In this clip from her Literary Luncheon, novelist Lisa See talks about her memories of L.A.‘s China City. This was a principal setting in Shanghai Girls, and her own family’s ties to the L.A. neighborhood were a principal motivation for her in writing the novel. See describes the “tacky charm” of the neighborhood, which was developed by Christine Sterling—the developer of nearby Olvera Street in downtown L.A.

The American Schools of Oriental Research awarded their 2009 Open Archaeology Prize to an interactive, searchable map of Israeli archaeological digs in East Jerusalem and the West Bank hosted by the USC Digital Library. The map enables scholars to explore a database of post-1967 digs compiled by an Israeli, Palestinian, and U.S. team led by USC College professor of religion Lynn Swartz Dodd and Rafi Greenberg of Tel Aviv University. The map was recently featured on the L.A. Times arts blog Culture Monster and Science magazine’s ScienceInsider blog.

Tune in to 60 Minutes this Sunday, November 22 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT as Morley Safer reports on James Cameron’s upcoming 3D movie Avatar and what Cameron learned about special effects at the USC Cinematic Arts Library.

The Sri Lankan journalist gave a brief overview of the island nation’s history from pre-colonial times through the 25-year civil war between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese-majority government. He also described the humanitarian crisis after the most recent outbreak of violence in 2009 and the suppression of the media by the Sri Lankan government. Keep reading for more about the lecture.