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K. Alexander 亞天恩

@thianun.bsky.social

台灣戰貓. Associate Professor of Chinese. Early modern popular religious literature and print history. Co-parent of CRTA.info. Book: Teaching and Transformation in Popular Confucian Literature of the Late Qing (Michigan, August 2025). she/hers

763 Posts1598 Follower268 Folgt
Min Chao@wordsfromtaiwan.bsky.social · 4d ago

Taiwan's Indigenous peoples are the original owners of this land. Yet new settlers referred to them as "savages" and "mountain compatriots." Name rectification came in 1997 through a constitutional amendment. Aug 1 declared Indigenous Peoples' Day in 2005. Siraya just recognized as the 17th tribe.

Indigenous peoples are the original owners of Taiwan. Nevertheless since more than four hundred years ago, they have been reigned by foreign regimes and given different names. For instance, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty, indigenous peoples were called “fan”, meaning barbarian. Qing used the term ‘cooked/tamed/civilized fan’ for those who had pledged their allegiance, and ‘raw/wild/uncivilized fan’ to define those people who had not submitted to Qing rule. During Japanese rule, the Japanese government referred to them as ‘fan’ or ‘Takasago-zoku’. During the early period of Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang(KMT) rule, the term ‘shanbao’, meaning ‘mountain compatriots’, was invented. All these terms are discriminatory, stigmatized and invented by the rulers. Indigenous peoples themselves did not have the right to determine their own names. https://www.cip.gov.tw/en/news/data-list/673CBF7B0C3D2700/2D9680BFECBE80B6221E4CC7D09E1357-info.html
Mark Harrison@mhar4.bsky.social · 6d ago

The outcome of many decades of campaigning by Siraya people and a milestone for indigenous reconciliation in Taiwan. The PRC rejects the concept of indigenous and defines all 17 tribes as a single "ethnic minority" and would dismantle all this if it annexed Taiwan. focustaiwan.tw/society/2026...

K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · 7d ago

Used google to search for a Chinese name + 號 of a woman I saw as author of two poems published in 1797. Forgot to add "-ai". So above all the irrelevant links, was presented with a full classical bio with name, birthplace, other 號, period of activity etc. 100% hallucinated.

K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · last wk.

Chinese aunties are the best. "Auntie Yao learned from Buddhist Auntie Fan to recite Buddha's name. Later, when dying, Buddha & Bodhisattvas came to escort her. She said, "I haven't said goodbye to Auntie Fan" and asked Buddha to pause in the air. After Fan came, then Auntie Yao ascended."

Screenshot from a Chinese book of Buddhist miracle tales on the efficacy of reciting the Buddha's name. Text reads: 姚婆 唐 姚婆。因范行婆者。勸令念佛。後臨終見佛菩薩夾迎。吿佛言。未與范行婆别。請佛暫住空中。范至。姚婆立化。
K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · 2w ago

Thunder God and Lightning Mother are really teaching my neighbors a lesson about cherishing grains and paper, treating their daughters-in-law and children well, and staying honest in their business ventures!

Screenshot taken from a video I made of the thunderstorm passing overhead right now, showing a bolt of lightning hitting the ground in the distance. The sky is dark dark gray with the storm. Woodblock printed illustration from Yu Zhi's 學堂日記圖說 that pairs with a story about heavenly retribution. It features Thunder God and Lightning Mother in the sky sending down punishment on six earthly sinners, each who wears a placard tucked behind their hands, bound behind their backs. Their individual crimes, which I collectively reference in the post, are written on the placards.
K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · last mo.

Back in Colorado and not sure what I miss most about Taiwan at the moment: the humidity? The green? The distinct lack of wildfires? The environment that allows me to be joyfully trilingual? All of the above and so much more, really.

K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · last mo.

View from a window in 綠洲山莊 “Oasis Village” which held political prisoners on Green Island from 1972-1987. A partial glimpse of one KMT propaganda slogan, a partial glimpse of one of the slogans painted on the outside of the prison, together making 「毋忘苦海」 “never forget the sea of suffering”

View out a window from behind prison bars of a brilliantly blue sky with a few white clouds, and a verdant green lawn. On the left, the prison extends outwards, showing the first two characters of the slogan 苦海無邊 回頭是岸。 on the right, the first two characters of 毋忘在莒 painted into a protruding large rock.
K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · last mo.

Impromptu stop at the Liudui Hakka Cultural park this afternoon meant I got to see this wonderful little exhibit tucked away in a corner. Given the reality of life for recent immigrants to Taiwan, I know a lot of this text is aspirational still, but absolutely worth working towards.

Entrance to the small exhibit, titled 變動中的台灣人 Evolving Taiwanese Photo of the opening text on the wall that sets the tone for the exhibit, in characters and English (sorry I’m not proofreading the Japanese for this alt text but it’s there too): 本展透過歷史上在臺灣交會過的人群所留下的紀錄、文物與遺跡，呈現在曲折變動的歷程中，他們如何互相影響、摩擦、爭執、交融，型塑出特殊的「臺灣人經驗」。同時也透過臺灣人經驗的雜揉性（hybridity），省思臺灣社會不同人群之間的關係，尋求更為開放、相互連結的可能性。 This exhibition presents historical records, artifacts, and relics left behind by those whose paths intersected with Taiwan, illustrating how a uniquely Taiwanese experience was formed as a product of outside influence, conflict, and integration. By examining the connection between hybridity and ethnic group relations, the exhibit aims to explore greater, interconnected possibilities.Photo of me, a white woman wearing glasses and a green floral shirt, pointing at the final sentence of text on the wall, which reads: 移民與住民 Immigrants and residents 文化或血統上所謂的「純粹」並不存在，人群分類也會持續變動。本展區回溯臺灣歷史上人群的遭遇與衝突，呈現歷代不斷融入來自各地的人。臺灣社水、會處在人與文化持續交會混雜的過程，誰是代蹇灣人」？臺灣人對於我們的意義是什麼？這是需要一直被協商與爭辯的問題。 社郡武大 仔上海牛 With group divisions constantly fluctuating, there can be no a such thing as a "pure" ethnic or cultural heritage. This section of the exhibition presents how various peoples have interacted, clashed, and even integrated into Taiwanese society over several generations. Yet, if Taiwanese society is a product of the constant blending of peoples and cultures, then whom is considered Taiwanese? What does it mean to be Talwanese？Photo of one of the final text displays in the exhibit: 臺灣人．一家人 THE PEOPLE OF TAIWAN, ONE FAMILY 你我的臉孔，是先人的足跡。 四面八方的人群來到這裡駐足，有爭執，也有相互扶持，進而成為一家人。 Our faces contain traces of our ancestors. Multitudes from all directions came here to live. They quarreled, but also cooperated with each other, before becoming a family.
K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Taking all the fun out of childhood, 1980s Taiwan textbook style. I'll be back in Taiwan at the end of the month as faculty on a summer institute tour for US educators, and prepping some materials to share with them for a richer background on what it means to be Taiwanese.

Lesson from a first grade Chinese language textbook from Taiwan. Illustration is of two small boys standing in a pretty green park. Text translated into English reads: "Big brother and little brother went to play at the park. In the park, the trees are tall, the flowers are beautiful, and there's even a patch of green green grass. Big brother says to little brother, 'The trees are tall, we shouldn't climb them. The flowers are beautiful, we shouldn't pick them. The grass is green, we shouldn't step on it."
Gina Anne Tam@dgtam86.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This book (written by a scholar with language competency in Japanese using LLMs to translate secondary scholarship Korean, which he cant read) raises important questions we as a field have to face about expertise and translation, as well as what the role of language-learning is in history (🧵)

배뢰아@baessi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

일본사 전공한 독일 역사학자가 한국사의 노예제에 관한 책을 냈는데 한국어와 중국어를 못 해서 AI로 번역시켜서 자료를 읽었다고 써 놓음. 😡 무려 De Gruyter Brill 출판사에서… 📖 Zöllner, Reinhard. Slavery and Servile Societies in Korean History: The Hidden Background of Modern Korea, De Gruyter, 2025. doi.org/10.1515/9783...

Without these developments, this book could not have been completed—at least not during my active professional life. My knowledge of Korean is far too limited to read and critically analyze the volume of vernacular academic literature that underlies this study. Without artificial intelligence—especially OpenAI’s ChatGPT (mainly models 4o and 4.5), Google’s Gemini (model 2.0 Flash), and DeepL (version 25)—these texts would have remained inaccessible to me. I used AI primarily to translate thousands of pages of Korean-language articles and books, as well as Chinese sources, into English. This method was adopted only after rigorous evaluation: I consulted native speakers, compared the AI-generated translations with human renditions and the output of other AI models, and back-translated the results to check for semantic integrity and bias. The results were consistently accurate and coherent, giving me confidence in the reliability of the process. Translation has always been a legitimate scientific practice; only now has it become viable on a scale that supports a study of this magnitude.
Min Chao@wordsfromtaiwan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#TaiwanArchives: 19th-century American trade cards featuring three elegant, bespectacled cats wearing bonnets, bows, and aprons over long, frilly dresses while sipping "Jungle Chop Formosa Tea" sourced directly from Taiwan. Tea sold in one-pound or half-pound chests. Dated circa 1870–1900. 🍵😺

Source: Boston Public Library Source: Boston Public Library
K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The section of seals in 傳家寶 is so funny, and inspirational, I’ve thought more than once about getting this as a tattoo.

A seal design with one of Shi’s inspirational sayings, above a transcription of the text for everyone who can’t read seal script: 越不聰明越快活
Markus Samuel Haselbeck 趙澤煊@ciaota.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Let me share some pages from the 傳家寶書 that depict seals. I love the variety of scripts, shapes, sizes, and character placements used here. The one that looks like a jug of alcohol is definitely my favorite! Which one do you like the most? #ChinaBooks #Sinology

K. Alexander 亞天恩@thianun.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Giving a talk soon from my office, not home, since it’s loud fire alarm inspection day for the complex. Research assistant cat had to stay home, so I hope the maintenance dudes read the sign I left them! Also hopefully my audience will realize that even though I’m slow I’m still trying too!

Sign on my door reads: CAT inside, please do not let out into hallway. Thank you!! (He’s very old (almost 20) and very slow but he will try anyway)