Celebrate Nation,Commemorate History,Embody the Estado Novo: The Exhibition of the Portuguese World (1940)

ABSTRACT

In 1940, the Portuguese regime, named Estado Novo, hosted its biggest national exhibition: the Exhibition of the Portuguese World (EPW).

The event aimed both to commemorate Portuguese history and to justify the teleological nature of the dictatorship. This article discusses the national identity narrative conveyed by the allegorical pavilions conceived for the historical section of the EPW. In examining the ephemeral architecture and the debate which arose among intellectuals at the event, this article explores the process of narration and reinterpretation surrounding the display and elucidates the complex process of reception by the citizenry.     

Affirming conflict and identity in the Korean Peace Park (DMZ) proposals

Abstract

According to their advocates, Peace Parks represent a real and symbolic hope for peace and reconciliation. Peace Parks both create a buffer and a “bridge” for cooperation to generate peace. The South Korean government and elite-led green NGOs are placing the DMZ military buffer zone as a “soft power” Peace Park instrument for peace between the two Korea's. This paper argues that the conventional approaches to explaining the Korean DMZ Peace Park initiatives/proposals fail to address the underlying national identity questions and narratives. These conventional approaches can potentially reinforce conditions for inter-Korean hostility. This is because inter-Korean hostility is based on ongoing contestations from each Korea over what counts as the historically authentic and unified Korean heritage/identity. Contests are also based upon which of the Korea's has the legitimate right to monopolize these master-narratives of what counts as genuine Korean identity. Further investigations of the practices and processes of (South) Korean identity construction through inter-cultural tensions between the two Korea's need to be addressed before a Peace Park as concept and policy can move away from the initiatives that potentially reinforce these contested identity constructions.     

Narratives about the Media,Diet, and Body Image: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between Young Female Adults in the Midwestern United States and South Korea

This paper focuses on analysing college women’s narratives to discover their interpretations of thin ideals and dieting experiences and to compare cultural differences between the USA and Korea. Narrative analysis revealed that US women and Korean women have a different understanding of thin ideals. Both groups experienced social comparisons, social pressure to be thin, and emotional distress regarding appearance. Similarly, they revealed their emotional fluctuations associated with changes in weight. However, there were cultural differences in both groups’ ultimate goals for weight control. Consequently, this study suggests that feelings towards weight control have culturally grounded implications. Future directions are discussed.     

From A (Allende,Che, and Evita) to Z (Zedillo,Chamorro, Menem,and Fujimori): The Transformation of Latin American Culture at the End of the Twentieth Century

Algunas veces profundos, frecuentemente estimulantes y otras veces amenzadores son los cambios que a finales del siglo XX están ocurriendo en el mundo. Gracias a los medios de comunicación es fácil estar informado de acontecimientos como la caída de la Unión Soviética, los cambios de Europa del Este y Asia; pero, aparentemente, estamos menos concientes de los cambios que se están dando en América Latina. El fin de la Guerra Fría, el triunfo de la democracia, el colapso del comunismo, la revolucín tecnológica en las comunicaciones, la economía global, los sistemas de libre mercado y el impacto mundial de la cultura popular de los Estados Unidos, son factores externos que han influido de manera muy profunda en los cambios de América Latina. En esta investigación pretendemos analizar brevemente algunos de los cambios ocurridos en Latinoamérica y discutiremos cuáles fueron las causas de dichos cambios.     

“光州固始”在南迁中原汉人中的地位

历史上的“光州固始”位于今河南省信阳市东部,它北临淮河,南靠大别山。在中国古代,由于战乱和灾荒,包括光州固始在内的中原地区汉人多次大批南迁江左,其中不少人入居闽越。及至宋代,“闽人称祖皆日从光州固始来”。这既是一种历史真实,也是一种文化现象。本文试图从光州固始的自然人文环境和唐代光州固始人的南迁入闽两个方面,阐明光州固始在南迁中原汉人中的地位。     

杨柳青石家大院

南有苏州桃花坞，北有天津杨柳青。知道杨柳青，是因杨柳青年画闻名遐迩，记忆里还有那个很著名的长联。     

Decolonizing love: ambivalent love in contemporary (anti)sexual movements of Taiwan and South Korea*

ABSTRACT

This article problematizes the modern construction of “love” in colonial and contemporary Taiwan and South Korea through historicizing the concept from the nineteenth century to the present. The conception of modern love in East Asia emerged during the late nineteenth century that coincided with the beginnings of civilization and nation-building discourses advocating as a strong mediator for the reconfiguration of social and intimate relationships. In the case of colonial Taiwan and Korea, the colonial governments and intellectuals constantly pivoted on “exceptions” – obscene sex, indecent behavior or illegitimate subjects – to justify their political legitimacy/hegemony to love that prescribed a normative social relationship. Fully embraced by colonial Taiwan and Korea, this mechanism was extended to their postwar regimes; that is, love is celebrated and worshiped without the recognition of its underlying ideology of discrimination and exclusion. I coin the term “love unconscious” to characterize the colonial legacies of love in the contemporary social movements in Taiwan and South Korea. Furthermore I examine how both religious groups and LGBTQ activism were stuck in the “love unconscious” with two cases of contested love: the definition of love in the dictionary, and the rhetoric of love in (anti-)same-sex marriage movements. This article argues that Taiwan and South Korea's LGBTQ and marriage movements are based neither on Western discourses nor inspiration, but are instead driven by the reality and legacy of colonial history. To envisage the decolonization of love is to deconstruct the love unconscious and reconsider the history of colonial love.