Learning and adaptation with regard to complementary medicine in a foreign context: Intercultural experiences of medical students from different cultural backgrounds

Little is known about challenges and transition that medical students from different cultural backgrounds face with regard to complementary medicine (CM). This paper explores such students’ experiences and perspectives of socio-cultural and academic difference with regard to CM and experiences of intercultural relations. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, 30 in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with medical students across 10 Australian medical schools. The data were rigorously analysed through a systematic process of coding, categorisation and theoretical development. The findings indicate that students adapted considerably to the host culture. Students with Western backgrounds integrated better socio-culturally and academically compared to students with non-Western backgrounds. Although nationality represented cultural identity, students’ construction of cultural difference was informed by their perception of diverging value systems within the specific educational environment. These values were, in turn, reflected in students’ reported behaviours, attitudes, and levels of engagement in socio-cultural and academic aspects of university life. Adaptation employed by students was evidenced largely due to their conflicting sense of responsibility towards familial culture regarding CM and focus on fitting in. While students’ tendency to gravitate towards cultural peers was evident, most students adapted to their host environment regarding CM to fit into normal intercultural encounters during medical school. In conclusion, students’ intercultural contact with regard to CM was both complex and problematic. At a time of significant diversification within the higher education student body, this paper highlights the role medical education institutions can play in fostering intercultural and academic guidance and support.     

Cultural Identification and Religious Identification Contribute Differentially to the Adaptation of Australian Adolescent Muslims

Australian Muslims are generally perceived as a devalued group in Australia and the public attitudes towards them are generally negative. This context raises questions about belonging and adaptation among Australian adolescent Muslims. The current study investigated how adolescent Muslims relate to their heritage culture, religion, and Australian culture, and which of these three factors is most important to adolescent Muslims’ psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. The study employed a mixed-method design. A total of 321 high school Muslim students (149 males and 172 females) aged between 14 and 18 years completed self-report questionnaires, and a subset sample of 18 students in the same age range, evenly split between males and females, participated in semi-structured interviews. The study revealed a hierarchical pattern of identification among Australian adolescent Muslims, with attachment to their religion being the most important, followed by heritage culture identification and being Australian in third place. Australian adolescent Muslims’ religious identification was perceived overall as more crucial to their socio-cultural and psychological adaptation, than their heritage culture identification or Australian identification. There was an overall modest contribution of Australian identification to adolescent Muslims’ adaptation. This might be connected with the relatively less attachment they show to their Australian identity due maybe to perception of being the target of prejudice, an issue that can be addressed by implementation of prejudice reduction strategies.     

中国武术与奥林匹克运动之差异性研究

为使武术套路运动项目顺利进入奥林匹克运动会,文章采用文献资料法、比较法以及访问法,从文化、生存方式和比赛的评判标准三个方面寻找中国武术与奥林匹克运动之间的差异。以促进竞技武术的改革发展。早日实现中国武术的奥运梦。     

透析甘肃地方传统文化品牌——兼论通备武艺宗师马凤图对中国武学的贡献

在幅员辽阔的中国西北大地上,活跃着一支驰骛近百年的大型武术流派“马氏通备武艺”,它是甘肃的文化品牌之一。改革开放以来,它们立足西北,辐射全国,以它优良的自身品质成功走出国门,将金子般的光芒撒向全世界,成为引人注目的当代文化现象。文章对通备武艺的缔造者、实践者马风图先生的武学成就和贡献进行了系统阐述。旨在让社会进一步了解通备武艺,挖掘和创新以“通神达化,备万贯一;理象会通,体用具备”为宗旨的“通备”神韵,使之让它在和谐社会中惠之于民。     

Review on the characterisation of ancient stringed musical instruments varnishes and implementation of an analytical strategy

For the last 60 years, varnishes of ancient musical instruments, particularly stringed instruments of the violin family dating 17th and 18th centuries, have been analysed to establish their chemical composition and multi-layered structure. The objective was to rediscover the technology for making the varnish of esteemed Italian violins and to reconstitute it. This paper reviews the physico-chemical studies published on such varnishes and also focuses on a research project carried out since 2002 at the Musée de la musique in Paris. It aims to apply in a comprehensive way different non-destructive or micro destructive methods (Py-GC/MS, IR microscopy, SEM/EDX, EDXRF, synchrotron radiation-based techniques, …) to the study of a large and representative number of ancient varnished musical instruments from a museum collection.     

The Future of Defunct Religious Buildings: Dutch Approaches to Their Adaptive Re-use

Across the Western world, membership in the established organized churches is on the decline with a concomitant reduction in the need for churches and church halls. As redundant and unused churches are the focus of vandalism and decay, owners and heritage managers are looking for options to adaptively re-use such buildings. This article reviews the literature on the re-use of churches in the Netherlands, which has long history of innovatively addressing the problems. The options available range from re-use for religious purposes by other denominations or faiths, to community use (multi-purpose, sport, music etc.), and private use, which can be either commercial or residential. The attitudes of the community and the original property owners play a major part in successful adaptive re-use. Because of its long history, the Dutch experience in adaptive re-use of religious buildings has much to offer heritage managers in other countries faced with this emergent management issue.     

Transformation and job creation in the cultural and creative industries in South Africa

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) have been hailed as offering great potential to create jobs and to be socially inclusive. Since artistic success is defined by individual talent, or merit, the CCIs should be one sector that is especially open to, and appreciative of, social diversity in terms of race, class, cultural group and gender. However, as expected, recent studies in both the UK and the US have revealed that employment in the CCIs is heavily dominated by the middle classes, and is not as diverse in terms of other characteristics. Since the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, transformation of firm ownership, previously dominated by white people, to include more black, coloured and Indian/Asian-origin South Africans, has been an important part of achieving greater economic equality and social cohesion, as well as being more representative of the cultures of the majority of the population. Using data from a survey of 2400 CCIs firms in South Africa, this paper examines the extent to which the CCIs in South Africa have transformed in terms of ownership and employment. Comparisons are also made across the six UNESCO [(2009). Framework for cultural statistics. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/culture/Pages/framework-cultural-statistics.aspx] “Cultural Domains” in terms of ownership, average monthly turnover and the number of full-time, part-time and contract employees. Results show some diversity in the industry, but significant differences between the Domains. Statistical analysis demonstrates that CCI funding policy in South Africa is sensitive to advancing the transformation agenda in that more transformed firms were shown to be more likely to have received some form of government grant as part of their income.     

以数字技术驱动和建构丝绸之路民族体育文化认同

该文基于文化认同理论,运用文献资料法,结合田野调查与专家咨询,探析如何通过数字技术驱动和建构丝绸之路民族体育文化认同。研究发现：数字技术颠覆了传统信息流通的方式,满足了受众对民族体育文化的认知需求。数字技术带来的时空一体化,有效推进了民族体育文化的共享,有望弥合民族文化鸿沟,塑造"他者"认知的想象空间,推进丝绸之路各国之间的文化交流与经济合作。建议以数字驱动、体验交流作为技术支撑,以中国主导、多边合作作为建构的主体,以民间体育文化交流、赛事品牌打造进行内容建构,多管齐下,共同打造民族体育文化数字空间,增进丝绸之路民族体育文化认同,助推"一带一路"经济合作与发展。     

Editorial statement

Grounded in the interdisciplinary educational work of Cultural Studies, this paper examines the pedagogical potentials of narrative and performance for the teaching of writing as a mode of public discourse. Guided to address a wide readership, students engage in critical communication aimed at linking self inquiry and narrative discourse to the contextual analysis of the social. Drawing on research findings derived from the undergraduate teaching of cultural criticism as a genre of public writing at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, we look at how educational drama mediates the work of narrative and performative acts involving the young learner-writers and contributes to the shaping of a dialogic mode of address and communication, thus articulating the process and impact of writing to the public-oriented discourse in Cultural Studies education. In light of such acts in critical discourse and imagination targeted at the potential reader, we show how the young writers' own engagement with critical thinking and communication are opened up by drama-in-education adopted in the class, and argue how, in this sense, both writing and its learning process become effective stages in the making of the kind of cultural criticism we want to help students to learn.