Performing Cultural Revolution Nostalgia
I have been mulling over and trying to make sense of what exactly took place at the Cultural Revolution theme restaurant that I visited last week. I have photos, video, and some notes I wrote after...
View ArticleFinding Red Flag Canal
One summer of my early graduate school career I made friends with the very large man who managed the audiovisual collection at the University of Washington. I don’t remember his name. He was friendly...
View ArticleAmong Warm Objects
Yesterday I spent a few hours walking around the Junk Bonanza a twice-yearly gathering of antique dealers, vintage vendors, knicknack merchants, and junk hounds. The location couldn’t have been more...
View ArticleGhosts in the City
This month I am finally whittling away at a few of the books in my pile. Among these is the second volume of The Practice of Everyday Life—Living and Cooking. I have been meaning to read it since...
View ArticleMuseum Fatigue Reads, May 17, 2014
Diagrams in Anthropology: Lines and Interactions Utopian Origins of Restroom Symbols The Special Obligations of Tenured Faculty After 25 Years Of Amnesia, Remembering A Forgotten Tiananmen Young...
View ArticleFashion is Most Glorious!
Walking on Chunxi Lu in Chengdu I passed a full sized advertisement which draws upon the imagery and language of the Cultural Revolution. Featuring a worker, peasant, soldier trio the text plays on...
View ArticleAn Afternoon Lunch at the Zhiqing Villa
Ten years ago this month I finished my PhD dissertation, “Remembering Red: Memory and Nostalgia for the Cultural Revolution in Late 1990s China,” in the anthropology department at the University of...
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