Chris Elford
@siegeweather.bsky.social
I work on medieval Chinese literature, calligraphy, book history, and material culture. PhD in Chinese, UC Berkeley. Professor. Translator. Teacher of Mandarin and Classical Chinese. Go/围棋/바둑 try-hard.
Pinned
Chris Elford
@siegeweather.bsky.social
· Nov 10
For the new arrivals: I work on the history of medieval Chinese literature, calligraphy, and material culture. I also teach Mandarin Chinese. Interested in translation, philology, the materiality of writing/reading, and poetics in the ancient world more generally.
Reposted by Chris Elford
i can’t stop watching this vid of dan deacon doing the anthem before the orioles game yesterday it just gets better and better and all the crowd shots are golden
July 11, 2025 at 7:57 PM
i can’t stop watching this vid of dan deacon doing the anthem before the orioles game yesterday it just gets better and better and all the crowd shots are golden
Reposted by Chris Elford
Worth a watch:
Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.
Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.
June 26, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Worth a watch:
Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.
Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.
Reposted by Chris Elford
No one is “replacing” teachers with AI. People are redistributing money to tech companies for AI and replacing permanent salaried workers with contingent, poorly paid ones whose labor is to patch together the system that is being broken by AI.
June 25, 2025 at 1:29 PM
No one is “replacing” teachers with AI. People are redistributing money to tech companies for AI and replacing permanent salaried workers with contingent, poorly paid ones whose labor is to patch together the system that is being broken by AI.
Reposted by Chris Elford
brad lander primary chuck schumer
June 25, 2025 at 2:50 AM
brad lander primary chuck schumer
Reposted by Chris Elford
For academics & scholars who've uploaded papers to Academia, this message I received this morning should be of major concern. I'll delete my account, but I assume damage is done & they've already scraped everything of mine. Should stand as a warning about sharing one's work on commercial websites
June 24, 2025 at 12:39 PM
For academics & scholars who've uploaded papers to Academia, this message I received this morning should be of major concern. I'll delete my account, but I assume damage is done & they've already scraped everything of mine. Should stand as a warning about sharing one's work on commercial websites
Reposted by Chris Elford
Happy to share the schedule for our upcoming workshop on #revenge in #China next week at KU Leuven. Looking forward to working with so many great scholars of Chinese #philosophy, literature, law, and history. Gonna be a great time with #伍子胥, #謝小娥, #公羊學, and much more! #sinology
June 24, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Chris Elford
We're so lucky that all states are rational actors
October 1, 2024 at 5:10 PM
We're so lucky that all states are rational actors
Reposted by Chris Elford
See the problem with genAI "translations" of literature is that they will rob us of the frisson that comes with encountering a perfect beautiful metaphor in the wild.
Anyway, please read this.
defector.com/toward-a-the...
Anyway, please read this.
defector.com/toward-a-the...
June 22, 2025 at 1:56 PM
See the problem with genAI "translations" of literature is that they will rob us of the frisson that comes with encountering a perfect beautiful metaphor in the wild.
Anyway, please read this.
defector.com/toward-a-the...
Anyway, please read this.
defector.com/toward-a-the...
I used to assign an argumentative essay straight out the gate in my lit survey course. Last year I changed that first assignment to a lengthy paraphrase of an argument that turned on a close reading of a single sentence. Asking them to turn around and challenge their own paraphrase is brilliant.
A good exercise I started doing was asking my students to paraphrase a speech from an early modern play, and to think at the same time about what they were losing in the translation. It immediately focusses attention on more than plot
This article is going to turn me into the Joker. Literary style is not a puzzle you solve to get a little information treat 😩😩😩
June 22, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I used to assign an argumentative essay straight out the gate in my lit survey course. Last year I changed that first assignment to a lengthy paraphrase of an argument that turned on a close reading of a single sentence. Asking them to turn around and challenge their own paraphrase is brilliant.
Reposted by Chris Elford
This gyre is looking awfully wide
June 22, 2025 at 2:25 AM
This gyre is looking awfully wide
Reposted by Chris Elford
Reposted by Chris Elford
They have made the world living hell for no reason whatsoever. People will ask why this happened in a decade and there will be tremendous effort to make it more complicated than “they were evil, stupid, and bored”
June 22, 2025 at 12:18 AM
They have made the world living hell for no reason whatsoever. People will ask why this happened in a decade and there will be tremendous effort to make it more complicated than “they were evil, stupid, and bored”
Reposted by Chris Elford
I am begging people not to look to the NYT for coverage of what's happening. The BBC, Le Monde, Ajazeera and others will have more truthful coverage.
June 22, 2025 at 12:53 AM
I am begging people not to look to the NYT for coverage of what's happening. The BBC, Le Monde, Ajazeera and others will have more truthful coverage.
Reposted by Chris Elford
Firing a scattergun into the air to signal to my most beautiful uncle that bud light lime has been restocked at the liquor store. Two return shots mean he heard me, three means he is in distress
June 19, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Firing a scattergun into the air to signal to my most beautiful uncle that bud light lime has been restocked at the liquor store. Two return shots mean he heard me, three means he is in distress
Reposted by Chris Elford
I admit that I didn’t have “the only government to show concern over AI is the Vatican” on my 2025 bingo card.
June 20, 2025 at 1:57 PM
I admit that I didn’t have “the only government to show concern over AI is the Vatican” on my 2025 bingo card.
Reposted by Chris Elford
Tell me how well a machine can interpret historical sources for you, and I’ll tell you how mechanical your interpretation of historical sources already is.
June 17, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Tell me how well a machine can interpret historical sources for you, and I’ll tell you how mechanical your interpretation of historical sources already is.
Reposted by Chris Elford
"We recommend that the study of literature continue through the four years of secondary school...It offers peculiar opportunities for...direct access to the potentialities and norms of living as they are presented to the mental eye by the best authors."
June 17, 2025 at 1:44 PM
"We recommend that the study of literature continue through the four years of secondary school...It offers peculiar opportunities for...direct access to the potentialities and norms of living as they are presented to the mental eye by the best authors."
Recently stumbled across a syllabus I saved for a “Literature of the Vietnam War” class I took as an undergrad. Folks, we read a novel every week for ten consecutive weeks. Plus supplementary articles! And it was definitely a “go write a paper class.” This was in 2007! Not exactly ages and ages ago.
I remember in college sometimes the professor would just say “write a paper”, and you would just write a paper with no assignment prompt or rubric. It was a different time 😯
June 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Recently stumbled across a syllabus I saved for a “Literature of the Vietnam War” class I took as an undergrad. Folks, we read a novel every week for ten consecutive weeks. Plus supplementary articles! And it was definitely a “go write a paper class.” This was in 2007! Not exactly ages and ages ago.
Reposted by Chris Elford
Just published! 📚
“A General Survey of Song-Poetry (Sanqu) of Yuan China (1260–1368)” by Yishan Zhao and translated by Rui Zhou: a general overview of sanqu as well as a foundation for future research.
See more: brill.com/display/titl...
#Sanqu #ChinesePoetry #NewBook
“A General Survey of Song-Poetry (Sanqu) of Yuan China (1260–1368)” by Yishan Zhao and translated by Rui Zhou: a general overview of sanqu as well as a foundation for future research.
See more: brill.com/display/titl...
#Sanqu #ChinesePoetry #NewBook
June 1, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Just published! 📚
“A General Survey of Song-Poetry (Sanqu) of Yuan China (1260–1368)” by Yishan Zhao and translated by Rui Zhou: a general overview of sanqu as well as a foundation for future research.
See more: brill.com/display/titl...
#Sanqu #ChinesePoetry #NewBook
“A General Survey of Song-Poetry (Sanqu) of Yuan China (1260–1368)” by Yishan Zhao and translated by Rui Zhou: a general overview of sanqu as well as a foundation for future research.
See more: brill.com/display/titl...
#Sanqu #ChinesePoetry #NewBook
Yes. To let students buy and *keep* their course materials.
If you make me president of your university, I will find millions in cost savings by force-quitting shady EdTech contracts, & I will spend it all by giving faculty an annual budget to buy course books for their students.
June 4, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Yes. To let students buy and *keep* their course materials.
Reposted by Chris Elford
If you make me president of your university, I will find millions in cost savings by force-quitting shady EdTech contracts, & I will spend it all by giving faculty an annual budget to buy course books for their students.
June 4, 2025 at 10:54 AM
If you make me president of your university, I will find millions in cost savings by force-quitting shady EdTech contracts, & I will spend it all by giving faculty an annual budget to buy course books for their students.
Reposted by Chris Elford
*US ORDERS HALT TO STUDENT VISA INTERVIEWS: POLITICO
Trump team orders stop to new student visa interviews, as it weighs expanding social media vetting
The directive came in a Tuesday cable obtained by POLITICO.
www.politico.com
May 27, 2025 at 3:54 PM
*US ORDERS HALT TO STUDENT VISA INTERVIEWS: POLITICO
#musicrecfriday: Cash Bently’s Cash Corridos II. Frank Ocean meets Elliot Smith meets Corridos Tumbados (trap ballads from NW Mexico, although Cash Bently is from an El Salvadorian community in Virginia). soundcloud.com/cashbently/t...
Tu Cara
Listen to Tu Cara by Cash Bently #np on #SoundCloud
soundcloud.com
May 16, 2025 at 5:01 PM
#musicrecfriday: Cash Bently’s Cash Corridos II. Frank Ocean meets Elliot Smith meets Corridos Tumbados (trap ballads from NW Mexico, although Cash Bently is from an El Salvadorian community in Virginia). soundcloud.com/cashbently/t...
Reposted by Chris Elford
Literary Chinese for Concision, Example 1:
七步八叉，真擅萬身之才
"Truly he wields the talent of ten thousand men, [not unlike Cao Zhi, who composed a poem in the time it took him to walk] seven paces, [or Wen Tingyun, for whom writing a poem required only the time necessary to] fold [his] arms eight [times]."
七步八叉，真擅萬身之才
"Truly he wields the talent of ten thousand men, [not unlike Cao Zhi, who composed a poem in the time it took him to walk] seven paces, [or Wen Tingyun, for whom writing a poem required only the time necessary to] fold [his] arms eight [times]."
April 24, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Literary Chinese for Concision, Example 1:
七步八叉，真擅萬身之才
"Truly he wields the talent of ten thousand men, [not unlike Cao Zhi, who composed a poem in the time it took him to walk] seven paces, [or Wen Tingyun, for whom writing a poem required only the time necessary to] fold [his] arms eight [times]."
七步八叉，真擅萬身之才
"Truly he wields the talent of ten thousand men, [not unlike Cao Zhi, who composed a poem in the time it took him to walk] seven paces, [or Wen Tingyun, for whom writing a poem required only the time necessary to] fold [his] arms eight [times]."