GradLife

"In with the New Old: A reconstructed Hutong in Beijing" by E. Dirlikov

Throughout much of my doctoral field research in Beijing, I have been staying in an old Chinese courtyard (siheyuan’r) that a few old friends of mine share. Such courtyards were originally familial compounds, which were highly ordered (e.g., in their construction, lay out, etc.), and ordering, both within (e.g., gender, birth order, etc.) and outside (e.g., professional rank, economic status, etc.). Today these courtyards can house several families, who all share the open spaces to dry clothes, eat food, park bicycles, and of course, gossip.

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China's first AIDS Walk, Great Wall-Jinshanling Section October 13, 2012

Grad Life blogger Emilio Dirlikov is currently completing his Doctoral field research in Medical Anthropology in China.

It was Friday evening,  the eve of China’s first AIDS Walk. I sat at home with Xiaogang, the Walk’s director, awaiting a phone call. “You know, every time we organize such an event, we get a phone call from the public security bureau at the last minute to tell us we cannot hold the event anymore” he told me. He had been expecting the call for several days, but this time he hoped that things would be different. (more…)