Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kate Lingley 龍梅若

@klingley.bsky.social

2.1K followers 760 following 2K posts

Art historian of medieval China; Assoc Prof, UH Mānoa. Feminist; foodie; early-music nerd; Jewish mother; SF/F fan; knitter; Maine native. She/her. Buddhist monuments and women's history in early medieval China. IG @kate.lingley, blog https://mbotd.blog/

mbotd.blog

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 8d

A local Chinese family gave me these paintings of the Tang general Xue Rengui 薛仁贵 and his wife Lady Liu 柳氏. They can’t be very old but I’m kind of fascinated to consider why they were made in the first place, where the little biographies come from, and why they’re shown wearing Ming-ish dress.

A Chinese painting on yellowed silk, representing a seated woman in frontal view. There is a block of Chinese text at upper left identifying her as Lady Liu.

The companion painting, showing a seated man, identified as Xue Rengui.

1 11

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 11d

I am on my way out the door rn but pls remind me later today because yes I have recs

1 2

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 12d

Wow, I usually make ma'amoul that masquerade as moon cakes for the great Sukkot/中秋節 convergence, but this is better

eileen chengyin chow @chowleen.bsky.social · 13d

Ceci n’est pas une pomme

(It’s actually a baozi -sweet white flour bun with golden custard filling - figured it was apples and honey season)

A baozi bun resembling a golden apple on a white plate

3 11

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 13d

Eating in Penang, eh? some of us are verrrrry envious. Better post more about the food (pretty please?) :D

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 18d

Aw thanks 😊 I’m trying to finish it before I go to a conference in Chicago in February 🥶

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 18d

I’m about 3/4 of the way done with a large piece of Orenburg lace. Much more and I won’t be able to photograph it on the chaise any longer. I really like the pattern, especially the edge.

Close-up of a piece of Orenburg-style knitted lace with geometric patterns, in silver-grey silk/cashmere yarn.

Close-up of another part of the same lace.

Photo of the entire lace panel, which is incomplete and hence lacks symmetry.

3 1 27

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 20d

On the door of a classroom just now. Not sure I know what the right answer is tbh.

Photo of the surface of a classroom door, fire-engine red, with a white handmade sign that says “Exam in Progress.” Below this are two choices: Yellow (with an arrow pointing left) and Orange (with an arrow pointing right).

1 4

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 26d

This was precisely my thought process too

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 26d

I miss going to museums with you Wendy

1 1

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 28d

The teenagers want to know how you like it. They are divided (one enthusiastic, one meh)

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

Point well taken 😊

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

Also I made soup noodles on a very not-souptastic muggy day (I blame the hurricane currently giving us a miss to the north, but also September and October are the hottest months here).

A bowl of noodles in soup with chicken, fishcake, greens, scallions, and enoki mushrooms.

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

Or for having a Yellow Millet Dream:

Lü Dongbin - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

Gift from a student who really has my number. I thought this was going to be tea leaves but it is yellow millet for making my favorite breakfast porridge 小米粥

A vacuum-sealed brick of fancy whole millet grains in a gold-colored wrapper, labeled in Chinese.

1 6

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

I’m honestly not sure what it would mean to season it, but I’d want to make sure it’s really clean, which should probably involve several changes of boiling water; then knock yourself out. (I enjoy tea but I am, sorry to say, a tea philistine in both the Chinese and the UK/Irish traditions.)

1 1

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

When the art looks back 😁

1 3

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

- but I have five or six of them from the 1990s which are authentic (since I bought them in Yixing). People can get very precious about only brewing one kind of tea in an Yixing pot but I don't know how seriously to take that - the antiquarian said "that's how they get you to buy more than one." 😁

1 2

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

- they're not especially rare though there are different grades of special, of course. A Chinese antiquarian said to me this summer that the clay pits near Yixing itself are getting mined out so that recently made pots are often made from similar clay mined elsewhere -

1 2

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

Sorry, been coping with family complications - Brendan's @bokane.org replies to this thread say what I would have said. Both are maker's marks and probably two potters were involved. Both Ge 葛 and Hong 红 are surnames. Also there's no reason not to think this is a genuine Yixing pot -

1 2

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

Marco Polo is doing whatever the opposite of turning over in his grave is.

1 6

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 29d

I have said it before: the best food is often the unapologetic mashup, the unholy marriage of tastes. This is a great town for fusion cuisine, and I have just learned that a local Italian-Asian joint has a dish called Gnocchi Mapolognese (Mapo as in 麻婆), which has gotta take some kind of prize.

2 1 18

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · Sep 7

Heh, Ozzy Osbourne. (Don’t worry, I’m posting from my place in a badly stalled fast-food drive-through lane)

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · Sep 7

It is really fun to be on the sidelines while my children discover the music of the second half of the twentieth century. They don’t listen to quite so much Queen any more, but they’re now on a Fleetwood Mac and Dire Straits kick and it’s great to let them run the music while I’m driving.

1 3

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · Sep 5

However, as I always tell my students, love what you love, so the answer is 90s Jonathan Lee 李宗盛 and similar. I'm a lyrics person; I like a relatively acoustic sound and evocative vibe. (On reflection, whoever said that your music taste is formed in your teens and early 20s was right)

Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · Sep 5

Reposting so I can keep track of the replies, which are great. I'd like to listen to more good Mandarin music too, even though as a musician I spend most of my time in medieval/renaissance Europe. And I'm leery of admitting to what I do like, because I'm pretty sure it is kind of basic.

David Hull 胡大衛 @hushuo.bsky.social · Sep 4

An uncomfortable thing I've believed for a long time: Music in Mandarin is mostly not great, especially recently. Most everything I run into is a similar run of sappy ballad.

I want to be proved wrong. Who is doing cool things in the pop/rock/folk/indie space in Mandarin?

2 7