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About Sarah Bramao-Ramos
I'm a cultural and book historian of Qing China (1644–1911), with particular interests in multilingual book cultures, translation history, and the history of reading. I am currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bates College and was previously a Research Assistant Professor in the Society of Fellows at the University of Hong Kong. I work on the history of books in Manchu, the native language of the Qing rulers, a project that has taken me to libraries across the United States, the UK, Mongolia, and (almost) everywhere in between. I'm interested in featuring books about East Asia in the broadest sense: I've talked to authors about their books on topics ranging from premodern porcelain, modern politics, and contemporary art. If you have a new book that you'd like to talk about (or if you know someone who does) please contact me! I'm always looking for new books. You can reach me by email: bramaoramossarah@gmail.comSarah Bramao-Ramos is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bates College. She is a cultural historian of Qing China (1644–1911) with wider interests in pedagogy, book history, and science fiction. You can contact her by email: bramaoramossarah@gmail.com
NBN Episodes hosted by Sarah:
March 25, 2026
The Global Vanguard
What does it mean for a small state to imagine itself as a model for the developing world? And how were these visions of agrarian development received…
January 13, 2026
Unruly Comparison
How do we compare across languages, media, and histories, all without flattening differences? And what might Hong Kong teach us about doing comparison…
January 12, 2026
Bandits in Print
Bandits in Print: "The Water Margin" and the Transformations of the Chinese Novel (Cornell UP, 2023) uses the classic novel The Water Margin (Shuihu Z…
December 13, 2025
Thoughts from the Ice-Drinker's Studio
Thoughts from the Ice-Drinker’s Studio: Essays on China and the World (Penguin Classics, 2023) brings together a newly translated selection of pre-emi…
November 21, 2025
In Search of Admiration and Respect
What does it mean for a country to seek admiration — and what kinds of institutions try to make that admiration possible? Yanqiu Zheng’s In Search of…
October 14, 2025
The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China
What can a map do, beyond showing us where things are? Michelle Wang's new book, The Art of Terrestrial Diagrams in Early China (U Chicago Press, 202…
September 19, 2025
Christian Mission in Seventeenth-Century Taiwan
How do new ideas and beliefs take root when they cross cultural and linguistic borders? In seventeenth-century Taiwan, both Dutch and Spanish missiona…
August 6, 2025
Shaping the Blue Dragon
Shaping the Blue Dragon: Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Liverpool UP, 2024) offers a vivid look at China's dynamic and longstanding re…
July 15, 2025
Staging Tianxia
How can art shape historical memory and national identity? And how can cultural heritage and historical references be used to enact a vision of a nati…
June 17, 2025
Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Choson Korea (1392-1910)
Salvaging Buddhism to Save Confucianism in Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) (Cambria Press, 2023) is a fascinating book that sits at the intersection of Buddh…
May 21, 2025
Impossible Speech
How does art engage with its social context? What does 'the politics of art' even mean? In his new book Impossible Speech: The Politics of Representa…
April 30, 2025
The Historical Writing of the Mongol Invasions in Japan
Although Japan was never conquered by the Mongol empire, the 1274 and 1281 Mongol invasions were commemorated, remembered, and imagined in Japanese hi…
April 11, 2025
Unlocking the Treasury
How did young boys in premodern China learn? What educational texts did they use? What values informed their education? Katherine Ngo’s new book Unloc…
March 28, 2025
Discovered But Forgotten
Discovered but Forgotten: The Maldives in Chinese History, c.1100-1620 (Columbia UP, 2024) examines China's maritime activities in the Indian Ocean, e…
March 14, 2025
Border of Water and Ice
Icy, unpredictable, and treacherous, the dangers of the Yalu River were heightened in the twentieth century when it became the longest non-maritime bo…
February 20, 2025
Remapping the World in East Asia
When we think of the sixteenth-century arrival of European missionaries in East Asia, there is a tendency to imagine this meeting as a civilizational …
February 6, 2025
Expanding Verse
Cinepoems, tape recorder poems, protest performance poems, music video poems, internet sign language poems, and augmented reality poems: these poems m…
January 25, 2025
Fantastic Fauna from China to Crimea: Image-Making in Eurasian Nomadic Societies, 700 BCE-500 CE
Across Iron Age Central Eurasia, non-sedentary people created, viewed, and considered animal-style imagery, creating designs replete with feline bodie…
January 17, 2025
Reading Practice
What do you do when you feel an itchy throat coming on? You probably head online, first to search for your symptoms and then to evaluate the informati…
January 10, 2025
Portrayals of Women in Early Twentieth-Century China
The early twentieth century was a particularly tumultuous time in Chinese history, complete with new conflicts, new technologies, and — as Portrayals …
January 9, 2025
Boundless Winds of Empire
The Chosŏn dynasty of Korea enjoyed generally peaceful and stable relations with Ming China, a relationship that was carefully cultivated and achieved…
December 7, 2024
Predicting Disasters
Predicting Disasters: Earthquakes, Scientists, and Uncertainty in Modern Japan (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) takes seriously attempts to re…
August 30, 2024
Revolutionary Stagecraft
Revolutionary Stagecraft: Theater, Technology, and Politics in Modern China (University of Michigan Press, 2024) offers a fascinating approach to mode…
August 7, 2024
Urban Scenes
"In this tango palace everything was swaying rhythmically to and fro, bodies of men and women, beams of colored light, brilliant wine glasses, red and…