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K. Alexander 亞天恩

@thianun.bsky.social

1.5K followers 250 following 620 posts

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

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 5d

Aspirational mango marathon 💖🥭✨

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Reposted by K. Alexander 亞天恩

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 5d

Andrew Lang's Book of Dreams and Ghosts (1897) — Containing 78 weird happenings, from a demon strangling Devonian farmers in 1682 to a poltergeist terrorising a contemporary Chinese couple. Read it here: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-book-of-dreams-and-ghosts-1897

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

This #WoodblockWednesday, musing over the creativity of this Guangzhou publisher's branding on nearly every page of its printed lists of successful provincial exam candidates. Making a dry subject just a little cute, page by page.

All from fasc reprint 清歷科廣東鄉試錄 search.worldcat.org/title/34561437

Nine little line drawings of flowers, vases, and other objects with the publisher's name, 錦書堂, incorporated into the design.

Slightly more elaborate ad design, as if written on a curling scroll of paper, reads: 貴客光顧請認省城學院前錦書堂為記.

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 8d

Or maybe yes now? Humanity’s time is over, all hail the cephalopod overlords

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 11d

haha not that I remember, but it's been a long time since I read the specific part in that book about Ding Richang looking to fill out a section in my own book about banning obscene literature

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 11d

ugh sorry about the bad/weird link tho

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 11d

Ding fact: Even though Ding Richang moved to ban all of these “licentious” works, he had also been an aficionado of them, especially Honglou meng, when he was younger. via Y. Yvon Wang, Reinventing Licentiousness: Pornography and Modern China , www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Shibboleth Authentication Request

doi-org.colorado.idm.oclc.org

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 13d

I thought I had a copy too but I’ve discovered instead it’s a different book in the same genre! Mine’s dated 9/66

Cover of my little red book of Hong Kong tourists facts courtesy of the Mandarin hotel

Front page of the book explaining it is the official guidebook of the Hongkong Hotels Association with their seal. Below the association welcomes guests to take this book with them as a souvenir and gives instructions on how to buy more copies. Also in this picture, my fingers holding the book open and my research assistant’s paw nearby as he had to take a look too.

First content pages of the book: Color pictures of the Mandarin Hotel, inside and out, with text that reads: (epars
The MANDARIN HOTEL, overlooking Hong Kong s fabulous harbour, is the foremost hotel in the Far East.
In the foreground is the Chinese Junk operated by the hotel for the pleasure of its guests. Above is the elegant staircase in the main lobby, with dominant murals and gold panel carvings, leading to the mezzanine Clipper Lounge and shopping arcade.
Below is the Mandarin's roof-top oasis right in the heart of the crowded city.
You can spend many lazy hours in the blue waters of the pool, with its beautiful mosaics and cooling green surrounds.

Also pictured, my fingers holding the book open and my research assistant’s paw.

Final page of the guidebook with an index and copyright information.

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 15d

Returning to the mothership in November for the first time since graduating, it'll be ... fun?

Enlightening?

Interesting, at least for me, and hopefully also for my generous hosts and my audience.

Image promoting a book talk I am giving at the Sem Co-op bookstore in Hyde Park, Chicago, on Nov 13 at 4pm.

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Reposted by K. Alexander 亞天恩

Min Chao @wordsfromtaiwan.bsky.social · 20d

Firefighting #mascots from around #Taiwan:

Q火喵 from Miaoli — a #cat whose name means both "cute fire" and "firefighter" in the Hakka language

https://www.miaoli.gov.tw/News_Content2.aspx?n=285&s=654962

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 20d

Baby lampshade!

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 21d

Ah, thank you! I missed that!!

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 21d

I'd love to share more because I came across an even nicer edition of this text last week in the special collections at the University of Leeds, but their policies do not allow use of photos I took without permission (which takes 30 days review), so you'll have to go there yourself if curious!

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 21d

Or this pair of serious men with their mouths sewn shut

An illustration of a pensive looking man with his eyes staring off into the distance and his lips sewn shut, with his back to the viewer, displaying a robe covered in text that seems to be about the value of not saying too much.

In the cheap later version the man no longer looks like a man, his eyes look as if they are trying to leap out of his face, his eyebrows are out of control, and the text on his robe is very hard to read.

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 21d

Compare, if you will, this illustration from the nicer (but no longer complete) edition, with the same illustration in the lower quality one

Nicer version - yes they're still wonky dragons but they are drawn by an artist still better than me.

Wonky dragons more like what I could manage to draw with a bit of practice, but really looking like a child drew them after using the previous image as inspiration.

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 21d

Thanks for the reminder it's #WoodblockWednesday!

Below, @sudasana.bsky.social shares a link to vols 1-8 of 32 from an incomplete copy of Shi Chengjin's (~1658-after 1739) 家寶全集.
BSB also holds a second, complete, & lower budget edition produced later 1/ www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/search?fi...

Title page of the lower budget edition - the quality issues are not immediately obvious here, but once the body text begins a few pages later, the difference in carving quality and detail becomes clear.

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Reposted by K. Alexander 亞天恩

Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 21d

The Story of Mrs. Lovewright and Purless Her Cat – a moving vintage fable about loneliness, love, and letting go www.themarginalian.org/2015/09/18/m...

The Story of Mrs. Lovewright and Purrless Her Cat: A Sweet Vintage Parable of Loneliness, Love, and Letting Go

A playful and profound reminder that real love lives outside our stubborn expectations.

www.themarginalian.org

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Reposted by K. Alexander 亞天恩

Gregory Adam Scott 史瑞💀骼💀 @sudasana.bsky.social · 21d

It's #WoodblockWednesday again! Here's a bonkers book of 2000+ pp. in which the author records his thoughts on anything and everything under the sun, basically an 18th century literatus substack. Shi Chengjin 石成金 (1739-1795), 家寳全集, www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb0...

Title page from the copy in the Munich State Library

Not going to let a gourd tell me what not to do

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 22d

From the same low quality edition of 家寶全集, a suggestion for a seal that readers can make which says: 越不聰明越快活

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 22d

A story I love so much I made a silly needlepoint of it!!

K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 22d

Which is really the energy I bring to Bluesky! Low quality knockoff of real scholarly knowledge 😅

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 22d

I don’t though! Not conversant enough in art history, I’m just a simple Qing book reader who likes the ones with pictures the most. Mine is from a really low budget looking edition of 萬寶全書 held at the Bavarian State Library www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/search?fi...

https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/search?filter=volumes%3A%22bsb11324403%2FBV043054749%22

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en" class="text-xl antialiased"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>Search | MDZ</t...

www.digitale-sammlungen.de

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K. Alexander 亞天恩 @thianun.bsky.social · 22d

If you see this, quote the energy you bring to Bluesky

A wonky woodblock print illustration from a Qing book of a dude giving serious side eye

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Reposted by K. Alexander 亞天恩

Xander ✺ @spectralcodex.com · 23d

The original Canon logo from 1934 is really cool. I only just learned the name of the company originates with Guanyin AKA Kwanon (觀音) and only became "Canon" in 1947.

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Reposted by K. Alexander 亞天恩

Frankie Huang 黄碧赤 @ourobororoboruo.bsky.social · 24d

I don’t know why but this made me full on belly laugh

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