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Kate Merkel-Hess

@katemh.bsky.social
1.4K followers 720 following 238 posts

Also 梅凯悦. Historian of Modern China. ME carer. Books: Women and Their Warlords (2024), The Rural Modern (2016).

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Reposted by Kate Merkel-Hess
s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 01/09/2026
Being suddenly thrust into the experience of disability can be incredibly jarring and also extremely radicalizing. Adryan's story as with so many people also involves huge fails in the medical system that contributed to needless pain and complications, a story so many of us know too well.
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Reposted by Kate Merkel-Hess
ChinaFile @chinafile.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A Chinese podcaster pressed Christopher Nolan on whether he'd "Christianized" The Odyssey. The interview went viral — then two internets started arguing about what it meant. New from ChinaFile's Hai 海:
alltimehai.substack.com
A Chinese Podcaster Interviewed Christopher Nolan. Here’s Why it Made Two Internets Freak Out.
China’s Odyssey podcast hit, hip hop, cooking, comedy, and more on the Chinese zeitgeist from Chen Caiwei
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Funny and insightful interview with noted feminist historian Tani Barlow. Reading her scholarship on Ding Ling when I was an undergrad profoundly shaped my interests and perspective.
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Reposted by Kate Merkel-Hess
Kate Bagnall @baibi.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
A new piece from me in The Conversation inspired by Netflix’s new adaptation of Miles Franklin’s classic 1901 Australian novel My Brilliant Career! With wonderful images thanks to Brad Powe, Society of Australian Genealogists, and Braidwood Historical Society. 🗃️ theconversation.com/love-across-...
theconversation.com
Love across racial boundaries: the true history behind Netflix’s My Brilliant Career
Chinese Australian actor Christopher Chung takes on a lead romantic role in the new Netflix adaptation of My Brilliant Career.
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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · 09/08/2026
“Covid and climate change are two major pillars of collective denial in the last decade… So though our lending library was created in response to one kind of public failure – namely a failure of public health, which is still ongoing – it can serve as a solution in response to this second failure.”
theguardian.com
How clean air clubs are protecting Americans from wildfire smoke
Mutual aid groups that started giving out PPEs during COVID are now loaning air purifiers and distributing masks to fume-addled communities
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Reposted by Kate Merkel-Hess
C.H. Romatowski @chromatowski.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
That makes for more than 2M people disappeared from their communities by a disease that for decades has been NIH’s most underfunded, relative to its burden on the US population. This neglect has left ME with no FDA-approved treatments, and almost no existence whatsoever in the public consciousness.
Chart entitled NIH research funding for ME/CFS is just 1% of what its disability burden warrants, with Long COVID also heavily underfunded at 14% of commensurate levels

NIH Funding Per Disease as a % of YLD-Commensurate Funding (FY22-24 Average)

ME/CFS is at 1% of its funding commensurate with disease burden, below:
Migraines 3%
Long Covid 14%
Anxiety Disorders 17%
Schizophrenia 27%
Eating Disorders 28%
Depression 31%
Asthma 34%
Diabetes 43%
Rheumatoid Arthritis 48%
Endometriosis 58% 
Multiple Sclerosis 122% 
Epilepsy 138% 
Autism 163%
IBD 196%
Parkinson's Disease 326%
Alzheimer's Disease 575%
Macular Degeneration 685%
HIV/AIDS 2603%
Down Syndrome 2675%

Data Sources: Bonuck et al. (2026), "Long COVID disability burden in US adults". Funding: NIH RCDC (FY22-24 average). Disease burden: IHME GBD 2021. Long COVID prevalence: CDC Household Pulse Survey.

Notes: Long COVID funding shown is NIH RCDC only (14% of YLD-commensurate). Including the one-off $1.15B RECOVER emergency appropriation (2021) would raise Long COVID to ~53% of YLD-commensurate.
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
"How should democratic societies respond? Not with appropriation or instrumentalization – this movement belongs to the Chinese people. The right response is helping these stories be seen."
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
This is a fantastic piece that should be read by anyone considering applying to a doctoral program.
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Min Chao @wordsfromtaiwan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
#TaiwanArchives: 1950 Soldiers, rickshaws, cyclists, and automobiles navigate the streets of Taipei
Photograph by Carl Mydans for LIFE magazine
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Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
When utilized in literature review, LLMs consistently 1. fail to mention female authors in female-led literatures, 2. insist that men are more influential or more heavily cited when this is contradicted by objective citation counts, and 3. attribute women’s work to hallucinated male scholars.
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利大英 @gblee.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
#China #June4 #photography "Tiananmen...a year after" Today is the anniversary of the #Tiananmen Massacre, June 4, 1989. I took this photograph a year after. Its emptiness speaks for itself. @gblee.bsky.social
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Dan Kennedy @dankennedy.net · 29/05/2026
A Penn State photojournalism student has been documenting the ICE-created chaos at the Delaney Hall protests. @njspotlightnews.org is publishing his work. “I’ve covered hard news before, but this is the first time I’ve ever had tear gas and pepper spray directed toward me.”
njspotlightnews.org
Clashing night and day: a tense 24 hours outside Delaney HallNJ Spotlight News
A photojournalism student knows how to shoot hard news. This was something else. 'It was definitely scary,' he says
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emily fraser 🌿🐌✨ @emilyesfraser.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Happy #MaskWeek! If, like many people, you stopped wearing a mask years ago, it’s not too late to start again 🩵 Doesn’t have to be all the time. Any time you mask you’re less likely to get sick or pass on whatever you might have picked up, & you might even avoid a life ruining infection.
Mirror selfie in a public restroom. I’m a middle aged white woman with dark hair & bangs wearing a 3m aura, denim shirt, & flowy blue pants giving a peace sign
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babs ✨ @itsbabs.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
hey did you know it’s WORLD MASK WEEK ??? you don’t have to be the most perfect mask wearer of all time to make choices that protect your health—ANY time mask means cleaner air for you n all around you, and that is worth it !!! why not give it a try at The Big 3: • shopping • healthcare • transit
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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 28/05/2026
one of my favourite new expressions in Chinese is 又双叒叕 又 means again and if you want to emphasize something is happening again, and again, and again... 又双叒叕 is very visually effective!
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Rather belatedly getting around to reading @jeremiahjenne.com on Li Zhisui’s Mao memoir. This was one of the first nonfiction books I ever read about China (back in high school)! Enjoyed this refresher on its salacious and historically questionable content.
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Rachel Gunter, Ph.D. 🗃️ @phdrachel.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I love his building blocks advice. #AmWriting 🗃️
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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 20/05/2026
♥️ powerful speech by Lin King, translator of Taiwan Travelogue @linkinglionking.bsky.social
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Patricia Goldsworthy @pgoldsworthy.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
It’s publication day!
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Patricia Goldsworthy @pgoldsworthy.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
One of the two public universities in Oregon currently undergoing retrenchment published a report on which programs make the most $ for the university (which shouldn't be the primary factor in keeping or cutting them), and the answer by a LONG SHOT was History/Poli Sci
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Who Even Reads @whoevenreads.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Ever wondered why so many indie bookstores have masking policies to prevent #covid? We asked them! Read our new article “Indie Bookstores Promoting Masking and Covid Consciousness in 2026” 📚💙https://www.whoevenreads.com/indie-bookstores-promoting-masking-and-covid-consciousness-in-2026/
whoevenreads.com
Indie Bookstores with Masking & Covid Policies in 2026
The trajectory of Covid awareness may not go exactly as many expect, and in the meantime, bookstores are one of the community spaces that can offer a transition point to a different possible future.
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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
“That’s where billionaires like yourself come in. For a mere $10 million gift, you can help us remake the intellectual landscape by endowing a prestigious chair in an underrepresented subfield, such as geocentric astronomy, high-energy phlogiston physics, or patriotic history.“ 😂
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 09/05/2026
I strongly suspect this is true of every field. There is what people think they know about it, and then there is what the daily experience of it for those who are in it. There is a wide gulf, and every one of those jobs is harder than it looks from the outside.
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Tony Hao @tonyhao.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
My translation of ADRIFT IN THE SOUTH, the debut memoir of Chinese worker-poet Xiao Hai 小海, out with Granta Magazine Editions today. A landmark work of the migrant worker literature movement, it showcases one of China’s liveliest emerging voices. #XiaoHai #chineseliterature #translatedliterature
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Some great books on this list; particularly looking forward to getting some time with #5, "Uncanny Beliefs: Superstition in Modern Chinese History," ed. @emilybaum.bsky.social & Albert Wu, feat. essays by @qiaoj.bsky.social & others
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
A really thoughtful review; worth clicking through to read the whole thing. Liked this observation: “The case studies demonstrate that care, endurance, and domestic labor can themselves become acts of profound rupture.”
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
I was delighted to get this book by my fellow UCI alum, Xia Shi, in the mail late last week, a natural follow-up to her first book on elite women int he early Republic. Looking forward to more reading time with it in May.
Photograph of the cover of the book "Concubines in Public: The Rise of the Social Wife in Republican China" by historian Xia SHI, resting on a side table with a knit chicken and a stack of books in the background.
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Guggenheim Foundation @guggfellows.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
A privilege and a pleasure to celebrate the 101st Class of Fellows with an announcement in the @nytimes.com 🎉
Black text on newsprint announcing the newest class of Guggenheim Fellows
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j m gabriel, a circus of faults and vices @jmgabriel.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Popular author discovers SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW OMG: "My book tells the untold history of....!!!!!!" Actual historian: no. we all know that already. sorry.
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Mary E. Mendoza @mmendoza.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Here I am at the UNC Press booth with my amazing editor @catehodorowicz.bsky.social and MY BOOK.
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I'm honored to have been named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow and thrilled it will allow me to dig in on my next book, The Long Resistance: Dissent and Disunity in China's War with Japan. So grateful to the Guggenheim Foundation and the many who have supported my work in so many ways. #guggfellows2026
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Review of Pierre Fuller's 2022 book, Modern Erasures, up at PRC History Review. Minerva Inwald reflects on Fuller's exploration of how early/mid 20c modernizers constructed China as a place "devoid of public morality." With response from Fuller.
networks.h-net.org
Number 85 ★ March 2026 | H-Net
PRC History Book Review Series: Pierre Fuller, Modern Erasures: Revolution, the Civilizing Mission, and the Shaping of China’s Past (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2022). Reviewed by Miner...
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
I am so sad to see this news. Harriet just oversaw the publication of my most recent article in NanNü in November, giving thoughtful suggestions. A broad thinker, generous and supportive of other scholars.
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Not the period drama you might expect.
youtube.com
JANE AUSTEN'S PERIOD DRAMA / 2026 Oscar®-Nominated Short Film
YouTube video by JULIA AKS
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
“We must come to realize that if we live long enough, every one of us will experience disability. Instead of viewing those with disabilities or chronic illness as unproductive or no longer useful, we must fight for a society that measures its health by how well it cares for those who need the most.”
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Yangyang Cheng @yangyangcheng.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
"Generations of Chinese women have been rendered voiceless by the patriarchy. Their stories refuse soft burials." So honored to have a review essay out in Banned Books Week @chinabooksreview.com on two of Fang Fang's most acclaimed novels, Soft Burial & The Running Flame, tr. @bairuiwen.bsky.social:
chinabooksreview.com
No Country for a Woman | China Books Review
Women in China have suffered abuse, silencing and erasure — despite the Communist Party’s slogans about women’s liberation. Two novels by the Wuhan writer Fang Fang show how gendered oppression persis...
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Guobin Yang @guobin-yang.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
In this piece on "genre borrowing" I study why netizens use Sima Qian's "arrayed biography" (列传) form to write biographies of Li Wenliang & how the narrative devices of this ancient genre align with the logic of digital culture. Open access! @asc.upenn.edu journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Brendan O’Kane @bokane.org · 06/10/2025
For the Mid-Autumn Festival, I translated the 17th century failson, epicure, and memoirist Zhang Dai's account of the annual Mid-Autumn singing competition on Tiger Hill in Suzhou. www.burninghou.se/p/mid-autumn...
burninghou.se
Mid-Autumn, Tiger Hill, Late Ming
"Everyone was perfectly silent, even the mosquitoes."
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Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Very nice to see a piece by @laujessie.bsky.social of @nuvoices.bsky.social in @thetls.bsky.social
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Incredibly thoughtful piece on the uses (or lack thereof) of AI. Historians will find this thinking relevant too.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 23/09/2025
“We are told by leaders that we are the future. But when it comes to the ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of our eyes.” Incredible speech by Violet Affleck who warned about the ongoing dangers of COVID & Long Covid, & advocated for masks and clean air at the UN today!
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Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
My tribute to Paul Cohen as historian & mentor to many www.asianstudies.org/in-memoriam-... cc @lmansley.bsky.social
asianstudies.org
In Memoriam: Paul A. Cohen (1934-2025) - Association for Asian Studies
Paul A. Cohen, who died on September 15, 2025 at the age of 91, made significant contributions to both the interdisciplinary field of Chinese studies and the discipline of history. The most obvious wa...
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Patrick Iber @patrickiber.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
This powerful essay by @yangyangchen is in the special section on Authoritarian and Resistance
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Thoughtful interview with Stanford Prof Matthew Sommer (by @mauracunningham.bsky.social) about Sommer's new book, which is on my to-read list for the fall. Lots of insights and observations for further thought just in this q-and-a.
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Leta Hong Fincher洪理达 @letahongfincher.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
The Japanese editions of BETRAYING BIG BROTHER: The Feminist Awakening in China just arrived! My book has now been translated into Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Japanese. The New York Public Library named Betraying Big Brother one of its “essential reads on feminism”: bookshop.org/p/books/betr...
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Emily Matson @emilymatson.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
I'm excited to share that my first monograph, "China's Date Debate: How Manchurian Scholars Rewrote World War II," is available for preorder through the University of Michigan Press, China Understandings Today series! China’s Date Debate press.umich.edu/Books/C/Chin...
press.umich.edu
China’s Date Debate
China’s Date Debate is an in-depth investigation of the Chinese Communist Party’s remapping of China’s World War II timeline from eight years (1937-–1945) to fourteen years (1931–1945). Instead of the...
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Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Glad to see this reposted, gave me a chance to give shout outs for good books that were largely under the radar, eg a set of Liang Qichao essays, an accessible book by @katemh.bsky.social w/a great title:Women & Their Warlords, also includes an early plug for a 2025 book: by @emilyzfeng.bsky.social
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Jeff Wasserstrom @jwassers.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
🧵 I'm not doing a full-scale tour to promote my forthcoming very short trade book that discusses some inspiring activists in Thailand and exiles from Hong Kong and Burma globalreports.columbia.edu/books/the-mi... but I'll do events related to it in NYC June 9, DC June 10-13, some details below....
globalreports.columbia.edu
The Milk Tea Alliance · Columbia Global Reports
Why are activists in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Burma willing to court danger to help one another? The political situations in Burma, Thailand, and Hong Kong are radically different. Only Burma is in a ...
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Kate Merkel-Hess @katemh.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Smart piece by Violet Affleck on COVID, climate response, & disability activism: "The climate resilience our society needs to build relies upon the skills and systems of pacing that disabled and chronically ill people have built to manage both their own symptoms and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic."
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