Friday, week 5 (Sept. 25)

It's Friday (day 5) of week 5. I realize there is a lot of pain, anxiety and stress in the community right now for a ton of different reasons; as a reminder: the College has counseling services available to you even if you are not on campus.

Remember that from my point of view, mental health issues are a reason to ask for an extension on assignments; I don't need to see a doctor's note.

Schedule for today

HST137	Comments on Hypothes.is were due last night, so you can start looking through them, and look through posts from your peers to gear up for the End of Week reflection , which is due on Sunday night, Sept. 27. (But you can of course submit earlier). Collect your points in the Canvas Declaration Quiz! Unprecedented: week 6 is ready for your perusal!
HST271	Remember to submit your first larger reflection on the past few weeks as a Canvas assignment. In the morning I will add the posts for Week 5 to the randomizer and load that to the webpage, and then you can begin to comment on the blog posts using Hypothes.is (group HST271). That link has all the info on what to do and four blogs from the Randomizer. Comments are due on Monday night. Don't forget to collect your points in the Canvas Declaration Quiz!
HST439	Your blog post for week 5 is due tonight. Take on board the comments and discussion from Hypothes.is group HST439. Don't forget to collect your points in the Canvas Declaration Quiz!

Muhlenberg Community Activities

• 2pm: Live webinar discussion of Exit West (scroll down the page)
• 3pm: Virtual Trivia Zoom, organized by the Muhlenberg Activities Council. Theme this week is General Knowledge! Prizes include gift cards and Berg Bookshop Merch. Competition will begin at 3:00 p.m. on Zoom.
  • Sponsored by Student Engagement
  • More info: ellenlentine@muhlenberg.edu

Weekend "Long Read"

I don't intend to watch the new Mulan movie, but I intend to find some time and sit down with these movie reviews!

• James Millward reminds us that the Ballad of Mulan has distinct non-Han origins (meaning it's not what most Americans would think of as "Chinese")
• Evan Nicoll-Johnson follows up with a twitter thread to fill out what appear to be a few scholarly details, but actually have implications for the non-scholarly audience, too.
• Kelly Hammond does what all historians love doing when they see a "historical" piece, and goes looking for the mistakes and inaccuracies. Also, it's called "I watched Mulan, so you don't have to," and I think I trust Prof. Hammond on this one.
• Finally, if you still think the lush costuming and the beautiful world of the Tang, in which the Disney film is purportedly set, save the film, please take a look at this detailed analysis on the Hanfugirl blog, especially if you're in HST137! Turns out things change over a period of some 2000 years... who'd have thought?

Conclusion? The animated film was actually pretty ok (even if I am not sure I can handle the songs, but that's a personal opinion).