History

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how our brain makes us love or hate spicy food, using maths to predict stock market trends, and a battery that can make electricity from the atmosphere on Mars.

An unprecedented rapid increase in anthropogenic fingerprints around 1952 in the global strata reflects the point in time when humanity began to overwhelm the Earth system

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how hungry ants push birds out of their habitat, how eroding a mountain makes it taller, and how our cells carry insights into origin of life.

Lingnan University held a flag-raising ceremony today (1 October) to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The ceremony took place at 10:30 am at the University’s Wing On Plaza. It was attended by Prof Raymond Chan Hon-fu, Vice-President (Academics) cum Provost and Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Scientific Computing, senior management, faculty and students, who all gathered to honour the occasion.

A luminary of modern Indian art, Jamini Roy is celebrated for his experiments with Bengali patachitra painting traditions and his brightly hued, bold and two-dimensional depictions of human, animal and mythological forms. Discover the legacy of this 20th-century artist, whose works have been declared national treasures of India under the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how AI helped uncover mysterious Nazca lines, a battery made from a glowing crystal, and how 1 in 3 children are nearsighted.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a computer chip inspired by our brains, the potential link between asthma and diabetes, and how Japanese eels flee their predators after being swallowed.

A rare artefact of 19th-century tawaif culture, The Beauties of Lucknow is a fascinating photograph album from colonial South Asia. Compiled in 1874, it consists of 24 portraits of courtesans from Awadh in present-day Uttar Pradesh. Read more to know how Darogah Abbas Ali, the photographer behind it, reimagined Mughal-era muraqqa traditions and colonial portraiture to create one of the earliest works of nostalgia on the tawaifs of Lucknow.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how a live pig was operated on by a surgeon thousands of kilometers away, how an asteroid caused a massive ancient impact, and the day the sun grew dark 6,000 years ago.

A board game made of cloth or paper and featuring a series of squares, snakes and ladders, with the latter functioning as karmic devices, gyan chaupar was not only a popular recreation in ancient India, but also an important spiritual tool. Literally translating to the ‘game of knowledge’ this game instilled lessons on attaining moksha or salvation from the cycle of death and rebirth. Read more about gyan chaupar’s many variations in medieval India and how it gradually evolved into a children’s board game at the turn of the twentieth century.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are the ‘holy grail’ of insulin treatments, a new species that ate like a walrus, and keeping cool in smart, adaptive clothing.

Since the early 1900s, Indian women artists have consistently raised sociopolitical issues with their aesthetic and thematic choices. While painters like Amrita Sher-Gil were among the privileged few to have received global recognition in their lifetime, the works of Sunayani Devi, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Bhuri Bai and others have been overlooked in favour of their more celebrated male peers. Discover the rich legacy of feminist consciousness in modern Indian art and how it has been shaped by gender justice movements and caste reform in recent decades.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a new fossil from our tiny ancient relatives, H20 in moon crystals, and a shiny new starfish found off the coasts of Japan.

A historic folk tradition from Bengal, patua combines storytelling with scroll painting. Performers of this tradition travel from one village to another, reciting tales from Hindu epics like the Ramayana, and from local Santhal mythologies, bringing them to life by unravelling vivid scroll paintings illustrating these stories. Discover the ancient history, decline and revitalisation of this folk tradition, and how the government has used it to promote family planning in postcolonial India.

Fragrant, sweet, exotic and golden-yellow, the mango is an apt metaphor for summer in South Asia. Domesticated over 4,000 years ago, it has been a symbol of wealth, desire and luxury in the subcontinent. Peel back the layers of this iconic fruit to reveal the reasons behind its enduring popularity and read more about mango’s significance through art objects and discover how artists and craftsmen have tried to capture its essence in all its glory.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are small robots with human brain organoids, new findings about the ancient Denisovan culture, and how to create the perfect environment for bad bacteria.

A 90-acre garden complex in the heart of New Delhi, Lodi Gardens is one of the city’s most-loved public parks. Surprisingly, it is actually a tomb complex — dotted with mosques and domes from the Sayyid, Lodi and Mughal eras. Explore the park’s cultural and geographical significance by tracing the garden's history from the 15th century to the present, and read about the iconic figures and architectural styles associated with the monument.

Associated with the forest and healing herbs, the goddess Parnashavari is revered for her ability to cure illnesses, contagious diseases and epidemics. A folk deity for the Shavari or Sabara indigenous community of central and eastern India, she was later integrated into the Buddhist pantheon and continues to be venerated in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Learn about her iconography and the symbolic objects and weapons she wields.

A research paper titled ‘Disaster, survival and recovery: the resettlement of Tanegashima Island following the Kikai-Akahoya ‘super-eruption’, 7.3ka cal BP’ co-written by Hokkaido University GSI’s Professor Peter Jordan has been awarded the prestigious Ben Cullen Prize 2024 for making an “outstanding contribution” to World Archaeology.

In the same way that the number of rings in a tree can tell us its age, the characteristics of rocks such as breccia can tell us about the history of a region. The breccia around Ichinokawa Mine (located in Ehime prefecture) are of particular interest, as the mine is located south of the Median Tectonic Line. Researchers at Tohoku University uncovered how breccia can provide valuable evidence to estimate the energy of past earthquakes in the area.

Renowned for its gleaming silver and gold inlay against dark metallic backgrounds, Bidriware metal work derives its name from the town of its origin — Bidar in southern India. While the earliest documented presence of Bidriware is in a 1625 Deccani miniature painting, the craft is believed to have originated in the 14th century under the patronage of the Bahmani Sultans. Bidriware's allure ensured that it was valued and patronised by royalty across the Indian subcontinent in the late medieval and early modern period. Read about this living tradition, and the processes behind the creation of Bidriware.

The finals of the 2023/24 Territory-wide Junior Secondary Chinese History and Culture Quiz, organised by the Hong Kong Government Education Bureau (EDB) and co-organised by the Hong Kong and South China Historical Research Programme (HKSCHRP) of Lingnan University, were held on campus today (18 May). Officiating guests were Ms Teresa Chan Mo-ngan, Deputy Secretary of the EDB,and Prof Lau Chi-pang, Associate Vice-President (Academic Affairs and External Relations) and Co-ordinator of the HKSCHRP. ProfVincent Leung Sueh-han, Head and Associate Professor of the Department of History at Lingnan University, Prof Tam Ka-chai, Associate Professor of the Department of History at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), Dr Fan Wing-chung, Senior Lecturer of HKBU, and Dr Law Yuen-han, Lecturer I at the Department of History at HKBU, judged the competition.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how negative rumors affect children, a new fiber-sorting method, and an ancient Egyptian “anomaly”.

Late in the sixteenth century, a master artist from the Mughal emperor Akbar’s atelier adopted the technique of using monochromatic tones with highlights of colour or gold. Known as ‘nim qalam,’ Persian for ‘half pen,’ or ‘siyah qalam’ for ‘black pen’, this technique was eventually adopted by artists in the Deccan, and later the Rajput courts. Although its precise origins remain uncertain, nim qalam continues to be used by contemporary South Asian artists working on manuscript painting.

Watching and waiting with minimal intervention forms educational philosophy guided by balance

Once a two-armed attendant to the goddess Tara, over time, Marichi was increasingly endowed with power until she became a deity in her own right. Revered as a warrior and guardian against evil and darkness, Marichi’s imagery reveals myriad symbolisms — from her association with the sun to her role as a fierce protector. Read about the multifaceted nature of Marichi's mythology and imagery, spanning nations, cultures, and time.

In India’s dry, western-most state — Rajasthan — the gods are carried from village to village, and tales that surround the deity are narrated so that the devout may be blessed. The gods are housed in a ‘kavad’, a portable shrine adorned with intricate narrative paintings of folk tales and epics. Constructed from low-density wood and painted with mineral-derived pigments, the kavad serves as a conduit for the oral storytelling tradition known as kavad banchana. Learn about the synergy between the makers, painters and patrons of these shrines, and how this tradition continues to evolve.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are spiders that join together to transform into a flower, birds giving the right of way, and a potential natural treatment for hair loss.

In the late 1930s, French archaeologists discovered a large and remarkable group of ivory sculptures, in Afghanistan's Begram (present-day Bagram). Stipulated to have been used as accents or embellishments for wooden furniture, these carved objects showcase a blend of Greco-Roman, Central Asian, Mediterranean, and Indic stylistic influences. Despite the political upheavals in the region, some of these ivory artefacts still survive. Explore how ongoing scholarly efforts shed light on the historical significance of these art objects, highlighting the cultural connections that were built and flourished along the Silk Road.

Lingnan University is honoured to receive a generous donation of HK$3.88 million from the Lingnan Education Organization (LEO) to support the commencement of the two-year LingArt Programme on the Promotion & Inheritance of Chinese Culture (LingArt Programme). It aims to promote Chinese culture and show its grandeur and uniqueness through a series of cultural and artistic activities, so as to foster a deeper understanding of the rich and diverse heritage of China in both local and international students, as well as to nurture a sense of national belonging in local students.