Chinese Artist Launches Maiden Voyage around the World

Zhai Mo, Chinese contemporary artist, stunned the media in the early winter of 2006 when he announced in a press conference that he would embark on his maiden voyage around the world on a no-engine boat, the first of its kind for a Chinese. Zhai Mo＇s abstract painting exhibition ＂E000.00.000 N000.00.000＂ was displayed in Beijing later. And ＂Road to Civilizations： Global Tour to Explore World Civilizations＂, a large-scale 260episode TV documentary program, was officially launched w an unprecedented event jointly presented by CCTV, China News Documentary Film Studio, Center of Comparative Studies of World Civilizations under China Academy of Social Sciences and CCTV Media Group. 21 well-selected team members would drive seven SUVs to travel around 50-strong countries across the six continents within 500 days. Meanwhile, a global voyage would take place simultaneously.     

Was the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba as Strong as Arab Chroniclers Claimed?1

Arabic sources recall the tenth and early eleventh centuries as the time when Andalusian armies achieved their greatest military triumphs over the Christian kingdoms and counties of northern Iberia. Some of those victories were truly spectacular and their like would never happen again. However, this view is also the result of the concealment, justification, and minimisation of defeats, as well as of the exaggeration of the successes achieved. This follows from a critical reading of Muslim chronicles and from the study of the data provided by Latin sources. The present article discusses some of the aforementioned practices of chroniclers and analyses whether the image offered by Arab compilers overstated the true military potential of the Umayyad Andalusian Caliphate. It concludes that caliphal armies were already showing some alarming signs of weakness during this period.     

GLORY AND DREAM ——Two young photographers shot Chang＇an Avenue in a panoramic view

Chang＇an Avenue, stretching from east to west across Beijing, is dubbed as the most spectacular boulevard of China that epitomizes the 600-year history of the capital city and bears political and cultural diplomatic significance. First built during the Ming Dynasty （1368 - 1644）, Chang＇an Avenue is named after the capital of the Tang Empire,     

Far away from home and (not) lonely: Relational mobility in migrants’ heritage culture as a potential protection from loneliness

Loneliness is a major health risk with particular relevance for migrants, who are faced with the challenge of establishing social networks to avoid social isolation after migration. We suggest that forming new relationships may be hampered or facilitated by characteristics of migrants’ heritage culture (i.e., the culture that migrants were socialized in), specifically the level of heritage relational mobility (the amount of opportunities to form new relationships and individual choice regarding whom to relate to in the heritage culture). Individuals with higher (versus lower) heritage relational mobility may be able to more easily establish social networks after migration, because of being more experienced with forming new social relationships. As such, we hypothesized that they might be less susceptible to loneliness after migrating – at least in a host culture that is high in relational mobility. In two cross-sectional survey studies with samples from two of the largest groups of student migrants in the city of Groningen (Study 1: n = 118 German, n = 97 Chinese students; Study 2: n = 119 German, n = 92 Chinese students) in the Netherlands (i.e., a context with high relational mobility), higher heritage relational mobility was indeed related to lower loneliness. Having grown up in a cultural environment that offers opportunities to individually establish new social relationships may hence protect migrants from quite different heritage cultures from loneliness, at least if the host culture also offers such opportunities. We discuss alternative explanations, as well as theoretical and practical implications.     

Canada’s Sub-Saharan African migrants: A scoping review

Despite the recent increase in Sub-Saharan African newcomers to Canada, little is known about their experiences, specifically the challenges they face rebuilding their lives and the strategies they adopt to tackle these challenges. This scoping review of 48 articles provides a critical basis for further research on Sub-Saharan African international migration to Canada. Five themes emerged from the extant literature: 1) structural barriers to rebuilding self, family, and community; 2) limited support systems available in the transition period; 3) transnational ties and commitments as a recurring mediator of migrant life; 4) mechanisms for navigating transition and integration; and 5) changing gender relations and roles. Findings across these themes strongly project gender relations as a crucial engine of migrant life, yet studies do not extensively probe the nature and dynamics of key facets of post-migration gender relations. While transnational linkages could provide some support and sense of identity, the demands of and commitments to extended family members and other entities could stall or undermine efforts to rebuild lives and community in a new homeland. The coping mechanisms identified here appear to relieve or postpone the consequences of Sub-Saharan African migrants’ adaptations to the realities of life in Canada. Our review also underscores the need for strength-based approaches, such as resilience, in exploring the experiences of Sub-Saharan African migrants as newcomers in advanced Western nations like Canada. Future studies should consider that international migration presents complex challenges to both migrant sending and receiving countries, traceable to both localized and transnational historical and social linkages.     

KASHGAR： A Place as Beautiful as Jade

Kashgar means "a jade-like place" in the Uyghur language, because it is known for its vast reserve of beautiful jade stone. Human activities such as hunting and fishing existed here as early as 4000 years ago. About 2000 years ago, one of the 36 kingdoms in the West Region is located here. Shule Kingdom built its capital city in Kashgar during the West Han Dynasty of ancient China and it became one of the four most important towns in the West Region during the Tang Dynasty. Kashgar is no…     

Chinese Sculpture as Public Art

Chinese arts have undergone tremendous changes thanks to the fast-growing modernization and urbanization process in China. One of the monumental changes is the emergence of “public art”, most notably, urban sculpture. This art is increasingly related to modern urban planning, architecture, and community building.     

‘Bloodhounds as Detectives’

ABSTRACT

This article explores the nineteenth-century origins of the sniffer dog in one of the most notorious homicide investigations in British history, focusing on Scotland Yard's attempts to use the reputed olfactory powers of pure-bred English bloodhounds in the hunt for London's East End serial murderer Jack the Ripper in 1888. This episode has been historiographically overlooked in part because the dogs were never actually deployed. However, the failure to unleash dogs on the Ripper's trail turns out to be critically significant, opening up a space through which the historical contingencies and social meanings of dog-breeding and training practices can be explored and scrutinized. As a crime-solving tool, utilized for the purpose of investigating metropolitan crime, canine detection posed distinct problems. Proponents of bloodhound detection had to contend with various cultural, material and practical challenges, in order to guarantee the canines as reliable hunters in an environment that was contaminated by slum odour.     

Liao Xiaoyi： Happy Life as Non-mainstreamer

March of 2006 marks the tenth anniversary of Global Village of Beijing, an environmental non-profit NGO founded by Liao Xiaoyi. Over the past ten years, Liao has released papers and articles totaling some 400,000 words, produced more than 100 TV feature programs on environment protection, given 100 lectures nationwide and established a training base. She has planned and organized a series of forums themed on ＂green life＂ and environment protection campaigns for general public, such as pilot projects to categorize wastes, construction of green communities, ＂Day of Earth 2006： China Action＂ and 26℃ air conditioning campaign...     

Dancing to two tunes: The role of bicultural identity and strong ties in skilled migrants’ value-driven protean careers

Recent research has pointed out the lack of understanding of the way migrants manage career opportunities and barriers to mobilise their agency in the host destination. In order to better understand how some migrants succeed in host countries, we drew on interviews with 31 non-Western skilled migrants (NWSM) who felt they had achieved successful careers in Australia and the USA. Using a subjective value fulfilment approach, we analyse three illustrative cases from the NWSM sample to understand how bicultural identity, strong ties and protean careers operate together within a Western host country. The findings illustrate the protean career orientation of these skilled migrants. These cases also highlight the role of bicultural identity and strong ties in the formation of their career paths. Overall, the ability to harmoniously use and combine their bicultural identity emerges as a significant success factor in achieving protean careers. The findings also suggest that ongoing support from strong ties was influential and visible in the skilled migrants’ protean career orientation. This was a dominant pattern of findings within the 31 cases of NWSMs, accounting for 90 % (28) of the participants. The findings contribute to extending the existing literature on career orientations by studying a cross-cultural sample through the lens of the generally Westernised career approach of the protean career. In doing so, we argue that unlike Western expatriates who may benefit more from weak ties to progress in their careers, these NWSM indicated strong ties to be instrumental in their value fulfilling career trajectories, most likely due to their collectivist home country cultures. Similarly, we contribute to the career literature on skilled migrants by highlighting the positive impact of bicultural identity and a value driven approach to these migrants’ successful protean careers. Implications for skilled migrants, career counsellors and HRM professionals are also discussed.     

Zheng Danyi Emerges as Talented Chinese Zither Player

On the evening of January 6, 2006, Zheng Danyi, a young talented student of the guzheng （Chinese zither）, held her solo concert in the concert hall of the Central Conservatory of Music （CCOM） in Beijing. Her extraordinary interpretation of classical pieces as well as contemporary compositions won her huge ovations. Zheng successfully concluded the concert with ＂West China Capriccio＂ co-composed by Huang Zhenyu and Zhou Wang.     

The Ming–Qing transition as turning point

Many histories of China have attempted to impose outside interpretive methods upon the Chinese past. In this essay, Mizoguchi works from within the Chinese tradition to understand how changing ideas of economics (and in particular the conflict between private land ownership by the ruler and by the common people), literature, philosophy, religion, and politics all combined to make the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the subsequent Qing Dynasty a time of great change in the ways in which Chinese thinkers understood their history and present.     

Huangjie Gallery Stands Out as Top Platform for Artists

Art collection is gaining increasing popularity in China today, bringing an unprecedented boom to art industry and giving rise to private galleries. In this fast-growing art market, Huangjie Gallery has stood out as a top platform for Chinese artists.[第一段]     

早餐—蛋白质—效率

日本大阪大学蛋白质研究所中川八郎教授在一九八○年十一月号《朝日科学》杂志上发表了一篇文章,结论是这样的: “人在健康时的体温并不是保持恒定的。一般下午两点钟时体温达到高峰。此时,脑力劳动     

伏尔加河——俄罗斯河

很久以前,亚历山大·仲马在计划访问俄国时,曾这样解释过自已旅行的目的:“每个国家都有自己的内河。俄国有一条伏尔加河,它是欧洲最大的河,是河流中的皇后,我向伏尔加陛下致以问候。”这位小说家一语道出了伏尔加河在俄国三百万条大小河流中的显著地位。大仲马早在一百多年前就曾是这条河的客人了。伏尔加河虽然不是苏联最长的河流,但是在人民的作品中,它却是今天全民族的一条主要河流。涓涓的流水,蜿蜒曲折地穿过那茂密的森林和幼林丛生的沼泽地,伏尔加河就这样开始了它由北至南的流程。它穿过一个个湖泊,鼓足了力量,冲出河道,威严地向前飞奔而去。七千条大小河流汇集于伏尔加河,它把自己献给了俄罗斯的广大平原和丘陵地带,黑海沿岸的半沙漠地带和里海。     

坎特伯雷——香客之城

托马斯·贝克特在坎特伯雷大教堂遇刺使肯特郡这个安静的小镇成了世界各地香客的圣地。到坎特伯雷去的游客络绎不绝。当地人对游客已司空见惯,因为这座城镇成为旅游之乡有数百年的历史了。这里,不但貌似朝拜者们仰慕的圣地麦加,有中世纪的古建筑、宏伟的大教堂和许多老市镇共有的古老建筑,而且也有面积广阔的一片片现代     

Malaysia as an “Other” in Indonesian popular discourse

This article reads contemporary popular publications in Indonesia on the topic of Indonesian–Malaysian relations. It looks at how Indonesia perceives Malaysia and the function of that perception in relation to Indonesian national identity. The article also looks at how Indonesian perceptions of Malaysia were discussed during the revolutionary period by reading the speeches held at the constitutional meeting (BPUPKI) and the Konfrontasi period, reading the speeches written by Sukarno and the letter of Pan-Malay leader exiled in Indonesia, Ibrahim Yaacob. The article then compares the ideas espoused by Sukarno, Yaacob and others in the past and the arguments presented in the present day concerning Malaysia. A preliminary conclusion is reached that geopolitical anxiety and not kinship is a more important factor in how contemporary Indonesia sees Malaysia.     

上杭——客家建筑之乡

1997年11月,福建省人民政府授予上杭县为“建筑之乡”称号。上杭地处福建省西部山区,是名的客家祖居地之一。千百年来,上杭人以客家人的聪明才智、山区人的勤劳勇敢,谱写了一曲曲客家建筑业的瑰丽乐章,留下了一座座客家建筑的艺术珍品。当你徜徉于杭川大地时,就仿佛置身在客家建筑博物馆。