The influence of preschool rural migrant composition on rural migrant children’s early development in China

A multilevel modeling approach was employed to investigate the relationship between preschool rural migrant composition and the pre-academic and behavioral outcomes of young rural migrant children with different durations of residence in urban China. This study represents a unique contribution because (1) few studies have focused on young Chinese rural migrant children and examined the influence of preschool rural migrant composition on their academic skills and behaviors, (2) few researchers in China have used a continuous (i.e., percentage of rural migrants in school) as opposed to a binary (i.e., mixed school versus rural migrant school) indicator for school rural migrant composition, and (3) few investigations have distinguished groups of rural migrant children by the duration of urban residence (i.e., short-duration (SD) rural migrant children versus long-duration (LD) rural migrant children). Based on data of 1213 Chinese children (2.7–6.17 years of age) and their parents and teachers from 81 urban preschools in Beijing, we found that SD rural migrants (≦2.5 years) were rated significantly lower in oral language and numeracy skills and that LD rural migrants (>2.5 years) were rated as having significantly more behavioral problems than their urban counterparts after controlling for the children’s gender, age, family socioeconomic status (SES) and preschool SES. Cross-level interactions indicated that SD rural migrant children in preschools with proportionally more rural migrant peers fared better in terms of oral language skills, and LD rural migrant children had fewer behavioral problems when there were more rural migrant peers in their preschools, whereas urban children performed worse in terms of oral language skills and displayed more behavioral problems in preschools with a high rural migrant composition. These findings provide insights into improving the early development and adaptations of rural migrant children.     

Subjectivity of the people in practice and means to actualize a new socialist culture in rural China: an ethnographic study of drama in Shaanxi’s rural regions in the 1960s

From the mid-twentieth century, the evolving tension between modernity and tradition has become a troublesome issue for the newly-established independent nation-states in Asia. With the ethnographic methodology of field study, this article retraces the drama practice in 1960s’ rural China and tries to reveal the practical formation and specifically, the operative mechanism with which the socialist new culture remolds and summons the subjectivity of People. In such practical process, the subjectivity of People is a key concept of socialist values and a leading principle of people’s everyday life in rural China, which contributes to the formation of a “new tradition” in practice. The “new tradition” has a profound influence on the pathway of the Chinese socialist development, and may also provide necessary reference to other Asian states.     

“Great Romance of the Three Kingdoms”Displayed in Beijing

<正>In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, the exhibition "Great Romance of the Three Kingdoms", presented by Art Exhibition China, traveled to seven Japanese cities including     

Made in China: the cultural logic of OEMs and the manufacture of low‐cost technology

Abstract

This paper investigates the conditions of the manufacture of low‐cost technology in China with the examples of ‘pirated’ VCD players, ‘no‐name’ DVD players, and Shenzhen’s development as a techno‐urban city. It emphasizes the significance of the cultural logic of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and argues that the various transformations and deflections that are derived from ubiquitous OEM experiences have gone beyond the original model of an authorized OEM, experiences that are to some extent embodied in the transgression of brand name and patent hegemonies, which are mainly controlled by high technology companies. OEMs have been associated with China’s current imperative and uninhibited development of low‐cost technology capitalism. ‘Made in China’ signifies the production of any product, legal or illegal, for transnational high technology giants or domestic technology manufacturers. Learning to ‘become an OEM’ in China has partly resulted in excessive technological mimesis that may be part of an unauthorized, underground economy that is based on low‐cost technology. Based on the Shenzhen experience, part of this study will show industrial production‐oriented OEM cultures in which illegal operations and counterfeit trade are incorporated, even in city projects that are shared by municipal governments and Chinese technological companies, and undergo spatial restructuring in the development of the economy, consumerism, and urbanism.     

Seniors’ organizations in China’s new rural reconstruction: experiments in Hubei and Henan

This article tracks the shifting cultural meanings that the East/West distinction has produced in the history of nationalism in colonial and post-colonial India. It does so by focusing on the word “civilization” and the role it played in promoting a rich sense of inter-cultural dialogue in the writings of nationalist leaders such as Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and Jawaharlal Nehru. The article documents how the word figures with much reduced significance in contemporary cultural debates about globalization in India and concludes by asking if the rise of China and India to global prominence holds the potential today to initiate a conversation across cultures similar to the one that accompanied the rise of the West in the age of modern imperial rule.     

Ethno-national boundaries in the construction of “dirty-work” occupational identity: The case of nursing care workers in diversified workplaces

Diversified domains, such as workplaces, are suitable social fields for the study of ethnic identities, because identities are constructed through comparison and negation, that is, by identifying what or who the “other” is. In the present study I explore the talk of hands-on nursing care work, a stigmatized occupational field, to illuminate ethnic identities and the strategic boundary work that care workers conduct. The study is based on 14 months of field work and 51 interviews and observations at two Israeli geriatric wards with highly diverse staff. I show that actors negotiate their care worker identity by the opposite strategies of making and unmaking ethno-national boundaries. The first strategy denies and erases ethno-national boundaries by stressing universal professional values and individual virtues; the second one demarcates boundaries between ethno-national groups, using perceived cultural differences. The discussion addresses these antithetical evaluation frameworks in relation to theories of boundary making and unmaking.     

“China loves Italy”: transnational co-productions between China and Italy behind the mask of market†

Since the term “transnational cinema” first appeared in 1997, most studies have focused on films epitomizing the logic of either profit maximization or ethnic affinity to explain phenomena such as the mainstreaming of Kung Fu movies. Yet, these two logics do not account for the entirety of the transnational projects that have been produced to date, hence the call for more studies on “trans-border patterns” that operate beyond both of them (Berry 2010, 123). In this article, we take up this call and approach the co-productions between China and Italy as exhibiting a “trans-border pattern” which satisfies interests beyond both the market and ethnic affinity. We trace the history of such a “pattern” back to the arrival of the Italian pioneer of Chinese cinema, Amerigo Lauro, in Shanghai in the early 1900s. We contextualize the productions of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Chung Kuo/China (1973), Giuliano Montaldo’s Marco Polo (1982) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) to provide exemplary cases of a non-market oriented affinity between two culturally distinct nations: China and Italy. We conclude by suggesting that China has pursued transnational co-productions with European countries such as Italy to exercise a more productive control than censorship over the ways China is to be represented internationally.     

Alternative responses to ‘the modern dream’: the sources and contradictions of Rural Reconstruction in China

ABSTRACT

The title is supposed to be a paradox, as the two notions are opposed in Gramsci’s work: hegemony being the heterogeneous aspect of the dominating alliance in a given historical period (e.g. fascism), whereas the national‐popular representing the unified cultural resistance from below. The question mark thus refers to a short circuit of opposites, to an unexpected consequence of liberation itself, rather than to the domination of some new cultural industry, as the one Adorno had fought against. Not that cultural industries aren’t stronger than ever; but cultural studies have developed various strategies to critique them over the post‐war years. I want to argue here that the new amorphous world without transcendence and alternative (usually called ‘globalization’) puts the discipline in a more difficult situation. Is there a danger of cultural studies becoming an accomplice to such a new hegemonic culture of the global‐popular?     

The New Image of the Saxophone in China

Concert saxophonist Li Yusheng was the first one in China to get a saxophone diploma from the Royal Conservator overseas under the instruction of Paul Brodie,the virtuoso saxophonist in the world,As the first professional saxophone professor in China’s conservatories Li Yusheng has been teaching in Sichuan Conservatory of Music since 1982. He set up the New World Saxophone Quartet with his best students in 2001     

“Tenemos que ser la voz”: Exploring resilience among Latina/o immigrant families in the context of restrictive immigration policies and practices

Research investigating associations between immigration policies and practices and indicators of mental health among Latina/o immigrant families has identified a number of risk factors for this population, such as family separation. The role of protective factors tied to the mental health of Latina/o immigrants, however, often has been neglected. This study explored internal and external sources of resilience that may protect Latina/o immigrant families against the potentially negative effects of restrictive immigration policies and practices on psychological well-being. Six focus groups (N = 50) were conducted with Latina/o immigrant parents of varying residency statuses (i.e., undocumented, permanent residents, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, and U.S. citizens). Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified: Social Support, Faith, and Civic Commitment and Action. Across groups, Latina/o parents referenced family, peer, and community support, as well as their spiritual faith and involvement in advocacy efforts as coping mechanisms. Overall, results suggest that Latina/o immigrant parents of varying residency statuses rely on both internal and external sources of resilience to protect themselves and their families when navigating restrictive immigration policies and practices. This research is particularly timely in light of the increasingly restrictive nature of immigration policies in the U.S. and the growing literature on the influence these may have on immigrant well-being. Intervention efforts should build upon existing strengths, such as providing opportunities for Latina/o immigrant families to participate in political activism.     

Chen Yingzhen and Taiwan's “sixties”: self-realization of the postwar generation in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Chen Yingzhen has been regarded as Taiwan's utmost representative leftist intellectual. This article tries to reconstruct Chen's historical significance in Taiwan's “sixties” in a broader perspective. The 1960s in Taiwan was a peculiar period. While there was a global youth rebellion, Taiwan's postwar baby boom generation, who had just been re-educated as Chinese, were going through a cultural “renaissance”. They started to put into practice what they had learned and to realize their creativities in all aspects—taken as a whole, these efforts could be understood as this generation's attempt to achieve self-realization. Chen Yingzhen and his works served as a significant initiating and guiding force during this time. The fact that there were no dominating ideologies during this period allowed room for this wave of creativity to flourish.     

When in Rome… A longitudinal investigation of the predictors and the development of student sojourners’ host cultural behavioral engagement

International educational mobility is an important instrument for immersing multicultural diversity into the thinking, feeling, and acting of young global citizens. Yet, little is known about the development of students’ host-cultural behavioral engagement during a stay abroad and the individual characteristics that predict it. We adapted the theory of planned behavior to investigate the dynamic longitudinal interplay between individual predictors and students’ host-cultural behavioral engagement over the course of the stay abroad. Data come from the first four waves of the project Mobility and acculturation experiences of students (MAPS; N = 1,225). Results confirmed the influence of acculturation attitudes, subjective norms, and multicultural self-efficacy on host-cultural behavioral engagement over time. Simultaneously, host-cultural behavioral engagement was identified as a relevant predictor of adolescents’ individual development abroad.     

Sick bunnies and pocket dumps: “Not-selfies” and the genre of self-representation

ABSTRACT

This article develops and troubles existing approaches to visual self-representation in social media, questioning the naturalized roles of faces and bodies in mediated self-representation. We argue that self-representation in digital communication should not be treated as synonymous with selfies, and that selfies themselves should not be reductively equated with performances of embodiment. We do this through discussing “not-selfies”: visual self-representation consisting of images that do not feature the likenesses of the people who share them, but instead show objects, animals, fictional characters, or other things, as in the practices of #EDC (“everyday carry”) and #GPOY (“gratuitous picture of yourself”) on platforms such as Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, and reddit. We present an account of self-representation as an emergent, recognizable, intertextual genre, and show that #EDC and #GPOY practices are best conceptualized as instances of self-representation.     

“Early China： the Formative Period of. Chinese Civilization” Disphyed in Capital Museum

Last autumn, the exhibition ＂Early China： the Formative Period of Chinese Civilization＂ was held in the Capital Museum in Beijing. The 210 sets or pieces of exhibits showcase the origin and early evolution of Chinese civilization from 3500 BC to 1400 BC.     

China Cultural Center in Seoul:Photo Exhibition on the 70 Anniversary of China’s Foreign Assistance

In January 2021,China Cultural Center in Seoul launched an Online Photo Exhibition on the 70^(th)Anniversary of China's Foreign Assistance on its new media plat...     

Feeling at home in the “Chocolate City”: an exploration of place-making practices and structures of belonging amongst Africans in Guangzhou

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the shifts brought about by the emergence of Asia as a key player in global capitalism have led to countless Africans opting for Asian destinations as part of their trade and migration strategies. The implications of the constant ebb and flow of African entrepreneurs in Southern China and the transnational trajectories, connections, and practices they enable have been relatively understudied. This article focuses on place-making practices and structures of belonging surrounding those Africans living in (and circulating through) Guangzhou. Drawing on my fieldwork, I locate possibilities for place-making and belonging within transnational multiethnic microcommunities and highlight practices that have emerged from the assembling of transnational and translocal flows in residential clusters, community organisations, and religious congregations. I contend that the presence and intermingling of diverse transient subjects (both African and Chinese) nurtures “alternative imaginations” of self, place, home, and belonging that alter extant notions of national and cultural identity, ethnicity, and race in twenty-first century Asia.     

Antiquity,Diversity and Modernity:Key Frograms of China Culture Year in France

1. Exhibition of Sanxingdui Archeological FindsTime: October 13, 2003 - January 31, 2004 Venue: Hotel de Ville, ParisDiversified China1. Concert performed by China Traditional Music EnsembleTime: October 6 - 30, 2003 Venue: Paris11. Dress Exhibition and Singing and Dancing Performance of Chinese Ethnic MinoritiesTime: October 3 - 6, 2003Venue: China Cultural Center, Paris     

Past and Present：Evolution of Colored Glaze in China

Whenever I passed by the Forbidden City, would be impressed by its dazzling and spectacular large roofs covered by glazed tiles. In past months when I shot photos of traditional craftsmanship of Beijing, I discovered interest in colored glaze, a time-honored skill included in the National-level Intangible Cultural Heritage List.