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About Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Sarah Bramao-Ramos is a PhD candidate in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard. She works on Manchu language books and is interested in anything with a kesike. She can be reached at sbramaoramos@g.harvard.edu
Sarah's website
NBN Episodes hosted by Sarah:
East Asian Studies
May 22, 2023
The Precious Summary
A History of the Mongols from Chinggis Khan to the Qing Dynasty
Sagang Sechen. Translated by Johan Elverskog.
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Buddhist cosmological history of the universe, history of Chinggis Khan, history of China, and history of the Mongols — The Precious Summary, written in 1662 by Sagang Sechen, is many …
East Asian Studies
May 14, 2023
The Opium Business
A History of Crime and Capitalism in Maritime China
Peter Thilly
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
The Opium Business: A History of Crime and Capitalism in Maritime China (Stanford UP, 2022) explores the opium trade — but not through the relatively well-trodden history of the ‘Opium Wars.’ …
East Asian Studies
March 23, 2023
China’s Cold War Science Diplomacy
Gordon Barrett
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
During the early decades of the Cold War, the People’s Republic of China remained far outside mainstream international science — right? Gordon Barrett’s new book, China’s Cold War Science Diplomacy …
East Asian Studies
February 21, 2023
The Culture of Language in Ming China
Sound, Script, and the Redefinition of Boundaries of Knowledge
Nathan Vedal
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
What is the nature of language? This is the question that Nathan Vedal’s book, The Culture of Language in Ming China: Sound, Script, and the Redefinition of Boundaries of Knowledge …
East Asian Studies
January 30, 2023
The Emergence of Global Maoism
China's Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949-1979
Matthew Galway
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
How do ideas manifest outside of their place of origin, and how do they change once they do? The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist …
East Asian Studies
December 27, 2022
Learning to Rule
Court Education and the Remaking of the Qing State, 1861-1912
Daniel Barish
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
The late Qing was a time of great turmoil and upheaval but also a time of great possibility, as scholars, officials, the press, and revolutionaries all sought to find ways …
East Asian Studies
November 18, 2022
Testing the Literary
Prose and the Aesthetic in Early Modern China
Alexander Des Forges
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
The eight-legged essay (bagu wen) was the one genre of writing that dominated in late imperial China. As the primary mode of expression in which men were schooled, writing and reading shiwen (modern …
East Asian Studies
October 20, 2021
The Peking Gazette in Late Imperial China
State News and Political Authority
Emily Mokros
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
In the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), China experienced far greater access to political information than suggested by the blunt measures of control and censorship employed by modern Chinese regimes. A tenuous …
East Asian Studies
August 27, 2021
Meritocracy and Its Discontents
Anxiety and the National College Entrance Exam in China
Zachary M. Howlett
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Every year millions of high school seniors in China take the gaokao, China’s standardized college entrance exam. Students, parents, and head teachers all devote years, sweat, and tears to this …
East Asian Studies
July 15, 2021
Chinese Grammatology
Script Revolution and Literary Modernity, 1916-1958
Yurou Zhong
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
In 1928 linguist Yuen Ren Chao had reason to celebrate. The Nationalist government had just recognized his system for writing Chinese, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, so he gleefully wrote (using the system) in …
East Asian Studies
July 7, 2021
Making It Count
Statistics and Statecraft in the Early People's Republic of China
Arunabh Ghosh
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
The first historical study of the development of statistics in Mao-era China, Making It Count: Statistics and Statecraft in the Early People’s Republic of China (Princeton University Press, 2020) explores …
East Asian Studies
June 4, 2021
Land of Strangers
The Civilizing Project in Qing Central Asia
Eric Schluessel
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Eric Schluessel’s Land of Strangers: The Civilizing Project in Qing Central Asia (Columbia UP, 2020) looks at what happened when, at the end of the Qing, Chinese Confucian revivalists gained …
East Asian Studies
January 25, 2021
The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier
Benno Weiner
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
In The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier (Cornell University Press, 2020) Benno Weiner provides an in-depth study of what happened when the Chinese Revolution came to Amdo, a Tibetan …
East Asian Studies
January 21, 2021
Fir and Empire
The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China
Ian M. Miller
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Ian M. Miller’s book Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China (University of Washington Press, 2020) offers a transformation of our understanding of China’s early modern …
East Asian Studies
January 18, 2021
Realistic Revolution
Contesting Chinese History, Culture, and Politics after 1989
Els van Dongen
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
What is the role of the intellectual? Is violence, not to mention radical change, necessary? Can there be a revolution without them? Realistic Revolution: Contesting Chinese History, Culture, and Politics …
East Asian Studies
January 14, 2021
Staging Personhood
Costuming in Early Qing Drama
Guojun Wang
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Much is known about the Qing sartorial regulations and how the Qing conquerors forced Han Chinese males to adopt Manchu hairstyle and clothing. But what happened on the stage? What …
East Asian Studies
January 13, 2021
A Fashionable Century
Textile Artistry and Commerce in the Late Qing
Rachel Silberstein
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Rachel Silberstein’s book A Fashionable Century: Textile Artistry and Commerce in the Late Qing (University of Washington Press, 2020) reveals how Qing fashion was produced at the intersection of commerce …
East Asian Studies
November 12, 2020
The City of Blue and White
Chinese Porcelain and the Early Modern World
Anne Gerritsen
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
We think of blue and white porcelain as the ultimate global commodity: throughout East and Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean including the African coasts, the Americas and Europe, consumers desired …
East Asian Studies
September 25, 2020
Unending Capitalism
How Consumerism Negated China's Communist Revolution
Karl Gerth
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Karl Gerth’s new book, Unending Capitalism: How Consumerism Negated China's Communist Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020) details how the state created brands, promoted and advertised particular products, set up department …
East Asian Studies
August 14, 2020
Circulating the Code
Print Media and Legal Knowledge in Qing China
Ting Zhang
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
How could a peasant in Shandong in the Qing dynasty come to know enough about a specific law that he felt confident enough to kill his own wife and his …
East Asian Studies
July 2, 2020
Know Your Remedies
Pharmacy and Culture in Early Modern China
He Bian
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
He Bian’s new book Know Your Remedies: Pharmacy and Culture in Early Modern China (Princeton University Press, 2020) is a beautiful cultural history of pharmacy in early modern China. This …
East Asian Studies
June 29, 2020
The Board of Rites and the Making of Qing China
Macabe Keliher
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
Bringing attention to the importance of li (an articulated system of social domination and political legitimization, consisting of rituals, ceremonies, and rites) as the foundation of the Qing political system …
East Asian Studies
May 20, 2020
State Formation in China and Taiwan
Bureaucracy, Campaign, and Performance
Julia C. Strauss
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
State Formation in China and Taiwan: Bureaucracy, Campaign, and Performance (Cambridge University Press, 2019) by Julia C. Strauss is a comparative study of regime consolidation in the People’s Republic of …
East Asian Studies
May 15, 2020
Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos
Sarah Schneewind
Hosted by
Sarah Bramao-Ramos
What recourse did you have in Ming China if your very excellent local official was leaving your area and moving on to a new jurisdiction? You could try to block …
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