Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

June is almost over, and I have no idea where the month went.

Well, that’s not entirely true. June has been a morass of worrying about the world. Of enduring a violent heat wave. Of feeling like I should be taking advantage of the Michigan summer—but ugh, I have so much else to do. Of wondering why my right knee hurt during that yoga class. Of the small but real frustrations of navigating Ann Arbor’s street work, road closures, and detours.

June, in other words, has been a month of just getting by.

Last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, I challenged myself to come up with five things that have made this month better. I wasn’t trying to play Pollyanna or count my blessings or anything like that. I simply wanted to remind myself that not everything recently has been demoralizing.

Here’s my list:

• Making a double batch of white bean and pickled celery salad (a Hetty Lui McKinnon recipe), topped with marinated tofu—an easy low-effort, no-cook meal for hot days.
• Reading the excellent first three books in Ashley Weaver’s Electra McDonnell mystery series—Electra is like a more worldly Nancy Drew (kindly housekeeper included!) who unexpectedly finds herself working for British intelligence during World War II.
• Listening to baseball on the radio—made even better when the Phillies beat the Mets in two out of three games.
• Playing the Ann Arbor District Library’s summer game—because AADL understands that summer reading games shouldn’t just be for kids.
• Ben and Jerry’s Mint Chocolate Cookie—finally, someone has married two of the best ice cream flavors.

Thanks for joining me this week. Stay safe. And if you need a quick pick-me-up … ice cream always works.

Recommendations

China Stories

Yangyang Cheng, “Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: A Review of Eva Dou’s House of Huawei”

The man who has been Tibetans’ binding force and most recognizable face is growing increasingly frail. His goal of returning his people to their homeland remains distant, with China working to finish the task of crushing the Tibetan movement for autonomy. And as Tibetans confront a future of continued exile, the United States and other global powers have become more unreliable in their support.

— Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar, with photographs by Atul Loke, “As the Dalai Lama Turns 90, His Exiled Nation Faces a Moment of Truth”

James A. Millward, “China Revoked My Visa, and Came to Regret It”

… cameras gawked from poles, flashed as we drove through intersections, lingered on faces as we passed through stations or shops. And that was just the most obvious edge of the ubiquitous, multilayered tracking that has come to define life in China. I came away troubled by my time in some of the world’s most-surveilled places — not on China’s account, but because I felt that I’d gotten a taste of our own American future. Wasn’t this, after all, the logical endpoint of an evolution already underway in America?

— Megan K. Stack, “Can We See Our Future in China’s Cameras?”

Li Yuan, “‘The Better Life Is Out of Reach’: The Chinese Dream Is Slipping Away”

Wanderings Around the World

Astrid Code, “Abandoned Michigan cemetery unearths history of segregation — even in death”

Michela Moscufo, “Harvard hired a researcher to uncover its ties to slavery. He says the results cost him his job: ‘We found too many slaves’”

Heather O’Donnell, “Ambition, Discipline, Nerve”

Valland, a curator and collections manager at the Jeu de Paume in Paris when the German occupiers requisitioned the museum in late 1940, practiced a quiet form of resistance. She managed to avoid being dismissed from her job, and she was thus able to observe the Nazis’ art-looting operation, surreptitiously taking notes and holding on to her secrets until the time was right. Her weapons were eavesdropping, cataloging skills, and attention to detail, and her information later aided in the recovery of tens of thousands of artworks.

— Nina Siegal, “The Spy in the Jeau de Paume”

Standout Story

Both cities were major industrial and military centers, and thus home to tens of thousands of Korean colonial workers and their families. Yet Zainichi Koreans were effectively excluded from the hibakusha benefits system. They were told that they didn’t qualify because of their alien status, or that they needed a Japanese witness to prove their eligibility; sometimes they were turned away for not speaking fluent Japanese. Many were destitute and lived in what was known as an “A-bomb slum.” Zainichi survivors did not fit into the idea of “A-bomb nationalism”—Japan’s unique “sense of victimhood”—emphasized by activist groups like Nihon Hidankyo, Takahashi writes. Conditions were even worse for Korean hibakusha who returned to the Korean peninsula. North and South Korea were transitioning from Japanese rule to Cold War occupation. There was little awareness of, let alone tailored health care for, A-bomb survivors. Korean hibakusha also had to contend with the fact that their countrymen celebrated the bombings as the event that “liberated the Korean nation from Japanese colonial rule.”

— E. Tammy Kim, “The Atomic Bombing’s Forgotten Korean Victims”

Catching Up

Featured photo: Dharamsala, India, September 10, 2010.