Oct 8, 2008

Alive and kicking


... I am. Currently investing more creative energy into my jobs at the university (preparing a tutorial on scientific research methods), being elected member of my faculty's student union, and this.
Things are going really great for our Sinology student's paper "Dianmo" 點墨, better than we could have hoped for. A lot of people offered their willingness to contribute articles, among them very interesting insights into the life of a German doctor working with the minority peoples in Yunnan, articles on Aids-orphaned kids in China and jokes in a cultural context, interviews with German expert and romancier Tilman Spengler, recipes and Chinese underground music bands.
There is much to expect yet, for we almost cannot squeeze all the articles offered to us in one issue. But that allows for duration into the foreseeable future, making our completely self-organized paper not the matter of one day only - hopefully.
Dianmo was founded 19 March, 2008, and has soon to see its 3rd issues (end of October). The name is derived from the saying 胸無點墨, literally to not have a drop of ink in one's chest, that is, to be totally uneducated (and thus uncultivated).
In my opinion, our best asset is pursuing things in a very inclusionist way. Everyone who wants to is welcome to contribute. The paper is thus more and more becoming a German-wide matter, with people from Köln, Berlin, Weimar... participating. To guarantee stability within this "open source"-approach, all threads connect at the center which is the permanent editorial staff, all students of Sinology at the University of Leipzig. While the idea is to be traced back to the original initiative of my good friend Frank Andreß, credits for the incredibly professional layout go to Thomas Baier (info here).
Comments and ideas are dearly welcomed any time!
We encourage everyone to help us make this a better paper!

1 comment:

debaixa said...

Hi Jacob, I´ve just seen that you rate Darwin´s Nightmare as an important documentary.
I´m trying to open up a dialogue on it for today, Blog Action Day: Poverty
I was wondering if you minded adding a commentary with your thoughts and feelings about this film?
www.parashuts.com/blog
Many thanks! It would be great if you can help me get the ball rolling!
cheers, debaixa