It became rather painfully obvious midway through last week that our topic was still in a very preliminary phase. We had a decent idea of where we wanted to go – the focus still centered largely on women and associated minorities along the silk roads, and we knew we wanted to tie their experiences together under Islam. It was the location that was proving to be a bit of a challenge. We initially settled for the area around the Arabian Sea, but we quickly learned that the Arabian Sea is circled by a wide range of peoples and it would be difficult to make a cohesive project out of that.
After Eric recommended looking into the Uighur people of western China, things cleared up a bit. We’re all on board (as far as we’ve voiced) with making them our primary focus – I’m particularly down with the idea because they’re outside of the Han and Persian empires, which feel as if they’ve been researched quite a bit already. It’s weird, considering how difficult it’s been (and will likely continue to be) to find sources for my individual focus, that I’m so willing to dive into this. I don’t feel like I’m going to find many sources, and certainly not many academic ones. So far, I’ve only found two particularly useful websites.
Despite only finding those two sources, I’m really interested in the thread that seems to be falling out of them. Both pieces (a blog post and a personal essay) reference a gay bar in the city of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province, and from what I’ve been able to find it appears to be the only one in the area. What’s particularly interesting, however, is both pieces reference an ethnic divide between Uighur and Han men in the bar, the essay describing how Uighur men apparently sit on one side and Han men on the other. The most fascinating bit about all of this, though, is that the bar hosts drag shows – and the drag queens are all Uighur. The blog post that I found mentions this in reference to the apparent Han notion that the Uighurs are “exotic,” but only in entertainment – in the real world, so to speak, they’re just lesser.
The gay community has always been rather problematic in matters of race and discrimination – in the west, there’s a running joke about guys who list “no fats, femmes, or asians” on their Grindr profiles, alongside other phrases such as “rice queen” – but it’s fascinating to see that manifest in a society where queer individuals can’t really afford to be so picky (for lack of a better word).
Fall Break: So Close Yet So Far
I am definitely feeling the stress this week. The 3-hour time expectation for the Map Test was a very conservative estimate. I’m struggling to keep up with three very reading intensive classes this semester (two Religious Studies and one Philosophy) at the same time and am finding it near impossible to keep up. I’ve been sick on and off for the past couple weeks, which has put a significant strain on my work time, and am facing a very big week in my internship with the Bryan Series, along with a visit from my mother for family weekend and homecoming this weekend. I normally feel that I hit a rut at some point in the semester, but am feeling like it should be much later than this point.
We did a ten-minute meditation in class today to a recording of poem performances, which was very appreciated. I was enrolled in Eric’s class on Buddhist Emptiness last semester, which had a weekly (if not more frequently) meditation component that I am not sure I realized how much I enjoyed until the class ended, the summer passed, and this new semester has started. I would like to get back into the habit of going to the Buddhist Meditation Fellowship meetings to get that meditation in, which I hope will aid in relieving some stress. I would also like to go chat with both Eric and Jill (my other Religious Studies professor) sometime within the next week to work out some strategies for coping with the high level of reading that is currently on my plate.
My experience in Guilford’s Religious Studies department has been very different than my experience in the Business department. In the Business department, if I did not excel at assignments, it was often because I found the assignments to be mostly busywork and had difficulty motivating myself to complete them to the best of my ability. In the Religious Studies department, I feel a lot of pressure to perform well in my classes because not just because the material is interesting and in depth, but also because I truly look up to and respect these professors and consider them good friends. I feel like I’m not only letting myself down, but them down as well when I don’t complete work to the best of my ability. I’m finding myself spread so thin that I’m not satisfied with my work in any class and then I just end up spiraling into a zone of stress where I can’t finish all of the work and I’m not happy with the quality of the work I am doing so then I end up more stressed and left unable to complete a bigger chunk of what is assigned.
This semester, I am a TA for two different classes, following my summer position as an Orientation Team Leader and my simultaneous work as an intern and student representative for the Guilford Bryan Series. I feel that all of these roles have left me in a place where I feel like I need to be someone that others can look up to and count on and when I start to fall behind, I feel that I am no longer doing that duty. I start to feel like a phony being the TA of a class that I am not thoroughly completing every reading for because I am supposed to be setting an example.
Although this was more personal than I initially intended this blog post to be, I am feeling better just having had the opportunity to talk about it, so I suppose I owe you a “thank you,” kind Internet reader. I hope that your week is a little more positive than mine and I look forward to bringing you a more positive outlook soon.
Where It Is ~ What It Is
Duhduhduduhn! I just completed the first map test! And it took me way too long. The test was (although very long) pretty cool. I must say, I learned a lot. For the first time all semester, I finally have some clue as to where all that we have been learning is–and let me tell you, by knowing where it is, I feel like I have a better grasp on what it is, too.
The test covered a large range of topics from routes explored, to current events, to geographic terrain and borderlines. It required a lot of looking at the map and not just memorizing where each place is, but understanding the geographic pattern of terrain. That said, I had to look at the map a lot just to be sure. I found interactive websites the most helpful–there was one that took us through Marco Polo’s route and one site that had a map that showed not only the routes of explorers, but also the religious belief of each region, the language primarily used, etc. I also did many extensive google searches. Wikipedia and Google Maps became my best friend.
It was really cool to see what’s already out there (mapping wise). There are some neat maps I found on China made with Google Maps and Timemaps. The Timemap I found seemed a little clunky. There were many dates, but the organization of them all was not quite clear. I think that when my team builds our Storymap, we should be weary about how many slides we include. Also, it kind of makes me want to set a window of time that our project is focused on (maybe over a 200 year span?).
I also wanted there to be more pictures. On Friday, we had another tech lab with Tierney about Shared Shelf. Of course I had heard of Shared Shelf, but I had never used it before. It seems pretty straightforward and simple. The only thing that bums me out is that I now have to take an extra step to put any picture in my blog–which makes me not want to put any pictures in my blog. See, I’m already doing it. I’ll get over it at some point, I’m sure.
My team hasn’t met for a few days now. We’ve all been overwhelmed with work and the current events going on in Charlotte. So long as we get back on the horse this coming week, I think we will be just fine.
Till then…
(Kashi)-ing Up to Kashgar: Recipe for Success
Gute Nacht,
Mind-blowing fact: the correct spelling for a clay oven in the Kashgar region is tandyr, not tandoor. (Many thanks to Zach our research will be much more successful now!!)
The latter portion of this week I spent my time poring over “Silk Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey” by Najmieh Batmangli, which is on loan from Jilly of Team Heart. It’s been valuable for my role of discovering the cultural mores and histories surrounding a meal in Kashgar. I’ve learned about casual cafes known as lokantas, the encyclopedia of plants the Chinese once kept for medicinal purposes, the expectation of citizens to be discerning of cuisine and wine, the two constituents of a balanced meal (fan/grain and ts’ai/vegetables or meat), the importance of the least refinement of ingredients possible, and the link between joy and consumption. To a lesser degree of importance, it provided me with many delicious recipes the Tongue Team could use in our final presentation. I probably spent an hour just flipping through and bookmarking dishes I wanted to try, from salads to candies, but the probability of any of them coming to fruition depends on our supplies and cooking skill.
On Friday Tierney lead us on a tutorial of Shared Shelf, a place to share metadata for all artifacts/data/articles/photographs we use in our project. I knew what metadata was before (data that describes other data, like the publishing information on a book) but didn’t have a term for it until then. This resource will be incredibly helpful when trying to collect citations later on. Eric suggested that one person in the group volunteer to enter all the data into Shared Shelf so all four of us don’t have to fool with it, and as Recorder I believe it should be my place, but the Tongue Team seems content to enter data individually for now.
With my insights from the cookbook, Billie’s progress through Youtube videos, Zach’s revelation in terminology, and Chris’s continued research, we seem to be progressing well!
Off to continue working on my first Map Test…………………………….
Thanks for reading!
Regards,
-Delaney
Thoughts
Finding a Rhythm
This week, the Sky Team was able to meet and discuss the research project, which was very much needed! It turns out that others in the team were feeling the same way I was in regards to communication- or lack thereof. To make amends and move forward, we had a talk as a team about increasing communication within the group so that we can make greater strides for the project. So far, I have noticed a little more communication, so our discussion was successful in that aspect. Besides fixing the communication breakdown, I think at this point, our team is a little overwhelmed with how to best narrow down the research topic. Although everyone is heroically moving forward and doing the best they can with research this weekend, I do notice that there is still a nebulous feeling about our topic. I think that is because our topic is very much centered on ideas and concepts that were created in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, such as gender identity. I fear that it will be much more difficult to find the historical research that we need.
Thankfully, we will be meeting this week with the professors of the course to get help finding a specific area of interest that will be conducive to the scope of the project. Furthermore, to ease stress and make sure we stick to deadlines, we have agreed as a team to have the bulk of the research done by the end of next week so we can begin the story mapping process and collecting “artifacts” (pictures, documents, videos, etc.) that will supplement the overall narrative and research of our topic.
Besides working with our teams, everyone in the class has been busy completing the first map test, along with other readings and quizzes. I am very grateful that we were given an extension on the map test (which was supposed to have been due this past week). I would not have been able to finish all of the other work for the course on top of the map test and my work outside of Guilford! I think that this course got off on a little bit of a rocky start because the class was not ready to go from zero to seventy-five on the first day, but I do feel that the class is starting to find a rhythm.
New Research Topic
As of yesterday, Team Earth has decided to change the topic due to limited resources of the initial one. During our meeting with the professors, we’ve decided to focus on silk road travelers.
More specifically, we will be doing a cross reference comparison with eastern and western travelers. Perhaps Marco Polo comparing Rabban Bar Sauma & Markos. Using the story map as our medium, we will collect data on their travels through primary and secondary sources. And another thing to add on to this research, specifying it ever more, would be to concentrate on Mongol interaction. Because of Marco Polo’s work with Qubilai Khan, there’s bound to be other travelers who also either advised or experienced interactions with this leader or any other during the mongol rule. Also to note, this then dedicates our research during the 13-14th century, (Around 1206 to 1368 when the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty passed away).
Thus being said, we’ve found a lot more sources to do the project, and the members have shown much interest with travelers and mongols.
YouTube videos & bread
This week I watched a bunch YouTube videos. The first one I found was about the different kinds of traditional breads that get baked in this really incredible earthen oven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39bRJSUewNE. While the actual baking of the bread by the professionals and watching how everything gets done was fun and illuminating, the three men leading this video expedition were very annoying and would have ruined the video for me if not for the delicious bread I got to watch. This initial video led me to others, all in Mandarin. My favorite so far is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJM38DtTCkk. What I hadn’t realized before this, is that so much information about cooking, cuisine, and traditions surrounding food in Kashgar would not always be documented in the usual ways we expect: scholarly journals or even official/trustworthy websites. Instead, much of the details that I, as well as my group, am so interested in learning about can be found in more creative and personal ways of documentation. Watching three YouTube videos gave me more information than all of the other research I had done through databases and google searches thus far.
Being somewhat familiar with Mandarin, I was able to pair the visuals with the spoken content to an extent. However, the truly enlightening part of watching videos as a source of research is actually seeing everything get prepared and cooked, such as the ways in which they rolled the dough or pierced it with these decorated tools that create beautiful designs in the bread. I now know how the bread gets slapped into the sides of the earthen ovens with pillow-like tools and how the naan sticks to the sides to bake. I now know that the bagels in Kashgar don’t have a hollow middle (like the hole in bagels we have here), but just a dip in the middle. I now know that in tea houses, 茶馆, they dip the naan in their tea and drink out of beautiful white porcelain. In Kashgar they also spread chili sauce onto the naan or tear the naan into pieces and put them into soup/broth.
I have so many new avenues of research to explore that I might never have known existed or were important before now. My next main foci for research will be the clays and earthen ovens/pottery, porcelain, the pillow-like oven tools, and the decorative piercing tools for naan. Additionally, I hope to find more YouTube videos to explore.
~ Side note: these videos, similar to 舌尖上的中国, give me such immense joy. They are so beautiful and fun to watch. Watching these videos held two educational components for me: research and the practice of my Chinese listening and reading (subtitles). I forgot so much Mandarin, but I also gave myself too little credit for how much I do remember; I was able to recognize significantly more characters than expected. ~
Reflection 2-Sky
Today I used JSTOR to search for some articles about my topic, which is healthcare for Uyghur women. While the sources I was able to find are a good start, I’m still hoping for more information. I also used a regular google search for some less scholarly articles. One continuity I noticed was the tension and differences in lifestyle between the Han and the Uyghur community, and I wonder if this is a continuity for the rest of my group members’ topics.
JSTOR was overall easy to use and understand, but I kept running into the problem of my topics only corresponding to one of the keywords. It felt like there were a lot of articles about the Uyghur people and a lot of articles about women’s healthcare, but not as much overlap. More information may be found on another search engine, so I may try that to find more information. Another problem I faced was that many of the articles didn’t focus on healthcare for women; they instead covered general issues facing all genders. They were informative, but just felt like good entry-level articles about the topic: hopefully there will be more direct information about women’s health later on.
One other difficulty I had was finding historical information about women’s healthcare. I could find a lot of articles about issues from current years in the community, dealing with topics such as the discrimination the Uyghur people face due to their ethnicity, a lack of knowledge about illnesses like cervical cancer, and how Uyghur women were affected by China’s one-child policy. But I haven’t been able to find any information about women’s health in earlier times, which is a bit confusing to me. I would assume that health has always been an issue to be dealt with, and women have always needed unique care when it comes to issues such as childbirth. I’m hoping that not finding a lot of information about this topic is due more to not using the right keywords when searching or some other technical issue, rather than an actual lack of sources. However, if I am able to find out more about historical issues of women’s health, I think I could pull together an interesting narrative of historical versus current events, analyzing what has changed and what has stayed the same over the years. However, this narrative also depends on what my teammates find: if no one else is able to find a cohesive narrative between past and present, than I am open and flexible to different ways to develop my topic. Despite a lack of information about women’s health specifically, I was able to find a little bit of general information about the role and perception of women in the Uyghur culture, so I have shared these sources with my group members in the hopes that it may help them with their topics.
While I was a little disappointed with the information I have found so far, I’m hoping I will be able to find more sources by digging a little deeper. I probably have to stop relying on the Internet so much for information and check out some books from the library or something like that.
Sky's the Limit
Lets discuss methodology. We all have a certain way of doing things. As for me, when it comes to doing research projects and presentations, I tend to work backwards. By that I mean, typically I visualize the final result of the project first, then build on the ideas in my head. With the digital silk road project, I’ve already completed the project in my head, but the fundamentals are not coming together. For my group, pinpointing a location to research is much harder than we expected. Determining which era to closely examine is even harder. I did not foresee these challenges. Our group has considered researching groups of people near the Arabian Sea. Presently this land is designated to Iran, Saudi Arabia and parts of Afghanistan . The scope of the Silk Road is so broad that one can find his or herself overwhelmed by the various societies, cultures, religions and so forth. Gathering information is vital for Team Sky at this point. My method for gathering information consists of scouring through academic sources (print books, eBooks, journal articles etc.) related to beauty and body images for Muslim women. I started with Guilford’s library database. I searched for topics related to beauty and body images for Muslim women in addition to the perception of beauty in Islam. I searched for a variety subjects like: “Islamic feminism”, ” beauty in Arabia”, and the “history of women’s bodies” just to get a feel for what kind of information was out there. Now, even though there were plenty of sources for my topic, again I found the task I narrowing the subject down to a specific group of Muslim women very challenging. I read a few summaries that were interesting and I kept record of the ones relevant to my topic. Right now, I am in the beginning stages of exploring Persian art and literature. My intention is to make connections between the idea of beauty in Islam, specifically in locations near the Arabian Sea, and the influence the Silk Road had on those perceptions of beauty. The articles I have read are very engaging. In addition to the books and articles, art that is associated with the women and Islam is very interesting. Now, the task will be tying all these wonderful things together with the Silk Road.
Methodology is super important with this project. The organization of this entire process will either make us or break us. Managing our time, compiling our evidence, presenting our findings and arranging our story map must be on our top priority list. Even though deciding on a location and time period supersedes all these things, Team Sky needs to come to solid consensus on these issues very soon. Am I worried? Not at all. We each have our own way of doing things. I am confident that my team members are busy digging for sources and information. I’m quite sure they find the task of focusing on a particular society on or near the Silk Road just a difficult as I do, but as a team we will prevail. So far, the information that Ive encounter is relevant but solidifying one particular society is hard.
While finding a particular society to focus on is a task, on the other hand our class readings have been very helpful. The readings are long, but at the same time they contain vital names and dates of societies that thrived on the Silk Road. The reading, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea revealed the names of some historical Persian societies that thrived on maritime Silk Road. It described the flourishing trade of frankincense through the Arabian peninsula and further into India. Even though the article did not talk about beauty and body images directly, I was able to get a sense of the culture on the Arabian peninsula and the maritime routes impact on the culture.
So, as I close, I look forward to putting more pieces of together and making more connections between beauty and body images as it pertains to the Silk Road. In the near future I anticipate more correspondence with my Team about their methods and their individual findings. I embrace my Teams unique ability to get things done so, I hope the task of choosing a society and a time period is not to overwhelming. If we find that it is too overwhelming, I hope that we can discuss our issues and try to resolve them together. I have a great feeling about our process and an even more better feeling about the outcome of our Silk Road project.