A common theme in our past few group meetings has been a lack of relevancy: we all feel so caught up in current events that are taking place a mere hour from our school and therefore have been struggling to feel invested in research on something so far away, both geographically and time-wise. Elena, our angelic silkworm, was able to synthesize this uneasy sentiment and proposed a solution in last night’s meeting: what if we worked on the music and ritual of the Karakorum region right now and then worked backwards into history from there? Up until now we have been confusedly sifting out certain chunks of information because we felt like they weren’t relevant or weren’t the right era, but this way we can include any valuable items of interest. I think that this change will allow us to feel more directly connected to our research, and it will make Youtube a more relevant resource for us: we can actually watch current musical rituals online.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…?
So far photographs and videos have been much richer in information and content than anything I have read, in regards to food and its preparation. For instance, I have found this travel blog site with a section dedicated to Kashgar entitled, “Pictorial Essay and Record of a Historic City Salted for Destruction.” The pictures are incredible and there are small stories written in between some of the photographs that go into the feel of Kashgar as a city that are fascinating. The pictures depict pottery and metal (copper?) pots and naan and bagels; I want to know so much more about the those men and women making and selling those products, where they picked up the trade and the history behind their practices. The pictures can’t tell me all of those details, but those photographs seem to hold more information than most of my database searches. Why is that? Is what I am searching on these databases or in google searches not the right avenue of research? Am I not using the right keywords? I feel as though I have tried going less specific with searches and gotten nothing that pertains to subjects I need, and then getting absolutely no results from more specific searches. And then the middle ground to those searches only get my toes wet in terms of the information I hope to gain or the topics I hope to delve into.
I have tried searching in Mandarin and then google translating websites, but even then my results are few and lacking substance. My most substantial sources of information have been YouTube videos (that I linked in a previous post) in Mandarin.
Now that I have become slightly burnt out on the naan and bread-making front, I have turned to porcelain. Porcelain has been proved a better topic of research so far. I have found a fair amount through databases, but I have not read through all of the possible articles and journals so I cannot say so far whether or not this avenue of research will be successful or not. Pottery in general in Kashgar, however, has been a trickier topic of research than expected. Again… why?????? I see incredible forms of pottery in photographs or wooden utensils used for cooking (such as special rolling pins for rolling out the naan), but can not find those details that look so important in photographs and videos in written form or documentation. These cooking tools and methods are important and should absolutely have an interesting and influential history and significance, which is why I am being so stubborn in my research. There should be way more information available than what I have found!
The articles, blogs, and websites I have found on the making of naan or pottery are all modern, and the vast majority of them are not made by Chinese citizens or citizens of Kashgar. The creators or writers are, instead, Westerners who write about parts of Kashgar that seem to be novel or special. This perspective that keeps coming up in my searches is not necessarily surprising, as modern documentation is significantly easier and more accessible, but it is also important to look critically at these sources, because they do not hold multitudes of valuable information, but rather fairly surface level information. I also am thinking critically about the fact that there doesn’t seem to be much in-depth or non-western sources of information in the searches I have done. Were cooking practices in Uyghur communities or in Kashgar not documented or uncovered? Am I, for the most part, only going to find research on what the West has found important? For instance, I have found significantly more on white porcelain than I have on the history of bakers of naan or potters. I assume this is because white porcelain is world renounced and recognized by the world as an important outcome of trade from China. The documentation and history of naan is probably not as important to the western world, but it is very important to me and my research.
I will continue to dig deeper and try new ways of researching in order to find information from more perspectives (than just western perspectives).
(Kashi)-ing Up to Kashgar: Mapping It Out
Hallo,
Hope you’ve had a great week!
With all my other activities and obligations I neglected to do multiple blog posts this week, so hunker down; this one’ll be lengthy!
First off, research: Thus far I’ve found a myriad of contemporary sources, with historical context, but very few historical accounts themselves. I’ve sifted through accounts of Muslim food customs in the Uyghur region, accounts of Kashgar’s famous Sunday Bazaar, and an article on the significance of travelers on the Silk Road in Kashgar, to name a few. They’ve been helpful in deepening my understanding of contemporary culture, but I’m striving to find more dealing with the roots of the customs and meals.
Some interesting facts I gleaned are:
-If invited to wash your hands (which you will be), wash thrice and don’t shake off the water
-You must drink all the tea in your bowl before you leave the table
-When given a gift of food, always return the container with more food in it
-When serving naan guests must see that it is whole before you split it to serve
I also discovered a little wooden tool with spikes that the Uyghur people use to pierce the naan in cyclic, almost flower-like patterns. Although I’m focusing more on the cultural aspects of the meal, since it is a utensil used in preparation and Billie was enthralled with it, I’m letting her research it. I’m very excited to learn what they’re called, if they’re standardized, if they’re used for foods other than naan, etc.
Researching all of these customs sparked an idea: if the Tongue Team ends up culminating in an oral presentation revolving around food, we should strive to be as true to the customs as possible. We’ll serve all the food with two hands, display the naan from our tandyr before breaking it, and make sure to provide the meal in stages. I’m trying to look deeper into the traditional garb worn to eat or serve, if it even exists. It would be a very interactive way to present to the class (and possibly the Heges), and demonstrate that we understood that customs are more than something to be studied off a sheet of paper. Now the challenge is to portray these customs faithfully.. And the whole appreciation vs appropriation debacle. But we’ll cross that bridge when/if we come to it.
In our Tech Lab today, the culminating instructional one according to Tierney, the main focus was on the framework we’re going to use to erect a final product. The two websites, which can be used exclusively or in conjunction, are StoryMap JS and Timeline JS. StoryMap JS is more of an interactive, not necessarily chronological journey, while Timeline JS can still incorporate media but is restricted to a linear proceeding. While playing around on the StoryMap site, we discovered that the format or focus of the map can be altered according to the delineations of the project. For very specific locations you can switch to Open Street Maps, which you can even drop coordinates into. To highlight topography or physical markers, you can switch to Stamen Maps: Terrain.
More closely related to our project, Tierney mentioned a version that makes the StoryMap less map-based and more image-based, which would work really well with our idea of a “table narrative”, zooming in and out on certain dishes or ingredients, However I’ve played around with the site and have yet to discover how to do it. The Tongue Team will definitely need to inquire about that.
Although we didn’t have ample time to discuss, one of our team’s new ideas after this tech session is to create one large narrative about the food in Kashgar, but embed sub-timelines for each individual “character”. Therefore the Timeline JS application would be useful in formulating those sub-stories. Hopefully we’ll narrow this down in our meeting tomorrow!
Even after all the instruction, my personal confusion, which I believe coincides with the group, relates to how much evidence and research do we actually need. As visual tools we don’t want to weigh StoryMaps and Timelines with too much information or readers will get lost/disinterested. I understand the need for a narrow narrative, but I’m not quite sure how wide we should be casting our nets. Should I go deeper with my current research findings, or continue finding tangent topics?
Eric also brought up the issue of citing sources, finding locations, and identifying purposes in different languages. He suggested that if it’s Chinese we ask Zhihong to help translate, but otherwise we’ll just work through it. I’m not adept at any languages other than English besides Latin, German, and a little Spanish, which are good to know but haven’t popped up often (a.k.a once) in the Kashgar region. I’m just afraid of missing sources or links because I can’t understand what they lead or refer to.
Overall, I’m pleased with the direction our group is heading! Hopefully I’ll have an update on Apple China tomorrow night!
Thanks for sticking through this extensive post!
Regards,
-Delaney
Al-Aziz THE VICTORIOUS ONE
One of our most recent quizzes asked the class to choose a name from a list of the 99 names of Allah. Right away i picked Al-Aziz, The Victorious One. Now, I don’t proclaim to be religious, but I respect religious institutions and that name stood out from all the rest. If you read my blog titled “Minus One” then you’d know we lost a team member. I took this quiz during the time we were rethinking the direction of our project. Our team set up of a meeting with our TA and instructors. We were able to organize our ideas into a cohesive digital research project. So, after consulting with our TA and our instructors we are back in motion! Although we still have research, archiving and mapping to achieve, today I feel victorious. Our instructors provided us with some great advice and direction. We have finalized our location and decided on a cohesive topic that fits our own interests perfectly. We will not be discussing childbirth, education and medicine. While reevaluating our roles and communicating about our sources, we found we were able to take some things out and put some things in. Readjusting was another unforeseen challenge but it provided us with an opportunity to really dig deeper into brainstorming. Because our team was in the beginning stages of our project there was room and time to make the necessary rearrangements. So, we came to a consensus and we’ve decided to that take a closer look at the Uyghur society in the autonomous region of Xinjian China. My teammates have revamped their topics to reflect a more harmonized subject matter. I’m excited to say the least. My research has increased. My level of interest has increased. The correspondence between myself and my team mates has improved tremendously. We have already started to locate some interesting places with the Uyghur region. Again, I feel victorious. For me, it’s important to note the unforeseen challenges when working this a project like this. Losing a team member and rearranging our entire focus definitely threw a curve ball into our plans. Nevertheless, we are making huge strides towards a fantastic, digital, never seen before analysis about women, queer identities, sexuality, femininity, beauty and body images in the autonomous region of the Uyghur society.
The lesson here is all about pushing forward even through adversity. Again, I’m inspired by Xuan Zang’s historic journey. We definitely hit a bump in the road. No pun attended. The team feels more enthusiastic about the overall project. (I think they feel victorious too) I don’t want to start the celebration to soon but it feels wonderful to know we are on the right track. Still, there is so much more work to do but we have proved that we can get past the challenges and move forward. In hindsight, I’m glad that losing a member and changing our topic happened sooner rather than later. I can’t imagine how unbelievably difficult it would have been to rearranged our topic and reconstruct our overall thesis in the middle of research or near the end of the project. So, as we move on in our Silk Road journey, I look forward to encountering some interesting pieces of information and working more closely with my team. We are one dedicated group. We will not give up yes, and we are victorious. Peace family.
Story Map
In our tech lab yesterday, we finally covered the topic of the story map, which was the last general piece of information we are going to learn about. From now on, the tech labs will be focused on group work on the actual project, and the questions addressed will be more specific and geared towards particular worries, rather than on how to do general web stuff, like making a blog post or citing images.
In past blog posts, I have talked a lot about my worries about the story map, and I think this tech lab really helped with these fears. The maps were extremely easy to use, even for someone like me who is not the best at geography. I also had a lot of fun making the map! I mapped out my birthplace, my current home, and some places I had visited this summer. I messed around with a lot of the features to produce a map that was funny to me, such as writing inane descriptions and using ridiculous lines for the “Explore” button. While I will definitely be more serious for the actual project, I still think this helped me because I played around with each of the features, so I will better know how to manipulate the Silk Road story map. Since much of the map was open to editing, we can personalize our story map beyond what I had imagined. Images were painless to add, and the map moved nicely and was greatly accessible to any viewer, whether they had any knowledge on the Silk Road or not.This is especially helpful for our topic, considering it focuses on an ethnic minority that many people may not know about.
Despite the many upsides, there are still some difficulties to deal with. When looking at the maps in our area of interest, we noticed a lot of the street names were in Chinese, which, unfortunately, none of us can read. Hopefully, either Zhihong or Google Translate will come to our rescue. Another problem isn’t a technical difficulty, but rather an issue with narrative. We still haven’t really been able to connect our research to an array of places. I’m hoping with more research we will find a good solution for how to arrange our map.
I’ve noticed that I mention a need for more research in almost every single blog post so far. I personally haven’t been able to do much: I never feel I have enough time for every thing, with other classes, college applications, and life outside of school. I don’t necessarily think this means too much work is being put on us in class: instead, I think I, personally, need to manage my time better. My group has agreed that a majority of our research should be done by fall break, so I really need to put aside the time then. Luckily for us, since our project is on the aesthetics of the Uygher people, a lot of our research will double as an artifact on the story map. For example, if I analyze a style of clothing, and where and why this clothing was worn, the picture I’m using to analyze all this could also be used as the artifact. I think the same would apply to the rest of my group. As we discover the areas where these styles and other types of artifacts are either present or where they originated, these would hopefully line up with points on a map!
Cultural Lenses and Story Maps
Sky Team- 9-30-16
Yesterday, the Sky Team met together and the most important things we discussed were the “why” of our research project and the reason our topic was important to research and talk about. We concluded that our topic was important because we have the opportunity to recognize a very under-represented group of peoples (Uyghur women and Uyghur queer individuals). Through the Sky Team’s research, we begin to barely skim the surface of the construction of gender identity and expression of gender minorities in Uyghur communities. We also have to be aware of the intersections of culture, race, time period, etc., that play a huge role in how gender is expressed or repressed. Furthermore, we will be paying close attention to who is writing, talking, taking pictures, filming, etc. when analyzing the research and artifacts.
In relation, I am actively avoiding pretending like our research is going to magically improve the lives of thousands of people and that we are somehow saviors by shining light on this subject and these people. The research encompassed in our project will be in no way an in-depth study. Moreover, we as individuals have to recognize our biases when it comes to writing about a whole other group of people who we know little about. We come from a place where people can more or less (depending on individual situation, of course) talk about gender politics and queer identity—we have the opportunities and language for discussing these things. We need to be aware of how we may be mapping our biases or our language and understanding of the world onto another group of people. Honestly, it is really important for the whole class to remember the lenses that we are looking through when researching and writing about each project topic.
Story Maps Tech Lab
In class, we also learned about Story Maps and Time Maps, which are the programs that the teams will be using to create the final project. (The Story Maps and Time Maps will then be linked to the final Silk Road website!) The actual Story Map and Time Map websites do not seem too hard to understand in regards to putting information in, in order to create the final product. However, I do worry about the narrative part for our Story Maps because I am not exactly sure what a narrative looks like in the context of this project. But I am sure that all the teams will get it and understand it once that section of the project is begun.
Final Thoughts for This Week
I am nervous for our team in regards to deadlines, and I think some members of the team feel pressure about deadlines as well. We really only have a little over a month to get things done- all of the research, artifact gathering (putting those into shared shelf), and creating the Story Map. The Sky Team seems to be on a good path, and the topic seems to be igniting curiosity and enthusiasm, so I hope that procrastination does not get the best of our group members! Additionally, from talking to other students in the class and reading some other blog posts, I do not think that we are the only ones who feel behind and who are having a slow start to the project. I think that Fall Break will be a great opportunity for the entire class to catch up and move forward with the projects.
Minus One
Sadly, Team Sky lost one. In an instance our entire project changed. Our topic and overall analysis of a specific society on the Silk Road needed revising. Unfortunately, our discussion about education regarding women in a distinct city on the Silk Road want be covered. The remaining topics are still very good interests to research but , combining them in cohesive way is the hard part. So, what do you do when the plan goes awry? My research was stalled slightly, but at the same time I was well engaged into studying the geography of the region. During our reconstruction period I explored several different cities while we worked out the kinks of our project . Our map test gave me the opportunity to understand exactly what I was dealing with. Pinpointing areas in the Tarim Basin was very interesting. While I was studying I began to realized just how phenomenal it was for a man up in age like Xuan Zang to have traveled through parts of this land.
Xuan Zang’s story is amazing and I’ll admit it inspired me. Quite frankly, his story gave me an extra push. Although we are minus one person and topic our project still has potential. Currently, we are in the middle reconstruction our ideas. As we work together to put things into place, I constantly think about Xuan Zang. I think about him crossing through desert and mountainous terrains. I think about his journey and his challenges. What it must’ve been like I wonder? In this moment of clarity I always come to realize that we can do this -minus one.
The Process: 4
A little dismayed by the inability to do much research this week, I was afraid I’d have little to post about in this blog. However, during class today we discovered the amazing world of story maps and time lines as well as how to use them. During my test map I researched a bit about spices for my side of the project concerning the food of Kashgar. One of the main spices used in the region is Cumin. This was an interesting find given that during my travels in China I did not experience many dishes that were flavored with cumin. Cumin however, is extremely popular in the Mediterranean as well as in India and Nepal (I’d soon find out it was a big deal elsewhere). The curries and sauces that are made in these regions are heavily influenced by spices like cumin and turmeric.
As for the history of cumin itself, I found several intriguing accounts online including an entire blog dedicated to the history of cumin. Go figure. According to several websites, the origin of cumin can be dated back to the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia around 4,000 years ago. Incredible. Even more incredible is the fact that the word Cumin is derived from the Sumerian word Gamun, which was written in their cuneiform script.
Moving on. The popularity of cumin in the Mesopotamia region cannot be overstated. It even made an appearance in the world’s oldest recipe collection; aka “The Yale Culinary Tablets.” In the 9th Century B.C.E. Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II threw a party where he specifically boasts about the amount of cumin he has on his table.
Just when I thought I knew enough about this legendary spice, it turns out that cumin was also used as a drug in multiple scenarios. Greek medical texts list cumin as a medicinal option that can prevent women from experiencing hysteria and Pliny the Elder, in his work Natural History, says that women who smell cumin during intercourse are more likely to conceive. The Greeks knew their spices.
But so did the Romans. A cookbook, compiled by only the snobbiest food critics of Rome, listed cumin as a “pantry essential,” a spice every well-stocked home should have. In a moment of genius, traders spread cumin into the northern regions of Europe. So popular was this spice that by the 13th century, there is record of early Britons paying their rent in cumin. Cumin was now a currency.
But you’d better believe this isn’t the end. Cumin is like the McDonalds of spices. Everywhere. Realizing that cumin must not be unique, early European traders went in search for more spices like it when they traveled on their rickety trading ships into Asia and also into the Americas. When Spanish explorers set foot in the “new world,” you’d better believe they had their cumin seeds with them. By 1600 cumin was growing in modern day New Mexico and like everywhere else, it took over and became a staple on the table.
By the 19th century, the only place Cumin hadn’t been, was inside the Whitehouse. Then came Lady Bird Johnson, first lady to the 36th President. Her “Pedernales River Chili” called for a teaspoon of cumin seeds. Cumin had touched every surface of the globe before the internet was invented. Never before was a spice so universally accepted and popular. Cumin, whose roots are so near Kashgar made its way around the world in the form of medicine, currency and finally as a condiment.
I leave you with this fantastic quote from the above blog:
“(Cumin) was thought to promote love and fidelity. People carried it to weddings and walked around with it with their pockets. It was reputed to keep lovers and chickens from wandering.”
Fun with sources.
So far I’ve only found a total of three sources for my topic, which is a little bit daunting – still better than nothing, though, as I wasn’t expecting to find sources as good as I have. As it is, information surrounding queer culture and identity in Han China is fairly lacking in comparison to western countries, so why would Uighur sexuality be a heavily studied topic? I’m definitely excited by what I’ve found, though. They’ve provided me with a decent thread to follow, and they themselves were just interesting in general (who wants to read a bunch of clinical stuff when you’re researching something?).
The one source that I found particularly cool is an essay that was published on Gawker. It was written by Massoud Hayoun, an ethnically Middle Eastern journalist, and it’s his account of his sexual development while spending a year abroad in China back when he was in college. It’s unexpectedly very explicitly detailed – while I know that some people would find that to be an uncomfortable read, I appreciated it. I’ve never been one to shy away from or be bothered by openness towards sexuality, and the way the essay reads feels far more genuine and honest than if Hayoun had tried to remain ‘polite,’ for lack of a better term. Only a small part of the essay focuses on anything related to the Uighur people – a single tale of love lost with a Uighur dude from Xinjiang who was studying in Beijing – but it at the very least provided a brief glimpse into what it’s like to be gay in an “ethnic” community within China (the ending of the story was far from happy, though perhaps not as bad as it could have been). The piece also touches on what currently feels like Urumqi’s mythical gay bar, wherein Uighur drag queens put on shows objectified by the Han patrons due to their more “exotic” qualities. Despite having found several references to the bar, I’ve yet to find it’s name.
Outside of the Gawker essay, I also found a blog entry on Blogspot by Kim Baskin that references the same bar. It goes deeper into what it means to be queer and Uighur, recounting several rather unfortunate stories and once again highlighting the way in which Uighur queens are problematic in their reception inside the bar. Unlike the Gawker piece, however, I’m unable to find any info about the author. I’ve managed to find a brief news article that mentions the bar and (I believe) the owner’s name, so I know that what the blog entry is based in is true, but the rest is based entirely in Kim’s personal experiences. I’m tempted to try and contact Baskin and Hayoun in hopes of hearing more about the bar (or, if I’m extremely lucky, obtain photos/videos of the interior and the queens performing), but I’m unsure of how to go about that. I’m not sure how much additional info I’ll be able to find on the internet, so I should probably start looking into them.
For anyone interested:
Gawker Essay
When Queens Go Ethnic in Gay Urumpqi
Mapping Mania
Today we had a tech lab on using Storymap JS. IT WAS SO COOL! To finally do what we’ve been talking about this whole time was invigorating. What a cool program! I sensed that most of us in the room felt this way. All of us were plugged in, and in the best sort of way. Now I know where the sweetness of this project lies.
I decided to map out all of the buildings that my family members work in, in Center City, Philadelphia. I chose a map “Open Street Maps: Standard” as my map design, which provided an incredible amount of detail for that particular area of the city. It was colorful and beautiful. I put about six locations on the map all within about a six block radius. This felt a little clunky though. I was mapping out 3 peoples work places, so I wish there was a way to identify each of the pin points as an individual person (i.e. my moms pins are blue, my dad’s are green, etc.). I also wish that there was a way that we could draw lines between the points. How cool would it be to see how their commute route? I also had an idea of putting the transportation systems that they use on the map to show where they are all coming from, but without a line connecting the spots it seems a little silly. Also, I was thinking that it would be really cool if we could find the exact distance between each spot. What a useful tool this could be!
One can use Storymap for so much. You could map out your vacation, or use it to show your hometown. The possibilities are numerous. Another thing that I also noticed Storymaps is lacking is the ability to put multiple media clips/links at one location. It looks like one has to decide between putting a video or a photograph, etc. It would be ideal if we could put a street view image with the location as well as a link to the website and a clip of what they do over there. The way it is, I felt a little confined in what I chose to show.
A cool project I thought of was to map out contemporary photography scene in China. Are any of us researching contemporary topics? It would be pretty cool to research and then actually see these places or meet the people running them. I guess we’re doing this to a degree already, though.
I can’t believe how much fun I had on the computer today. Usually, I try to avoid the computer at all costs. Today though I was totally infatuated. Hopefully today was just as inspiring for my classmates as it was for me. I can’t wait to meet up with my group and hear about their experience. I wonder if today’s lab changed their vision of the what our project will be. Maybe it also helped them to narrow down what it is they want to research and show.
Lets hope xx