bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Accelerated Sinus Rhythm Prevents Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia in Mice and in Patients
Authors: Faggioni Michela , Hwang Hyun Seok , van der Werf Christian , Nederend Ineke , Kannankeril Prince J. , Wilde Arthur A.M. , Knollmann Björn C.
Published: January 2013

Rationale:

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is caused by mutations in cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) or calsequestrin (Casq2) genes. Sinoatrial node dysfunction associated with CPVT may increase the risk for ventricular arrhythmia (VA).

Objective:

To test the hypothesis that CPVT is suppressed by supraventricular overdrive stimulation.

Methods and Results:

Using CPVT mouse models (Casq2
−/−
and RyR2
R4496C/+
mice), the effect of increasing sinus heart rate was tested by pretreatment with atropine and by atrial overdrive pacing. Increasing intrinsic sinus rate with atropine before catecholamine challenge suppressed ventricular tachycardia in 86% of Casq2
−/−
mice (6/7) and significantly reduced the VA score (atropine: 0.6±0.2 versus vehicle: 1.7±0.3;
P
<0.05). Atrial overdrive pacing completely prevented VA in 16 of 19 (84%) Casq2
−/−
and in 7 of 8 (88%) RyR2
R4496C/+
mice and significantly reduced ventricular premature beats in both CPVT models (
P
<0.05). Rapid pacing also prevented spontaneous calcium waves and triggered beats in isolated CPVT myocytes. In humans, heart rate dependence of CPVT was evaluated by screening a CPVT patient registry for antiarrhythmic drug-naïve individuals that reached >85% of their maximum-predicted heart rate during exercise testing. All 18 CPVT patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria exhibited VA before reaching 87% of maximum heart rate. In 6 CPVT patients (33%), VA were paradoxically suppressed as sinus heart rates increased further with continued exercise.

Conclusions:

Accelerated supraventricular rates suppress VAs in 2 CPVT mouse models and in a subset of CPVT patients. Hypothetically, atrial overdrive pacing may be a therapy for preventing exercise-induced ventricular tachycardia in treatment-refractory CPVT patients.
Matrix Metalloproteinase Enhances Big-Endothelin-1 Constriction in Mesenteric Vessels of Pregnant Rats With Reduced Uterine Blood Flow
Authors: Abdalvand Ali , Morton Jude S. , Bourque Stephane L. , Quon Anita L. , Davidge Sandra T.
Published: January 2013

Preeclampsia is a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity/mortality; however, the pathophysiological mechanisms are unclear. Vascular endothelial dysfunction in preeclampsia has been partially attributed to changes in endothelin-1 (ET-1). Several enzymes, including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs; particularly MMP-2), cleave the inactive precursor big ET-1 (bET-1) to active ET-1. Notably, expression levels of MMP-2 have been shown to be on the increase in women who subsequently develop preeclampsia. We hypothesized that the increased MMP-2 expression leads to increased bET-1 conversion, thereby increasing vasoconstriction in preeclampsia. A reduced uteroplacental perfusion pressure (RUPP) model of preeclampsia in the rat was used to assess mesenteric artery vascular function. Responses to bET-1 (3–310 nmol/L) and ET-1 (1–200 nmol/L) were studied in the presence or absence of inhibitors of enzymes known to cleave bET-1. Vascular contractility in response to bET-1 was greater in RUPP than Sham (
P
<0.001), whereas neither responses to ET-1 nor maximal contractility to high potassium salt solution (123.70 mmol/L) were different. MMP inhibition with GM6001 (30 μmol/L) significantly decreased responses to bET-1 in RUPP (
P
<0.001) but not Sham-operated rats. Interestingly, combined treatment with GM6001 and L-NG-nitroarginine methyl ester (100 μmol/L) revealed a NO modulation of MMPs that was reduced in RUPP. In summary, we found increased vascular contractility to bET-1 in the RUPP model of preeclampsia that was likely attributable to upstream enzymatic pathways. These data are consistent with a greater contribution of MMP to cleavage of bET-1 to ET-1 ex vivo in RUPP, suggesting that this enzyme may be partially responsible for increased bET-1–induced contractility.
Endothelium-Derived Nitric Oxide Supports Renin Cell Recruitment Through the Nitric Oxide–Sensitive Guanylate Cyclase Pathway
Authors: Neubauer Björn , Machura Katharina , Kettl Ramona , Lopez Maria Luisa S. Sequeira , Friebe Andreas , Kurtz Armin
Published: January 2013

Chronic challenge of renin–angiotensin causes recruitment of renin-producing cells in the kidney along the media layer of afferent arterioles and hypertrophy of cells in the juxtaglomerular apparatus. This study aimed to define the role of nitric oxide (NO) with regard to the recruitment pattern of renin-producing cells and to the possible pathways along which NO could act. We considered the hypothesis that endothelium-derived NO acts via NO-sensitive guanylate cyclase. Mice were treated with low-salt diet in combination with the angiotensin I–converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril for 3 weeks, which led to a 13-fold increase in renin expression associated with marked recruitment of renin cells in afferent arterioles and hypertrophy of the juxtaglomerular apparatus in wild-type mice. In wild-type mice additionally treated with the nonselective NO synthase inhibitor L-NAME, the recruitment of renin-expressing cells along the afferent arterioles was absent and juxtaglomerular hypertrophy was diminished. An almost identical attenuation of renin cell recruitment as with L-NAME treatment in wild-type mice was found in mice lacking the endothelial isoform of NO synthase. Treatment of mice lacking NO-sensitive guanylate cyclase in renin-expressing cells and preglomerular smooth muscle cells with low-salt diet in combination with the angiotensin I–converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril for 3 weeks produced juxtaglomerular hypertrophy like in wild-type mice, but no recruitment in afferent arterioles. These findings suggest that endothelium-derived NO and concomitant formation of cGMP in preglomerular renin cell precursors supports recruitment of renin-expressing cells along preglomerular vessels, but not in the juxtaglomerular apparatus.
Performing the Electric Violin in a Sonic Space
Authors: Refsum Jensenius Alexander , Johnson Victoria
Published: January 2013

This article presents the development of the improvisation piece Transformation for electric violin and live electronics. The aim of the project was to develop an “invisible” technological setup that would allow the performer to move freely on stage while still being in full control of the electronics. The developed system consists of a video-based motion-tracking system, with a camera hanging in the ceiling above the stage. The performer's motion and position on stage is used to control the playback of sonic fragments from a database of violin sounds, using concatenative synthesis as the sound engine. The setup allows the performer to improvise freely together with the electronic sounds being played back as she moves around the “sonic space.” The system has been stable in rehearsal and performance, and the simplicity of the approach has been inspiring to both the performer and the audience.
The Problem of the Second Performer: Building a Community Around an Augmented Piano
Authors: P. McPherson Andrew , E. Kim Youngmoo
Published: January 2013

The design of a digital musical instrument is often informed by the needs of the first performance or composition. Following the initial performances, the designer frequently confronts the question of how to build a larger community of performers and composers around the instrument. Later musicians are likely to approach the instrument on different terms than those involved in the design process, so design decisions that promote a successful first performance will not necessarily translate to broader uptake. This article addresses the process of bringing an existing instrument to a wider musical community, including how musician feedback can be used to refine the instrument's design without compromising its identity. As a case study, the article presents the magnetic resonator piano, an electronically augmented acoustic grand piano that uses electromagnets to induce vibrations in the strings. After initial compositions and performances using the instrument, feedback from composers and performers guided refinements to the design, laying the groundwork for a collaborative project in which six composers wrote pieces for the instrument. The pieces exhibited a striking diversity of style and technique, including instrumental techniques never considered by the designer. The project, which culminated in two concert performances, demonstrates how a new instrument can acquire a community of musicians beyond those initially involved.
Dharmic Ecology: Perspectives from the Swadhyaya Practitioners
Authors: Jain Pankaj
Published: January 2013

This is an article about the lives of the Swadhyayis, Swadhyaya practitioners, in the Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Swadhyaya movement arose in the mid-twentieth century in Gujarat as a new religious movement led by its founder, the late Pandurang Shastri Athavale. In my research, I discovered that there is no category of "environmentalism" in the "way of life" of Swadhyayis living in the villages. Following Weightman and Pandey (1978), I argue that the concept of dharma can be successfully applied as an overarching term for the sustainability of the ecology, environmental ethics, and the religious lives of Swadhyayis. Dharma synthesizes their way of life with environmental ethics based on its multidimensional interpretations.
The Implicit Refutation of Critias
Authors: Brennan Tad
Published: January 2013

Abstract

AtCharmides163, Critias attempts to extricate himself from refutation by proposing a Prodicean distinction betweenpraxisandpoiēsis. I argue that this distinction leads him further into contradictions.
A Note to Protagoras 353de
Authors: Bizoń Michał , Sokołowski Kamil
Published: January 2013

Abstract

AtProtagoras353de, Socrates gives three possible reasons for calling some pleasures ‘wrong’. Scholarly attention has focused on the second of these, according to which pleasures are ‘wrong’ when they have negative consequences. This paper argues that the first reason (the pleasures are fleeting) corresponds to beliefs held by Democritus, among others; and that the third reason (the pleasant things “give pleasure in whatever way and for whatever reason”) is the view adopted by Socrates in the dialogue.
Lumière et Nuit, Féminin et Masculin chez Parménide d’Elée : quelques remarques
Authors: Journée Gérard
Published: January 2013

Abstract

The great german Scholar, Eduard Zeller, suggested that the reference to male and female in Parmenides B12.5-6 was probably an allusion to the physical principles of ‘mortal opinion’: Night and Light. This suggestion has been rejected by some scholars because such an association would lead us to admit that, in B12, male was associated with Night and female with Light, a theory which would be at odds with the supposed misogyny of Greek culture. However, Parmenides’ account of ‘mortal opinion’ certainly associates male with coldness and density, the attributes of Night, and female with hotness and greater rarity, the attibutes of Light. The aims of this paper are, then, first, to show that the association of female with Light and of male with Night is in fact right; and secondly to investigate the main dualistic features of Parmenides’ ‘mortal opinion’ (embryology, sleep, death, knowledge) in relation to this theme. This will lead us, finally, to focus our attention on the Proem, which introduces us to a world full of female divinities, among whom – beyond the gates of the ways of day and night – is the unnamed goddess who will initiate her young male auditor into the two ‘ways’.
Crying Out for Rain: The Human, The Holy, and the Earth in the Ritual Fasts of Rabbinic Literature
Authors: Belser Julia Watts
Published: January 2013

This article examines the religious significance of rain in Tractate Ta'anit, a 6th century volume of the Babylonian Talmud that addresses fasts in response to drought among rabbinic Jewish communities in late antiquity. Through a close reading of several key narratives within the tractate, this article examines how Tractate Ta'anit incorporates rain symbolism into key rabbinic conceptions of Torah, revelation, and divine compassion. As the tractate crafts rain into a symbol that expresses God's presence and relationship with Israel, it also articulates drought as the essential expression of divine absence. Within the tractate, fasting serves as the quintessential collective response to the physical and spiritual crisis of drought. Fasting practice in Tractate Ta'anit fashions the vulnerable collective body into an instrument particularly suited to cry out for divine answer. By invoking and intensifying the experience of suffering caused by drought, the community uses its communal body to align itself with both a suffering God and a suffering earth, each of which yearn for reconciliation.
Boundary Matters: Buddhism and the Genetic Prospect
Authors: Timmerman Peter
Published: January 2013

This paper considers genetic engineering in the context of Buddhist ethics. Rather than considering a standard set of ethical approaches, this paper instead uses the “fox koan” of Zen Buddhism to explore the dynamics and consequences of the “genetic project”. Focussing particularly on the prospect of an unbounded and unlimited dissolution of hitherto assumed boundaries, it argues that current “disembedding” of genetic information is analogous to the denial of karma as presented in the fox koan. This provides a different entry into ethical evaluation from a Buddhist perspective,
Communion of Subjects: Changing the Context of Questions About Transgenic Animals
Authors: Dalton Anne Marie
Published: January 2013

The ethics of transgenic animals should be understood within the context of the social imaginary which we have constructed in the modern West. Charles Taylor has described a social imaginary as the interweave of meanings and practices that constitute a particular society. It is how we imagine our lives together. The modern West has imagined a society in which animals are instruments of human well being. The article argues that the very notion of transgenic animals is continuous with factory farming and use of animals in experimentation. A re-imagining of animals as beings with whom humans commune calls for a change in the social imaginary and a more effective basis on which to consider the ethics of transgenics.
Christian Sabbath-keeping as a Spiritual and Environmental Practice
Authors: Hartman Laura
Published: January 2013

Though the Christian observance of Sabbath-keeping has been inconsistent throughout history, the concept has become popular in devotional literature. This paper argues that because of three characteristics of Sabbath-keeping—an altered, theocentric perspective, a slower, simpler style of living, and an eschatological encounter—it may be a useful "tool" for more environmentally sensitive modes of living. Observing the Sabbath reminds Christians to view Creation as God did while resting on the seventh day in Genesis; it prompts a simplification that often has environmentally salutary effects in its lessened consumption; and it draws Christians into a shared vision of a redeemed, healed creation. The paper draws on insights from Jürgen Moltmann, Abraham Joshua Heschel, John Paul II, Seventh-day Adventists and Sabbath Economics thinkers (including Wendell Berry, Marva J. Dawn, Ched Myers, Norman Wirzba, and Richard Lowery).
The Gift of Tears: Loss, Mourning and the Work of Ecological Restoration
Authors: Burton-Christie Douglas
Published: January 2013

Can there be genuine and lasting ecological renewal without a deep expression of grief and mourning for all that is being lost? This easy draws upon the work of Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich, W.G. Sebald, Aldo Leopold, as well as the tradition of ancient Christian monasticism, to argue for the significance of mourning for long-term spiritual, social and ecological renewal. Genuine openness to what the ancient monks called 'the gift of tears,'—a deep piercing of the heart that creates a new sense of relationship with the whole—can help us recover a feeling for and commitment to the natural world.
A Community of Love: Kenneth Rexroth's Organic Worldview
Authors: Barnhill David Landis
Published: January 2013

Kenneth Rexroth was a poet and cultural critic who developed a complex organic worldview. Influenced by both Christian and Buddhist metaphysics, he presented the world as dynamic and interrelated, with the sacred wholly immanent in phenomenal reality. He strongly criticized capitalism and the nation state, and he praised anarchists who resisted centralized power. His ideal was communitarian anarchism characterized by a feeling of unlimited responsibility for all. However, he eventually lost revolutionary hope, and his later poetry focused on mystical moments in communion with nature.
A Case Study on Climate Change and its Effects on the Global Poor
Authors: Mastaler James Stephen
Published: January 2013

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report, Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, outlines the risks that climate change is and will continue to bring to human and ecological communities across the globe. The report suggests it will be the global poor who will face the most devastating effects of global climate change. In light of this report, this paper will endeavor to articulate an understanding of who the global poor are today and how they are increasingly marginalized and disaffected by a warming climate. It will then identify and look to the experience of one Christian community's contextual response to the current suffering of the poor in order to identify the theological principles being lived out in the praxis of the community. After these principles are identified, the paper will evaluate them for appropriation in a theological ethic that can serve as further inspiration for continued and future faith-filled responses to the emerging challenges of climate change on marginalized communities.
Metaphors and Metaphysics in Ecology
Authors: Simus Jason
Published: January 2013

Ecological science has at one time or another deemed nature a machine, an organism, a community, or a system. These metaphors do not refer to any metaphysical entity, but are useful fictions in terms of how they reflect the beliefs and values held by members of a scientific and cultural community. First I trace the history of ecological metaphors from the metaphysical and cultural perspectives. Then I document a gradual transition from a belief in structural natural order to a belief in conceptual natural order. Finally, I conclude by arguing that the metaphysical allegiances of ecological theories have largely been shaped by aesthetic considerations.
What Other Americans Can and Cannot Learn from Native American Environmental Ethics
Authors: Aftandilian Dave
Published: January 2013

Since the 1960s, many have sought the solutions to North America's ecological crisis in the environmental teachings of Native American peoples. However, for the most part, Native American environmental values have not been investigated in light of the cultural contexts within which they arose. This paper draws on previously published ethnographic work among the Koyukon of interior Alaska and the Hopi of the desert Southwest to elucidate the specific environmental ethics that these two peoples have developed. Based on this contextualized evidence, augmented with teachings from the environmental ethics of other Native American peoples, I then discuss what other Americans can and cannot learn from Native American environmental ethics. Finally, I suggest alternate sources upon which non-indigenous Americans might draw to develop their own traditions of caring about and for the lands they now share with Native peoples.
A Notion of “Immanent Transcendence” and Its Feasibility in Environmental Ethics
Authors: Maintenay André
Published: January 2013

The focus of this paper is twofold. The main part is dedicated to an exploration of a possible foundation for a notion of “immanent transcendence” in environmental philosophy. As a foil to constructivist and relativist positions on “nature” as human creation/projection, I discuss nature as a self-emerging process larger than—hence transcendent of—us that is not linked to the supernatural (either religious transcendent power or “higher” metaphysical reality), by considering and building on a phenomenological account of the lived experience of nature, including an acknowledgment of the otherness of nature. This basis of an “immanent transcendence,” though distinct from religious transcendence, might nonetheless be categorized as a form of spirituality, and can be linked to the emergent “spiritual, but not religious” selfidentifi cation. In the final part, having established this framework, I consider its feasibility as a basis for environmental action and ethics.
Evangelical Christians and the Environment: “Christians for the Mountains” and the Appalachian Movement against Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
Authors: Billings Dwight B. , Samson Will
Published: January 2013

Prior research has described evangelical Protestants as hostile toward environmentalism, but this traditional stance, however deeply rooted, is being challenged from within by the Creation Care movement. We analyze an important current example of evangelical environmentalism, an organization known as “Christians for the Mountains” (CFTM) that opposes the highly destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) in Appalachia. We focus on Christians for the Mountains in relation to larger national movements such as the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI). We use attitude interviews, participant observation, discourse analysis, and Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative action to examine how both movements are attempting to overcome the opposition toward environmentalism within evangelical Christianity.
China's Three Teachings and the Relationship of Heaven, Earth and Humanity
Authors: Paracka Daniel J.
Published: January 2013

This paper examines how China's major religious philosophical traditions have historically attempted to balance and integrate the forces of heaven, earth, and humanity. Special attention is given to the central role of mountains within these traditions. It argues that the complementary relationship among China's three teachings provides a culturally relevant and viable space in which an emerging sense of environmental consciousness and social justice may flourish in China.
Facilitating Religious Environmentalism: Ethnology Plus Conservation Psychology Tools Can Assess an Interfaith Environmental Intervention
Authors: Warner Keith Douglass , Brook Amara , Shaw Krista
Published: January 2013

Reliance on a limited number of methodologies may be distorting scholarship in religious environmentalism. This article describes a religious environmental educational intervention, uses a qualitative ethnological approach to describe the response of local congregations to this intervention, and uses a quasi-experimental, quantitative psychological methodology to assess the impact of this intervention on the behavior of religious congregational leaders. This article reports the impact of the Living Ocean Initiative, a ten-month interfaith envi­ronmental outreach intervention that engaged forty-nine diverse religious congregations and their leaders in California 2006-2007. This study indicates the value of studying religious environmental interventions, and suggests that carefully designed interventions may be able to increase religious environmentalism. It found that religious leaders were more inclined to engage in personal pro-environmental behavior within their congregations than pro-environmental behavior in the political realm. This study reports expressions of religious environmentalism at the congregational scale. It suggests that the potential of religious environmentalism to transform environmental beliefs and politics proposed by scholars and religious leaders may be unrealistic, yet it does demonstrate impacts of an intervention on pro-environmental behavior, thus clarifying some of the ambiguity in past correlational studies, and suggesting that religious environmentalism can help foster a more sustainable society.
The “War” Against Climate Change and Christian Eco-Justice: Ethical Implications of Martial Rhetoric
Authors: O’Brien Kevin J.
Published: January 2013

Some climate activists and analysts appeal to martial language, emphasizing the seriousness of the problem by calling for a “war” against climate change. Drawing on a Christian ethic of eco-justice, this paper analyzes the implications of such rhetoric, measuring it against the norms of participation, solidarity, sufficiency, and sustainability. These norms reveal that martial rhetoric runs the risk of inspiring authoritarian, divisive solutions that distract from the genuine conflicts caused by climate change and the long-term changes required in response. While climate change is an urgent problem, a Christian ethics of eco-justice should encourage action on this issue with metaphors that are more empowering and inclusive than war.
Introduction to Special Issue
Authors: Brockopp Jonathan
Published: January 2013

For religious Muslims, preventing climate change and loss of habitat can be thought of as the preservation of God’s revelation. This essay provides an introduction to how Islam is engaged in protection of the environment, analyzing the four essays in this special issue.
Intra-Muslim Debates on Ecology: Is Shari’a Still Relevant?
Authors: Johnston David L.
Published: January 2013

A survey of the proliferating literature by Muslims on ecology indicates that the majority favors some role for traditional Islamic law in order to solve the current environmental crisis. And so what is the meaning of the word “Shari’a” that appears so often? A close look at this discourse reveals an inherent fuzziness in its use of Shari’a. All of the scholar/activists surveyed in this paper, though on the conservative end of the spectrum, chiefly refer to “Shari’a” as a source of ethical values. The first to address these issues was Iranian-American philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr whose pluralist theology is hospitable to the spiritual input of all faiths; yet the most influential environmentalists today are the British scholars Mawil Izzi Dien and Fazlun Khalid, whose writings and campaigns have impacted millions of Muslims worldwide. Their appeal to past norms of eco-friendly Shari’a norms and their desire to update them in the present context fits nicely with the Earth’s Charter call for “a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.”
Disenchantment and the Environmental Crisis: Lynn White Jr., Max Weber, and Muhammad Iqbal
Authors: Afzaal Ahmed
Published: January 2013

“The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” by Lynn White Jr. poses specific challenges to Islamic metaphysics and theology that have yet to be adequately addressed by Muslim scholars. I argue that the transition from a panentheistic view of God to an increasingly supernaturalist one is indicative of a larger shift in worldview that White had failed to emphasize. Reading White’s essay in light of Weber and Iqbal, I argue that a worldview dominated by rational thought is consistent with supernatural theism. The challenges posed by White’s essay can be met through Iqbal’s postmodern reconstruction of Islamic theology in panentheistic terms.
Reviving an Islamic Approach for Environmental Conservation in Indonesia
Authors: Majeri Mangunjaya Fachruddin , Elizabeth McKay Jeanne
Published: January 2013

In this paper, the authors argue that while state-sponsored efforts to preserve Indonesia’s natural resources have been needed, their effectiveness has been limited due to the paucity of available arable land and the frequent conflicts conservation policies have generated among local populations. Rather than a top-down structural approach, they argue, what is needed is an innovative approach that includes education at the grassroots, which in Indonesia will combine Islamic principles of environmental protection with traditional methods of conservation. After a section presenting an Islamic theology of creation care and then highlighting some projects in the Muslim world, the spotlight is turned on Indonesia, where a number of initiatives involve the cooperation of religious leaders, eco-friendly pesantren (religious boarding schools), international NGOs, and government policy at the national and regional levels.
“There Are No Chinamen in Singapore”: Creolization and Self-Fashioning of the Straits Chinese in the Colonial Contact Zone
Authors: Hung Tzu-hui Celina
Published: January 2013

This article studies the self-making process of colonial Straits Chinese at the turn of the 20th century under the converging forces of British colonial power, plantation economy, mass labor migration from Qing-China, and everyday interracial contacts. Along the theoretical line of creolization, a term historically characteristic of the multiethnic diversity of Caribbean coloniality, the article examines how the late 19th-century changing colonial relations among the British, the localized Straits Chinese, the China-born newcomers, and the Malay indigenes together incited a sense of existential crisis on the part of Straits Chinese elites, who launched the Straits Chinese Magazine (1897-1907) in colonial Singapore to address the need to make use of local nexus of hybrid affinities to re-form and remake the meanings of being Chinese. Focusing on selected writings in the SCM dedicated respectively to topics of reform, education, morality, and nationality, this article regards the SCM as a distinctive cultural space, in which conscious discursive efforts were made to fashion the model Straits Chinese public images — as modern youth, as rightful descendants of Chinese cultures, as loyal British subjects, as fallible but educable people, and finally as deserved protégés of the Empire.
Saying No to Chineseness: The Possibilities and Limits of a Diasporic Identity in Janice Lowe Shinebourne's Fiction
Authors: Lee-Loy Anne-Marie
Published: January 2013

This article explores how the fiction of Guyanese-born author Janice Lowe Shinebourne reveals the tension of articulating Chineseness as a cultural identity in a diasporic context. In particular, despite being “racially marked” as Chinese, Shinebourne's fiction resists essentialized concepts of Chineseness in favor of a more flexible understanding of identity that is profoundly aware of being shaped by the specifics of her Caribbean experience and of a more general history of the Chinese in the region. Ultimately, however, Shinebourne cannot simply ignore Chineseness; rather it is an identity that must be continually interrogated and negotiated. As such, Shinebourne's work affirms the understanding of diasporic Chinese cultural identities as being constructed within the tension of the possibilities opened up by localized experience and the limitations imposed by the continued salience of “race.”
Radicalization of the Protect Diaoyutai Movement in 1970s-America
Authors: Chen Jinxing
Published: January 2013

In the early 1970s, overseas Chinese students in the United States protested against Japan's claim to the Diaoyutai Islands. Emerging at a time when the rivalry between the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland to represent China was at a critical juncture, the movement soon found itself caught up in the struggle between the two sides. It was out of the Protect Diaoyutai Movement that a new ideological constituent of overseas Chinese nationalism came to light, looking to the PRC as the hope for a sovereign China. It became a predominant force among overseas Chinese activists and the movement changed its direction from defending Diaoyutai to seeking Taiwan's reunification with the mainland. The paper discusses the factors that shaped and eventually radicalized the movement. It asserts that the event was a turning point in the evolution of overseas Chinese nationalism which transformed an undercurrent into a surging tide that gave rise to a new Chinese national identity among overseas Chinese in America.
The Making of a Diasporic Identity: The Case of the Sydney Chinese Commercial Elite, 1890s-1900s
Authors: Kuo Mei-fen
Published: January 2013

This article is about a short moment in Chinese-Australian history at the turn of the 20th century when Chinese fruit and vegetable traders in Sydney were on the verge of major international success. The concerns of this new urban elite can be gleaned from their Chinese-language newspapers and civil societies which played an important role in the evolution of the diasporic identity of the Chinese in “White-Australia” — an experience involving more than merely a refinement of native kinship practices and inherited identities — in a process that invoked a distinctively modern sense of time, space, and the unfolding of history. This is an attempt to recount their experience chiefly by reference to the developments recorded in Chinese newspapers and the narratives related to the social institutions and networks associated with them in the Federation Era (1890s-1900s).
Community Transformation and the Formation of Ethnic Capital: Immigrant Chinese Communities in the United States
Authors: Lin Mingang , Zhou Min
Published: January 2013

In this article, we attempt to develop a conceptual framework of “ethnic capital” in order to examine the dynamics of immigrant communities. Building on the theories of social capital and the enclave economy, we argue that ethnic capital is not a thing but involves interactive processes of ethnic-specific financial capital, human capital, and social capital. We use case studies of century-old Chinatowns and emerging middle-class immigrant Chinese communities in New York and Los Angeles to illustrate how ethnic capital affects community building and transformation, which in turn influence the social mobility of immigrants. We also discuss how developments in contemporary ethnic enclaves challenge the conventional notion of assimilation and contribute to our understanding of immigrant social mobility.
A Drug on the Market: Opium and the Chinese in Southeast Asia, 1750–1880
Authors: Trocki Carl
Published: January 2013

This article traces the early stages of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia and examines the relationship between the Chinese pioneers in the region and the opium trade of the British. The article stresses the importance of the “Water Frontier” settlements in the Gulf of Siam and the Malay Peninsula. It suggests that opium changed the relationship between Chinese merchant-capitalists and Chinese laborers in the region and acted as the basis for a longterm partnership between the merchants and the colonial powers with wealthy Chinese merchants acting as opium revenue farmers. In particular, it argues that the peranakan Chinese or locally-born Chinese, particularly those in Singapore and the other Straits Settlements, emerged as the key figures in the opium farming syndicates that grew up in Southeast Asia during the nineteenth century.
Chinese in Papua New Guinea: Strategic Practices in Sojourning
Authors: Ichikawa Tetsu
Published: January 2013

This is a study of the Chinese migrants in Papua New Guinea, especially those who have arrived since 1975. While the earlier Chinese migrants were from Guangdong, the recent Chinese new comers have hailed not only from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, but also Hong Kong, Taiwan and various parts of mainland China. The article analyses the strategic practices of these recent migrants in deciding whether to settle down or to re-migrate, especially to Australia. It discusses why some decide to settle, including acquiring PNG nationality to help them avoid the restrictions on foreigners doing business, while others decide to re-migrate. In both cases, the choice is based on strategic decisions and influenced by domestic conditions and transnational considerations.
Extinction and Adventures on the Chinese Diasporic Frontier
Authors: Tsu Jing
Published: January 2013

This article examines the discovery and appropriation of the Chinese diaspora in nationalistic and literary discourse in early 20th-century China. The overseas Chinese experience entered into the main field of vision of the Chinese intellectuals at a strategic moment at the turn of the century, when the diasporic frontier was uncovered only to be re-incorporated into the nationalistic imagination. This analysis begins with a look at Liang Qichao's ambivalent attitude toward the overseas Chinese whom he praised as national colonial heroes on the one hand, and denigrated for tarnishing China's image abroad on the other. In the context of national survival and the theory of evolution, Chinese laborers were hailed by some writers as the exception to the rule of extinction of the unfit. This representation was in no small part reinforced by literary and fictional writings about post-apocalyptic societies where the Chinese once again found their proper role of leadership and dominance over other races. After examining the hitherto largely unknown novels and stories on the subject, the discussion ends with an analysis of the 1906 novel, Icy Mountains and Snowy Seas, set in the 24th century in a brave new world near the South Pole.
Global Chinese Migrants and Performing Chineseness
Authors: Wickberg Edgar
Published: January 2013

This essay treats “Chineseness” as a work in progress for ethnic Chinese new immigrants to Global Cities, one in which individuals and families create, maintain, and modify the Chineseness component of their identity as they adapt to environments of multicultural populations, including earlier ethnic Chinese migrants. It is argued that the forms of Chineseness chosen and presented to others must be acceptable to both other Chinese and the local population as a whole, while also satisfying the immigrants' own values and the heritage they hope to give to their children. Their choices and presentation must also deal with national and local classifications and stereotypes about them. The raw material for their choices and inventions comes from their own experience, that of friends and earlier migrants and, over the past several years, sites on the internet. Vancouver is used as the example. In the Vancouver case, Chinese new immigrants must deal with Canadian official multiculturalism and the usage of the label “visible minority” as well as the Vancouver rhetoric about the character of that city.
In the Pink of Health or the Yellow of Condition? Chinese Workers, Colonial Medicine and the Journey to South Africa, 1904–1907
Authors: MacDonald Andrew
Published: January 2013

This article develops recent trans-national perspectives by considering Chinese indentured labor to South Africa (1904–1907), with a spatial focus on the port of Durban and the adjacent Indian Ocean. I examine the relationship of Chinese workers with medicine as a particular form of colonial authority. Far from being part of the notoriously unregulated exchanges of “coolie-labor” characterized by high mortality rates, the South African case is unusual in its extensive state and capital regulation in the healthy transport of workers. I consider the mediating role played by colonial doctors on board the vessels in managing the steamships as “floating compounds” closely allied to the imperatives of discipline-discipline. This article thus details quasi-medical efforts at control and management of miners in the shift to industrial capitalism, and assesses where these measures failed or encountered forms of resistance from the Chinese.
Chinese Migration and China's Foreign Policy in Africa
Authors: Ma Mung Emmanuel
Published: January 2013

Since the end of the 1990s, Africa has seen an increasing number of migrants of Chinese origin. It is possible to differentiate between three types of Chinese migration: a temporary labor migration flow linked to public building works and infrastructure projects undertaken by big Chinese enterprises; an entrepreneurial migration flow made up of merchants native to mainland China some of whom coming from the different diaspora communities; a proletarian transit migration flow consisting of people trying to sell their labor in western countries while waiting in Africa for opportunities to enter those countries. Over the same period, the foreign relations between China and Africa have expanded. There are roughly three elements in Chinese policy toward the continent: to gain access to natural resources such as oil and minerals, to widen China's export market and to strengthen China's diplomatic support for different international organizations. The objectives are to ensure the economic growth of the PRC and widen its political influence. This article aims to put in perspective the recent developments in Chinese migration and the orientations of China's foreign policy in Africa, and to re-address the question of relations between China and the Chinese overseas.
Junk Trade, Businesss Networks and Sojourning Communities: Hokkien Merchants in Early Maritime Asia
Authors: Chin James K.
Published: January 2013

The people of south Fujian, better known as “Hokkiens,” have a long seafaring tradition. Isolated on the remote southeastern periphery of China, they cast their eyes on the territories beyond the sea as early as the 10th century. Sporadic records suggest that Hokkien merchants were actively engaged in trading at emporia ranging from Korea in the north to Sumatra in the south. With the development of maritime trade, they started to sojourn overseas, and some of them even stayed abroad for a very long period. Hokkien merchants were known for their commercial acumen and ability to adapt to different environments abroad. Nevertheless, they still frequently relied on various institutional mechanisms to protect or advance their commercial interests. Invariably they were very creative in establishing business institutions and forming different ethnic networks. Apart from developing a wide spectrum of networks in their daily business practice, they showed various cultural characteristics that differentiated them from other Chinese merchants. As the most daring entrepreneurial group in early modern Asia, Hokkien merchants performed quite well in early maritime Asia. But as a marginal trade group, their status in overseas society was always subordinate despite their commercial success. This article examines the early Hokkien commercial activities in a number of the major port polities of Asia, with a focus on the Hokkien sojourning communities in Korea, Kyushu, Taiwan and Manila, and their unique networks and culture.
The Hoa of Phu Quoc in Vietnam: Local Institutions, Education, and Studying Mandarin
Authors: Chew Chye Lay Grace
Published: January 2013

This report gives an overview of the Hoa (Chinese) community and its institutions in Phu Quoc, Vietnam. In particular it describes the linguistic landscape of the Hainanese, why the Hainanese language is maintained and the promotion of Mandarin has been difficult. The redevelopment of Chinese institutions, principally, the mutual aid association and the huiguan, helps to provide opportunities to maintain certain linguistic practices. However, without a linguistic market, the preservation of the Chinese school and the learning of Mandarin have not been easy.
The Chinatown in Peru and the Changing Peruvian Chinese Community(ies)1
Authors: Lausent-Herrera Isabelle
Published: January 2013

The Chinese quarter established in Lima shortly after the arrival in 1849 of Chinese indentured laborers, mainly from the Guangdong province, has gone through significant changes during its long history. Perhaps the more significant of these have occurred since the last two decades with a new influx of Chinese immigrants mostly of Fujian origin. Instead of reinforcing the Chinese community the coexistence of the old and new Chinese has led to fragmentation, competition and increasing social tension in the Chinese community in Peru, not least in redefining the Huiguan’s role. Competition has intensified not only in terms of pricing but also looking for commercial space (stores and warehouses). Wholesale importers of Chinese manufactured goods, restaurateurs, hoteliers and spa managers have extended their businesses beyond the old limits of Lima’s Chinatown. Does this spell the end of Chinatown or the beginning of multiple Chinese quarters?
Ikebukuro Chinatown in Tokyo: The First “New Chinatown” in Japan
Authors: Kiyomi Yamashita
Published: January 2013

This article seeks to clarify the circumstances in the process of formation of the first new Chinatown in Japan situated in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, comparing it with the Three Big Chinatowns of Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki known as old Chinatowns. For this purpose, the increase in the number of Chinese newcomers in Japan is examined first. This is followed by an analysis of the development of ethnic businesses run by the Chinese newcomers and their relationship with the local Japanese community i.e. the host society. Ikebukuro Chinatown serves as a test case for problems relating to the presence of foreign residents in Japan and the extent to which they can be overcome.
Fuzhou Chinese Speech Group and Associations: Online Debates over the Landmarks of Manhattan Chinatown after 9/11
Authors: Chiu Ann Shu-ju
Published: January 2013

Abstract

After the terrorist attack of 11 September 2001, both the Cantonese and Fujianese immigrants in New York City’s Manhattan Chinatown felt the need for the reconstruction of their communities. Fuzhou migrants put up their hometown website, Fujianese.com, when the City Government provided a relief fund and initiated certain projects for the rebirth of Chinatown. Discussions relating to the shaping of the webscape and landscape can be gleaned from their online debates over the cultural landmarks of Manhattan Chinatown built with the 9/11 funding. In analyzing Fujianese.com, we find a sub-ethnic awareness emerging from among the Fuzhou migrants concerned about their community participation in the host society. This website has nurtured a sub-ethnic sentiment and strengthened the identity of its members. The online discourses are important sources of information for studying the issue of dialect grouping and territorial association.
Bibliografie van vroeg negentiende-eeuwse Nederlandse kunstkritieken
Authors: Koolhaas-Grosfeld Eveline , Ouwerkerk Annemiek
Published: January 2013

The organized presentation of contemporary art to a wide public began in the Netherlands in the French period and after the French model, with the first public exhibition of work by living masters in 1808. Regular exhibitions of the same type followed, at first held biennially in Amsterdam and The Hague alternately and after 1820 in other towns as well. Art criticism began to be published around the same time, mostly in magazines of a literary character. The bibliography given here covers the period from c. 1800 to 1840, when the first specialized art periodicals began and the criticism thus becomes more accessible. It includes reviews of exhibitions in the Southern Netherlands up to 1830- I. Part I comprises a chronological list of catalogues and reviews of the exhibitions of works by living masters, plus any additional comments on them, Part II an alphabetical list of the periodicals covered. The bibliography has been made as wide in scope as possible, but lays no claim to completeness. It does not include announcements and programmes of exhibitions as these were invariably published in the Algemeene konst- en letterbode.