A Young Girl Selling Postcards

As regular readers know, I have been lucky enough to travel to many parts of China. What you may not know is that I am, mostly, a people person, that is, someone who is more interested in people than other things. With that in mind, I want to tell you about my visit to one of China＇s wonders, the Terracotta Soldiers near Xi＇an.     

The importance of being a ‘lady’: hyper‐femininity and heterosexuality in the private,single‐sex primary school

Drawing on recent ethnographic research in one single‐sex, private primary school, this paper will explore what it meant for the girls in this setting to embody the discourse of the ‘lady’. The paper will propose that classed and gendered discourses of respectability featured strongly in the girls’ lives, as they were expected to behave like ‘proper’ upper‐middle‐class ladies. However, the paper will also suggest that these discourses were being reworked through post‐feminist, neo‐liberal notions of modern girlhood, meaning that the girls also felt compelled to make themselves as heterofeminine ‘girly’ girls; as sassy, sexy and successful, as well as respectable and upper‐middle‐class(y) enough. By exploring the clash between these two sets of discourse, the paper will specifically seek to examine the lived embodiment of intersections of class, gender and sexuality and to explore the relevance of Judith Butler’s heterosexual matrix for these upper‐middle‐class girls.     

Encounters of the Traditional Kind: Reflections on the In‐Service Teacher Training of Traditional Filipino Arts

This article presents the second segment of a qualitative study on the integration of traditional arts in tertiary level art and design education in the Philippines. It is focused on the experience of artist‐teachers as participants in an in‐service teacher training programme that aimed to prepare the teachers for the trial integration of traditional Filipino arts in art and design courses. Taking the view of the participants, journals written by the artist‐teachers were sourced for their reflections about their encounter with traditional Filipino artists during field visits. This phase of the study takes the form of action research as it involves the participants in gathering data that could inform the methods and content of the learning of traditional Filipino arts in the schools of art and design. The findings reveal that artist‐teachers acknowledge the traditional artist as a valuable source of traditional knowledge and expertise. They also recognise their own essential role in the transmission of learning between the traditional artists and the students. The prerequisites of the course take the artist‐teachers beyond teaching in the classroom and extend their tasks to research.     

It＇s the Little Things that Count

六年前的某一天,Brad在北京街头等车。因为语言不通而略显困惑。一位年轻女士的一句“May I help you？”。一段友谊由此产生……     

我为什么不是中国人

当人们谈论起美洲大陆时,总会说:"哥伦布是第一个发现美洲大陆的人。"如今在加拿大的学校中,老师也是这样教授学生们的。但事实果真如此吗?我们都知道,明朝年间,朱棣派郑和帅舰队下西洋,他们向西航行到了很远的地方,并在航行期间绘制了航行的海图和地图。后来,哥伦布发现新大陆时,使用的就是郑和他们当年绘制的地图。但遗憾的是,由于各种原因,国内档案中几乎没有留下能说明郑和发现美洲大陆的史料。那么,对于美洲大陆的发现是要归功于郑和还是哥伦布呢?     

How to Get Used to University Life

Liu Bin刚刚跨入了大学校门。大学里的生活自由灵活。比起高中备受约束的日子可谓天壤之别,可这没有老师“管教”的生活。Liubjn反而有点不适应了。如何安排好自己的大学生活？Brad又会有哪些建议？     

A protocol for measuring the direct effect of cycling on neuromuscular control of running in triathletes

Abstract

The direct effects of cycling on movement and muscle recruitment patterns (neuromuscular control) during running are unknown but critical to success in triathlon. We outline and test a new protocol for investigating the direct influence of cycling on neuromuscular control during running. Leg movement (three-dimensional kinematics) and muscle recruitment (surface electromyography, EMG) were compared between a control run (no prior exercise) and a 30-min transition run that was preceded by 20 min of cycling. We conducted three experiments investigating: (a) the repeatability (between-day reliability) of the protocol; (b) the ability of the protocol to investigate, in highly trained national or international triathletes, the direct influence of cycling on neuromuscular control during running independent of neuromuscular fatigue; and (c) the ability of the protocol to provide a control, or baseline, measure of neuromuscular control (determined using a measure of stability) without causing fatigue. Kinematic and EMG measures of neuromuscular control during running showed moderate to high repeatability: mean coefficients of multiple correlation for repeatability of EMG and kinematics were 0.816 ± 0.014 and 0.911 ± 0.031, respectively. The protocol provided a robust baseline measure of neuromuscular control during running without causing neuromuscular fatigue (coefficients of multiple correlation for stability of EMG and kinematics were 0.827 ± 0.023 and 0.862 ± 0.054), while EMG and force data provided no evidence of fatigue. The protocol outlined here is repeatable and can be used to measure any direct influence of cycling on neuromuscular control during running.     

Age-Related Differences in Muscular Strength and Muscular Endurance among Female Masters Swimmers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine age-related differences in muscular strength and muscular endurance among 73 female masters swimmers aged 24 to 71 years. Each subject was assessed on measures of body size, grip strength, peak isokinetic torque of shoulder and knee flexion and extension, and endurance of shoulder and knee movements. Although swim training appears to have resulted in higher strength values for these swimmers than for less active women, an age-related decline in muscular strength values was nevertheless apparent. The results fail to reveal a similar age-related trend for muscular endurance, suggesting that swim training influences muscular endurance more than muscular strength among adult women.