Chapter 1 traces the experiences of Batu-Temür, his wife, their sons, and some 5,000 followers, who in 1405 migrated from the Mongolian steppe to the northwestern corner of the still-new Ming dynasty. In recognition of the military contributions of Batu-Temür and his sons, and their steadfast loyalty on refusing to join a local Mongolian insurrection, the Ming emperor granted the family a series of high-level military posts, gifts, honorary titles, a Chinese surname (Wu), and eventually investiture of Batu-Temür as Earl of Gongshun, a title that his descendants would hold until the mid seventeenth century. The Wu family’s experiences show both the Ming dynasty and recently arrived immigrants actively attempting to advance their interests in a time of rapid geopolitical change.

Chapter 4 charts the provision and/or absence of instruction in Catholicism in the cultural worlds of the Pacific, which the bishops of Popayán framed as “spiritual pasture.” It begins with an analysis of the patterns of baptism and godparentage in the small city of Cartago, far from the gold mines where enslaved labourers shored up the white elite. The chapter examines two controversies that divided the mine and slave-owning elite and the upper echelons of the Church for decades; first, a debate over the stipend system in which slaveholders had to pay itinerant clergy to travel to the mines to administer the sacraments, and second, over mineros allowing enslaved people to work on holy days, despite myriad laws and papal bulls outlawing it. Ultimately, the remoteness of the mines from towns, and the disinterest of whites in settling there, meant that enslavers continued the long-held custom of enslaved people labouring on holy days and saving up gold dust to pacify them. Condemned by the bishops as “spiritual abandonment,” the custom helped to create conditions for the growth of the large free black population and perhaps the practice of their own religions that largely remain outside of view.

This chapter discusses the variety of modernist theatrical practices grouped under the rubric ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ by Martin Esslin in the 1960s and demonstrates that absurdist theatre was a much more politically attuned and transnational phenomenon than commonly acknowledged. Esslin’s original aim was to understand theatrical practices in France that were related to, but stood outside of, the boundaries and timelines of the symbolist and surrealist movements, in particular the work of Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Arthur Adamov, and Jean Genet. The chapter sets French absurdist drama of the 1950s and 1960s in a wider historical context and calls for the better recognition of a global absurdist canon, tracing the blossoming of a new absurdist drama through playwrights including Virgilio Piñera (Cuba), Halide Edib (Turkey), Issam Mahfouz (Lebanon), Osvaldo Dragún (Argentina), Kobo Abe (Japan), Yusuf Idris and Tawfiq al-Hakim (Egypt), and through the contemporary legacies of Beckett’s absurdist model.

The last Marquis of Gongshun, Wu Weihua, not only survived but thrived during the traumatic transition from the fallen Ming dynasty to the newly founded Qing dynasty. His elder brother died in an epidemic of unprecedented scale in the capital, leaving vacant the title of marquis. His nephew was murdered in a rebel occupation of Beijing without parallel in the dynasty. His sovereign perished at his own hand (another unique event during the Ming period), and the Ming ruling house crumpled before his eyes. Wu Weihua then hurled himself across the dynastic divide, offering his services to the new Manchu regime in exchange for the title his family had held without interruption since the early fifteenth century. In addition to dogged pursuit of that title, he worked tirelessly to secure the survival – even prosperity – of his family in a new age, winning posts for his brothers and brokering at least one marriage alliance with the new Manchu elite.

This chapter ties together the various strands of the book, and reflects on the emerging grammar of memes. We revisit some of the questions first asked in the opening chapter, about why linguists should study memes, or how the specific kind of multimodality in the memes we studied differs from other multimodal genres, and we think through the way the space of a meme is used in the types of memes we studied. Finally, we summarize why we think memes are an important object of study.

This chapter focuses on how urban development relates to earthquake risk. It draws connections between earthquakes and floods, then introduces key technical concepts (e.g., magnitude v. intensity, liquefaction, structural response to shaking). It presents the urban development and disaster histories of Kobe (Japan; including the 1995 earthquake) and Christchurch (New Zealand; including the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence), assessing and comparing them using the Urban Risk Dynamics framework. Findings resonate with themes from the flood chapters. Urbanization often involves modifying lands (e.g., draining wetlands, expanding waterfronts, constructing islands), which are susceptible to ground failure in earthquakes. While newer structures are less prone to damage because of technological and building code advances, many older buildings are concentrated in neighborhoods that are hotspots of physical and social vulnerability. Postdisaster reconstruction and recovery accelerate prior trends. Catastrophic events trigger learning and instigate diversification in risk reduction strategies. Retreat from hazard lands is possible, as exemplified in Christchurch’s residential red zone.

Both Saigon and Washington have Catholic presidents from 1961 to 1963. American Catholic support for the Diem regime remains strong, but the Kennedy administration begins to have serious doubts about its ally. As relations between the Saigon government and political Buddhists worsen, those doubts intensify. The administration approves a coup that topples and kills Diem. Meanwhile, the Second Vatican Council begins its historic work in Rome.