The Uyghur filmmaker Ikram Nurmehmet Ikram is behind bars on political charges. Shelly Kraicer reviews his four short films, and explores what they tell us about how “ethnic minority” artists can—and cannot—work inside China's system: www.chinafile.com/re...

Balancing What Can Be Said with What Can Only Be Implied | ChinaFile

The young Uyghur filmmaker Ikram Nurmehmet is now in a Chinese prison for “actively participating in terrorist activities.” He was likely targeted because he had studied in Turkey between 2010 and 2016. It is always difficult for what China calls “ethnic minority” (i.e. non-Han Chinese) filmmakers to make the films they want to make inside China, where review by the state Film

chinafile.com

Strange choices from the university whose library is building America's biggest collection of Uyghur books. And a press that published @seanroberts.bsky.social The War on the Uyghurs. press.princeton.edu/books/paperb... library.princeton.edu/about/librar...

The War on the Uyghurs

How China is using the US-led war on terror to erase the cultural identity of its Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region

press.princeton.edu

Melissa Chan@melissakchan.bsky.social · last yr.

Dear god, @princetonupress.bsky.social is even proud of the visit to Xinjiang, issuing a press note that gushes about newfound appreciation for "the incredible power of Uyghur poetry," nevermind poet Tahir Hamut Izgil literally wrote a book called WAITING TO BE ARRESTED AT NIGHT.

Author copy fresh out of the box! I'm shaking! @uofmpress.bsky.social made the publication process so smooth! And huge thanks for hosting an open access version, which will be available on my official publication date: August 5. But if you'd rather buy a hard copy, use code UMWEB30 for 30% off!

This summer, June 7-August 7, I'll be running an online course in "Introduction to Chaghatay!" 12 meetings. $280 for the whole thing. Open access textbook + videos to walk you through grammar and readings. Fees will support GW's Uyghur Studies Initiative. Apply here! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Introduction to Chaghatay, Summer 2025

This is an application form for the not-for-credit summer course in introductory Chaghatay language to be held through the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at the George Washington University in Summer ...

docs.google.com

They’re back!! ❤️😭🫡

The Relevant Organs@relevantorgans.bsky.social · 2y ago

OFFICIAL: Seizure of our Twitter handle by revisionist elements condemned. Establishing thoughtwork operations-in-exile on this platform until glorious reunification.

My friend and mentor Orville Schell puts very clearly what many people with experience in 20th century China are thinking: The parallels with the nihilism and chaos-for-its-own-sake of the Cultural Revolution years. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/d...

Trump’s Cultural Revolution | by Orville Schell - Project Syndicate

Orville Schell sees obvious and troubling parallels between the US president and Mao Zedong.

project-syndicate.org

Available today: a report, authored by myself and my friend and colleague @davidstroup.bsky.social , exploring the aims and impacts of the sinicisation of Islam campaign in Hui communities. See here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Monday, Nov 18, 4:00–5:00 Eastern Time/10:00–11:00 CET, we'll host an online talk by Prof. Don Wyatt on Africans in Early Modern China! Register here. www.eventbrite.com/e/through-po... Hosted by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies/East Asia NRC

Um, "Sinology" 🀄, I guess? (Emoji for labeling purposes.) *Two* positive reviews of my Tarikh-i Ḥamidi translation came out this week! From Jun Sugawara in the JAS: doi.org/10.1215/0021... From Tristan Brown in the Journal of Chinese History: doi.org/10.1017/jch....

The Tarikh-i Ḥamidi: A Late-Qing Uyghur History

Research on the modern history of Xinjiang has undergone a steady expansion in recent years. Owing to the sustained contributions of researchers ever since the publication in 1986 of Andrew Forbes's s...

doi.org

"An ideologically motivated effort to silence viewpoints and remove resources and information on gender on the New College campus." My statement at PEN America on New College literally tossing the library of its student-led gender and diversity center into a dumpster: pen.org/press-releas...

Florida’s New College Trashes Library of Books at Gender and Diversity Center

PEN America has condemned New College of Florida’s destruction of a student-run library of books on gender, part of the College’s abrupt closure of the student-led gender and diversity center on Thurs...

pen.org

sometimes it consoles me to remember whatever work I do today, it cannot be worse than the Cybertruck

The June 2024 issue of Late Imperial China is out! muse.jhu.edu/issue/52704 We have four articles on gender, agriculture, forestry, and suicide: You Wang (Chicago), "Women Till and Women Weave: Rice, Cotton, and the Gendered Division of Labor in Jiangnan" #Qing ... (1/4)

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies at GW seeks an Assistant Director (Taiwan specialist)! ~25% research and ~75% admin. Starts August. AD would report to me as director and help lead a great budget and events team. Taiwan expertise is essential, as is experience managing budgets and writing grants.

“UCLA’s administration has taken a decidedly hands-off approach to its student protesters, allowing them to continue their peaceful assembly. Seeing it’s possible to proceed without violence makes it even clearer that the cops and administrators harming students are making an active choice.”

Marisa Kabas@marisakabas.bsky.social · 2y ago

I sat down and tried to sum up the last week or so of campus protests. This is what I got.

I've said this several times but it is worth repeating: You don't ask an LLM something, you are giving it a prompt. You don't get back an answer, you get plausible sounding text. Using the incorrect words for what they do allows the people peddling the technology to get away with ridiculous claims.

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 3y ago

I don’t think it can be emphasized enough that large language models were never intended to do math or know facts; literally all they do is attempt to sound like the text they’re given, which may or may not include math or facts. They don’t do logic or fact checking — they’re just not built for that

Hey everyone! If you're feeling generous, today is the day to give to the Uyghur Studies Initiative at GW! For us, a little bit goes a very long way. Here are some successes from our first year as an endowed initiative: 1. We teach Uyghur language! 2. Summer grad student research funding! (con't)

GW Giving Day 2024

Giving Day is April 3-4! Raise High and support what matters most to you at GW.

give.gwu.edu

I'm really proud that we at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at GWU can offer this to our students. This and our endowment-supported Uyghur language classes make, I think, a strong beginning for the Uyghur Studies Initiative.

A reminder for those who still haven’t understood: ChatGPT and other LLMs are designed to write language that matches patterns found in existing texts so the generated text sounds plausible. It absolutely does not query for “facts” in the way that we have come to think of “googling” information.

Alondra Nelson@alondra.bsky.social · 2y ago

I write with @juliaangwin.com about our study that showed 50% of AI models’ responses to questions voters might ask were inaccurate. Government must hold companies accountable, including through the privacy law called for by POTUS in his powerful #SOTU speech. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...

People's Daily have created a set of "digital hosts" from different ethnic minority groups to introduce the Two Sessions. The results are creepy AF. politics.people.com.cn/n1/2024/0302...

People who claim private companies are more efficient than the government have never tried to talk to their insurance company

I keep bringing this up in other contexts, but Duke hired the same consultants that are gutting education across the country. West Virginia University was in the news recently for having a ton of programs cut, too. Same consultant - Huron Consulting is going door to door gutting universities.

Karolina Heyduk@kheyduk.bsky.social · 2y ago

👇🤬🤬

David Brophy's translation of Kashgari's In Remembrance of the Saints has won the Hanan Prize for Translation! Nicole Willock's Lineages of the Literary got the Smith Inner Asia Book Prize! Plus an honorable mention for Lawrence Zhang's Power for a Price! So happy for friends and colleagues. :)

Association for Asian Studies@asianstudies.org · 2y ago

Drum roll please ...🥁 We are thrilled to announce the winners of our #AAS2024 awards! Congratulations to all the honorees. www.asianstudies.org/aas-2024-pri...

Re-upping my announcement here: I’m going to be presenting to GWU’s China Peripheries Seminar tomorrow (Feb 14). Thanks to @ericschluessel.bsky.social for the invite. Registration and info for the zoom link listed below: t.co/YYOZTyCGLt

China Peripheries Seminar

A series of policy-oriented talks on the ethnically diverse and highly contested regions along China’s geographical edges, this year’s seminar focuses around key transformations taking place in China ...

t.co

I wanted to call your attention to a new endeavor initiated by Annie Zhang 張潔平 and me: a non-fiction translation short-term fellowship, building on the wonderful work of Frontline 在場非虛構獎學金！ Details here: https://www.frontlinefellowship.io/translationfellowship

Thursday's China Peripheries Seminar, online 1:00–3:00 PM Eastern, features Emily Yeh on "Development and the Environment in Tibet" and Guldana Salimjan on "Ecology and Settler Colonialism in Xinjiang!" I'm so proud to be putting two of the scholars I admire most in the spotlight. Sign up here!

China Peripheries Seminar

A series of policy-oriented talks on the ethnically diverse and highly contested regions along China’s geographical edges, this year’s seminar focuses around key transformations taking place in Ch...

docs.google.com

On the Bird App, I've suddenly been followed by a bunch of pro-Falun Gong accounts and a bunch of anti-Falun Gong bots. To be clear, nothing—NOTHING—can make me go see Shenyun.

Upcoming: Sigur Center's China Peripheries Seminar! Zoom series on pressing contemporary issues re: Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang/East Turkestan, and Islam in China. Speakers are all scholars with extensive on-the-ground experience who take on their topics from critical perspectives. Sign up:

China Peripheries Seminar

A series of policy-oriented talks on the ethnically diverse and highly contested regions along China’s geographical edges, this year’s seminar focuses around key transformations taking place in Ch...

docs.google.com

Launching the Chinese translation of Land of Strangers in Taiwan! Online Book Launch:《異鄉人之地：清帝國在新疆的教化工程》 時間｜10:00-12:00, January 27, 2024 (UTC/GMT+8) 主講｜許臨君（That's me!，喬治華盛頓大學現代中國史副教授） 與談｜蔡偉傑（國立中正大學歷史學系助理教授） Registration: reurl.cc/XqEbER

4-year PhD scholarship at SOAS through Rachel Harris' project "Maqām Beyond Nation."

Obvious but bears repeating, loudly and often: "Fund Chinese language programs more generously at American universities and high schools, and fund researchers studying China’s military, political system, economy, languages, culture and history." What we do requires money. We need more.

Opinion | Where have all the American China experts gone?

The United States is facing a critical shortage in China expertise.

washingtonpost.com