The metamorphosis of medical discourse and embedded cultural rationality: a content analysis of health reporting for neurasthenia and depressive disorder in China

Neurasthenia (shenjing shuairuo) and depressive disorder are medical issues that have given rise to disputes in China for more than 20 years. Since the 1980s, the once ubiquitous diagnosis of neurasthenia in China was rapidly substituted by depressive disorder in the clinical context. Globally, the metamorphosis from neurasthenia to depressive disorder heralded the triumph of scientific rationality, which identifies neurasthenia as a categorical fallacy. In China, however, neurasthenia retained social and cultural significance; thus, it has become a contestable discourse in relation to depressive disorder. By examining the health reporting of both discourses over a decade, this study explicated how neurasthenia and depressive disorder were represented in a popular health newspaper in China. The content analysis showed that neurasthenia is a more culturally and everyday embedded discourse closely associated with Chinese medicine and laymen’s discourse, while depressive disorder is more associated with Western medicine and the professional discourse. The differentiation of two sets of medical discourse evinces that despite the ostensibly prevailing scientific rationality in media health reporting, cultural rationality is deeply embedded in communicating mental health issues with the lay public. It further suggests the significance of investigating the social and cultural expression of mental illnesses in China.     

How U.S. and Chinese journalists think about plagiarism

A comparison of 1,096 professional journalists in China and the United States on attitudes toward attribution and plagiarism reveals Chinese journalists were more likely to see attribution as a practice to be embraced regardless of career longevity and culture, suggesting journalistic norms are more important than a collectivist orientation. Attribution was more likely to be embraced by those who see principles as more important than expediency, affirming research that plagiarism is hardly a monolithic concept. Overall, journalists in the two nations did not vary significantly in their attitudes toward plagiarism, despite vast differences in culture and politics as well as evidence that in some other fields China is more accepting of reusing material without attribution. The data show that among journalists, attitudes toward plagiarism are shared across national boundaries, reinforcing related research showing that a journalism culture exists and is shared at least in part across national boundaries.     

Worn Grooves

Drawing from visual, material and written archival sources, this article critically explores some of the functions, uses and perceived values of recorded sound during the First World War and in its aftermath. An instrument of communication as well as commemoration, the gramophone helped bridge geographical (and, in some cases, cultural) distances between the home front and the rear, providing civilians with the fleeting illusion of presence, proximity, or even sentimental communion with the front. The article analyses (a) the affective and connective, but also propagandist, values of commercial wartime recordings as they circulated between the home and the front, (b) the popular notion of gramophones as regulatory instruments of civilisation, (c) the commemorative exploitations of recorded sound in the interwar period. The article focuses on the British experience, contrasting it with examples drawn from French and German experiences.     

文学翻译中文化因素的把握——杨宪益、戴乃迭所译《儒林外史》点评

文学翻译中对文化因素的把握是一个重要问题。本文从这一角度出发,对清朝吴敬梓所著《儒林外史》和杨宪益、戴乃迭夫妇的英译本进行比较,指出译文在文化因素的把握处理方面有几个值得再加斟酌之处,并予以分析说明,以期在文学翻译中文化因素能得到进一步的重视及更为妥善的处理。     

谈中西文化差异与翻译策略

语言是文化的载体,承载着丰富的文化信息。因此,翻译不仅是语言代码之间的转换,还是一种跨文化的交际活动。译者在进行翻译时要根据中西文化之间的差异选择有效的翻译策略,以实现译文与原文的语用等效。     

意象的传译

意象是文学理论的重要概念之一。在翻译的过程中,语言的转化只是表层,忠实地再现、传递源语中文化意象的异质性才是翻译的实质。在当前国际文化交流日益扩大和多元化的语境中,对源语中文化意象进行传译具有特殊的重要意义。     

清末民政部与近代文物保护事业——兼及主事尚秉和之功迹

光绪三十二年,清政府进行大规模中央官制改革,民政部的设立就是其中的重要内容。民政部是清政府首次设立的专门统筹管理民政事务的机构,其职掌包括全国古迹的保存,具体由营缮司存古科负责。民政部主事尚秉和是存古科掌稿,是相关规章制度的拟定者。在民政部的推动下,清廷先后颁布了城镇乡地方自治章程、民政统计表等,其中都有保存古迹的内容。宣统元年,民政部更是制定了专门的保存古迹推广办法章程,包括调查事项6条和保存事项5条,成为各省保护古迹工作的指导。此时,各地开始执行古迹保护政策,取得了一些成绩,尤其是东南江浙一带。清末民政部制定的保护古迹规章制度在近代文物保护事业中有着重要地位,尤其对民国时期文物保护事业产生了积极影响。     

“公共图书馆精神”的科学解读

“公共图书馆精神”是近代图书馆活动中提炼出来的职业道德基础之一。机械地移植外来的社会文化制度,仅从字面上理解公共图书馆精神,是导致我国公共图书馆活动缺少社会认同的主要原因。需要把公共图书馆活动和相应的社会文化制度放到相关的社会环境中去考察,认识这一社会文化活动的原始运作模式,进而科学地解读“公共图书馆精神”和社会文化制度,为图书馆活动和科学研究提供一个理性的基础。参考文献4。     

文化冲突视角下的流动人口犯罪研究

对流动人口犯罪的研究,仅从个体因素的角度无法透彻理解,从社会因素的角度理解也过于空泛,而文化冲突论则为解释流动人口犯罪问题提供了一个全角,它为解释流动人口问题犯罪提供的是一种个体化的社会原因,使流动人口犯罪得到合理的解释.     

谈少林寺档案的组成及其历史文化地位(上)

少林寺档案文献具有极其重要的历史文化价值,但此前的相关研究较为缺乏.笔者在这里就其组成及在世界范围内的历史文化地位进行初步探讨,得出少林寺档案具有独一无二的历史文化价值这一结论,并从目前的少林寺档案馆建设这一实际问题出发,提出建设以少林寺档案文献馆为核心的"少林五馆"的建议,提升少林寺的文化影响力,使少林寺档案足以傲立...