bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reading the Book of Nature: A Hermeneutical Account of Nature for Philosophical Theology
Authors: Clingerman Forrest
Published: January 2013

How can we read nature as a revelatory text? This essay argues for a re-opening of the Book of Nature for philosophical theology. I first will summarize the traditional use of the metaphor of the Book of Nature. But this “book” was closed when science discarded the metaphor of divine authorship as unnecessary. We can re-open nature as a text by discovering the textuality of nature, which in turn presents a reemergence of text itself. From this, we can point to a revelatory nature of nature. The import of the text of nature comes from a reflexive, meditative reading, which sees the way in which the world of the text—and simultaneously the world as text—interacts with/as the world of the reader. The world that we encounter through reading is the very world of our existence—we are encountering the world that forms the foundation of the world from which we read.
Ethics-Based Environmentalism in Practice: Religious-Environmental Organizations in the United States
Authors: Smith Angela , Pulver Simone
Published: January 2013

Debates over the “death of environmentalism” juxtapose two approaches to environmental advocacy: an issues-based environmentalism that relies on technocratic, legal, scientific, policy-oriented and issue-specific advocacy activities and an ethics-based environmentalism that has as its primary focus the promotion of deep-seated changes in individual and societal values and behavior as they pertain to stewardship of the earth. The latter is presented both as a critique of the former and as a road map for a more effective environmental movement. This study documents the practice and challenges of ethics-based environmentalism through an analysis of the religious-environmental movement in the United States. Interviews with forty-two U.S.-based religious-environmental organizations revealed that the majority of these groups see themselves as engaged in an ethics-based environmentalism grounded in frameworks that tie God to nature and emphasize action, community, and justice. Groups also identified some of the challenges inherent in ethics-based environmental advocacy, including the need to confront societal norms, work on long time horizons, access funding, recruit support, and measure and document success.
Post Modern Public Administration in the Land of Promise: The Basic Ecclesial Community Movement of Mindanao
Authors: Holden William
Published: January 2013

Recent discussions of sustainable development have come to see the dominant neoliberal development paradigm receive criticism for creating environmental degradation coupled with increased inequality of wealth and power. In the developing world, sustainable development has increasingly come to be sought by postmodern public administration, which consists of efforts undertaken by the poor themselves to improve their conditions in life without changing power relations in society. This paper discuss the efforts undertaken by the Roman Catholic Church's Basic Ecclesial Communities, on the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines, to improve the conditions of the poor without changing power relations in society. The paper discusses the emergence of the Basic Ecclesial Communities, the programs they provide for their members, the successes, and failures of these programs in providing participatory sustainable development, and the outlook for the future.
Engaging Islamic Views on Human-Animal Relations: Towards an Adab-centred Approach
Authors: Keshani Hussein
Published: January 2013

In the coming years, human-animal relations can be expected to be an increasing concern in the Islamic world and among the Muslim diaspora given the pressures applied by the globalizing network of industrial economies and rapid advancements in the biological sciences. The issue of how to effectively engage Islamic discourse in global dialogues on human-animal relations can also be expected to become more pressing. This paper argues that the current strategies of producing and engaging Islamic discourse do not take into account the complexities of how Islamic discourse is generated and are both limited by a legalistic or sharia focus. Instead an Adab-centred approach is proposed as a means of cultivating both a more engageable form of Islamic discourse and a broader global dialogue on human-animal relations.
Subjectivity and Suffering: Transgenic Animals, Christianity, and the need to Re-evaluate
Authors: Eaton Heather
Published: January 2013

The many facets of transgenic animals are not addressed by secular or religious voices, and for many reasons; ignorance, absence of public debate, acceleration of the research, and apathy towards animals. There is a need to understand the basic parameters of transgenic animal research. Second, it is important to investigate Christian actual and potential responses, as well as grapple with the strengths and limits. Third, work in transgenic animals comes out of a deprived affective, aesthetic and ethical milieu where there is no rapport with animals as inherent subjects. With new insights from religion and animal studies, it may be possible to transform the prevailing utilitarian view of animals.
Chinese Cultural Factors Favouring Biotechnology Research
Authors: Miller James
Published: January 2013

This paper summarizes recent European research on social and cultural perceptions of biotechnology research, with a focus on transgenic mice. Secondly it attempts to consider some of the same questions from a Chinese cultural perspective.
Dirt, Collapse, and Eco-responsibility: "Natural" Evils and the Eager Longing for Eco-justice
Authors: Admirand Peter
Published: January 2013

As a theologian seeking to evaluate the meaning of "nature" or the "natural"—especially as contained in the problematic term "natural evils"—I will turn predominantly to an anthropologist-poet (Loren Eiseley), a professor of evolutionary biology (Jared Diamond), and a geomorphologist (David Montgomery). Ultimately, I will assess the value of creation and the question of responsibility in light of the staggering and senseless loss of so much life. I contend that theists will find unexpected allies in historical and anthropological works that examine how human action (and inaction) causes or exacerbates much of the destruction "natural" disasters unleash. Questions to investigate include: (1) How responsible are humans for the suffering inflicted by "natural" disasters? (2) If human beings are not solely culpable for such affliction, how should this impact a theist's faith position and the value of creation? (3) How can the findings and analysis of the scientists consulted in this article support a Levinasian priority of the ethical and liberation theologians' option for the poor? (4) How can a pluralized, ambiguous interpretation of the natural spur a deeper sense of eco-responsibility? (5) Which theological approach is best able to respond to the reality of our depleted and ravaged biosphere?
The Jurisprudence of Thomas Berry
Authors: Burdon Peter
Published: January 2013

On June 1 2009 Fr Thomas Berry passed away at his home in Greensboro N.C. In his final book before passing, Berry challenged human society to a carry out a transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner. This 'Great Work' encompassed religion, education, science and law. In this paper I will address Berry's argument that our current legal system supports the destruction of the environment and outline two ideas he put forward for evolving law. The first idea recognises that human law operates within and should be bound by the overarching laws of the natural world. From this perspective, the laws of nature are primary and human law would receive its legal quality and authority from its conformity with this law. The second proposal was to recognise that the earth consists of subjects, not objects and that all subjects are capable of holding rights. I will consider this argument in the context of two recent enactments of 'rights for nature' legislation in municipalities in the United States and in the constitution of Ecuador.
Nature, Environment and Beauty: An Examination of the Beliefs of Modern Black Churchgoers and John Muir
Authors: Smith-Cavros Eileen
Published: January 2013

This qualitative research examined participants in environment-related projects in Miami, Florida, who were Black churchgoers driven by a sense of spirituality and stewardship. An examination of interviews and participant observations demonstrated that participants were strongly influenced by a shared concept of "beauty" in nature. This use of the word and concept of "beauty" to refer to nature was connected both to Black history and religion in inspiring participants' actions and attitudes toward environmental preservation. This emphasis on "beauty" as it relates to nature was independent from, yet quite similar to, the idea and language of spiritual "beauty" displayed in the writings of early U.S. conservationist John Muir. These similarities suggest commonalities where sometimes only division is perceived, and underscore the importance and applicability of interconnectedness in the contemporary environmental protection movement.
A Feng Shui landscape and Tree Planting with explanation based on Feng Shui Diaries: A case study of Mainland Okinawa, Japan
Authors: Nakama Yuei , Chen Bixia
Published: January 2013

High mountains in back and facing the sea is an ideal Feng Shui village landscape in Okinawa. Such a location is perfect for semi-agricultural and semi-fishing production.When and how a Feng Shui village came into being is still a myth to the historians. The only complete records of Feng Shui village inspections of Inamine and its close neighbor, Makija hamlets, by Feng Shui masters from 1857 to 1888 exist there. These items of literature allow us to have a rough look at Feng Shui layout in then early-modern Ryukyu. On basis of Feng Shui diaries and remnant huge Fukugi trees, this study aims to clarify the settlement and the development process of Feng Shui village landscape in Okinawa.Tree planting has been highlighted in these Feng Shui diaries. Utakis, the local sacred places usually covered with lush forests, are the primary concern of village Feng Shui. Dense forests were required to be planted on the Feng Shui sites, a spot or an area of significance to the whole village Feng Shui. Tree planting around the houses, along the coastline, and even along rivers has effectively protected the village houses and paddy fields from strong winds. All remnant huge Fukugi trees older than 200 years were found in Muranaha, the hamlet center and also the oldest part of Inamine hamlet. About 14 big trees were standing in village Ho:go, among which 13 were on the coastline. Ho:go is a particular Feng Shui word in Okinawa, literally means embraced protection. Ho:go is also used to refer to forest belts that surround a house, a village or coastline. It is assumed that Ho:go might have been recommended by the central government around 1737-1750 in Okinawa. The biggest tree found in Inamine is estimated to be around 298 years old. From the remnant trees, a number of houses in Inamine might have existed early to 300 years ago. It might have been considered as an administrative hamlet by the central government around 1751, with the planting of village Ho:go. The oldest houses were first built in the center and, with the population increase, later spread to the surrounding areas.
China's Environmental Crisis: Practical Insights from Chinese Religiosity
Authors: Chang Peter T. C.
Published: January 2013

Confronted with a looming ecological crisis, calls are intensifying for modern China to rekindle its ancient naturalistic worldview. My paper explores the practical implications of these exhortations, namely, the requisite actions to transform contemporary Chinese into citizenry committed to sustainable living. Two trademarks of the traditional Chinese moral enterprise will be elaborated. The first is the doctrine of concentric circle. I will explain that the Confucian strategy to fulfill humankind's universal obligation is to begin with rectifying the self, the local community and extending incrementally towards the embracing of all things. The process to heal nature's wounds henceforth must similarly commence with disciplined self-cultivation anchored in the nuclear family. The second is ancestral worship, which I plan to argue has efficacy in strengthening people's resolve to subsist sacrificially for the sake of their descendents. As a platform to venerate the dead, this ritual also serves as conduit to a spiritual realm that awakens the living and reinforces our bond to the future generation.
The Megachurch in the Landscape: Adapting to Changing Sale and Managing Integrated Green Space in Texas and Oklahoma, USA
Authors: Bratton Susan
Published: January 2013

Christian megachurches in Texas and Oklahoma, of 4000 weekly attendance or greater, vary in green space design from impenetrable to highly accessible, and from predominantly mowed lawn to sophisticated plans incorporating a variety of outdoor recreational and ritual spaces. The most complex layouts include sites for baptism and prayer, as well as small natural areas. Conscious expression of practical theology or Christian symbolism in the green space is correlated to higher landscape connectivity and diversity. The recent appearance of large church campuses, exceeding 50 ha, has resulted in sporadic innovation, while for many large congregations green space remains an underutilized resource. Five theological questions for religious campus planners include how does green space: 1) express God's beauty; 2) honor providential environmental services; 3) teach about the relationship between God, humanity, and the environment; 4) provide connections among God, nature, the congregation and the neighbors; and 5) provide for the needs of others?
“The Production of Post-Supernaturalistic Mythopoesis in Contemporary Nature Religion”
Authors: LeVasseur Todd
Published: January 2013

Are there new, emerging forms of nature reverencing religion? If so, what might these look like? This paper seeks to answer this question by drawing on both Bron Taylor's Dark Green Religion (and especially his nature religion schema found therein that includes the category of “Gaian Earth Religion”) and the work of environmental philosopher Donald Crosby (and his category of “religion of nature”). I argue that science writers like Edward Wilson and Carl Sagan, along with ecopoets like Mary Oliver, are creating a new mythopoesis of post-supernaturalistic nature religion. I also look at the complex interaction of religion/science and the role reverence for nature plays in this dialogue. I argue that the nature religion schema put forth by Taylor and the “physisology” put forth by Crosby can help us better theorize emerging strands of post-supernaturalistic religious-like sentiments and narratives that continue to grow 150 years after Darwin's theory revolutionized both science and religion.
Organic Farmers’ Connectedness with Nature: Exploring Thailand’s Alternative Agriculture Network
Authors: Kaufman Alexander H.
Published: January 2013

Only recently has research begun to explore how individuals translate their values into actions towards the natural world. As Buddhist scriptures have been associated with environmental stewardship, Thailand’s rural agrarian communities provide a useful site to test farmers’ perceptions of nature. Studies have shown that the Thai alternative agriculture movement has advocated a closer connection to nature through organic extension programs. This paper explores the ways organic rice farmers work with each other and nature to sustain rice farms in rural Northeastern Thailand. In depth interviews with organic farmers shed light on why they form collectives and what holds these groups together. Subsequent analysis revealed the salience of organic fertilizer collectives as a medium of associations between farmers and nature. A final round of structured interviews with seventy-five organic farmers’ examined connectedness with nature through a study of fertilizer practices. Findings suggest that organic farmers perceived bountiful rice and good health as externalities of nurturing the soil. Organic farmers developed a physical association with nature that led to a collective ecological worldview. Although, this study points to the social and spiritual attributes of a close connection with nature, organic farmers also depend on access to capital, technology, and strong local leadership.
Tradition and Sentiment in Indonesian Environmental Islam
Authors: Gade Anna M.
Published: January 2013

In 2010-2011, new public messages circulated in Indonesia’s public sphere to “green” Islam. Formal and semi-formal religious education increasingly reflected and supported new ecological curricula and models. Messages of “eco-dakwah” (religious and environmental outreach) by religious authorities connected theory and practice, long established in the pesantren (madrasa) tradition. This paper highlights two affective strategies that were emerging as forms of environmental Islam: first, adapting “tradition” to be a resource for experiential awareness; and, second, the related expectation that feeling and emotion carry persuasive power to alter perception and inspire action. This dakwah cast moral sentiment and action in this world with respect to natural states anticipated in the world to come.
“Our native place — our cinema”: Nation, State and Colony in the Amoy-Dialect Film Industry of the 1950s
Authors: Taylor Jeremy
Published: January 2013

This paper explores the origins, rise, and rapid decline of the Amoy-dialect film industry — an industry which was centered on the production of commercial Hokkien films in Hong Kong for mass consumption amongst Hokkien-speaking audiences throughout East and Southeast Asia in the 1950s. Building on recent research into “Diasporic Chinese film markets,” it examines this industry in light of the social and political changes (e.g. decolonization, the formation of new, postcolonial nation-states, etc.) that were occurring throughout the course of the 1950s in those areas in which substantial Hokkien-speaking communities existed. It also suggests that the very nature of the Amoy-dialect film industry should prompt us to rethink how we approach the study of “national” and “transnational” cinemas in Asia during the postwar period.
Vietnamese or Chinese: Viet-kieu in the Vietnam-China Borderlands
Authors: Chan Yuk Wah
Published: January 2013

This article examines the contested identity of a particular group of Viet-kieu, who were born in China and who returned to Vietnam in the 1970s, by looking into their personal histories, descent backgrounds and the political and socio-economic processes they lived through in the past few decades. Unlike other Viet-kieu who returned from the West, the Viet-kieu in the borderlands rarely received any attention from the media or academia. They led a double life both in China and in Vietnam and experienced dramatic changes of fate from the 1970s, through the 1980s, to the 1990s. Their hybrid cultural endowment and cross-border familial ties were both detrimental and beneficial to their social and economic life within different historical contexts. Reopened borders around the world in the post-Cold War era have generated discourses on transnational economic integration, regional connectedness, as well as fluid mobility and identities. It has become a fashion to criticize the study of culture and identity as rigid entities, while the increasing stress on subjectivity and agency has made identity seem ever more evolving and changing. Putting aside the romantic notion of fluid and multiple identities, this article brings up a number of empirical cases to illustrate how identity is often shaped by the possibilities and constraints under different politico-economic circumstances.
Preparing Opium for America: Hong Kong and Cultural Consumption in the Chinese Diaspora
Authors: Sinn Elizabeth
Published: January 2013

This article studies how emigrants' consumption, conditioned by social values and taste transplanted from the home country, affected long distance trade. As tens of thousands of Chinese went to North America, Australia and New Zealand from the time of the Gold Rush, a market for Chinese consumption goods arose, with prepared opium being a leading commodity. Chinese, both at home and abroad, consumed opium by smoking and demanded opium to be boiled in a particular way. As brands prepared in Hong Kong were widely acknowledged as the best, the export trade in Hong Kong's opium to these high-end markets became extremely lucrative. Producers elsewhere resorted to different ploys to get a Hong Kong stamp on their products. The Hong Kong government manipulated different groups of Chinese merchants inside and outside Hong Kong to maximize its revenue from the opium farm, while rival merchant groups sometimes combined to trump the government. The situation not only offers a lesson for the study of state-business relations but also undermines the popular claim that the Hong Kong government practiced laissez-fairism. On another level, the study, by highlighting the consumption of one particular commodity, draws attention to the Chinese diaspora as transnational cultural space.
Entanglement of Business and Politics in the Chinese Diaspora: Interrogating the Wartime Patriotism of Aw Boon Haw
Authors: Huang Jianli
Published: January 2013

This article focuses on the wartime experiences of Aw Boon Haw who was the renowned billionaire peddler of the Tiger Balm ointment and owner of an influential chain of regional newspapers. After the Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, he traveled from Singapore to the wartime Chinese capital of Chongqing to meet up with Chiang Kai-shek and his Guomindang leaders. But soon after, he opted to stay in Hong Kong throughout the occupation period and became closely associated with the Japanese-sponsored government of Wang Jingwei, even making a trip to Tokyo to meet the Japanese Prime Minister. When the war ended, amidst accusations of him having been a traitor who collaborated with the occupation authorities, he switched his loyalty back to China and the British colonial settlements and resumed his business operations and philanthropic activities. This wartime experience of Aw brings into sharp relief the sort of political entanglement which prominent Chinese overseas business people can be entrapped in. Suspicions about his wartime patriotism initially hounded him and he had to issue denials. However, in the midst of confusion over the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War and the American reversal of occupation policy in Japan, there was an absence of formal governmental or public actions, allowing the issue to fade away and Aw's business and charity to return to normalcy. It was more than 30 years later, at the height of the economic reopening of Communist mainland China and the renewed importance of Chinese overseas capital in the 1980s and 1990s, that Aw's wartime patriotism was re-examined, this time calculated to pass a new and presumably last verdict that Aw had been most unfairly judged and that he was actually an iconic true overseas Chinese patriot. This posthumous honor was conferred on him despite the fact that the supposedly new empirical evidence was far from conclusive. It was an act of political restoration in semi-academic garb and enacted with an eye to facilitating further business ties between a resurgent China and the Chinese diaspora.
An Excursion into Cai Peihuo's Colonial Diary, 1929–36
Authors: Heylen Ann
Published: January 2013

This essay proposes an excursion into the labyrinth of Cai Peihuo's (1889–1983) self-reflection recorded in a diary that he kept between 1929 and 1936. Cai is canonized as an anti-colonial figure and one of the key players in the home front Taiwanese mobilization movement during the 1920s and 1930s when the island was under Japanese rule. The analysis of his diaristic writing is significant in two respects. First, it sheds light on the divergent manners in which this first generation of Japanese-educated, bilingual middlemen envisioned their futures within particular temporal and spatial settings. Second, it examines ways of comprehending how the recorded experiences of Cai's encounter with social change reflect his inner dilemma in identifying with the colonial Weltanschauung. To this end, I focus on those passages in the diary that elucidate Cai's linguistic activism, language proposals and orthographic alternations that characterize the diary narrative.
Kuomintang Soldiers and Their Descendants in Northern Thailand: An Ethnographic Study
Authors: Duan Ying
Published: January 2013

This research explores the community and the life of the Yunnanese Chinese comprising KMT soldiers and their descendants in northern Thailand. By describing three generations of these villagers, the article shows how the original Kuomintang soldiers and their descendants have adapted to life in northern Thailand, and become a category of Chinese there. Despite the influence of Thai culture especially on the young, certain aspects of Chinese tradition have remained important for their cultural identity, while Chinese education reinforces the socialization of Chinese cultural values.
Changing Roles, Continuing Ideas: Tan Kah Kee in 1949 and 1950
Authors: Lu Hu
Published: January 2013

This article examines the activities of Tan Kah Kee in China and Singapore from 1949 to 1950 when Tan's role changed from that of leader of the overseas Chinese to chief representative of the overseas Chinese, to representative of New China, and finally to representative of the returned overseas Chinese. It argues that Tan continued to hold on to his ideas despite the changes in his roles. He went to China without the intention of never revisiting or returning to Singapore. He rarely criticized the British as he did the Americans. Almost all his proposals were still related to the reform of social habits and public health in overseas Chinese society. In continuing to hope that the new government in China would facilitate interaction between the overseas Chinese and China, Tan thus entertained hopes for the overseas Chinese to remain free to move between their place of domicile, China and even Britain.
From Demand for Asiatic Labor to Importation of Indentured Chinese Labor: Race Identity in the Recruitment of Unskilled Labor for South Africa's Gold Mining Industry, 1903–1910
Authors: Tu T. Huynh
Published: January 2013

Despite international protests against bonded labor, the flow of indentured laborers during the 19th and early decades of the 20th centuries was extensive compared to the earlier centuries. The focus of this article is on the particularity of the “Chinese coolies experiment” in South Africa's gold mining industry which commenced in 1904. This 20th-century episode of indentured labor is notable for several reasons, and it serves as a springboard for the discussion of some fundamental issues in capitalist development, labor and identity formation. This article emphasizes the last, examining how a “Chinese” identity was formed through the development of the gold fields and, in turn, how this formation reinforced a nascent white labor aristocracy. It discusses two dimensions of this labor “experiment” in South Africa: (1) the heady debate on the decision to look to China for cheap labor and (2) desertion by the indentured Chinese laborers from various mining compounds in the Witwatersrand.
Sinifying New Spain: Cathay's Influence on Colonial Mexico via the Nao de China
Authors: Slack, Jr. Edward
Published: January 2013

The study of Asian migration to colonial Mexico via the nao de China — especially by Chinese and mestizos living in the Philippines — has been languishing in academic oblivion. This article reveals how transpacific relations between Manila and Acapulco profoundly affected the social, economic, religious, and political spheres of activity in New Spain. Aside from the challenges encountered by chinos acclimating to a Castilian race-based hierarchy, it also probes the reasons behind widespread social amnesia in the mid-to-late 18th century with respect to Mexico's Oriental heritage. Furthermore, this article contests accepted scholarly definitions of mestizaje (mixed-race heritage) that emphasize a purely Atlantic pedigree. Reconstructing the process of sinification in colonial Mexico is imperative to “reorienting” its history and chronologically repositioning studies on the Chinese diaspora in the Americas.
Chinese Chicago: Transnational Migration and Businesses, 1870s‐1930s
Authors: Ling Huping
Published: January 2013

Employing the theoretical framework of transnationalism, this study closely examines how the transnational kinship networks played out in various aspects of the Chinese businesses in Chicago, through reconstructing the transnational Chinese businesses during the period from the 1870s to the1930s. Utilizing primary sources in both English and Chinese, in particular the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) Chicago Chinese Case Files (CCCF) and Chinese gazetteers, it also demonstrates how the Chinese community in Chicago served as a vital link of the transnational migration and business networks and a center of commerce and trade in the American Midwest during this period.
Diaspora in the United States: Chinese and Indians Compared
Authors: Skop Emily , Li Wei
Published: January 2013

In recent years, the migration rates from both China and India to the U.S. have accelerated. Since 2000 more than a third of foreign-born Chinese and 40% of foreign-born Indians have arrived in that country. This paper will document the evolving patterns of immigration from China and India to the U.S. by tracing the history of immigration and racial discrimination, the dramatic transitions that have occurred since the mid-20th century, and the current demographic and socioeconomic profiles of these two migrant groups.
From Sojourning to Citizenship: The Chinese Community in St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1895-1967
Authors: Sparrow John K.
Published: January 2013

This report examines the experiences of the Chinese community in St. John’s, Newfoundland, prior to Confederation with Canada in 1949. It argues that before Confederation, life for the Chinese in St. John’s was lonely, filled with tedious drudgery, and alienating. It was not until Newfoundland’s union with Canada in 1949 and eventual changes in immigration law in 1967 that potential for a meaningful future for both themselves and their families took hold. These political changes eventually allowed the Chinese in Newfoundland to become an official part of the social fabric of Newfoundland and validated their cultural traditions as ethnic Chinese.
From Mott Street to East Broadway: Fuzhounese Immigrants and the Revitalization of New York’s Chinatown
Authors: Guest Kenneth J.
Published: January 2013

Since the early 1980s, immigrants from Fuzhou, southeast China, have revitalized and expanded New York’s Chinatown in Manhattan and established satellite Chinese communities in Brooklyn and Queens. Fuzhounese entrepreneurs have transformed the ethnic enclave economy of Chinatown into the staging platform for a dynamic national ethnic restaurant economy in which East Broadway in Lower Manhattan has become the central hub for the circulation of capital, labor, goods and know-how. Despite recent revitalization, Chinatown’s future as a gateway for new labor immigrants is threatened by real estate speculation and gentrification in the Manhattan and Brooklyn Chinatown areas.
A Special Intermittence and Continuity in Local History: The Chinese Diaspora and Their Hometown in Battlefield Quemoy during 1949-1960s
Authors: Bo-wei Chiang
Published: January 2013

Abstract

From 1949, Quemoy became the battlefront between the warring Nationalists and Communists as well as the frontline between Cold War nations. Under military rule, social and ideological control suppressed the community power of traditional clans and severed their connection with fellow countrymen living abroad. For 43 long years up until 1992, Quemoy was transformed from an open hometown of the Chinese diaspora into a closed battlefield and forbidden zone. During the war period, most of the Quemoy diasporic Chinese paid close attention to the state of their hometown including the security of their family members and property. In the early 1950s, they tried to keep themselves informed of the situation in Quemoy through any available medium and build up a new channel of remittances. Furthermore, as formal visits of the overseas Chinese were an important symbol of legitimacy for the KMT, Quemoy emigrants had been invited by the military authority to visit their hometown since 1950. This was in fact the only channel for the Chinese diaspora to go home. Using official files, newspapers and records of oral histories, this article analyzes the relationship between the Chinese diaspora and the battlefield, Quemoy, and takes a look at the interactions between family and clan members of the Chinese diaspora during 1949-1960s. It is a discussion of a special intermittence and continuity of local history.
Seeking Residency from the Courts: The Chinese Experience in the Post-White Australia Era
Authors: Gao Jia
Published: January 2013

Abstract

In 1974 Australia officially abandoned its “White Australia” policy. Since then hundreds of thousands of Chinese have migrated to the country, first from Southeast Asian countries, then from Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan before direct immigration from China resumed in the mid-1980s. Lately, Australia has placed more emphasis on admitting skilled and business migrants, but has still maintained an annual intake of tens of thousands of Chinese, making China the third largest source of overseas-born Australians. Many believe that the Chinese have come to Australia under its normal migration program, such as the skilled, business or family programs thus overlooking the fact that a high proportion of them have obtained their residency in Australia either directly or indirectly only after having gone through Court battles. This paper seeks to examine how many of the Chinese have fought for residency in the courts, and to outline the characteristics of their experience in the post-White Australia era. It aims to provide an analysis of the complex dimensions of global migration and transnational politics where certain aspects of socio-political life and politics of the immigrants’ home country have conflicted with the immigration policies and procedures of their receiving country and gradually become part of the politics of the host country.
The Internet and Hoisan-wa in the U.S.: Counter-Hegemonic Discourses and Shifting Language Ideologies
Authors: Leung Genevieve Y.
Published: January 2013

Abstract

This report explores some aspects of the language ideologies discussed on the Internet about Hoisan-wa, a variety of Cantonese. Informed by a language ideology framework, it looks at two YouTube videos and users’ comments regarding them. The findings of the report demonstrate a shift in language beliefs about speaking Hoisan-wa as less of a “harsh-sounding, mere dialect” to more of a public declaration of pride in being speakers or descendants of this language background. The author also discusses the prospects for Hoisan-wa language maintenance and how technology can aid in this process.
Research Report Studying Nonya Ceramics in the Singapore-Melaka Region and Their Larger Historical and Artistic Background
Authors: Sim Teddy Yong Huei , Liu Sandy Jun Chih
Published: January 2013

Abstract

The ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia is a mature area of study, having benefited from the works of many distinguished scholars. This paper looks into the area of ceramic artifacts in the Peranakan Museum of Singapore and the Nonya Baba Museum of Melaka. The characteristics of the collection are explored in terms of the earlier material culture inherited by the Peranakans. It may be pertinent to make the point that from a “whole culture” approach, these ceramics used at the commonest, middle and higher levels embraced a cultural transference that might not be claimed by the Peranakans alone. Another important part of this investigation is the linkage made to the larger commercial networks in which these ceramics were traded.
Oud Holland terugblik en vooruitzien
Authors: Nieuwstraten J. , van Thiel P.J.J. , Lunsingh Scheurleer Th. H. , van Gelder J.G. , van der Klooster L.J.
Published: January 2013

The present number of Oud-Holland is the first one to appear as publication of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague. The ever increasing exploitation losses have obliged our long-time publishers De Bussy & Co. to end their publication activities for the periodical. The editors greatly regret the termination of the ties with the firm of De Bussy. On the other hand, they appreciate very much the new lease of life accorded to Oud-Holland in consequence of the decision of Mr. P. J. Engels, Minister van Ctiltuur, Recreatie en Maatschappelijk Werk, to increase the Rijksbureau's budget with a sum covering exploitation costs of Oud-Holland as a publication of this state institute. After a short survey of the history of Oud-Holland follows a discussion of the critical financial situation which forced suspension of appearance throughout 7972 and which necessitated the above indicated changes, including an altered team of editors. As regards editing policy, they plan to broaden out the field covered by Oud-Holland chronologically, removing any restriction of period. While therefore, strictly speaking, the name of Oud-Holland is no longer quite applicable, it will be maintained for a number of reasons. Pubiishing findings of the Rijksbureau's staff, Oud-Holland will offer to the reader among other things a great many short notices of purely factual nature. Contributions by fellow students qf Netherlandish art will be welcome as ever and are cordially invited. In order to increase our circulation, the yearly subscription rate is reduced to f 50, -, while for subscriptions outside the Netherlands an additional f 0, 00 is charged for postage and packing. You are invited to support Oud-Holland by continuing your subscription, resp. by becoming a subscriber now.
Een episode uit de fabel van Erysichthon getekend door Maarten de Vos
Authors: Van Tatenhove J.
Published: January 2013

In the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie is a photograph from Max Friedländer's archives of a drawing as yet unmentioned in the literature (Fig. I). It is clearly in pen and wash and somewhat damaged. The subject is The Mountain Nymph Sent by Ceres Commands Hunger to Punish Erysichthon. Friedländer ascribed the drawing to Frans Floris, but it must be by Maarten de Vos (Note I ) . It is worthy of attention not only as one of De Vos's few drawings of subjects from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Note 2), but also because this story is rarely depicted, except in illustrations to editions of the, work in which the mountain nymph episode customarily figures (Note 3). Among the twelve independent representations of the story listed by Denzler (Note 4), only one shows the same moment in it as De Vos's drawing: an anonymous print published in Antwerp around 1550 (Fig.3, Note 5). A drawing by Tobias Verhaeght, who probably knew this print, has recently also been identified as showing the same subject (Note 6). De Vos's drawing is further from Ovid's text than either of these, but still far from original, since the composition is borrowed from a Metamorphoses illustration by Bernard Salomon or, more likely, the copy of it in reverse by Virgil Solis (Fig. 2, Note 7). A notable difference, however, is that De Vos, like the anonymous print and Verhaeght, depicts Hunger as a man, a clear departure from Ovid which appears to occur only in the Netherlands. It is also found in illustrations there, first in Pieter van der Borcht's (Note 8), which may be based on the anonymous print. De Vos and Verhaeght may also have been inspired by Van der Borcht's illustration or the print, but another source of inspiration for all three artists could have been the Dutch translation of the Metamorphoses by Joannes Florianus, published in Antwerp in 1552, where Hunger is also presented as a man (Note 9). Since its publication only three representations of the Erysichthon story have been added to Denzler's list (Note 10), the De Vos drawing now bringing the total to sixteen. To these can be added six prints by the little-known French artist George Boba (Note 11). At present it seems as if the episode of the meeting between the mountain nymph and Hunger attracted attention as a separate subject only in the Netherlands.
Aanvullingen op: Maerten van Heemskercks Familiegroep te Kassel
Authors: Bruyn J.
Published: January 2013

Further to an earlier article on Maerten van Heemskerck's Portrait of Pieter Jan Foppesz. and his family (PP. 13-22), two points require additioytal comment. From information kindly supplied by Mr Gerhard Fries it appears that, before being purchased under Holbein's name by Wilhelm VIII of Hesse-Kassel, the picture was in the collection of Charles Cressent, the well-known Paris cabinetmaker and sculptor. It was included in the sale announced for January 15th (but postponed to 23rd ) 1749. The author overlooked an article by Hans Ost (note 3), who challenged the current interpretation of the picture as representing a couple with three children and advanced the idea that what was thought to be the youngest child should be seen as the Christ Child. This view, hazardous though it may seem, is plausible and fits in well with an interpretation of the whole scene as even more pervaded by religious symbolism than was hitherto thought. The wine in the man's glass would seem to refer to the blood of Christ, and the idea of Passion and Redemption, already recognized in the symbolic fruits on the table, is manifest in the presence of the Christ Child holding a crucifix. What is known about the birth-dates of the two children (Jan and Cornelia; the latter stated her age to be about 50 in 1578) does not lead to any change in the date of c. 1530 already proposed for the picture.
'Notitie der Teekeningen van Sybrand Feitama', II: 'verkocht, verhandeld, verëerd, geruild en overgedaan'
Authors: Broos B.P.J.
Published: January 2013

After the death of his father Isaac Feitama in 1709, the young Sybrand continued collecting, making several purchases that same year. Not all of them were happy ones, however. The Presentation in the Temple by Jan van Neck (Fig. 1, Note 2), bought from Simon Schijnvoet, proved to be a worked-up offset of the original drawing, which he eventually acquired from his friend Egidius Beukelaar in 1736 (Fig. 2, Note 3), so he sold it to L.F. Duboug in 1754 (Note 5). He seems not to have known that the original drawing was probably a preliminary study for the altarpiece mentioned by Houbraken as Van Neck's best work (Note 4). As in this case, so most of the background information on the Feitama drawings has been lost since the sale of 1758, the catalogue giving only a description of the subject, the measurements and the technique (Note 6). It is precisely the additional information that makes the 'Notitie' so fascinating, although the least interesting part of it now are the prices Sybrand 11 noted so carefully as his own main concern. It is worth noting, however, that exceptionally high prices are mentioned for sheets by Nicolaas Berchem, Gerard Dou, Frans van Mieris, Adriaen van Ostade and Adriaen van de Velde, Rembrandt coming nowhere by comparison. Some of the valuable information provided by the `Notitie' was dealt with in the previous article (Note 7). Some of this is very clear, e.g. in the case of a Ruisdael drawing virtually certainly to be identified with a view of the country-house Kostverloren (Fig. 3, Note 8). The authenticity of this work, which was bought by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel in 1758, has been doubted (Note 10), but the problem would seem to be solved by Feitama's note that it is one of those which Dirck Dalens acquired from Ruisdael's estate after 1682 and subsequently worked up (Note 11). Another of these is a view of Alkmaar now in Budapest (Fig. 4, Note 13). An example of additional information that might easily be overlooked is the note relating to a drawing by Frederik de Moucheron bought in 1745. This must have come from the album of
A preliminary phylogeny of the Palearctic naked-toed geckos (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) with taxonomic implications
Authors: BAUER AARON M. , MASROOR RAFAQAT , TITUS-MCQUILLAN JAMES , HEINICKE MATTHEW P. , DAZA JUAN D. , JACKMAN TODD R.
Published: January 2013

Palearctic naked-toed geckos are a group of gekkonid geckos that range from North Africa to northern India and western China, with their greatest diversity in Iran and Pakistan. Relationships among the constituent genera remain incompletely resolved and the monophyly of key genera remains unverified. Further, competing classifications are in current use and many species have been allocated to different genera by different authors. We used both mitochondrial (ND2) and nuclear genes (RAG1, PDC) to explore relationships among representatives of all but one genus in the group (Rhinogecko), including four genera not previously included in phylogenetic analyses (Asiocolotes, Altigekko, Indogekko, and Siwaligekko). Siwaligekko (and presumably other Tibeto-Himalayan species often referred to Cyrtopodion) are more closely related to tropical Asian Cyrtodactylus than to Palearctic naked-toed geckos. Sampled species of Asiocolotes and Altigekko are sister taxa, but both genera are here considered junior subjective synonyms of Altiphylax. Cyrtopodion sensu lato is non-monophyletic; Mediodactylus and Tenuidactylus, which have variably been considered as subgenera or synonyms of Cyrtopodion are both valid genera. Indogekko is embedded within Cyrtopodion and is here treated as a subgenus. Bunopus and Crossobamon are closely related to one-another, and with Agamura are interdigitated among taxa previously assigned to Cyrtopodion. Our data confirm the previous identification of a Saharo-Arabian Stenodactylus/Tropiocolotes/Pseudoceramodactylus clade and verify that Microgecko and Alsophylax are not members of the main clade of Palearctic naked-toed geckos. Osteological differences between Tropiocolotes and Microgecko, formerly treated as congeneric, are discussed and illustrated. The divergence between Cyrtodactylus and the Palearctic naked-toed clade predates the initial collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates, but deeper divergences within both groups are consistent with mountain building in the Himalayas and adjacent ranges as promoting cladogenic events. Miocene divergences within Tenuidactylus are consistent with vicariant speciation caused by uplift events in the Iranian and Transcaspian regions. Taxonomic implications of our phylogenetic results are discussed and a preliminary allocation of all species of padless Palearctic gekkonids to genus is provided.
A review of Western Palaearctic Amblyscelio and Baryconus (Hymenoptera: Platygastroidea, Platygastridae)
Authors: POPOVICI OVIDIU ALIN , MASNER LUBOMIR , NOTTON DAVID G. , POPOVICI MARIANA
Published: January 2013

The European species of the genera Amblyscelio and Baryconus are reviewed and revised based on morphological data. Females of Amblyscelio striaticeps Kieffer, 1913 and Baryconus graeffei (Kieffer, 1908) are described and the ovipositor of Amblyscelio is illustrated for the first time. The monotypic genus Amblyscelio was previously known only from a single male specimen. Baryconus graeffei is confirmed as a distinct species, while B. orbus Kononova, 2008 is recognized as a junior subjective synonym of B. europaeus (Kieffer, 1908) syn. nov. These findings are supported by a principal component analysis (PCA) of ratios of various distance measurements. Amblyscelio striaticeps is newly recorded from Greece and Slovenia, Baryconus graeffei from France, Greece, Montenegro and Turkey and B. europaeus (Kieffer, 1908) from Croatia, France, Morocco, Portugal, Sicily, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.