Some time ago, overcome by a listicle-making urge, I considered putting together a playlist of highly orientalist Yugoslav songs with entries such as Bebi Dol’s Mustafa and Brekvica’s “Loša”. While trawling though YouTube I realised the absurdity at the heart of the endeavour: much of our pop music is “oriental” in the sense that it was influenced by Turkish (or wider Silk road) rhythms and … Continue reading Non-Western Balkans: an identity struggle
“With great interest and special pleasure I set off on a trip to that ancient and mysterious land: land of queued hair and opium, tea and silk, land of one of the oldest peoples in the world, whose existence we could have doubted due to its enormous distance and unknowability. In front of me was an entirely separate world, special, remote culture, which until recently … Continue reading Dr Milutin Velimirović: A Serb in pre-WWII China
Why do some nations have ‘interests’, while others are stuck with ‘ancient hatreds’? Continue reading Let’s Stop Irrationalising the Balkans
