DRAGON WELL GREEN THE AT WEST LAKE

Dragon well is a prominent type of green tea produced at the West Lake resort where the village of dragon well is surrounded by undulating hills and winding brooks. The unique ecological and geographic conditions of the village give the rise of dragon well green tea which is noted for emerald greenness, lingering fragrance, mellow taste and beautiful shape.     

FOLK PAPER-CUT ART OF RUICHANG

Folk paper-cut works pasted in village houses of rustic simplicity fascinate tourists at their first glance of Ruichang, a historic town in the southern province of Jiangxi. Those villagers-made creations with authentic, vigorous and plain appeal outshine even masterpieces by many artists with academic training. Exaggerated and transmogrified designs betray innocent, unadorned and romantic pursuits of local artisans.     

Opera of Zeng Family： A Theatric Legend

T he repertoire of Meng opera is mostly involved with the legend about Meng Jiangnu wailing in the Great Wall which happened in the Qin Dynasty. This theatric expression can date back to the mid-Ming Dynasty. Five hundred years of evolution have made it a folk art form integrating clan sacri ce and theatric performance. There is a popular legend about the origin of Meng opera. It is said that in 1447, Zeng Zihua, an ancestor of Zeng family in Chixi, carried his blind mother on his back a…     

THE ART OF CLAMP-RESIST DYEING

On October 30, 2007, Chen Songyao took out the two flower-print boards stored in his closet for years and to his surprise, strong herbal fragrance from the board made him so refreshed. After more than one decade of stand-by,these two old print boards were again used for producing Chinese blue calico in the clamp-resist dyeing.     

THE GAME OF GO AND SONG-DYNASTY GO STONES

Recently,I was lucky to see a set of go stones made in the Ding Kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty,The ceramic go stones feel so delicate and glossy as if the black ones were like lacquer and white ones like jade.     

798： Beijing＇s Soho Art Village

In Dashanzi outside the northeast 4th loop road in Beijing, there is a factory numbered 798. Old residents in Beijing perhaps know that it was a secret factory in the past. But now it has become a world famous Soho art village.     

FOUNDATION OF THE FORUM OF CULTURE AND ARTS OF UZBEKISTAN：BRINGING PEOPLE CLOSER

Foundation of the Forum of Culture and Arts of Uzbeldstan today is well known not only in Uzbekistan, but also abroad. Initially created for promotion of national arts and culture on international arena, the Foundation has developed a wide scope of activities in various directions of culture,     

On the edge of Bandung: folk fellowship and repair

This article explores the strategies employed towards achieving post-colonial repair and transformation by a small village in Indonesia though the case of the Peasant Union's activism, interpreted by a Jamaican Rastafari considering Bandung after 60 years solidarity pilgrimage.     

Villagers’ acculturation in China’s land expropriation-induced resettlement neighborhood: A Shanghai case

Land expropriation-induced resettlement (LEIR) is an emerging land phenomenon manifested in Chinese cities to accommodate urban transformation and outward expansion. The resettlement has forced affected rural dwellers to leave their villages and be resettled to high-density urban neighborhoods. By employing surveys with relocated villagers from two different types of LEIR neighborhoods in suburban Shanghai, this paper extends the acculturation discourse to examine villagers’ life transformation in resettlement neighborhoods. Our study addresses three research questions. First, what are the general acculturation patterns manifested among resettled villagers during their life transformation in LEIR neighborhoods? Second, how do individual acculturation outcomes vary by socio-demographic attributes of resettled villagers? Third, how do villagers’ acculturation outcomes influence their current residence preferences? The results indicate villagers’ stronger inclination toward rural village culture than urban neighborhood culture. For the socio-demographic attributes, we find that older villagers are more likely to maintain their original culture; villagers with higher education levels better adapt to urban neighborhood culture; multi-generation living benefits intercultural learning and exchange; and pre-resettlement conditions influence villagers’ acculturation. We further contend that an increase in the probability of a villager’s residence preference for LEIR neighborhoods aligns with an increase in that person’s adherence to urban neighborhood culture and/or a decrease in that individual’s continuity of rural village culture. Comparing the results collected from the two types of resettlement neighborhoods, we posit that socio-spatial mixture and diversity facilitates villagers’ urban integration. Finally, we suggest long-term institutional supports to be continuously provided to resettled villagers for building adaptive resilience.     

THE STORY OF LIN HWAI-MIN AND HIS CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE

The Forum of Chinese Modern Dance took place in Beijing in July, attracting cultural celebrities, scholars and dancers from Mainland China, Hong Kong and     

Language Teachers’ Intercultural Identity in the Critical Context of Cultural Globalization and Its Metaphoric Realization

ABSTRACT

This study used questionnaires and interviews to investigate Iranian English language teachers’ intercultural identity and its metaphoric realization in the context of cultural globalization. While questionnaire findings revealed that the majority held first language cultural identity, factor analysis indicated teachers’ preference for American culture as representative of globalized culture. Interview data indicated teachers’ imagined direct exposure to the global village through the media. Metaphoric analysis revealed the conceptualization of local culture as closed home, which was valued by anti-cultural globalization teachers as protection while devalued by pro-cultural globalization teachers as a limitation. These findings have implications for expanding teachers’ intercultural identity.     

Idyll or nightmare: what does rurality mean for farmers in a Chinese village undergoing commercialization?

Amid arguments over the recurrence or deconstruction of rural life – prompted by cultural reconstruction of rurality – the increasing complexity of rural life can be variously traced to economic, social, and political transformations common to all corners of the world. With primary reference to archives and in-depth interviews, this study aims to describe the experience with, negotiation of, and reproduction of rurality among farmers of a thousand-year-old village on the east coast of mainland China. In doing so, it reveals rurality as a Western concept used to clarify the fate of rural communities in a transitional economy. Indeed, market-oriented reform seems to have changed farmers’ conceptualization of rurality, with their references to “the good old days” serving as a complaint about their economically and politically inferior status. Certainly, rural tourism development is an idyllic prospect for urbanite, but it is becoming a nightmare for indigenous farmers as the cultural colonization embodied in the commercialization of rurality threatens to join industrialization and urbanization in encroaching on rural communities in a transitional economy.     

Ancestors and orphan ghosts: Henghua Salvation Rituals of the festival of universal deliverance of the seventh lunar month in Malaysia

Based on field observations and textual analysis of the Salvation Ritual of the Henghua community (those from Xinghua) in Seremban, Malaysia, this article studies mechanisms of cultural transfer and localization strategies in overseas Chinese communities. In Xinghua, ancestors and orphan ghosts are worshiped according to different ritual traditions. Worshiping ancestors is usually done during the Zhongyuan Festival (in the seventh lunar month), and worshiping orphan ghosts is usually reserved for the Xiayuan Festival (in the tenth lunar month). However, the Salvation Ritual of the Henghua community in Seremban is different: it worships not only ancestors, but also orphan ghosts. Worshiping ancestors is a continuation of the Zhongyuan ritual tradition in Xinghua, and worshiping orphan ghosts is influenced by the tradition of the Hokkien communities in Seremban. As a “mixed” religious ritual, the Salvation Ritual has been adapted to the special historical environment in overseas Chinese communities, and has strengthened the social-cultural networks among fellow members of the same village and lineage.     

The Role of Intercultural Competence and Local Wisdom in Building Intercultural and Inter-religious Tolerance

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the role of intercultural competence and local wisdom to build tolerance. Recent situation shows that the rights of religious and cultural minorities are on the decline. It focuses on the experience and practice of tolerance in kampong Buneng to prevent ethno-religious conflict. This study employs accommodation theory and qualitative approach to investigate a case study, which describes real phenomena. The findings show that convergence strategy is more dominant than divergence strategy and local wisdom found in Buneng is designed to maintain harmony between village members rather than voicing distinction amongst plural identities occupying the same public sphere.     

Travelogue of an Almohad Sherd: from Twelfth-Century al-Andalus to Fourteenth-Century Flanders*

Excavations in Sint-Lievens-Houtem (Flanders, Belgium), an important medieval pilgrimage village, uncovered a fourteenth-century refuse pit. This feature contained a fragment of a rare Andalusī moulded lustreware vessel, dating to the mid or second half of the twelfth century. The reconstruction of the vessel’s itinerary aids in understanding how an object travelled from Muslim Spain to Catholic Flanders and why it ended up under Sint-Lievens-Houtem’s marketplace, about two centuries after its production. Traditional explanations of Crusades or trade seem unlikely or do not account for the entire trajectory of the vessel. These narratives are therefore extended with the incorporation of the vessel in Sint-Lievens-Houtem’s church treasury. This biographical approach offers a valuable framework to interpret the increasing number of Islamic finds across Europe, the way by which they travelled north and the contexts in which they functioned.     

High-Speed Internet Access to the Other: The Influence of Cultural Orientations on Self-Disclosures in Offline and Online Relationships

The global village metaphor, originally popularized by Marshall McLuhan, suggests that individuals connected to information and communication technologies become more involved with others from around the world. The speed at which messages are communicated is one factor why Internet-supported technologies create a sense of community. The diffusion of Internet networks to areas around the world naturally increases the potential for intercultural communication. Considering the cultural differences of the communicators and diminished social cues of the environment, the opportunity for misunderstandings may be elevated in intercultural Internet-based communication. The present investigation explores how two important components of culture—individualism and collectivism—influence communication behaviors in face-to-face and computer-mediated relationships. Self-disclosures, which are fundamental to relationship development, are specifically studied. The findings reveal that collectivism is associated with fewer self-disclosures in computer-mediated relationships than in comparable face-to-face relationships. The difference between self-disclosure behaviors in face-to-face and computer-mediated relationships is more pronounced among individuals high in collectivism than those high in individualism. Implications to social information processing theory and future directions for intercultural Internet-based communication research are considered.     

NOTHING SHINES AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

The 52nd edition of the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition opened its doors for previews on June 7, drawing artists, collectors, curators, dealers, critics and art patrons to     

THE TIME-HONORED ART OF CHINESE PUPPET AND SHADOW PLAY

Puppet and shadow plays are two old artistic expressions that integrate painting, engraving, carving and performing. Their history in China can date back to at least more than 2500 years.     

Giacomo Casanova: Three Episodes from His Life as a Charlatan

This paper will analyse three major episodes of Casanova's Histoire de ma vie during which Casanova comes to grips with practices of charlatanism or magic, either as a “patient” or actively: 1. His cure, as a child by the sorceress of Murano to whom he is taken by his beloved grandmother.

2. His guest in the little Italian village of Cesena for a buried treasure whic he prides himself on being able to discover with the help of a sacred knife.

3. His inventive, libertine scenarios elaborated for the particular purpose of “regenerating” (dazzling and pleasuring) the marquise d'Urfé, known as Séramis, an old aristocrat with a passion for occult knowledge.

Casanova's attitude towards all that has to do with gambling, deception, chance, and all the ways to influence it is thoroughly complex and ambiguous. It is one of the features of his Venetian mentality; and it is also a phenomenon of the time, which is wrongly called the “century of the Enlightenment”. More narrowly, close scrutiny of these three occasions should allow us to grasp how Casanova saw his place in the couple of the dupe and the trickster. This paper will show how he understood the world and its underlying forces, and what type of intelligence — more baroque than Cartesian in inspiration — was at work in him.     

Aragonese Tiles in a Flemish Castle: A Chivalric Gift-Exchange Network in Fifteenth-Century Europe

Excavation of the mid-fifteenth-century castle of Pieter Bladelin, a high-ranking Burgundian official, in the village of Middelburg-in-Flanders, near Bruges (Belgium), has unearthed a remarkable series of blue and white painted and glazed floor tiles. Post-excavation archival and heraldic inquiries into the tiles has led to a deeper understanding of the role that gift exchange of luxury objects played within the diplomatic network of Alfonso V “the Magnanimous”, King of Aragon, and Philip “the Good”, Duke of Burgundy, in shaping a shared chivalric and crusading culture between Burgundy and Aragon. The study demonstrates the added value of the integration of archaeological and historical data in studying economic, political and cultural processes for the later medieval or early modern period.