Damian M

Why did Chinese scientists in 1975 embark on an expedition to discover mermaids?

My new #ChinaComx translation offers answers! It is also a great example of how the Reform Era drive toward mass science popularization was realized on small scale.

Read it here: chinacomx.github.io/translations...

Some snapshots from my current quest to find many (and buy some) lianhuanhua and related historical materials in Shanghai for #ChinaComx.

Bottom line: flea markets and second hand bookstores are alive and well!

One of the absolute best EU novels!

That CCAS trip really resulted in some of the iconic images of the era didn’t it. Great cover!

Added another 80 images over the last two days, bringing the total collection to 385 historical photographs of all kinds of reading acts in twentieth-century China: chinareading.wordpress.com

both are so good! Detention was scary as hell though

https://chinareading.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/happy-children-at-a-comic-book-reading-stall-chengdu-1959/

https://chinareading.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/reclining-man-reading-book-lanzhou-1959/

https://chinareading.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/four-men-reading-notices-about-death-sentences-and-public-executions-prior-to-posting-them-to-the-wall-luoyang-1984/

https://chinareading.wordpress.com/2025/10/27/readers-engaged-in-reading-of-books-comics-and-magazines-at-a-street-book-stall-wanxian-1986/

Just added 50 new photos to my visual repository of reading acts in China, chinareading.wordpress.com -- too many great images to repost here, but these are the four that stood out for me. Go visit the website and browse the 300+ historical photographs of people reading in China!

Very cool, thanks! Will share with the team

#DOTD: Feng Zikai 豐子愷 (1898–1975), pioneer Chinese cartoonist #漫畫

In my paper, I trace how the CCP celebrated and/or educated about its anniversaries via comics. As these ranged in format and style from classical lhh booklets through comic strips to fancy coffee book tables, the bottom line is evident: comics were (and are) part of polit communication efforts.

Cool dude at a lianhuanhua book stall, ca. 19590/60

The double-panel includes contributions by Dr Chihho Lin, Dr Mariia Guleva, @ndanysz.bsky.social, and 4/5 of the #ChinaComx team; Dr Annabella Mei Massey (The Courtauld Institute of Art) and Dr Elizabeth Emrich-Rougé (University of Cambridge) will respectively act as Chair/Discussant.

Traveling to the UK today for the
@chinesestudies.bsky.social annual conference #BACS2025. Together with @beckminster.bsky.social, I co-organize a two-parted panel on all things lianhuanhua: P1 “Politics” and P2 “Aesthetics”, back-to-back on Thu 4.9 in Room SBB 1.02 from 13:00-16:15. Join us then!

Wikipedia editors trying to fend off the onslaught of AI crap have crowdsourced some telltale signs of LLM-generated writing; it might be handy for editors and proofreaders generally. Thanks to @ellenrykers.com for pointing me to it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...

Today, Xueting's Sunday Culture takes a look at the Chinese artist known as 海豹王XX, or Wang XX, whose comics feature a loveable aquatic alter ego and their tiny octopus friend, exploring the trials and tribulations of everyday life in contemporary China (brace yourselves for those bad puns). 1/

I saw today the dramatic effects of global heating up close. This is the Bonhus glacier in SW Norway, the photo on the left is from 1890. Like all glaciers in Norway it is shrinking rapidly.

I had the great pleasure of reading and reviewing Daisy Yan Du’s fascinating explorations in the (pre)history of Chinese animation. A wide ranging study covering puppet animation in the 1930s, ink painting attempts of the 1960s, and their various global afterlives in the 1970s, highly recommended!

In his review of Animated Encounters: Transnational Movements of Chinese Animation by Daisy Yan Du, @damiandamiani.bsky.social examines Du’s claim that Chinese animation was "international before it became national." Read his post at bit.ly/4fBkaM3.

Thanks!!

Very interesting! Do you happen to have them? We’d be very interested to get our hands on a few here at ChinaComx (chinacomx.github.io)!

Laura Pozzi, who curated the CUHK exhibition, and I (based on my work on the largest collection of Chinese caricatures at Maoist Legacy) have an article exploring the last leg of these caricatures -- targeting Jiang Qing during the anti-Gang of Four campaign of 1976-1978, doi.org/10.1215/1067...

Another exciting week at #ChinaComx! On Tuesday, July 22, we host a workshop with the “Caricature as a Sphere of Communication in the Ottoman Context” project (caricatures.hypotheses.org/499) — and welcome a new visiting scholar, Ivan Gomes, for a keynote on Brazilian caricatures of post-Mao China 🎭

Ahoj from Prague where I am participating in the “Transformations of Cultural Life from Mao to Xi” conference at @charlesuni.cuni.cz.

In my paper, I advance the argument that lianhuanhua were both very loud and affective, making it a perfect intermedial medium.

ksi.ff.cuni.cz/en/research/...

Illustration titled "Backyard Sounds" featuring a Cardinal, Goldfinch, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove, and Red-bellied woodpecker. Various, very subjective interpretations of bird calls form an abstract timeline composed of simple color shapes and loops.

Celebrations and marches welcoming the Chinese delegation to Dresden in June 1951, notice the crowds holding Mao portraits next to Wilhelm Pieck (GDR president); a still heavily destroyed Theaterplatz visible in the background. Photos by Erich Höhne und Erich Pohl, via Deutsche Fotothek.

This is a map of Los Angeles. The arrow points to a red dot. That red dot (roughly) represents the protest area seen on TV.

To me, the gross mischaracterization of what’s happening in Los Angeles looks like an excuse to deploy the military—to protect government assets like ICE.

Mao Zedong in 1956: "Er [i.e., Mao] fragt nach der Sozialdemokratischen Partei (SPD) und bemerkt, dass man sie unterstützen müsse, er hielte ihren Sieg für richtig." (im Gespräch mit G. Weisenborn)

hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/cha...

Is there perhaps a list somewhere of all the substacks that moved to ghost? For an easy find / overview that’d be great

Polanyi on the rise of fascism:

"the victory of fascism was made practically unavoidable by the liberals' obstruction of any reform involving planning, regulation, or control."

Many thanks again to Laura de Giorgi and Dayton Lekner for organizing and including me in their workshop! I’ve learned a lot about the sound(s), noise(s) & silence(s) of history and how to extract them, and the venue was—most probably—among the most stunning conference location I’ll ever witness.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released on this day 45 years ago