tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66478582026-06-08T08:37:24.343-04:00half-formed thoughts, occasional rants, and muttered sarcastic asidesJonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.comBlogger963125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-11231168694581797172026-05-31T01:12:10.167-04:002026-05-31T01:29:46.226-04:00

My wife and I watched A Foggy Tale on Netflix last night, and I became my usual blubbery self, of course. I don't want to give away anything because I hope a lot of people watch it while it's available. But a few thoughts:There were ways in which it reminded me of Vern Sneider's A Pail of Oysters, with the main character traveling from rural Chiayi to the sort-of big city of Taipei to

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-79694994941617916972026-05-27T00:36:07.151-04:002026-05-28T14:10:13.435-04:00

Chat with Claude:What time is it right now in Boston, MA?12:31 AMIt's currently Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Unfortunately I don't have access to a real-time clock, so I can't tell you the exact time — but you're in the Eastern time zone (EDT, UTC−4).How do you know it's Wednesday, May 27, 2026?12:31 AMThat date is provided to me as part of my system context — Anthropic injects the current date into

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-6827823706799541662026-05-16T10:06:08.463-04:002026-05-21T13:46:12.068-04:00

Just noticed that a footnote in my "Formosa Delayed" article (I'm already regretting the title) has the wrong date for Bastille Day:Hope they don't issue a retraction! Apologies to all of my French reader(s)!

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-75653675431492468792026-05-08T08:59:00.003-04:002026-05-08T09:03:16.307-04:00

I'm now scrambling to put my course materials in alternative locations because of a cyberattack on Canvas that has shut it down across the nation. Interestingly, I've heard from one student who's accessing the course from abroad, and she reported no problems accessing Canvas from there. So I might have some confused students right now, wondering why I keep emailing them about Canvas being down

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-58486339151830227222026-05-06T00:55:00.001-04:002026-05-07T14:39:34.661-04:00

I'm going to have to sit with this for a bit to work out my thoughts about what's being suggested here: The suggestion to create an app, an AI tool, "that makes a kid feel the weight of what already happened" has my mind spinning. In the context of talking about World War II, I know that directly communicating with the people who lived through the war is becoming less and less possible--I

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-91644007038700525822026-04-29T11:32:00.002-04:002026-04-29T11:32:22.338-04:00

The spring semester is over here--and just in time, as a hay fever-driven lethargy has overtaken me, making it hard for me to concentrate on whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing right now. I have two online courses to run in May-June ("Summer A," which used to be known as "Summer 1"), though, so I need to get ready for them. I've got one prepared, but I need to go through the other one and

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-38061703510719435072026-04-18T09:58:00.001-04:002026-04-18T09:58:11.116-04:00

Yesterday, I attended the "Taiwan Studies+ 2.0" international symposium at Harvard. I found all of the presentations really fascinating, even (especially?) when I didn't know anything about the topics. There were presentations about video games, noise pollution, Japanese-era mountaineering, representations of Indigenous people in ecological literature, capitalism, the "semiconductor shield,"

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-56429525643850069942026-04-01T09:42:00.006-04:002026-04-01T09:42:53.041-04:00

A couple of updates about the George Kerr biography:We have a publisher! (I'm not going to reveal the details yet, though. I'm not sure we have signed a contract yet.)The MS went out yesterday to be reviewed. Evidently, though, we have more time to work on it as we wait for the reviewers' comments. (I have some hopes about some of the things I'd like the reviewers to say, but I won't go into that

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-8225839669301325172026-03-29T17:06:00.004-04:002026-03-29T17:06:39.230-04:00

Julien Oeuillet, who moderates the "Taiwan vs. the World" program on Radio Taiwan International, interviewed me for an episode about books to read to understand Taiwan. I'm talking, of course, about George H. Kerr's Formosa Betrayed. My interview isn't until 35 and a half minutes in, but I also enjoyed the interview with Jason Patterson and Matthew Ryan on marketing in Taiwan. It was quite

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-34127693133603690032026-03-06T17:39:00.001-05:002026-03-06T17:43:22.791-05:00

I'm so far behind in posting this that the Formosa Files folks have already posted two new podcasts since my interview! But in case you didn't catch it, I was interviewed by John Ross about Kerr and Formosa Betrayed. The podcast (greatly edited but still a bit long at close to an hour) is here. While you're at it, check out their other episodes--they're always fun and interesting to listen to!

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-62757784690283782932026-03-06T17:34:00.005-05:002026-03-07T09:05:26.362-05:00

Spring break is almost over for me, and if I had one, my to-do list would still be full.I didn't clean my study.I didn't finish that humanities fellowship application.I didn't do our taxes.I didn't go to a Fairbank Center presentation about Taiwan's legal status.I did finish grading (which is why I didn't go to the presentation). And I did do a little research for something we needed to add to a

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-51537934793280762372026-02-27T15:28:00.003-05:002026-02-27T15:28:21.265-05:00

I'm working on an application for a Humanities Center fellowship right now--here's their blurb about it:2026-2027 Theme: RevolutionsWe invite applications for our second annual Global Fellowship Program focused on the theme of revolutions. A revolution signals a foundational shift in action and thought. Whether they take the form of political uprisings, social movements, or collective struggles,

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-66619353120608814052026-02-22T17:34:00.006-05:002026-02-22T17:34:46.343-05:00

Besides grading, I'm avoiding three things that all would be good for me. One is doing some stretching (or even physical therapy) for my back, which got worse after the last big epic snow shoveling session. Folks have been suggesting PT, but that would involve figuring out how to get that covered by insurance, and I don't have the bandwidth for that right now.The second thing is cleaning my study

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-27026407594612464372026-02-01T16:30:00.001-05:002026-02-01T16:30:28.072-05:00

It occurred to me this morning to change the name of my offline journal, which I've been keeping for the better part of 20 years. Right now it's called "Thoughts and Frustrations," which comes from the original purpose of the journal, which was to be a place where I would brainstorm, draft, and reflect on the process of my dissertation. Looking through some earlier journals this morning (as I

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-25088517111086359152026-01-25T13:08:00.002-05:002026-01-25T13:08:14.895-05:00

The Island: A Personal Account of Taiwan’s Extraordinary Transformation, by Mark O’Neill (Earnshaw Books, 2023).OK, I said this wouldn't happen, but I heard about this book on the Formosa Files podcast where they interviewed the author. I'm looking forward to reading it, but right now I have to get back to grading!Here's a review of the book from the Asian Review of Books.

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-60366615368897222492026-01-21T12:27:00.002-05:002026-01-21T13:09:12.153-05:00

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this--you spend hours, days, weeks, months... reading the archived correspondence of your biographical subject as he goes through his life, inevitably aging and perhaps losing some of his inhibitions (if he ever had any) in the way he expresses himself. Then you turn to write some emails and find, to your horror (or perhaps not really to your horror!),

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-29544721590815790252026-01-10T12:33:00.012-05:002026-01-11T00:06:46.370-05:00

This was George H. Kerr's address for about 26 years of his life in Hawaii. Out of curiosity, I googled it and was happy to find photographs of what used to be his apartment on the second floor of what's described elsewhere as an "'Old Hawaii' style home in a 'Tree Top' setting with private deck and ocean/Honolulu views." (My wife and I drove by the house years ago on a trip to Hawaii, but I

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-43379391628910863082026-01-08T22:04:00.001-05:002026-01-08T22:04:11.428-05:00

I'm really working up to the last minute on the GHK stuff. I just sent off some vignettes (?) about Kerr's work on a book about King Kalākaua, the publication of Licensed Revolution, and his failed attempt to write a second book about Okinawa. Now I need to turn my attention to teaching. I'm going back to teaching Advanced Interdisciplinary Writing this semester after a detour into teaching

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-22701475199072506032026-01-07T06:25:00.002-05:002026-01-07T06:38:17.928-05:00

From a memo from George Kerr to the University Press of Hawaii, concerning their edits to his bibliography for Licensed Revolution.and this...

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-19558081193353587962026-01-05T10:16:00.001-05:002026-01-05T10:16:25.129-05:00

My course materials are "published" ahead of time--classes start Wednesday, although I don't need to meet with in-person students until Friday. I'm trying to spend as much time as possible before then working through some George Kerr correspondence as a contribution to a chapter on Kerr's later years. Lots of uplifting talk of his trials and tribulations with getting Licensed Revolution 

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-33907218789463757362026-01-01T20:40:00.001-05:002026-01-01T20:40:09.712-05:00

So after writing about my resolution yesterday, I stayed up until after 2:00 this morning working on my course materials for the new semester. I have one course ready and two to finish. Woke up late this morning and got back to work. Took a break to shovel out the driveway with my son, who was eager to shovel snow for some reason. I think tonight, I will try to go to bed earlier. I need to get

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-72110239008042076482025-12-31T22:56:00.001-05:002025-12-31T22:56:06.494-05:00

I did this last year, I see, so I'm going to end the year with a note on my somewhat unambitious resolutions for the 2025-26 academic year. Mainly, I resolved to get more sleep. As I recall, however, although it might be said that I got more sleep, I didn't really do it at the right times. A lot of my sleeping was done during the day (like between classes), and this resulted in--and resulted

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-52607242584242692762025-12-25T23:26:00.002-05:002025-12-30T12:26:36.119-05:00

Just finished reading Anna Beth Keim's Heaven Does Not Block All Roads: A History of Taiwan Through the Life of Huang Chin-tao. I really enjoyed it; although it has a lot of endnotes, it doesn't read like a dry academic book (apologies to writers of dry academic books!). It reads like a novel or a work of creative non-fiction. I especially appreciate (again, as a writing teacher) the

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-22584031900478510532025-12-17T23:16:00.004-05:002025-12-17T23:16:36.039-05:00

My article about the pre-life of Formosa Betrayed has just come out. Here's the abstract if you don't feel like clicking on the link:George H. Kerr did not publish Formosa Betrayed, his 1965 book about the Guomindang’s early rule over postwar Taiwan and U.S. inaction during the 1947 massacre of thousands of Taiwanese people, until almost twenty years after those events. While scholars and

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6647858.post-85387437782717524192025-12-04T04:45:00.001-05:002025-12-04T04:45:15.158-05:00

Saw this on LinkedIn recently. Reminds me of the "exploratory essay" assignment I've been doing in First-Year Writing for the past few years. It's tough for students because they're used to writing those more formulaic texts that the author discusses.

Jonathan Bendahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10697405682873882601noreply@blogger.com0