or liberal thing, not a failure of the United Nations or of the Bush Administration. It as an indictment of the entire interstate system built up over the course of the 20th Century, in all its parts and particulars. That system gives titles and ownership to thieves, and allows thieves to sell their goods to supposedly legitimate businesses.

I think Burke is very well aware of the fact that any careless attack on the concept of sovereignty (and my own broader attack on nation-states in general) without thinking about alternatives. However, I fully agree with him that we must all make a call to action. In his conclusion, Burke says:

I think that the beginning of a new era of action involves a steady contempt for sovereignty and the claims made in its name, and the construction of a new international system that reflects that contempt. Let as call Angola as elite what they are: thieves. Let as call the companies pumping oil out of Angola what they are: the purchasers of stolen property. Let as make it as difficult as we can for thieves to fence stolen sovereignties, and for purchasers to buy the same.

I agree, but with one qualification. In so far as I hope the challenge of the 21st century will be to create a less violent and divisive home for humanity, I would rather not see any kind of inter-national system at all. The serious exploration of alternatives to the nation-state must be done hand in hand with the exploration of alternatives to the modern conception of sovereignty.

Read more about the Asian history carnival and take a look at the three previous editions.

Pyongyang, April 22 (KCNA) — A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland issued a statement on Friday to denounce the pro-U.S. ultra-right organizations in south Korea for staging such a ridiculous farce as giving bosses of the U.S. ruling machines in south Korea including the U.S. ambassador Korean names. The south Korea-U.S. “Alliance Friendship Society” in March named U.S. Ambassador in Seoul Vershbow “Pak Po U” in the hope that he would be an eternal friend who regards south-Korea U.S. alliance as a jewel.

The former U.S. 8th army commander in south Korea who finished his service on April 11 was named “Kim Han Su” in the hope that he would always defend “south Korea-U.S. alliance”, the U.S. 7th air force commander “Kim Ung Bi” in the meaning that he is a hero flying in the sky, Laporte, U.S. forces commander in south Korea who went back home in February, “Ra Po Thae” in the hope that he would play a role of a jewel in the south Korea-U.S. alliance.

The statement noted that this disgusting farce cannot be construed otherwise than despicable rowdyism staged by pro-U.S. flunkeyists and mentally deranged guys keen to prolong their dirty remaining days by clinging to the coattails of the aggressors, utterly indifferent to the misfortune the Koreans have undergone. Such traitorous acts to serve the U.S. will bring nothing but a catastrophic war disaster to the Korean nation, the statement notes, warning that south Korea can never be safe nor the Korean nation live in peace as long as pro-U.S. traitorous group such as the GNP and the “friendship society” are at large.

Here are two articles from South Korea on the naming. Seriously, though, I think giving Vershbow a name with “treasure friend” (寶友) isn’t all that strange, but I have to say it does near the realm of the farcical when you give someone the name close to being “protector of Korea” (“korea protect” 韓守). Also, according to the Joongang Daily, General Campbell seems to be under the impression that they named him the protector of Korean freedom: “What a tremendous honor to have the Korean name that means great defender of freedom on the Korean Peninsula.” If you wanted to squeeze the name for all its worth, the most you could get was that he was the protector of Korean gold or metal (金).

And now for the postings:

Ancient Peoples, National Origins, and Ethnic Cleansing

Savage Minds is a wonderful group weblog dedicated to anthropology but there are often postings which any aspiring historian can benefit from. While not limiting his discussion to Asia, Taiwan specialist Kerim Friedman’s recent posting Ancient People: We are All Modern Now examines the cliché of “ancient people” in the media and elsewhere. Kerim reminds us that these “traditional” peoples are in fact continuously undergoing change and that frequently the tribes themselves are invented during period of colonization. He also suggests that the idea of “ancient languages” is equally problematic. He concludes that the idea of an “ancient people,” often used by people in reference to themselves, represents, “the dream of continuity in the face of ever accelerating change.” See also some discussion of this at Antropologi.info posting Our obsession with the notion of the primitive society.

In a Singapore related posting at Higher Criticism, Sheilax has a posting entitled The Malays of Tumasik- forgotten history which suggests that, “Singapore’s humble beginnings is inextricably linked with the Malay kingdoms that flourished in the region since two thousand years ago.” The posting is motivated by an admirable desire to challenge the standard narrative of Singapore history which dates the origins of its national community rather late and primarily to migrant groups and overlooks Malay connections. However, one question we might have for the writer, who wants to tie the nation of Singapore in some way to its “ancient” predecessors, is whether projecting the origins of a nation on a geographic basis, even to communities that we admit are culturally distinct, we aren’t contributing to the contradictions of the project to establish an unbroken line of “ancient” legitimacy for modern nations.

Laurence at Rejistan has given us a review of a book on the origins and destiny of another national people, Sons of the Conquerers – Rise of the Turkic World. He is pleased with the book, which addresses contemporary issues in Central Asia, as well as the legacy pan-Turanian visions, and how Turkish peoples adjust to the many lands they have settled in.

J. Otto Pohl, a scholar of migration and ethnic cleansing in the Soviet Union, has an interesting posting on one specific group among the Turks in his recent posting More Thoughts on Meskhetian Turks. He attempts to follow their attempts at repatriation and settlement outside of their homeland, after their initial expulsion from a part of Georgia by Stalin in 1944.

In other postings on ancient peoples, Shashwati Talukdar has some comments on the issues of religion, conversion, and the claims to being connected to an “ancient” community, the Bnei Menashe who claim to be none other than one of the Lost Tribes of Israel who were ethnically cleansed by the Assyrians. A community in Northeastern India was accepted as one of the lost tribes but had to go through a process of ritual conversion before migrating to Israel, which initiated an unfriendly response from the Indian government.

Orientalism

Owen over at Kotaji has two interesting posts on Said’s Orientalism. In his The Problem with Orientalism, Part I and The Problem with Orientalism, Part II he engages a critique of Said by Indian scholar Irfan Habib. Owen finds himself agreeing with much that Habib has to say and then goes on to apply some of these observations to the historiography of Korea. Meanwhile over at Sepia Mutiny An Oriental Gives Up when finding that an Indian television station has a finance program entitled “Oriental & Occidental”

Korean Economics and Colonial Rule

Foreign Dispatch has written a posting on The Korean Economy Under Japanese Rule, challenging some of the more dismal characterizations in the historiography of the colonial period. The post prompted extensive debate in the comments. Mike at Histor¥, who is an expert on financial reforms in Meiji Japan has expressed some doubts about the entire approach of the article. Other recent postings on Korean economics include one by Owen at Frog in a Well – Korea about the theory of uneven and combined development and Pak Noja’s discussion of the late development of market exchange and use of coinage in ancient Korea.

For another fascinating set of articles, many of which are related to imperialism and the colonial experience in Asia, see the newest newsletter from IIAS: Newsletter 38 for October. It includes intresting contributions including one by Poshek Fu (whose book on intellectuals in occupied Shanghai I strongly recommend) about recent historiography On Occupied China, and Kyu Hyun Kim’s article on War and the Colonial Legacy in South Korean Scholarship. I believe the IIAS Newsletter, along with Japan Focus are both excellent examples of how to bridge the gap between academic journals and history blogging. They include articles in the range of 2000 words per piece written by leading scholars in the field as well as graduate students and other qualified contributors.

Other Great Postings

Be sure to check out Matthew Penny’s “The Most Crucial Education”: Saotome Katsumoto and Japanese Anti-War Thought a sensitive and fascinating article focusing on three works by Saotome Katsumoto and exploring of his attempt to confront the tensions in his discussions of Japan’s wartime past and efforts for anti-war education.

Natalie Bennett has an interesting post about her visit to the Royal Academy’s Chinese exhibition: Royal Academy – China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, giving us a room by room account as well as some comments about the somewhat derivative style of some of the offerings presented. Also read an interesting posting on Chinese badges on her personal weblog in a posting entitled Learning to Love Mao.

Alan Baumler has gotten considerable attention recently at Frog in a Well – China, especially for his postings on women holding up half of heaven and a discussion of the absence of foot binding among Manchus. I would like, however, to highlight an interesting discussion he has about Chinese witness accounts about dragons and the relationship between pseudo-science and modern science in his posting Last night I saw upon the stair a little man who was not there.

It was Alan, actually, who introduced me to my most delightful new blog discovery: Blogging…Walk the Talk. See for example their posting on Ketchup and the Manufacturing Myth in Hong Kong. He looks at an 1881 governor’s report to look at earlier origins of manufacturing in the region. Other posts worth looking at this wonderful weblog include Imperialism and the Kowloon-Canton Railway and the interesting posting The Writing on the Wall: Hong Kong, 1938 which quotes from a 1938 police report.

Matt over at Gusts of Popular Feeling has an interesting posting on some of his reading about foreigners in Korea during the Kwangju uprising: Some Reading Material. Another interesting posting on the uprising can be found on Antti Leppänen’s weblog Hunjangûl karûch’im in his posting on Kwangju 1980 and An Byeong-ha. Matt also has an interesting posting collecting some information on recent efforts to investigate the military incidents of Korea’s recent past in Investigating the Past. The title of his site, by the way, comes from the interesting passage in the travel writings of Isabella Bird Bishop from the end of the 19th century, in which she says “Gusts of popular feeling which pass for public opinion in a land where no such thing exists are known only in Seoul. It is in the capital that the Korean feels the first stress of its unsought and altogether undesired contact with Western civilization, and resembles nothing so much as a man awakening from a profound sleep, rubbing his eyes half-dazed and looking dreamily about him, not quite sure where he is.” (Korea and Her Neighbors, 59)

Roy Berman over at Mutant Frog has a fascinating posting about an old Taiwanese (Republic of China) military manual for teaching English: ROC Armed Forces English Manual. This is no ordinary textbook, as he shows us through some selections.

Finally, in Another Nail in the Ninja Coffin Jonathan Dresner adds some comments to a recent important posting on H-Net Japan related to the state of Ninja research. Referring to his earlier posting on some of his reading on the topic, he reminds us of the difficulty of doing the history of something as popularized as ninja history and the invented traditions of our times. Incidentally, it is wonderful that H-Net Japan, which is perhaps the best listserve related to Japanese history is getting some of its good materials brought into the online dialogue of weblogs. As in the case of Japan Focus and the IIAS newsletters mentioned above, it is important that we realize that there are a full range of mediums beyond those of traditional published scholarship in which questions about history are discussed and debated.

I’m going to start it out with a series of postings this week on Western perceptions of Koreans in the late 19th century and colonial period.