Yun Xie
@yunxie
Passion is a finite research resource. History is at once art and science. Art history and book history, history of knowledge. Hongkong Type matrices. Non Latin typography and typefoundery. PhDing @ UGent. ERC: PhiSci.
I am a stockholder of Deli railway company, 1000 gulden! If the firm still existed. Deli was founded in 1883 in Amsterdam, running railway near e-coast of Sumatra. This stock features the signature anti-coun symbol of printer Enschede: music note. Acquired the 1917 stock on book market in Deventer.
Recently acquired: Historie et Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise (景德镇陶录), trans by Stanislas Julien 儒莲, Paris, 1856.
A ca. 100 years old moth/mosquito. Found in my new acquired LuFeng dialect dictionary 1897.
New acquired: Suffer the Little Children to Come unto Me. (Rong Hai Jin Wo) 容孩近我. 1917. Printed by the printing press at the Sacred Heart Cathedral ( 张庄天主教堂，or 胜世堂) in Xian county献县, Zhili直隶, printing approved by Bishop Henri Maquet马泽轩 (1843-1919).
Just acquired: Verslag der Viering van het Honderdjarig Bestaan van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen. Printed by Landsdrukkerij Batavia, 1878.
Today I have been to a 17c city library, Librije, in Enkhuizen. The book collection and the wooden furnitures are largely remained at their original location. Librije is housed in a charge but accessible to all citizens since the beginning. A real public library.
New purchase: a rare trilingual dictionary: Malay, English and Chinese, printed in soerakarta, by press Siang Hak in Kwan, rond 1910.
Isaac Titsingh’s journey worldwide. From Frank Lequin’s Isaac Titsingh (1745-1812)
New purchase: The Sacred Edict 圣谕广训. Translated and edited by missionary F W Baller 鲍康宁, printed by China Inland Mission and Presbyterian mission press in Shanghai, 4th edition. 1917. With the signature and notes by missionary John Steele.
New purchase: Het Kongsiwezen van Borneo. By J J M de Groot. 1885. With the signature of the author!
New purchase: 要理问答，北京救世堂印刷所 (北堂, Noordkerk, Lazaristen Drukkerij), by Peking Bishop Stanislas Jarlin C M 林懋德 (林 準) missionary from France, in Beijing in 1921. Typography with Chinese page style and binding.
New purchase: Het Chineesch Taaleigen Inleiding tot de gesprokene taal (Noord -Pekineesch dialekt), by Jos Mullie 闵宣化 (1886-1976, Belgian missionary from Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae. Printed in Beijing in 1931, Dutch and Chinese. PeiTang (Noordkerk) Drukkerij 北堂印刷所。
New purchase: LES LIVRES SACRÉS DE L'ORIENT, by G Pauthier, in 1852, with divisible Chinese types which were made by M Legrand.
“preferably in that order” Found a funny footnote in a Sinology paper: “The notion of transcriptional variety even took root in sinological folklore, as the unwritten rites de passage of early European sinology were said to include marrying a Chinese partner, conceiving a transcription for
New purchase: Het Chineesche Zakenleven in Bederlandsch-Indië, door Belasting-Accountantsdienst onder Leiding van J L Vleming Jr. 1926
Dutch man smoking opium served by a slave. (from a Japanese book by anonymous?)
The layout of a Ming-era dibao邸报 prop (fig 1, looks handwritten) in 2024 C-drama Blossom九重紫 actually resembles a real Ming dibao (fig 2)! Although this preserved real dibao is a print, historically speaking, Dibao could also be a handwritten copy. So no need to be too harsh on the production team.
Equating “sans-serif” with “Western influence” only exposes this NPC deputy’s ignorance of China’s own writing tradition. And yet people like this keep claiming they want to protect Chinese culture and resist the “West.” 4
East VS West? NPC (National People's Congress of China) deputy and Shanghai TV host Yin Hairong (印海蓉) has proposed making Songti 宋体 the default font for screens in China. Her reason: sans-serif fonts like Heiti 黑体 “come from the West” and reflect “Western aesthetics and civilizational symbols.” 1
Just found out: the post about a 2024 Chinese spy drama (pre-1949) includes a historical telegraph character-number chart. Well done!
Great presentation Over language and feminism by Coraline Jortay @qiaoj.bsky.social In Leiden.
“What am I to make of Roorda van Eisinga? Such half scholar and half fool are almost impossible to deal with. How are the natives supposed to respect them? How are the admin and the plantations to be managed by them?” -1846 Letter from Dutch East Indies Governor Rochussen to Minister of Colony Baud
Juan de Borba, a Portuguese, his ship sank in a storm, he and 8 crew members drifted in a boat for 9 days before reaching Aceh in East Indies in 1521. During the time, without eating and drinking anything😱, each of them only took a tiny piece of opium, size of a pepper, which were carried by a Moor.
Unkind = 爱情🤔？The 19th c missionary who compiled this dictionary perhaps wanted to send some messages to the secular world…. English-Japanese dictionary, by W H Medhurst, 1830, printed in Batavia.
Karl Gützlaff's Chinese handwriting. Letter From Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (1803-1851) to Nicolaas Beets (1814-1903); 1849.
Robert Morrison’s Chinese teacher always took poison with him so that he could kill himself in case he was caught teaching Morrison Chinese ….😱