A View of Chinese Design Online Virtual Exhibition of Fine Chinese Cultural and Creative Products on the Official Website of China Cultural Center in Seoul

The exhibition includes a total of 60 contemporary Chinese design works,coming from different field of contemporary Chinese society and showing the latest devel...     

Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore: Contesting models

Malaysia and Singapore are good examples of multicultural societies albeit with different acculturation ideologies. Both countries comprise three main ethnic groups but in diametrically opposite proportion. In Malaysia, 50.4% of the population is Malay, 23.7% Chinese, 11% indigenous peoples, 7.1% Indian, and 7.8% other races. In Singapore, the ratio is 74.1% Chinese, 13.4% Malay, 9.2% Indian and 3.3% other races. Due to its colonial past, “ethnicity” has been the central policy issue in Malaysia and remains so up to this day. The dominance of communal politics can be understood in Stephan and Stephan's (2000) model of integrated threat theory. In Singapore, the city-state does not believe in affirmative action and it prefers to manage cultural identities on the basis of a multicultural ideology (Berry and Kalin, 1995, Berry et al., 1977). In this article, multiculturalism is used to refer to public policies carried out by the two countries to manage their plural societies. We will discuss the development of the multicultural models that have evolved in the two countries. While Malaysia's model of multiculturalism is based on policies that have been instituted to manage inter-group tensions, prevent violence, and pursue social justice between the ethnic groups as a result of its past, Singapore's model is guided by pragmatic realism and market fundamentals associated with the needs of a global city. Both models will face challenges in the coming years as they each adapt to the seismic shifts in the geo-economic landscapes.     

A Review on the Ninth Shanghai Film Festival

The ninth Shanghai Film Festival drew a close on June 25, 2006, which coincided with the centennial anniversary of the birth of Chinese lm. For all fans of this lm festival, the happy time during the festival will become a most valuable memory in their lifetime.An International Gala for Filmmakers It has been now generally acknowledged that the international fame of participant lm stars, directors and producers decides the international status of a lm festival. Many international stars hav…     

The disposition of hierarchy and the late Qing 'discourse of gender equality'

The global success of the Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings franchises has become an entry point for the flow of Western fantasy texts into Taiwan, a society that, over many decades, has been a stronghold for traditional Chinese wuxia texts. While Western concepts, themes and ‘worlds’, are coming to Taiwan, wuxia, defined as fantasy in this essay, in return is making an inroad into Western popular culture. By considering local traditions, reception and consumption habits, this essay analyses the market potential for international fantasy on the island, and provides a theoretical background for understanding the dynamics of this genre in one particular cultural location.     

Rethinking the coming home alternative: hybridization and coming out politics in Hong Kong’s anti‐homophobia parades

Abstract

In calling for the need to think about sexuality globally, scholars have given increasing attention to the historical specificities of local contexts. The return to the local, however, may not always be fruitful when the local and the global or the Western and the non‐Western are seen as binary opposites rather than permeable constructs. This paper examines the coming home/coming out controversy and calls into question the understanding of coming home as local resistance against global queering. It instead suggests the possibilities of cultural hybridity and blending of coming out and coming home. Using the First and the Second International Day Against Homophobia Hong Kong Parades as an example, this paper elucidates the complexity of cultural production in the interactions of the West and Non‐West, with attention on the effect of transnational mobility of political rhetoric and tactics.     

On the continuing necessity of anti-Americanism

Abstract

In Hong Kong, even though the Bill of Rights Ordinance (the localized version of ICCPR), Sex Discrimination Ordinance and a series of legal reforms (such as the cancellation of marital exemption of rape and the recognition of sexual discrimination in criminal law) were enacted and introduced respectively since the 1990s, gender/sexual discrimination in the legal discourse still persists; for example: Chinese customary law which only recognizes the male’s right to build small houses in the New Territories remains an exception under the Sex Discrimination Ordinance; the government insists on not tabling an anti‐sexual‐orientation discrimination bill; the right to same sex marriage/partnership is still absent from any legal‐political agenda; and so on. Some politicians and academics argue that any attempt to transplant a Euro‐American individual‐centric perspective of gender/sexual equality/justice will violate the Han‐Chinese culture of harmony. In the paper, I will adopt a critical perspective in examining the above argument and examine why harmony politics becomes a meta‐narrative in Han‐Chinese socio‐legal culture and how human nature/subjectivity is re‐constituted in such a context. I will further argue that a culture should always be meticulously and critically represented and investigated in order to reproduce ‘gender/sexual justice’. I will also investigate the possibility of scrutinizing and exploring the spaces of resistance within the Han‐Chinese socio‐legal culture in Hong Kong, where foreign theory of gender/sexual justice/equality and related legal reforms can be engaged to politicize current discrimination and suppression.     

Forty years on

The election of the New Labour Government in 1997 led to the end of a strand of museum policy that had begun with the publication of the Survey of Provincial Museums and Galleries (the Rosse Report) in 1963. Comparison of the substantial data relating to the usage, governance, management and resources of museums in Rosse with the position at the end of the twentieth century shows how the museums landscape has (or has not) changed during the intervening period. Both National and non-National museums have seen their financial resources grow in a way that has outpaced Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is both a reflection of, and stimulus for, increasing public interest in the heritage. However, the museum sector has not been the stable entity of popular perception, and museums have closed or amalgamated as well as opened and developed new projects. For most of the 40 years government policy for museums has been ad hoc, and it is only since 1997 that museums have been the subject of strategic direction, exemplified for non-National museums by the Renaissance in the Regions initiative. The £147 million to be spent on this scheme by 2007/08 represents an unmatched level of investment. However, it has focused resources on the large regional museums rather than the previous more equal distribution, increasing the risk that the museum sector will atomize rather than continue the process of coming together that had been taking place previously. Rosse's main recommendation, the creation of area museum councils, endured for 40 years. Renaissance's larger budget makes current levels of support vulnerable without some formal (perhaps legislative) framework to anchor it within government. While this approach is increasingly popular in other European nations, it still represents a challenge for cultural policy in the nations of the UK.     

Coping with the threat of westernization in Hong Kong

Most developing countries show great concern that they will compromise their cultural integrity if they import foreign models of economic development. The Chinese in Hong Kong have been dealing with this problem since they were colonized in 1841. This paper explores their various responses to this potential threat. Tajfel's (Tajfel, H. (1974). Social Science Information13, 65–93) social identity theory is advanced as a theoretical tool in considering (a) how Chinese understand Westernization throughout history and in contemporary Hong Kong, and (b) how they stereotype themselves and various relevant groups. It is hoped that this analysis will be of some value to persons in countries considering the problem of importing models of development.     

An overview of Chinese American poetry studies: 1988–2018

ABSTRACT

Chinese American poetry, with its socio-cultural and aesthetic values, chronicles Chinese American personal and collective experiences in the past 160 years. The review of Chinese American poetry studies from 1988 to 2018 shows that research on Chinese American poetry has generally progressed through three stages: identity studies, literary aesthetic studies and philosophical studies. From the emphasis on identity studies to the call of aesthetic studies, the critical discourse in Chinese American poetry has developed in the shadow of Chinese American literary criticism and has not yet formed its own critical paradigms. For this, the philosophical study of Chinese American poetry shows its strength and opens up a broader space for the future research. This critical approach must benefit the study of other Chinese (or Asian) American literary genres. Though this paper has divided the studies into three categories, the actual critical practices are usually more complex and comprehensive, thus future researchers should have more profound and interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of Chinese American poetry.     

Teaching French as a Second Language to Chinese students: Instructional staff adaptation and intercultural competence development

This case study is an analysis of second language instructors’ processes of adaptation to Chinese students at a small French University. More precisely, in this qualitative case study, it will be shown that the instructional staff's adaptation to an unfamiliar work environment and student population contributed to the development of their intercultural competence. Moreover, it will be argued that such competence was not developed to its full potential. Finally, we offer recommendations for teacher education programs at the end of the article.     

English Faces Challenges Worldwide

Those who can only speak English will be no longer as advantaged as they are now. English has been the widest-used international language for decades, but you will be wrong if you think fluency only in English can still be an advantage in competition. Now you have to speak Chinese.[第一段]     

A modern Odyssey on the Ancient Trade Route

For thousands of years,only humans and horses treaded the mountains of Southwest China as they follwed an ancient patheway through the Chinese hiterlands and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.[第一段]     

Experimenter language choice and ethnic affirmation by Chinese trilinguals in Hong Kong

When communicating with a member of his or her ethnic in-group, a multilingual typically uses his common first language. If, however, the multilingual uses a common second or third language, we believe this choice will indicate his or her endorsement of attitudes believed to be held by that language out-group. An audience will respond to this implicit statement by a shift in its ethnically relevant altitudes either towards or away from the position of the speaker. Convergence is assumed to occur if relations between the language communities are harmonious, ethnic affirmation if relations are hostile. To explore this reasoning, experimenters addressed Chinese trilinguals in their first language of Cantonese, their second language of English, or their third language of Mandarin. When instructed in Mandarin, subjects assumed their experimenter held more traditional Chinese beliefs and they themselves completed a measure of traditional Chinese beliefs in a more Western direction. Although most Hong Kong students at university are ambivalent about their colonial status under Great Britain, they oppose Hong Kong's reversion to China in 1997 and are threatened by this prospect. Consequently, we believe that they responded to an experimenter speaking the Mandarin language of China by affirming a more Western identity.     

Mapping transnationality and flexible citizenship in Ha Jin’s The Boat Rocker

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the issues of identity crises caused by transcultural exchange, the political unconscious of the rise of China, and the cultural politics of transnationality in Ha Jin’s The Boat Rocker. The Boat Rocker is a novel which reveals the betrayal, displacement, and conspiracy lurking behind such concepts as national loyalty, trust in traditional values, and identification with one’s roots. The Boat Rocker is also a timely reflection of the momentous election year of 2016 in which it was written, addressing fears of foreign-sponsored sedition, propaganda and the manipulation of media, the malleability of public opinion, the unholy alliance between the U.S. and Chinese state governance, and the post 9/11 political environment which led the U.S. to that point. The novel takes the form of a self-reflexive dialogue in which China sees itself reflected in America and America in China. In the process of exchanging languages and culture, the Chinese characters adapt to the American way of life, producing a unique form of Americanness with special Chinese characteristics.     

Foreign involvement in China's colleges and universities: A historical perspective

For over a century foreign educators have entered China as teachers and administrators. While political turmoil and change has dictated the numbers and the nationalities of those participating, there has been no period since the 1860s when foreign educators were absent from Chinese institutions of higher learning. The purpose of this study is to look at the role played by these foreigners and to judge how they perceived their responsibilities in China and how the Chinese viewed their presence.The introduction of this study outlines the differences between Chinese and foreigners concerning educational mission and pedagogical issues. Because of divergent cultural backgrounds, the differences prove striking. The second section of the study takes a look at the role of foreigners in China's higher education system from the days of the Qing dynasty up to the present.This study shows that, despite a new wave of openness in China today, foreign and Chinese educators still face cross-cultural problems that foster misunderstanding and distrust. While the future may hold promise for more understanding, the immediate past and present give no hints of such changes arriving soon.     

Verbal and nonverbal indices of the communicative performance and acculturation of Chinese immigrants

This paper develops a theoretical framework for examining the acculturation process of immigrants. Focusing on communication variables, it suggests five levels of analysis for assessing acculturation as a continuous rather than dichotomous variable: the speech act level, ritualistic communication, strategic communication, the organization of conversational discourse, and verbal information processing. Examples from research on Chinese communication are utilized to illustrate important differences between Chinese and Americans at each level of analysis. The use of this perspective offers the twofold promise of improving our understanding of “acculturation processes” in general as well as our understanding of the particular everyday communicative actions of immigrant groups. Research on Chinese communication patterns using this perspective will increase our knowledge of Chinese and American interrelations, in addition to providing insight aimed at developing better indices of acculturation of Chinese in the United States.     

Further examining the role motivation to study abroad plays in the adaptation of international students in Canada

We investigated the role self-determined motivation and the goals international students have for studying abroad play in the adaptation of international students. We studied samples of international students from three Canadian Universities at the beginning of an academic year (N = 228) and at the end of the same year (N = 72). The results supported the hypotheses that autonomous motivation to study abroad is a predictor of students’ various adjustment outcomes at different times of the academic year and that the preservation goals have a weaker negative effect upon the adjustment outcomes and this effect is relatively independent from the effect of autonomy. These results are consistent with the previous study of Chinese international students in Belgium and Canada [Chirkov, V.I., Vansteenkiste, M., Tao, R., & Lynch, M. (2006). The role of motivation to study abroad in the adaptation of international students: A self-determination theory approach. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31(2), 199–222]. The role that gender, marital status and country of origin play in moderating these relations is also studied and discussed. The main conclusion further justifies the importance of motivation in understanding the adjustment dynamics of various groups of migrants.     

Intercultural relations among migrants from Caucasus and Russians in Moscow

This study examines intercultural relations in post-Soviet Russia. Russia currently has the world’s second highest number of immigrants with most migrants coming from the former Soviet Union, mainly the Central Asian and South Caucasian states. The research was carried out in Moscow, which is the most attractive destination for these immigrants. The paper presents the findings of an empirical study with migrants (N = 378) and residents of Moscow (N = 651) examining their intercultural relations, including their acceptance of multicultural ideology, intercultural contacts, intercultural strategies and mutual adaptation. The study was guided by three general hypotheses: the integration, the multicultural and the contact hypotheses. Data processing was carried out using path analysis, separately for migrants and Muscovites. For both samples, multicultural ideology predicts the strategy of integration positively, and of assimilation negatively. Intercultural contacts predict both acculturation strategies positively for migrants, but not for Muscovites. For migrants, both strategies positively predict life satisfaction, and integration predicts better sociocultural adaptation. For Muscovites, integration predicts life satisfaction. These specific findings fully support the two underlying hypotheses: integration and multicultural for both groups and contact hypothesis only for migrants. Multicultural ideology has positive relation to intercultural contacts of Muscovites and has indirect positive impact on intercultural strategies of migrants. Models demonstrated similar as well as different psychological processes underlying mutual acculturation and intercultural relations in the two groups. The similarities suggest that efforts should be directed at developing a multicultural ideology and facilitating intercultural contacts between migrants and members of the larger society.     

Communication Experiences and Adaptation of Mainland Chinese in Hong Kong and Hong Kong Chinese in Mainland China

In-depth interviews were conducted for 203 Hong Kong Chinese in Mainland China (HIM) and 198 Mainland Chinese in Hong Kong (MIH), followed by two-level theme analyses, to examine their communication experiences and adaptation. The two groups were found to be dissimilar in terms of socioeconomic status, purpose of migration, and process of adaptation. Many HIM tended to evaluate the new environment from a “new workplace” view, mentioning adjustment and communication at workplace. Most MIH, on the other hand, used a “new home” approach, expecting a happy life with good income. The major challenge for most HIM was getting used to a less developed physical environment and an organizational culture with lower efficiency and work ethics. For most MIH, the main source of hardship came from insufficient protection for workers’ rights and interests. Hong Kong is more urbanized with superficial relationships while the Mainland society is more communal, nurturing long-term relationships.