Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Stephen Owen, Victor Mair, and Al Dien. 祸不单行; it’s been quite a year. 270
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 10/10/2026Vale, Al Dien (1927-2026): My fondest memory of him is from Dunhuang in 1998, when he went to a local beer festival and then came to us students (unannounced) with armloads of bottles. It was our job to drink the beer so he could remove the labels for his extensive collection 🍺facebook.comFacebook 1142
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 08/10/2026You're absolutely right, of course, but I think this is a case where it's kind of folk art and therefore there isn't necessarily going to be a stylistic norm that can be traced with great accuracy and used as a diagnostic. But again, not my specialty, so YMMV. 120
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 08/10/2026I found a couple with *sort of* similar feet, but all on antique sales sites, so the fact that they're all listed as Chinese doesn't really tell you much. Cf:greatfindsdesign.comAntique Carved Camphor Chinese Chest - Great Finds & DesignAntique Carved Camphor Chinese Chest. Beautifully carved hardwood chest with flower and bird decoration throughout. A later added shelf/tray inside. The back is also carved. Camphor wood. 110
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 08/10/2026The carving style is so folky that it seems hard to localize (to me, with no expertise). But those feet with masks on them are quite distinctive. I wonder if one might look for other chests with those kinds of feet, that extend beyond the corners of the chest itself. Could also be Southeast Asian? 140
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Ah right I think I heard about this once. I love the whole concept of making the tonal distinction inherent in the spelling rather than something added on top, but what a nightmare in actual practice. 130
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026For various reasons I was just reminded of a college classmate whose last name was Hrung, which she explained was 洪 in an odd system where tones were indicated by excrescent consonants (like the silent r in her surname). Does anyone know/remember this romanization? @bokane.org ? 320
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026As one Jewish mother to another, I'd be happy to do this for you for free, if you find the right rectangle; but you would have to mail your materials to Honolulu. 110
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026...then tying the tzitzit is really quite easy (lots of mail order judaica shops will sell you the threads) and you'll have a kosher tallit (oh, you also want to put a tag or something on one of the long sides because it needs to have a clear "top" and "bottom"). 120
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I appreciate that you probably don't want to DIY it yourself, but if you can find a rectangle in the right shape (like a table runner? They're often woven in this kind of material) and hire someone to put a buttonhole in each corner (a friend with a sewing machine will be able to do this)... 110
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026At one point I had to break myself of the habit of seeing kanji as signal and kana as noise 140
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I did! Modern and classical both. I stand by what I said. Three scripts, 生 has like thirty different pronunciations, and the sound system is organized based on Sanskrit. It’s bonkers (I don’t mean that entirely negatively, but I do mean it). 161
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026It almost was, ngl. I’m more than a little punchy after 25 hours of Yom Kippur. 130
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026OK but the writing system is a colossal kludge, you have to admit 570
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Mary they are both taller than me and shave regularly 😯 100
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026That’s exactly what my kids said, I should have gone with them 020
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026My first ever lattice top pie (apple) made with coaching from D, age 16. 1150
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Once again Shabbat Shuvah and Talk like a Pirate Day converge. Shanah Tovarrrrr, everyone 😁 082
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I'm late to this discussion, but: My favorite footnote in a recently published article, generated in irritated response to a reviewer who seemed insistent that everything we need to know about ritual is found in the Dunhuang documents: 070
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026My god, you're right. A couple of senior members of the Dunhuang Research Academy (summer 98) were serious Sichuan hua speakers and as a translator I think it took several years off my lifespan 050
Reposted by Kate Lingley 龍梅若the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 16/09/2026rip annie dillard 1134441142
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 15/09/2026A lovely story about ancient apples discovered growing near where I grew up. "Cloth of gold of Brittany."scientificamerican.comHow apple detectives solved the mystery of an ancient tree—and rewrote the history of fruitAnd how they might have helped save the future of American apples 02210
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026You don’t get to score a win every day; but today I got to introduce a bunch of my undergrads to Ea-Nasir and his stash (STASH!) of complaint letters for the first time. A few of them clearly knew about him already BUT STILL. (It’s Mesopotamia week in the big survey class) 1130
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Haha you and me both (except I’m also married to a Californian) 110
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 03/09/2026This post gave me an earworm that is 22 years old 😆 040
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I was so grouchy about the propaganda drama that I decamped to Thai BL for a brief stint ("Goddess Bless You from Death," which is fluff with mild horror elements but an enjoyable ghost/detective story) but I am in the market for a new c-drama. 010
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Unpacks immediately, lives with three leave-it-arounders 😆 120
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I have a full set of cold-weather coping skills from my childhood in northwoods Maine, which also don't get much use, so, you know, just flexing underused muscles all around really 😆 010
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Toronto in November (at the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies, U of Toronto, and McMaster University). Finally a use for my knitwear, which otherwise doesn't get out much 🙂 170
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Sunset city. Went to a bat mitzvah reception and apparently being a 13 year old girl is a much better deal than it was 42 years ago. Boy did they know how to party. 080
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Yes, “perfectly fine” absolutely sums it up. I did appreciate Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway looking their age, but maybe I’ve been watching too many C-dramas 😁 030
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 22/08/2026I had to go so the teenagers could see it (rated R) and I felt like it was a take in its own right, so, fair enough. A few really effective visual touches. 110
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026My twin boys are 16 and I can’t keep the cupboard stocked 110
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026The last one is also not the original but a modern artist's copy of the murals in Princess' Yongtai's tomb chamber. I know, I know, it doesn't matter. But still. 140
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Somebody should have fact checked the images. I know they're just there for color, but how much attention would it take to notice the first one does not depict ladies preparing newly-woven silk? (It's a poor reproduction of Lady Guoguo's Spring Outing, attributed to the same artist) 152
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Since I had an ordinary childhood very far away from anything that would have made it into the Boston society pages, it was always a reminder that my dad had this epic and imaginative side once upon a time. They even dug up Francis Hatch to sing "Some Coward Closed the Old Howard."en.wikipedia.orgFrancis W. Hatch - Wikipedia 010
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Ha, found this post at random - my father was one of the two perpetrators of the Old Howard Ball, in memory of Scollay Square's burlesque house. The Boston Globe society pages did a feature on it which I have seen - I don't know if my dad still has it but it would be great to dig it up somehow. 120
Reposted by Kate Lingley 龍梅若H-Net Reviews @hnetreviews.bsky.social · 08/08/2026New book review: Lingley on Stephanie Balkwill: _Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century, The_. University of California Press, 2024. Published by H-Buddhism. Read here: networks.h-net.org/node/20158511networks.h-net.orgStephanie Balkwill. The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century. : University of California Press, 2024. Illustrations. 272 pp. $12.99 (e-book), ISBN 9780520401822.$34.95 (paper), ISBN 9780520401815. Reviewed by Kate Lingley (University of Hawai'i at Mānoa) Published on H-Buddhism (August, 2026) Commissioned by Stuart H. Young (Bucknell University) 032
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026The designers of my building sacrificed a planned painting classroom in order to leave room for this magnificent baobab tree. That was fifty years ago and it continues to grow through the spaces of the building (my office is right behind it) 2173
Kate Lingley 龍梅若 @klingley.bsky.social · 13/08/2026This is one of my favorite things about having offspring. Suddenly you know someone who has never seen The Princess Bride (or whatever) :) 030