China Papers Reading Group

[paseante]

I'm looking for people who would be interested in participating in a reading group on China via private blog. The specific focus of the reading group would be academic papers with a China focus in any humanities or social science discipline. We could each take turns choosing papers, reading at an easy, sustainable pace -- say one paper every two weeks -- and after we had finished each one we could post our interpretations, thoughts, disagreements, and questions. If this sounds fun to you, PM me and we can talk more.

[roddy]

This is something we could host here - I'd probably prefer to see it public, but we can do private blogs.

[gato]

Sounds interesting. Do you have an initial list of papers that you are interested in? Are the papers in Chinese or English?

[yonglin]

I'm interested too. I would probably be able to contribute more if the discussion was in English. However, in my field (economics) a number of the more important English-language academic papers on China have been translated into Chinese, so bilingual readings/discussions might be an option as well!

[paseante]

gato and yonglin, good to hear from you!

I cannot yet, alas, read Chinese, so I was thinking just English-language papers. If there are a lot of people who want to discuss Chinese-language papers, of course, they could form a group themselves for that purpose.

I don't have a list of papers I want the group to read at the moment, but I do have a long list of papers I want to read myself, so I could easily pick a few to start the group off. But I don't really want to pick all the papers myself -- I think it would be more fun if everyone who participates got to choose some, so that everyone's interests would be represented. Naturally, if anybody wants to participate in the reading group but doesn't feel like choosing papers, that's fine. And besides papers, we could also do academic lectures that have been posted online as MP3s (e.g., at http://www.international.ucla.edu/china/podcasts/).

I think it would be best to do this in a private forum of some kind -- that way, people would feel more free to risk sounding "stupid" and to admit ignorance when relevant. We can discuss exactly what the best venue would be after this post has been up for a couple more days and most of the people who are going to reply have.

[chinopinyin]

This is something we could host here - I'd probably prefer to see it public, but we can do private blogs.

Paseante, this seems a really good idea!!! I would favour going public, though. After all, all of us use nicknames, so there is no risk of sounding "stupid"

I've just posted a thread on Allen (2008) Why Learning To Write Chinese Is a Waste of Time Foreign Language Annals 41(2):237 - 251

here

Just to get the ball rolling, this could be a first paper to discuss

[calif90071]

I think I would also be interested in participating. I am learning Chinese at the moment (I've studied it for 2 yrs so, naturally, I'm not too good at it) so starting off in English would be optimal. However, if some of us are interested in taking our language studies further and really want to stretch ourselves, we could eventually read some papers in Chinese (maybe in a different group, as was suggested above) starting with simple and becoming increasingly difficult from there. Just a thought **

[gato]

I don't have a list of papers I want the group to read at the moment, but I do have a long list of papers I want to read myself, so I could easily pick a few to start the group off.

Why don't you lists the papers you are interested here and we can decide if we want to go with them? Don't be shy. With these kind of online reading project, it takes a few people to lead and sustain the discussion. Otherwise, it's really easy for interest to drop off.

Can you also tell us a little about your background and area of interests?

[roddy]

With these kind of online reading project, it takes a few people to lead and sustain the discussion. Otherwise, it's really easy for interest to drop off.

Which is a good reason to keep it public - you need new blood coming in.

[natra]

There is a similar mailing list for those interested, which is run by the Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Resource Center at Ohio State University.

The link to their website is: http://mclc.osu.edu/, and mailing list subscription information can be found here: http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/LIST.htm

It is a very active mailing list and everything discussed is in English. I have a filter set for MCLC emails, and just read it every few weeks like I would a magazine.

[simonlaing]

I would be interested in this kind of a discussion group.

I am flexible whether to go public or private on discussions. Some people's nicknames are closer to their real names than others.

have fun,

Simon:)