Elf Sternberg

Comment Threads

• Robert Prior commented on Pass or Fail
  And that gives the "interesting times" statement a lot of emotional resonance, even if it doesn't exist as a formal Chinese idiom. I think it says more about what we consider "interesting" in history stories. Why are the Tang less interesting than the Warring States? Is it because we are taught that military history is the only real history? (I know when I was young most history in school seemed to be tales of war and conquest, but that might be a function of what young me found interesting rather than what we actually studied.) I mean, consider the Tang....
• David L commented on Pass or Fail
  as "200 years of stability and remarkable cultural creativity followed by 200 years of chaos" None of the history classes I had in the US covered all these Chinese wars. Or peace for that matter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll...
• JohnS commented on Pass or Fail
  Moz @ 1642: The far right surely can't have corrupted everything, ... I hope not, but some times I do wonder....
• adrian smith commented on Pass or Fail
  None of the history classes I had in the US covered all these Chinese wars. taiping rebellion especially, utter madness...
• Heteromeles commented on Pass or Fail
  taiping rebellion especially, utter madness Mumble mumble drug war. Mumble mumble opiates. Mumble mumble Christian fanatic nutjobs. Mumble mumble secession by the hard right. Mumble mumble international intervention to push drugs on a country against their wishes. Mumble mumble civil war... Nah, nothing here is relevant to American students. AND, I hasten to add, modern-day China has no reason whatsoever to move fentanyl into the US, nor to foment political polarization in the US, nor to stir up religious nutjobs in the US. How dare they do such things! (/slight sarcasm, of course)....