DecRecs 8-16
Dec. 16th, 2023 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forestofgloryThis week I decided to focus on reccing academic-ish things, so there are several books and papers, a lecture and some language learning resources (And then two not academic things too)
8. Today for #DecRecs I'm recommending one of my favorite Chinese learning resources: Pleco!
This is an English/Chinese dictionary app! The default here is Mandarin but you can switch to Cantonese too! I have a Classical Chinese dictionary as well, which I paid money for. (The basic app is free!)
I love that there's so many ways to look things up! You can write on the screen, use radical or type in hanzi or pinyin! And you can also type in English words too.
Other cool features:
Stroke order diagrams!
It will pronounce things for you!
It will show you what characters are components of the one you are looking up!
If you have any interest in learning about Chinese languages pleco is great!
9. Today is Joseph Needham's birthday so for #DecRecs I bring to a lecture by one of his students
"The craft of mud-making: matter, time and history viewed through China’s cropscapes" delivered by Francesca Bray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O01cvu7eJ3E
This just so good! I could feel my mind lighting up as I watched this! Lots of interesting stuff about craft and knowledge, and about different scales of time
10. Ok you asked for it (or are least said encouraging things when I mentioned it) so today's #DecRecs is a paper form 1956
"Early-Ripening Rice in Chinese History" by Ping-Ti Ho which is about the introduction of early ripening rice in Song times and how that lead to double croping and the effects that had on to population. It's a classic! Note that this paper was written before pinyin was a thing so all the transliterations are Wade-Glies
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2591742
11. Continuing on the academic theme for the week today's #DecRecs is The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road by Xin Wen
I really loved this book about diplomats on the silk road. I really enjoy fine grained historical analysis and this a great example. It's full of details about what envoys and other diplomatic travelers ate and how they traveled, as well as the broader implications of the network of diplomatic travel.
Another thing I love about The Kings Road is that it makes Dunhuang it's center! During the time period under covered in the book, Dunhuang started as part of the Tang Empire but as the empire shrank it became an independent city state. I like that the book decenters imperial China. Tang-to-Song China is one of about a dozen states introduced at the start of the book.This allows the book to look at diplomacy on a regional level.
12.More academic-ish #DecRecs ! Today I want to talk about
Classical Chinese for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners by Bryan W. Van Norden
This what it says on the tin an introduction to Classical Chinese for people who know nothing about any kind of Chinese. It's very clear and straightforward. The lessons are small enough not to be intimating, but introduce all the important gramer. The 1st lesson is 10 characters long -- and when you've read it you'll have read some of Analytics (1/?)
The author is philosophy professor and he provides a bit of context for each lesson, so this is also a useful intro to Chinese philosophy
Now you might be wondering why you'd want to learn Classical Chinese at all, so I want to talk a little bit about why I love Classical Chinese. It's so beautiful! First of all I just think traditional hanzi are extremely pleasing to look at. But also the compactness of Classic Chinese really lends its self to beautiful imagery (2/?)
Another way classical chinese makes my brain happy is that small things add up to bigger things. Radicals add up to characters and characters add up to sentences and sentences add up to poems and stories
Also there isn't any spelling!
But more seriously I have an auditory processing disorder and I thought I'd never be able to learn another language , but then I found classical Chinese and I'm so happy that I can learn this language
13. For #DecRecs today I have another academic paper! “WHAT DO BARBARIANS KNOW OF GRATITUDE?”—THE STEREOTYPE OF BARBARIAN PERFIDY AND ITS USES IN TANG FOREIGN POLICY RHETORIC by SHAO-YUN YANG
This a really interesting look at Tang relations with there Steppe neighbors, which does not putthe Tang in an especially good light. I enjoy the deconstruction of the Tang's image of enlighten multiculturalism ! Plus I just find these details fascinating in their own right
14. Today's #DecRecs is The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History by Ruth Mostern
I love environmental history and this a great example looking at how people throughout time have tried to manage the yellow river. I like how this book brings out continuities across time that would otherwise be hard to see
15. for #DecRecs today I bring you possibly the cutest board game ever: Flamecraft!
This a game were you help cute dragons get jobs at cute shops. The dragons are about waist high and do crafts! The art for them is adorable . They are doing things like holding cakes half their size, making fancy coffee and playing with gems
The shops they can work at are also adorable! And have fun names like Pizza Coven or Critical Rolls
https://luckyduckgames.com/en/games/317-flamecraft-standard-edition-en
16. For #DecRecs today I want rec a fic about friendship!
"then maybe I'd make it alive" by Tavina
This is a pre-canon Madam Jīn & Wēn Zhúliú & Yú Zǐyuān fic! The relationship between the three of them is so intense and complicated! Plus this has lot of great worldbuilding in terms of sect politics by an author who is very familiar with wuxia
https://archiveofourown.org/works/47993449
8. Today for #DecRecs I'm recommending one of my favorite Chinese learning resources: Pleco!
This is an English/Chinese dictionary app! The default here is Mandarin but you can switch to Cantonese too! I have a Classical Chinese dictionary as well, which I paid money for. (The basic app is free!)
I love that there's so many ways to look things up! You can write on the screen, use radical or type in hanzi or pinyin! And you can also type in English words too.
Other cool features:
Stroke order diagrams!
It will pronounce things for you!
It will show you what characters are components of the one you are looking up!
If you have any interest in learning about Chinese languages pleco is great!
9. Today is Joseph Needham's birthday so for #DecRecs I bring to a lecture by one of his students
"The craft of mud-making: matter, time and history viewed through China’s cropscapes" delivered by Francesca Bray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O01cvu7eJ3E
This just so good! I could feel my mind lighting up as I watched this! Lots of interesting stuff about craft and knowledge, and about different scales of time
10. Ok you asked for it (or are least said encouraging things when I mentioned it) so today's #DecRecs is a paper form 1956
"Early-Ripening Rice in Chinese History" by Ping-Ti Ho which is about the introduction of early ripening rice in Song times and how that lead to double croping and the effects that had on to population. It's a classic! Note that this paper was written before pinyin was a thing so all the transliterations are Wade-Glies
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2591742
11. Continuing on the academic theme for the week today's #DecRecs is The King’s Road: Diplomacy and the Remaking of the Silk Road by Xin Wen
I really loved this book about diplomats on the silk road. I really enjoy fine grained historical analysis and this a great example. It's full of details about what envoys and other diplomatic travelers ate and how they traveled, as well as the broader implications of the network of diplomatic travel.
Another thing I love about The Kings Road is that it makes Dunhuang it's center! During the time period under covered in the book, Dunhuang started as part of the Tang Empire but as the empire shrank it became an independent city state. I like that the book decenters imperial China. Tang-to-Song China is one of about a dozen states introduced at the start of the book.This allows the book to look at diplomacy on a regional level.
12.More academic-ish #DecRecs ! Today I want to talk about
Classical Chinese for Everyone: A Guide for Absolute Beginners by Bryan W. Van Norden
This what it says on the tin an introduction to Classical Chinese for people who know nothing about any kind of Chinese. It's very clear and straightforward. The lessons are small enough not to be intimating, but introduce all the important gramer. The 1st lesson is 10 characters long -- and when you've read it you'll have read some of Analytics (1/?)
The author is philosophy professor and he provides a bit of context for each lesson, so this is also a useful intro to Chinese philosophy
Now you might be wondering why you'd want to learn Classical Chinese at all, so I want to talk a little bit about why I love Classical Chinese. It's so beautiful! First of all I just think traditional hanzi are extremely pleasing to look at. But also the compactness of Classic Chinese really lends its self to beautiful imagery (2/?)
Another way classical chinese makes my brain happy is that small things add up to bigger things. Radicals add up to characters and characters add up to sentences and sentences add up to poems and stories
Also there isn't any spelling!
But more seriously I have an auditory processing disorder and I thought I'd never be able to learn another language , but then I found classical Chinese and I'm so happy that I can learn this language
13. For #DecRecs today I have another academic paper! “WHAT DO BARBARIANS KNOW OF GRATITUDE?”—THE STEREOTYPE OF BARBARIAN PERFIDY AND ITS USES IN TANG FOREIGN POLICY RHETORIC by SHAO-YUN YANG
This a really interesting look at Tang relations with there Steppe neighbors, which does not putthe Tang in an especially good light. I enjoy the deconstruction of the Tang's image of enlighten multiculturalism ! Plus I just find these details fascinating in their own right
14. Today's #DecRecs is The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History by Ruth Mostern
I love environmental history and this a great example looking at how people throughout time have tried to manage the yellow river. I like how this book brings out continuities across time that would otherwise be hard to see
15. for #DecRecs today I bring you possibly the cutest board game ever: Flamecraft!
This a game were you help cute dragons get jobs at cute shops. The dragons are about waist high and do crafts! The art for them is adorable . They are doing things like holding cakes half their size, making fancy coffee and playing with gems
The shops they can work at are also adorable! And have fun names like Pizza Coven or Critical Rolls
https://luckyduckgames.com/en/games/317-flamecraft-standard-edition-en
16. For #DecRecs today I want rec a fic about friendship!
"then maybe I'd make it alive" by Tavina
This is a pre-canon Madam Jīn & Wēn Zhúliú & Yú Zǐyuān fic! The relationship between the three of them is so intense and complicated! Plus this has lot of great worldbuilding in terms of sect politics by an author who is very familiar with wuxia
https://archiveofourown.org/works/47993449
