yasmine jrz

early 17th century Potosi sounds like such a fascinating place - governed by an early modern empire that is still mentally medieval, the birth of modern capital made possible by the most primitive brutal extractions. arise from nothing but the forces of empire and capital

I especially love how the wild, amoral, dangerous but beautiful magic contrasts with the petty and mundane English life, just like the moors of Yorkshire contrats with the streets of london

Also the later 1/3 of this book really carried me away and got me so excited. Probably because it’s been so long since I last read an old-fashioned, straightforward novel telling one story. And the depiction of magic in this book is SO GOOD

it’s a strange feeling - for me novels set in these parts of the world feels “closer” and more real to me than any other places. Guess the places where you spent your teenage years are indeed formative

reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reminds me of the fields of Shropshire and Durham again. Can’t believe it’s been 5 years since I last saw any of them. turns out those are the scenery that is most vivid for me

feel like “I’m excatholic/went to catholic school so let me tell you exactly what the Catholic Church is like (it is completely evil)” trope has some commonality with “I’m a dissident from China so let me tell you exactly what China is like(it is completely evil)”

Amanda Mur, “Neu Om” The Spanish artist's debut balances experimental electronics with an alluring, intoxicating mysticism.

The debut full-length from Spanish pianist, vocalist, and producer Amanda Mur is our Album of the Day.

and I still remember my bitter disappointment as a kid watching Disney’s little mermaid for the first time and realizing it’s nothing like the story I read (and I think more mainland chinese kids encountered these stories through storybooks first rather than disney

There are so many really good heroines in old fairytales and fairytale writings but unfortunately people just kept complaining about how backward old stories are without ever reading them

my favourite Hans Christian Andersen stories are Little Mermaid, Snow Queen & Marsh King’s Daughter, you could make great movies out of them without needing to yassify them.Oh and I’d really love to see an adapted Wild Swan movie!

really don’t want to watch or read anymore modern retelling of traditional fairytales anymore especially since we barely get any straight adaptations of these stories to begin with - and I want to see movie adaptation of fairytales that are weird, mysterious, and folkloric

Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics is out in August 2025, but re-orders really help a new book, so pre-order now. Meanwhile you can buy Exner's 2021 book Comics and the Origins of Manga: A Revisionist History. Any bookstore can order it for you. www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/comics-and-t...

I hate how ugly and uninspired modern billionaires’ mansions are. If I am that rich I’d love to build myself this kind of gardens and live the life of a late Ming era scholar-artist-gentleman

pictures taken at Zhuo Zheng Yuan拙政园，Shi Zi Lin狮子林 and Wang Shi Yuan网师园

the delicate balance between everything being carefully designed and everything appears natural and free-flowing

travelled to Suzhou this weekend and enjoyed the lovely art of 17-19th century chinese landscaping

An Important Re-Discovery Once held in some of the most esteemed American and European Private Collections and unseen for decades, Pascale Adolphe Dagnan-Bouveret’s monumental canvas, Madonna of the Trellis, will resurface at ...

Let's cut Dagnan-Bouveret some slack because he also painted this stunning "Madonna of the Trellis"
www.sothebys.com/en/articles/...

when reading about him on one hand I can definitely see why he failed - he was deeply flawed especially as a politician - but I can’t help liking him a lot

and his downfall could be directly attributed to his greatest shortcomings - his arrogance and stubbornness - and his greatest virtues - his kindness towards subjects, his strong sense of morals

for 25 years he was the greatest ruler China had seen for decades, the conqueror who seemed destined to bring an end to the past century of chaos and divisions, the next unifier. He himself definitely believed this. And with one lost battle, everything crumbled down

Still thinking about Fu Jian（苻坚）and how you can write a whole greek tragedy based on his life - he was arrogant and impulsive, he was also merciful and sincere, an emperor who genuinely wanted to be a good person and good ruler, and to make the world a better place

Btw the Jin dynasty and their han aristocrats, Liu Yu and the following southern warlords, they all failed as well. So we see centuries of people trying to make things work, creating beautiful art and literature and scholarship among all the destructions. And centuries of Buddhism taking roots

you choose, you would fail, your empire would crumble, your life’s work would turn to dust. Vanity vanity all is vanity, and everyone got their karma. Fu Jian and his grand dream of unification failed. On the other hand all those people who betrayed him in order to build their own empire also failed

no wonder Buddhism spread like wildfire during 4 and 5 century China. You can be an aristocrat or a peasant, a barbarian or a “civilized”Han, a staunch Confucian follower or a nihilistic Taoist, a careerist or a hermit, a cruel warlord or a kind and tolerant “good king”, but regardless of which way

random trivia: on chinese internet in history fandom discussions the ottomans are referred as “green romans”, because the colour green is associated with Islam, and the ottomans are among the successors to the roman empire … in a way

though if it’s a band I love doing these gimmicks my feelings would be more indulgent - like, “look at these silly old men playing their silly little games, pretending to be cowboys & pirates, how quaint”

kind of a pet peeve of mine but really there’s nothing so pathetic and inauthentic as the sight of aging, wealthy rock stars using leather jackets, swear words and middle finger to try to show that they are still “rebellious”. Or those opinion pieces saying “XX is the new PUNK now ! ”