Usāma Ibn Munqidh's Lubāb al-Ādāb (The Kernels of Refinement): Autobiographical and Historical Excerpts

Usāma ibn Munqidh (d. 584/1188) is best known for his “memoirs” entitled Kitāb al-i?ibār, which provides a personal and detailed window into the world of an aristocratic Syrian Muslim in the period of the Crusades. But scholars have almost completely ignored a lesser-known work by Usāma called Lubāb al-ādāb or The Kernels of Refinement. This anthology consists mostly of poetic excerpts relating to adab, the ideal conduct of the male courtier, but, scattered throughout, it also contains a handful of narrative anecdotes about Usāma and his times very much akin to the material found in his “memoirs”: tales of admirable behaviour, of encounters with the Franks, of Usāma's family, and the daily life of the elites of his day. This article presents these narrative extracts translated into English for the first time, with commentary, and with the intention that The Kernels of Refinement will attract the attention it deserves from both Arabists and non-Arabists.     

‘Somewhere over the rainbow’: global projections/local allusions in Tears of the Black Tiger/Fa thalai jone

Abstract

When director Wisit Sasanatieng’s retro cowboy flick Fa thalai jone (2000 Wisit, Sasanatieng. 2000. Tears of the Black Tiger (Fa thalai jone)  [Google Scholar]) became the first Thai film to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2001, under the English‐language title Tears of the Black Tiger, Thai cinema seemed to have truly ‘gone international’. This paper examines the striking disparity, however, in the reception of the film by local and global audiences, to the extent that Fa thalai jone and Tears of the Black Tiger might arguably be understood as two discrete and divergent cinematic texts at the level of viewer signification. For Western critics, ‘Tears…’ is unquestionably a piece of postmodern filmmaking, awash with surface aesthetic appeal, intertextual richness and an apparently unrelenting obsession with style that is seemingly devoid of an original reference point. Fa thalai jone, by contrast connotes distinct meanings for Thai audiences, who are more fully attuned to the original references the film pursues and able to read the aesthetic appeal it has to offer in a framework beyond that of the dominant ‘force field’ of interpretation that postmodernism has come to be in the West. Instead Fa thalai jone offers a homage to Thailand’s cinematic past, posing as a ‘genuine Thai film’ (phaphayon thai thae) and comprehended in terms of an alternative dominant force field of meaning, that of traditionalism and reverence for the past. This paper examines the ways in which Tears of the Black Tiger/Fa thalai jone straddles two alternative interpretive positions in an accomplished move on the part of the director to pursue the globally focused aspirations of modern Thai cinema while remaining idiosyncratically faithful to local sensibilities.     

Ganga Bahadur’s books: landmark proletarian novels and the Nepali communist movement

Based on literary research and interviews conducted in Kathmandu, this article takes as its starting point the contents of a bookcase belonging to an ex-Maoist combatant now living in retirement in Kathmandu and the “syllabus” promulgated by the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) for the ideological training of its cadres. It goes on to chronicle the process by which a number of “landmark ‘proletarian novels’” (Denning 2007 Denning, Michael. 2007. “The Novelists’ International.” In The Novel, edited by Franco Moretti. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar], 706) came to be translated into Nepali from Russian and Chinese, and the ways in which Maoist cadres were inspired and influenced by these works during the course of the “People’s War” in Nepal between 1996 and 2006. Finally, the discussion moves to a consideration of the relationship between the impact of these translated texts in the Nepali context and broader conceptualizations of “world literature.”     

The eloquence of the taciturn: an essay on Hou Hsiao‐Hsien

Abstract

Dust in the Wind, a color film set in the verdant mountains of Taiwan, includes two scenes almost identical to the black‐and‐white and silent films by the Lumières, shot at the end of the nineteenth century: Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat and Passage Through a Railway Tunnel. As Hou’s mise‐en‐scène consists of the fixed camera angle with its long takes, it is the means of transportation that brings motion to the film, controlling dramatic elements of each work. The luxury cars, which appear in his first three romantic comedies, symbolize the rich and the motorbike the common people. The drivers are all young women, but an automobile cannot be a setting for love. In Daughter of the Nile and Goodbye South, Goodbye, the cars offer no protection to men trying to escape. Compared with the thematic negativity that the automobile possess in Hou’s universe, the motion of the passing trains, taken from many angles, offers rich and profound significations. When the camera is inside the train, the protagonists are taciturn, such as the two adolescents in Dust in the Wind who show their intimacy with each other without saying words. When the camera is next to the tracks or on the platform, the situation changes. In A Time to Live, A Time to Die, Hou depicts the grandmother sitting next to her grandson at a shop by the train and sipping sweet ice while behind them passes a freight train that emphasizes the anxious solitude of the old woman exiled from her homeland. A sublime depiction of the sense of powerlessness of both the deaf‐mute photographer and his family before a passing train is the scene on the deserted platform in A City of Sadness. In Café Lumière, the young woman and her friend in the passing train recognize how valuable they are to each other without saying words. This taciturnity suggests a certain kind of love that needs no sexual language.     

Reinventing Nagasaki: the Christianization of Nagasaki and the revival of an imperial legacy in postwar Japan

This paper explores how Nagasaki was reinvented from an imperial city to an “International Cultural, Christian city” and elicits the continuity of Japanese imperialism in postwar Nagasaki as well as the discontinuity between the war and postwar periods in the city. The paper seeks to determine what history and whose memory have been excluded or erased in the process of remaking Nagasaki into an international Christian city; it examines the particular historical and political conditions that enabled Nagai Takashi, Urakami Catholics and Kitamura Seibou’s Memorial Peace Statue to symbolize Nagasaki’s atomic bomb memory and postwar city identity as an “International Christian city” that “prays.” While Nagai is widely known as a spiritual, religious leader in postwar Nagasaki/Japan, and Kitamura’s Peace Memorial statue dominates Nagasaki’s commemoration space, this paper analyses how US dominance over Japan enabled the country to rehabilitate its imperial past and to revive the imperial legacy by appropriating the GHQ’s (General Headquarters of the Allied Powers’) demilitarization and Christianization policies. It argues that Nagasaki’s postwar reconstruction signifies the failure of what Kuan-Hsing Chen (2010 Chen, Kuan-Hsing. 2010. Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization. Durham and London: Duke University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) calls the “deimperialization” of Japanese consciousness and subjectivity.     

Muslim Persecution of Heretics during the Marwānid Period (64–132/684–750)

This article traces the emergence of a systematic approach to combating heresy during the Umayyad period. It argues that the Umayyads sought to silence religious dissent by labelling it as heresy and that the doctrinal boundaries of “orthodoxy” narrowed as the Umayyad period progressed. The article also asserts that Umayyad efforts to impose their vision of orthodoxy were an important precedent for the mi?na under the ?Abbāsids.     

Thai democracy and the October (1973–1976) events

Abstract

Thai Democracy: Three Decades After October 14 (in Thai) edited by historian Charnvit Kasetsiri (2003 Charnvit, Kasetsiri, ed. 2003. Thai Democracy: Three Decades After October 14 (Sam Thotsawat 14 Tula kab Prachatipatai), Bangkok: Foundation for the Promotion of Social Science and Humanities Textbooks Project. (In Thai.). Public Lectures Open University Series, [Google Scholar]) offers an entrée into understanding how Thailand’s 1970s social movements and state violence register in current politics and Thai historiography. The anthology was put together to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the October 14, 1973 uprising, which led to the temporary exile of the past military regime. The contributors are varied across the academic disciplines, with speeches and newspaper articles by public intellectuals, politicians, and poet/writers. Those in Thai and Southeast Asian Studies will find this an invaluable resource. For those who do not read Thai, the VCD provides two English subtitled documentaries produced by Charnvit Kasetsiri. One features the historical events and the other is a walking tour of the numerous landmarks of the October 14, 1973 uprising.     

Working practices in Thai independent film production and distribution 1

Abstract

In the late 1990s, independent Thai films became a new burgeoning industry, with the beginnings of international recognition. Taking three case studies, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mysterious Object at Noon (), Thunska Pansittivorakul’s Voodoo Girls (2003 Thunska, Pansittivorakul. 2004. Personal interview, 19 February [Google Scholar]) and Aditya Assarat and Mingmongkol Sonakul’s Ma‐mee/ Three Friends (), I argue that the digital format for DVD/VCDs is paving the way for independent filmmakers/producers to participate in the art film market abroad and to cut production costs. Following the economics of money flows makes it clear that ‘independent film’ in Thailand is less about economic independence than a type of branding and packaging of aesthetics and content. While film, economically, is never outside the workings of capital, the content and style of the three film projects considered here seek to break out of the conventions set by the commercial Thai film narrative style.     

Labour relations in Korea between crisis management and living solidarity

Abstract

This paper examines the ambiguous nature of Murakami's criticism toward the postwar Japanese condition – as the artist most effectively captured in his phrase ‘A Little Boy,’ which was also the title of his curated exhibition at the Japan Society of New York in 2005 Murakami, Takashi. 2005. “‘Earth in my window’”. In Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, Edited by: Murakami, Takashi. 98–149. New York and New Haven: The Japan Society and Yale University Press. Linda Hoaglund (trans.) [Google Scholar]. As Murakami wrote in his introduction to the catalogue, demilitarized Japan after the Second World War underwent a collective sense of helplessness, and the metaphor of a little boy is intended to describe Japan's supposedly unavoidable reliance on its big brother, America. The name ‘Little Boy,’ in fact, originates from the code name used by the American military for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The proliferation of ‘cuteness’ in Japanese contemporary art, which draws upon youth culture, especially otaku culture, evinces a common urge among the postwar generation in Japan to escape from their horrible memories and sense of powerlessness. Murakami's rhetorical analysis of Japan's self‐image seems, however, contradictory, given his extremely aggressive business tactics, which can find no counterpart in the Western art world – not even in the efforts of Murakami's predecessor, Andy Warhol. Like My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), whose hyper sexuality defies its pubescent and immature appearance, his art, theory, and art marketing indicate the paradoxical nature of his theory of impotence. By focusing on his manifesto and writings published on the occasion of his 2005 Murakami, Takashi. 2005. “‘Earth in my window’”. In Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, Edited by: Murakami, Takashi. 98–149. New York and New Haven: The Japan Society and Yale University Press. Linda Hoaglund (trans.) [Google Scholar] exhibition and his style of managing Kaikai Kiki Ltd., this paper delves into the dual nature of Murakami's interpretation of postwar Japanese art and culture, particularly in relation to those of America.     

Developing Teaching-Specific Spanish Competencies in Bilingual Teacher Education: Toward a Culturally,Linguistically, and Professionally Relevant Approach

The emergence of K-12 bilingual/dual-language schools¹¹ Although we recognize the distinction between “dynamic” forms of bilingualism characteristic of bilingual education programs and “compartmentalized” forms generally characteristic of “dual-language” programs (García, 2014), in this article we employ the term “bilingual/dual-language education” to include both programmatic approaches and to reclaim the term “bilingual.”View all notes in the United States require bilingual teacher education programs across the nation continue to “build on the language strengths”²² See Zentella (2005).View all notes of bilingual teacher candidates and provide them with ample opportunities to acquire the language competencies needed for teaching content-area knowledge across the bilingual curriculum. Although the need to prepare linguistically qualified bilingual/dual-language teachers is relevant to all language programs comprising the bilingual teacher education field, in this article the authors describe a culturally, linguistically, and professionally relevant approach for developing the teaching-specific Spanish language competencies of future bilingual teachers. Educating the new generation of linguistically qualified bilingual educators calls for an engaged and responsive pedagogy that will prepare teachers to orchestrate K-12 teaching and learning experiences where languages (Spanish, in this particular case) function as multidimensional bodies encompassing and empowering the cultures and funds of knowledge teachers and students bring to the classroom.     

Postcolonial film historiography in Taiwan and South Korea: The Puppetmaster and Chihwaseon

Abstract

This essay is concerned with the ways in which postcolonial historiography is inscribed in cinema. Two representative films of Taiwan and South Korea, The Puppetmaster by Hou Hsiao‐Hsien ¹ 1. Names in Chinese, Korean and Japanese are written in the order of family name followed by given name. For example, Hou Hsiao‐Hsien, Im Kwontaek. and Chihwaseon by Im Kwontaek are compared, not only to understand the working of de‐colonization in the cinematic apparatus but also to understand the impact, effects of colonial history. The notion of postcolonial filmmaking as an alternative construction of the archive is evoked to locate film practice in the intersecting spaces of repository, historiography, cinematic representation and social memory. Hence, these two films are cited as instances of illuminating retrospection on fractured pasts, the almost‐invisible archive and the future cinematically envisioned by suggesting a sustainable postcolonial episteme in the age of global spectatorship.     

The Effects of National Culture and Face Concerns on Intention to Apologize: A Comparison of the USA and China

The current study examined national culture differences between US American and Chinese participants (N?=?317) regarding face need concerns and apology intention, based on positive and negative face needs (Brown & Levinson, 1987 Brown, P and Levinson, SC. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usages, Cambridge, , UK: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and concerns for self-face and other-face (Ting-Toomey, 2005 Ting-Toomey, S. 2005. “The matrix of face: An updated face-negotiation theory”. In Theorizing about intercultural communication, Edited by: Gudykunst, WB. 71–92. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  [Google Scholar]). Participants read vignettes that varied in relationship types (in-group vs. out-group members) and situation types (negative face vs. positive face threatening) and responded to scales measuring realism of the vignettes, intention to apologize, and five types of face need concerns. The findings showed that Chinese participants, compared to US Americans, had stronger intentions to apologize when their acts threatened the other person's positive face, while US American participants, compared to Chinese, had stronger intentions to apologize when their acts threatened the other's negative face. Other findings and implications thereof are discussed.     

Spectral city: San Francisco as Pacific Rim city and counter‐cultural contado

Abstract

San Francisco, since its global takeoff in the Gold Rush Days and long‐standing trafficking in Bohemian, socialist, queer, and left‐leaning energies in and beyond the Beat era of the 1960s, has a complicated global/local history of trying to disentangle its city‐space and urban imaginary from the Greco‐Roman will‐to‐supremacy that would turn California into a frontier settlement of Asian/Pacific domination and US‐framed empire. Forces of social becoming like the Beats and post‐Beat hippies as well as more experimental authors like Jack Spicer, Maxine Hong Kingston, Frank Chin, and Bob Kaufman helped to forge a different literary‐social vision of San Francisco and the Pacific Rim city as a porous community of transnational innovation and outer‐national becoming. This paper will invoke some literary and film texts from Howl and Tripmaster Monkey to Vertigo to Margaret Cho stand‐up performances as well as some geopolitical studies, such as Gray Brechin’s Imperial San Francisco and City Light Press’s Reclaiming San Francisco to substantiate this double vision of San Francisco as global/local US site of (a) imperial ratification and (b) counter‐orientalist deformation.     

Hollywood domination of the Chinese kung fu market

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the cultural significance of three emerging Chinese kung fu films in their recent box office success in global film market. The paper aims to provide an integrative framework that shows how Hollywood’s global dominance in both film consumption and production contributes to the success of the newly Chinese Kung Fu films. Focusing on marketing strategies of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, this study argues that the economic success of the three films represent further regulation of Hollywood. In production, the NICL thesis is at work with a particular collaboration pattern among the transnational Chinese film talent communities. In distribution and exhibition, this paper contends that global box office achievement fails to contribute directly to any Chinese film industry. Autonomy is seen between Hollywood film majors and Chinese filmmakers when consumption of these films becomes a global phenomenon.     

Learning Culturally Relevant Practices: Facing Developmental Roadblocks

In the Filipino language, kuwento means “story,” but the concept itself encapsulates more than its literal meaning. Similar to talk story events in Hawaiian communities (Au &; Jordan, 1981 Au, K. and Jordan, C. 1981. “Teaching reading to Hawaiian children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution”. In Culture and bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography, Edited by: Trueba, H., Guthrie, B. P. and Au, K. H. 139–152. Rowley, MA: Newbury.  [Google Scholar]), kuwento serves as a tool to communicate everyday experiences within groups, especially among family and community members (Eugenio, 1981 Eugenio, D. L. 1981. Philippine folk literature: An anthology., Diliman, Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Folklorists.  [Google Scholar]). It is an abstraction of history, congealing experience into a chain of events. It is what Bakhtin (1981) Bakhtin, M. M. 1981. The dialogic imagination: Four essays by M. M. Bakhtin., Austin: University of Texas Press.  [Google Scholar] would call a unique speech experience—one that is shaped and developed in continuous and constant interaction with others. Kuwento is largely influenced by other people's words and ideas that eventually become incorporated into one's own. Like story and storytelling, kuwento takes many forms and can be used in the classroom during sharing time to construct and activate newer understandings (Cazden, 1994 Cazden, C. B. 1994. “What is sharing time for?”. In The need for story: Cultural diversity in classroom and community, Edited by: Dyson, A. H. and Genishi, C. 72–79. Urbana, IL: NCTE.  [Google Scholar]; Michaels, 1981 Michaels, S. 1981. “Sharing time”: Children's narrative styles and differential access to literacy. Language in Society., 10: 423–442. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the case of paucity in classroom material, the teacher can engage students to learn through her/his own writing (Vascellaro &; Genishi, 1994 Vascellaro, S. and Genishi, C. 1994. “All things that mattered”: Stories written by teachers for children”. In The need for story: Cultural diversity in classroom and community, Edited by: Dyson, A. H. and Genishi, C. 172–198. Urbana, IL: NCTE.  [Google Scholar]) and her/his own construction of oral stories in different participant structures (Phillips, 1972 Phillips, S. 1972. “Participant structures and communicative competence: Warm Springs children in community and classroom”. In Functions of language in the classroom, Edited by: Cazden, C., John, V. and Hymes, D. 370–394. New York: Teachers College Press.  [Google Scholar]). As we shall see in the case of Filipino Heritage Studies, the teacher's use of reflective- and real-time stories conveys the importance of history and present-day realities both in his and his students' lives. Although kuwento is also present in other participant structures, this article focuses on the teacher's whole-class lecture during a unit on the Philippine American War.     

Making music in transitional societies: a case study of Poland

Although many commentators emphasize the fact that when the arguments about quality of life in a particular place are brought about, “the value of music is found … in making the city a place in which people wish to live” (Blake & Jeffery, 2000 Blake, A. and Jeffery, G. 2000. Commentary: The implications of “The value of music in London” for local and regional music policy. Cultural Trends, 38: 35–40. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar]). However, there are still only a handful of studies investigating different aspects of the cultural industries in Poland. The research reported in this article aims to investigate Polish musicians' perceptions of their current situation in the music industry, and their opinions on the changing nature of the production and consumption of music in Poland. A series of interviews were done with a cross-section of different generations of musicians. Their analysis shows a number of key themes emerging, which are discussed in the article. They broadly cover four major issues: the current situation of musicians, the music business, education and society. Recommendations for policy makers are indicated.     

An Ottoman Preacher's Perception of a Medieval Cosmography: Maḥmūd al-Haṭīb's Translation of Kharīdat al-ʿAjāʾib wa Farīḍat al-Gharāʾib

The ninth/fifteenth century Arabic work, Kharīdat al-?Ajā?ib wa Farī?at al-Gharā?ib, ascribed to Ibn al-Wardī (d. 861/1457), was frequently translated into Ottoman Turkish and widely read by the Ottoman literati between the tenth/sixteenth and thirteenth/nineteenth centuries. The most popular translation of the Kharīdat al-?Ajā?ib that is extant today with more than thirty copies in libraries worldwide was made by the tenth/sixteenth century Ottoman preacher Ma?mūd al-Ha?īb. Within the context of Medieval Islamic cosmographical works and their translations, which have potential to shed light on the Ottoman worldview in the early modern era, this paper delves into the extra-textual statements of the translator in the form of eye-witness accounts and contemporary hearsay. By doing so, it argues that Ma?mūd al-Ha?īb's intervention in the text he translated not only provides him with grounds for confirmation of the worldview promoted in the Kharīdat al-?Ajā?ib, but also expressions on certain issues related to sixteenth century Ottoman rule.     

Capturing the vanishing point: Subjective experiences and cultural value

This article is prompted by the observation that many accounts of the value of the arts and culture have failed to engage first-order, empirical data and to take full account of the experiences of those directly involved in cultural activities and practices. This neglect is the result of a complex path dependency. The more obvious explanation is that the current situation is caused by too much humanism in the field of cultural studies, that is, the tendency to think of cultural value as an “‘ineffable’ human moment which somehow lies outside this purview of representational method” (Law, J., Rupert, E., & Savage, M. [2011 Law, J., Rupert, E., & Savage, M. (2011). The double social life of methods. Milton Keynes: CRESC. [Google Scholar]]. The double social life of methods. Milton Keynes: CRESC). This may well be true in some cases but it is not the main reason why empirical and experiential data have been lacking. The absence of the phenomenological dimension is, to the contrary, best explained by not enough humanism in cultural studies. The reluctance to embrace the first-person perspective was motivated by an anxiety that this would make cultural theorists and sociologists complicit with the “dubious” theories of subjecthood originating in idealism. The default outcome of this has been the preponderance of structuralism in cultural studies which led to anti-empiricism and “theoretical heavy breathing” (Thompson, E. P. [1995]. The poverty of theory: Or an orryery of errors. London: Merlin Press). I argue that to overcome the current impasse, cultural theorists and the theorists of cultural value specifically must revisit this self-incurred suspicion of first-order constructs and address their unease with the category of experience by actively engaging first-person data. In short, the remedy I prescribe is to embrace elements of empirical, phenomenological sociology as part of the methodological framework. Looking at three projects funded by the AHRC Cultural Value Project, I show how this can be practically achieved. I conclude with some reflections on how the considerations presented here might have broader implications for the future research into cultural value, sociological inquiry and cultural policy.     

Outside in: ‘accented cinema’ at large

Abstract

This paper aims to engage in a critical analysis of the concept of ‘accented cinema’ recently developed by Hamid Naficy to refer to the emergent genre of exilic/diasporic filmmaking. Naficy’s theorization of ‘accented cinema’ in particular and discussions around exilic/diasporic cinema in general will be challenged on the basis of the observation that the cinematic styles and thematic preoccupations associated with exilic/diasporic films consistently appear also in wide‐ranging examples of contemporary ‘world’ cinema that are often classified under the rubric of ‘national cinemas’. To illustrate this observation, the paper provides a parallel reading of three recent films – A Time for Drunken Horses (1999) by Kurdish‐Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi, Happy Together (1997) by Hong Kong director Wong kar‐wai, and Distant (2002) by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan – whose directors cannot possibly be considered as ‘exilic/diasporic’ in a conventional sense. Yet, it will be argued, the styles and thematic concerns associated with exilic/diasporic cinema manifestly prevail in all three films discussed in this paper as well as in many other examples of contemporary ‘world’ cinema. Departing from this observation, the paper will open up the new genre of ‘accented cinema’ to further questioning and suggest that unless the mutual entanglement between exilic/diasporic filmmaking and national cinema is disclosed, the notion of ‘accented cinema’ will not be sufficiently able to realize its critical potential.     

The De Kretser case: a note on Sri Lankan writing in English

Abstract

How is the content of a literary canon, or tradition to be configured? What counts as a literary archive? More than 25 years after Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978 Said, W. Edward. 1978. Orientalism, New York: Vintage.  [Google Scholar]), it seems reasonable to assume, that central to such traditions, would be the work of those who live and work in the society that gives rise to it. In this review, such a location of Michele de Kretser’s new novel, The Hamilton Case, is offered, as a caution to metropolitan literary critics who continue to approach Sri Lankan writing in English, as Christopher Columbus approached ‘America’. It is argued that the novel owes much to, and can be read as echoing and elaborating the detective fiction of S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, who was, also, the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 1956–59.