Xenia Piëch

China, Republican Era, Visual Culture, Photography

[China in Pictures @tongbingxue]

Anna May Wong (right), well-known Chinese-American film star, visiting Beijing on August 25, 1936, with the adopted Chinese daughters of Miss Helen Burton, prominent North Dakotan woman, who is engaged in the antique business in the city, AP Photo.

[Ian Johnson @iandenisjohnson]

I was excited to speak yesterday at @Jifengbooks on a key side product of my book Sparks, the @MinjianArchives , which I work at along with five people from the PRC
Archiving China’s Grassroots Historians | Ian Johnson 季風人文講壇第115期 https://t.co/tuVVXYyiqO via @YouTube

[Seriye Sezen @SeriyeSezen]

Who Speaks for Beijing? Insights from a New Dataset on China's Diplomatic Elite

“This article provides one of the first systematic analyses of the composition and deployment of China's diplomatic elite under Xi Jinping.”

https://t.co/4v9oofXz8F

[China in Pictures @tongbingxue]

Empress Cixi's Bedroom in the Palace of Gathered Elegance (Chuxiugong), Beijing’s Forbidden City.

This intimate sleeping chamber is surprisingly small—roughly 15square meters—by imperial standards.

Traditional Chinese belief held that smaller spaces helped "gather qi" (vital energy) for better rest and focus, while also offering a greater sense of security and warmth in cold winters.

[Markus Samuel Haselbeck @CiaoCiaota]

I started a new position working on a collection of mainly pre-modern Chinese books once owned by Jozef Mullie at KU Leuven Libraries, making these works available to scholars. Over the coming months, I'll be posting some of the fascinating texts and illustrations I come across.

[Historical Materialism Journal @histmat]

HM Bookseries forthcoming softcover
Yuzo Nagahori: Literature and Revolution in Modern China. Lu Xun, Leon Trotsky, and Chen Duxiu
https://t.co/ckcdGn7Na3

[Ian Johnson @iandenisjohnson]

I'm always proud of our @MinjianArchives newsletters, but this one really is an eye-opener--the story of one of the most influential yet oft-forgotten feminists of the late Qing/early Republican era, He-Yin Zhen, and her magazine "Tien Yee."
https://t.co/Ytgc6oUdFw

[Paul Bevan @Sinobevan]

@chinabksreview Read Paul French's excellent article for China Books Review then read his chapter 'Chiang Yee in Wartime'-1 of 11 chapters in Chinese Artistic & Intellectual Life in Britain, 1930-1950 by C Clunas, S Cheung, A Witchard, Da Zheng, D Yeh, T Thorniley, Ren Ke, F Wood, & P. Bevan

[China pulse 🇨🇳 @Eng_china5]

A Chinese student built an interesting app using vibe coding that visualizes nearly 5,000 artifacts in the British Museum from 99 countries around the world.

The app shows:
• When these artifacts arrived
• Which country they came from
• And how the distribution would look if all artifacts were returned to their countries of origin.

[Jin Xu 徐津 @xujnx]

Schedule and Registration Link (in the reply) for the Upcoming Conference on Chinese Painting at Columbia University in April.

[Laurence Westwood @LWestwoodAuthor]

New history of Warring States period (in English!) @XianyangCB @MichaelMjfm out 5th May - looks good

[Dr Yan He @YanHeCUL]

Renmin Ribao Digital Archive 人民日报 (1946-2012) 全文数据库（含PDF原文下载）- trial access for Cambridge University members. https://t.co/0dufFUkjGO via @ejournalscamb

[Asymptote Journal @asymptotejrnl]

Franz Kafka never set foot in Asia, yet his shadow falls long across contemporary China.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom uncovers how Kafka’s visions of absurdity and estrangement resonated with writers of the post-Mao era.

https://t.co/69FOk4mvif

[khalid yousef @khalidsyossef]

#NewPublication
Early Western Missions to the Mongols (1245–1248)
The Opening of Diplomatic Contacts with a New World Power
ed. Peter Jackson, Routledge 2026
#OpenAccess Preliminary Material & General Introduction: The Rise of the Mongols
Preview PDF 🔽
https://t.co/o51dAKB1Rs

[Financial Times @FT]

Xi Jinping has called for the renminbi to become a global reserve currency, in some of his clearest comments on his ambitions for China’s currency as Beijing seeks to play a greater role in the international monetary system: https://t.co/qvIgOzMkmi

[Paper Republic @PaperRepublic]

Would you like to know more about the latest Chinese poetry translations in English? Check the 2025 Roll-Call of Chinese Poetry in English Translation. https://t.co/BHSw2LLQtx

[Association for Asian Studies @AASAsianStudies]

Dean of Faculty of Humanities - Dean of Faculty of Humanities - , Hong Kong https://t.co/orurgmG9jX

[khalid yousef @khalidsyossef]

#NewPublication
Venice and the Mongols: The Eurasian Exchange That Transformed the Medieval World
Nicola Di Cosmo and Lorenzo Pubblici , Princeton Univ Pr 2026
https://t.co/hfV7pycCxp
Look Inside, Introduction, Contents ⬇️
https://t.co/Z1KBntSlM6

[SOAS Special Collections @SOAS_SpecColl]

We are very excited to announce the launch of our new digital library platform which will host all of our digital content, including curated exhibitions and featured collections. Find out more here: https://t.co/tPIKlIvXcV #EYADigital

[Wolfgang Behr / 畢鶚 （氒/厥/攸） @behrwolf]

Jobs: Reader or Professor in Chinese Studies, School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews (apply by Jan 19, 2026): https://t.co/bse7Ti3tmn