Chinese Seal：the Beijing 2008 Olympics Emblem

The Beijing 2008 Olympics emblem was finally unveiled. It was shown to the public at the solemn ceremony held at 8:30 p.m. August 3, 2003 in the park of Temple of Heaven, Beijing. When a Chinese statesman and an official of the International Olympic Committee     

Tolerance and Harmony： Chinese Culture and 2008 Olympics Beijing

“People‘s Olympics“, one of the slogans of 2008 Olympics Beijing, represents the core of Chinese culture -tolerance and harmony. In fact, the Olympics spirit“sports means peace“ accords to values of Chinese nation.     

The 2008 Olympics： the Games for the People

The modern Olympic movement,through sports competition,brings together nations with different cultures and people of different color.As a cultural event,the Olympics have had profound impact on human society and civilizations.As a sports event,it is the ultimate test of athletes‘     

＂New Beijing, New Olympics＂ Displayed in Sydney

The annual Sydney Royal Agriculture Exposition took place in the Olympic Park last April, one of the large-scale public events organized by Sydney Municipal Government which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. At the exposition this year, the exhibition ＂New Beijing, New Olympics＂, co-organized by the State Information Office of China and the Information Office of Beijing Municipality, was displayed, which added much glamour to the event.     

Paint on the Great Wall, Embrace the Olympics

Early in August, on Badaling Pass of the Great Wall in the northern suburb of Beijing, 500 children from Hong Kong and 200 children from Beijing participated in the opening ceremony of “Paint on the Great Wall, Embrace the Olympics”, a large-scale cultural exchange event jointly sponsored by Chinese Cultural Ministry, Beijing Municipality and Hong Kong Civil Service Bureau.     

Bird＇s Nest：The National Stadiumor the 2008 Olympics

The National Stadium, a major sports venue for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, stands on the southern tip of the central section of the Olympic Green. As a landmark of the Olympic Green, this multi-function stadium is the city＇s largest and most advanced sports facility. The National Stadium was co-designed by Herzog ＆ Menron, Arup and China Architecture Design ＆. Research Group. The whole structure covers an area of 258,000 sq. km. Its exterior resembles a bird＇s nest. The steel nest, looking like gray mineral, is covered by transparent coating. Inside the nest is a bowl-like bleacher in earthen red. The stadium＇s design reminds viewers of the red palaces within the gray walls of the Forbidden City. The National Stadium is a perfect blend of traditional Chinese aesthetics and culture, contemporary art and the Olympic spirit. The whole building is fnll of dynamics. Even human activities on the stadium＇s staircases constitute integral elements of the building＇s exterior. While it is amazingly innovative creation, the stadium is characterized by a simplistic and elegant style.     

Samarkand： the crossing of world cultures

Samarkand is one of the most ancient and famous cities in the world.By its age,Samarkand can be compared to such ancient cities as Rome.Athens and Babylon.In 2007 Samarkand will celebrate its 2750th anniversary.Samarkand can doubtlessly be called the＂Pearl of the East＂.Standing on the crossroad of the great Silk Road,it took and preserved until present times the culture,art and unique architeeture of the ancient world civilizations.     

Predictors of Finnish Adolescent’s Prejudice towards Russian Immigrants and the Effect of Intergroup Contact

This study examined perceived threat as a predictor of Finnish adolescent’s prejudice towards Russian immigrants. Moreover, since Russian immigrants represent the largest immigrant group in Eastern Finland, this study also explored the relationship between intergroup contact, threat, and prejudice. The sample consisted of 305 Finnish adolescents ranging from 11 to 19 years old. Results showed threat to be a significant predictor of prejudice towards Russian immigrants in Eastern Finland. Individually, negative stereotype was found to be the only threat that significantly predicted prejudice towards Russian immigrants. Realistic and symbolic threats were not important to the attitudes of Finnish adolescents towards Russian immigrants. Moreover, there was no significant relationship between intergroup contact, prejudice, and threat (realistic threat, symbolic threat, and negative stereotype). Implications are also discussed.     

‘Second death’, or revival of the ‘third world’ in the context of neo‐liberal globalization

Abstract

This paper tries to analyze the historical change in the Third World in its emergent stage, in the authoritarian stage and in the current democratic stage and, thereafter, find a way to revive the Bandung spirit in the current globalization context. I define the Bandung spirit as one of a ‘non‐aligned self‐helped “organization against” the dominant powerful countries’; that is, spirit of ‘anti‐predominance’. This spirit has emerged on the base of such domestic orientation and realities as economic self‐reliance, nationally integrated political regime, convergence of the state and civil society around anti‐colonialism. However, according to intensification of the Cold War confrontation on the international level and its centrifugal influence, the early Third World changed to a ‘new’ authoritarian Third World. The Third World in this stage could be characterized by an exclusive authoritarian political regime, dependent‐developmentalist economic orientation and coercively repressed and mobilized, in the top‐down way, civil society. This authoritarian Third World began to be confronted with a strong struggle from the bottom for democratization. In order for democratization of the Third World to become its true revival in the context of globalization, the following tasks should be considered. First, the democratic Third World should be a great driving force for the institutionalization of the transnational public regulatory mechanism. Second, the democratic Third World countries try to go over a kind of ‘transformed’ dependent development strategy. Third, democratization should go along with recovery of political inclusiveness and openness of the state to civil society’s demands. Thereafter, I tried to construct globalist re‐interpretation of the Bandung, by way of conceptualizing the current globalization as imperial globalization, unlike the imperialist globalization which the historical Bandung wanted to confront. I argue that the Bandung spirit of collective self‐help organizations against the newly emerging dominant order should be revived in this worse imperial globalization context. In addition, I argue that a nationalist resistance is also one component of the multiple resistances in the current imperial globalization.     

English Proficiency,Identity, Anxiety,and Intergroup Attitudes: US Americans’ Perceptions of Chinese

Guided by the Common Ingroup Identity Model and Berry’s acculturation framework, this study examined the roles that perceptions of language proficiency, cultural identity, and communication anxiety had on intergroup attitudes and stereotypes in the American–Chinese contact context. Serial mediation analyses with 10,000 bootstrap samples revealed that perceived English proficiency of a Chinese contact had significant indirect effects on affective and behavioral attitudes toward Chinese through American participants’ perceptions of their contact’s host and home culture identification and communication anxiety. Perceived English proficiency had an indirect effect only on positive stereotypes through the Chinese contact’s perceived identification with home culture.     

The handshake across the vastest ocean of the world—the Exhibition of journeys to peace and Cooperation

“In July 1971,my father Richard Nixon,the then U.S.President,declared that he would visit china at the invitation of chairman mao zedong and Premier zhou enlai of the people‘s republic of china.“     

Beijing University,a Blend of Chinese and Foreign Cultures

BEIJING Universityls one ofthe better-known Institutesof higher learning in China,an educational and research centerdealingwith a variety of subjects,Including science and technology,the humanities,sociology,adminis-tration and pedagogy.Founded 95years ago,it is alma mater to severalgenerations of fine scholars.The Birth of BeijingUniversityImperial College,the predecessor of Beliing University,founded inthe Reform Movement of 1898,wasa combination of Chinese and West-     

“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     

Kim Ki Duk’s promise,Zanussi’s betrayal: film festival,world cinema and the subject of the region

This paper, focusing on the short film, Dear Kim (2009), and a debate between Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi and Marxist intellectual P. Govinda Pillai at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in 1998, attempts to understand the work done by the category of “world cinema” and the institution of the film festival in the formation of the subject of the region, in this case the south Indian state of Kerala. It focuses on the linguistic region formed in post-independence India, thought of as either mirroring or resisting the nation, and as a cultural resource necessary to inhabit the nation as a citizen. The paper argues for a conception of the subject of the region that is performative, where it negotiates multiple horizons of universality simultaneously. While the figure of the citizen provides it with one horizon of universality, the subject is not exhausted by it. In the case of Kerala, through the figuration of a conception of “world,” operationalized through the conduit of “world cinema,” often located in the institutional space of the film festival, the subject is able to access other horizons of universality, enabling it to transcend the particularities that a politics of location imposes on it.     

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 Bookworm：One of the World＇s Ten Greatest Bookshops

<正>Among the Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2011, the Bookworm in Sanlitun, a recreation and cultural destination of downtown Beijing, was listed as one of the ...     

Memory of the Old Capital Exhibition on Beijing＇s traditional courtyard houses on display in Bangkok,Thailand

On March 29, “Memory of the Old Capital： an Exhibition on Beijing＇s Traditional Courtyard Houses”, co-hosted by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage and China Cultural Center in Bangkok, opened in China Cultural Center in Bangkok. Wife of Chinese Ambassador Chu Qingling, former Vice Premier of Thailand and Thailand-China Committee for Cultural Promotion, Chinese Cultural Counselor Chen Jiang,     

The coming crisis of cultural engagement? Measurement,methods, and the nuances of niche activities

ABSTRACT

Do ticketing data and national survey data on attendance tell the same story? This question is particularly important in the context of debates over the power of new forms of data to supplant the “traditional” survey methods that have underpinned our understanding of the social stratification of culture. This paper compares three data sources on attendance: the Active Lives Survey, the Taking Part Survey, and Audience Finder. We first compare self-reported attendance at events in each English local authority from the Active Lives survey with ticket sales data, finding a close relationship. We follow up by comparing the distributions of ticket buyers across the Indices of Multiple Deprivation with those from Taking Part, finding that for widely-ticketed and widely-attended art forms they track closely together, providing support for existing trends. Ticketing data does not seem to offer more information on social stratification than traditional social science sources. However, we extend the comparison through more detailed analysis of subcategories within less well-researched forms – literature and dance events – where numbers of attendees are lower, with accompanying uncertainty in survey sources. We find that the audiences for dance vary widely, with ballet attendance being heavily socially stratified but attendance at contemporary dance much more similar to the general population. However, we find that audiences for literature events are more heavily socially stratified than almost any other art form, almost regardless of the subcategory. The power of new datasets is in offering specificity about artforms, rather than overturning what we know about culture and inequality.