Snapshots of Tibet: THE DEMOCRATIC REFORM IN TIBET

InMarch22,1959,theCPCCentralCommitteeissuedthedocument,InstructionsonQuestionsRelatedtoPoliciesConcerningtheDemocraticRevolutionDuingtheSuppressionoftheArmedRebellioninTibet(Draft).OnJune28,1959,thePreparatoryCommitteefortheFoundingoftheTibetAutonomousRegionadoptedtheResolutiononConductingtheDemocraticReformandtheMethodsforRentandInterestReductionintheTibetanAreas.InSeptember1959,theDecisiononAbolishingtheFeudalSerf-Ownership,PracticingPeasantLandOwnership,andtheMethodsforCo…     

Prison of Old Tibet in Lhasa

It has been 42 years since the last group of inmates was tortured here in the prison of old Tibet, now seemingly long forgotten.     

20世纪40-50年代美国对中国西藏政策的历史演变

The U.S. policy toward Tibet has always changed in accordance with the U.S. international strategy and the U.S. foreign policy toward China. Before the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, the U.S. admitted Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. During the Cold War, due to its anti-communism strategy, the U.S. began to consider recognizing the independence claim of Tibetan separatists, especially after 1959, when the Dalai Lama was exiled abroad. However, the U.S. government has not openly admitted Tibet is an independent country, because, in the light of the historical development of Tibet within China, claims of independence cannot be substantiated and therefore Tibetan separatism cannot win the recognition or support of the majority of countries in the world.     

拉萨西藏博物馆缂丝不动金刚唐卡之断代

在学术界,拉萨西藏博物馆所藏的这幅不动金刚唐卡一直是藏传佛教唐卡中早期作品的范例之一,有关其断代众说不一。本文专就此唐卡的断代问题进行了深入的讨论和广泛的比较,认为此唐卡不应是传统所认为的宋或西夏时期的作品,而应是14世纪初以早期旧唐卡为底本的一个元代缂丝仿制品。     

Myxomatosis in 1950s Britain

In 1953 myxomatosis, a viral disease of rabbits, broke out inBritain for the first time. It rapidly killed tens of millionsof the animals from Kent to the Shetlands. Many farmers andforesters welcomed a disease that virtually eliminated a long-standingand serious agricultural pest. Others were horrified by thesight of thousands of dead and dying animals. With meat stillrationed, consumers rued the loss of a cheap and nutritiousfoodstuff. Rough shooters deplored the loss of prey and hattersand furriers the unavailability of the fur on which their businessesdepended. Rabbits also had champions within the ‘establishment’;these included Winston Churchill who was personally influentialin making deliberate transmission of the disease a criminaloffence. The arrival in Britain of myxomatosis presented theauthorities with difficult questions: should they try to containit, spread it or do nothing; should they take advantage of rabbitdepopulation and try to exterminate such a destructive animal?In the event the outbreak was allowed to run its course andrabbit extermination became government policy. This articleconsiders who or what was responsible for the disease reachingthe UK and how it then spread throughout the country. It examinesthe responses of government, other institutions and membersof the public. Finally, it explores the impact of rabbit de-populationon agriculture, the natural environment and public opinion.     

Reforming Connoisseurship: State and Collectors in Shanghai in the 1950s and 1960s

This paper examines the relationship between the state and art collectors during the 1950s and 1960s in Shanghai. It explores how the state gained control over art and collecting, by building state museums, by co-opting connoisseurs and their collections, and by extending “socialist transformation” to the antiquities market in 1956. However, state control was far from complete, and some trade in antiquities continued outside of official channels. To crack down on this illegal trade, cultural authorities in Shanghai launched a Five-Antis Campaign in 1964 to punish alleged art speculators. Through its cultural institutions and political campaigns, the state controlled culture but did not monopolize it.     

Leo Valiani and Enrico Cuccia: Iran in the 1950s

This essay details Leo Valiani's mission to Iran in 1952–53 on behalf of Mediobanca, in order to identify opportunities to promote investments for the development of both the country itself and Italian exports. The events are reconstructed through Valiani's correspondence with Enrico Cuccia (Mediobanca's CEO). A new picture of Valiani as banker emerges, effective on the ground, but also a subtle observer of local situations and prospects. The documents discussed herein highlight certain weaknesses in Mosaddeq's policies, mainly the weak relationship with the heads of finance. The oil dispute between Mosaddeq and the British and the coup orchestrated by the latter in collaboration with the Americans in order to bring down Mosaddeq's government complicated the picture so that every form of co-operation had to be postponed.     

Paragone: notes on hegemony and realism in the 1950s

This article focuses on the literary review Paragone and on the debate on realism articulated by the review and by the Cultural Commission of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in the 1950s. By analysing the review’s internal composition, correspondence between its contributors, and records of the PCI’s Cultural Commission, this article highlights a series of issues relating to the debate on realism in the 1950s, as a critical time, in both aesthetic and political terms, for the determination of Italian culture’s identity profile. Specifically, the article discusses the key features of the debate on realism that unfolded in Paragone, and relates these to the debate simultaneously developing within the Cultural Commission. This comparison allows us to argue for a close connection between the aesthetic habitus displayed by an independent review and that embraced by a cultural institution with a distinctly political as well as cultural agenda.     

大米换橡胶：20世纪50年代的中锡贸易

1952年9月和12月,中国与锡兰从各自的需要出发,签订了以大米换橡胶为主要内容的政府贸易协定,不仅开创了新中国同尚未建交、又是不同社会制度国家签订政府贸易协定的先河,而且建立了新中国与锡兰间的贸易关系,促进了两国贸易额的迅速增长。1957年8月,中锡在签订第二个五年贸易协定时,面对超价难题,周恩来提出了将贸易和援助分开来谈,即橡胶贸易按照公平的市场价格,但中国同时给予锡兰经济援助的设想,使谈判进入了比较顺利的阶段。中锡贸易协定的执行和续订,从南亚和东南亚方向打开了美国对华封锁、禁运的缺口,促进了中锡友好关系的发展。     

Rats in Alberta: looking at pest-control posters from the 1950s

How did the rat-control program, launched by the Government of Alberta in 1950, become associated with the identity and heritage of the province? The authors answer this question by undertaking close visual analyses of the anti-rat posters and pamphlets that were distributed by the government throughout the 1950s. Using a visual methodology inspired by semiotics, they argue that the early rat-control program ambitiously promoted Alberta as a unified, clean province that was both distinct from its prairie neighbours and for the most part populated with vigilant, hardworking citizens eager to remove unwanted intruders.     

20世纪五六十年代中国史学的基本走向

20世纪已经结束了。 2 0世纪的中国发生了天翻地覆的巨大变化。2 0世纪的中国史学同样经历了急剧的演变。在跨入新世纪的时刻 ,为了更好地推动中国史学的发展 ,我们很有必要认真地总结和反思它在 2 0世纪的发展。大家都承认 ,2 0世纪的中国史学取得了重大的成就 ,同时也存在许多问题。在学界中对这些成就和问题至今存在着不同的看法 ,这本是很正常的现象。重要的是 ,我们应该通过不同意见的交流和切磋来加深我们的认识 ,更好地进行总结和反思 ,从而促使我国的史学在新世纪发展得更快更健康。这就是本刊举办这次学术讨论的目的。应该说明的是 :一 ,这次学术讨论的题目和范围是 2 0世纪中国史学的发展 ,重点是 1 94 9年新中国成立以后。二 ,讨论的重点是对 2 0世纪的中国史学或其中的某个阶段 ,或某个学派 ,某个学术思潮 ,某个史学分支 ,某个重大专题 ,某个史学领域 ,某种重要现象等从总体上进行观察和评述。一般不对某个具体学者进行讨论和评述。三 ,讨论必须坚持“百花齐放 ,百家争鸣”的方针。欢迎发表各种不同意见 ,进行平等的讨论。四 ,讨论中的任何意见均不代表编辑部的看法。文责均由作者自负。     

20世纪50年代以来东南亚闽籍华人数量的估算

海外华侨华人数量的不确定一直是学术研究中的难题,东南亚地区由于各国复杂的情况这一问题更为明显。多种因素导致东南亚闽籍华侨华人规模估算的困难。论文在参考国内统计数据的基础上,汇总东南亚各国的人口普查数据、年鉴、统计公报和华社会刊等一手资料,并在此基础上参考相关机构和学者研究的二手资料,梳理和分析了东南亚闽籍华人数量的历史变迁与地区分布,并对东南亚地区的新加坡、马来西亚、菲律宾、印度尼西亚、泰国、柬埔寨、越南、缅甸,以及老挝、文莱、东帝汶等国家的闽籍华人数量分别进行了统计和估算。据保守估计,东南亚闽籍华人的总体规模超过1200万。     

Masculinity and Cultural Contestation in the Australian 1950s

Enduring popular narratives posit the 1950s as a time of gendered oppression and conservative stability. While previous historians have pointed to the social and political changes of the period, their work has understood culture as a passive reflector of these transformations. Through analysis of four Australian films, this article argues that the contemporary cultural landscape was a dynamic space that actively negotiated between competing ideals. Exploring the representation of distinct albeit legitimate models of masculinity in these films, this article reveals the complex and unsteady gender order unfolding in the cultural world of the 1950s.     

Global Fordism in 1950s Urban China

This article highlights the striking similarity of underlying social forms on both sides of the 1950s Cold War divide. Urban China in the early People’s Republic is interpreted as a variant of Fordism, a coherent social system that assumed hegemony across the globe in the postwar period. Under Fordism, bureaucratic mediation of a rationalized production process was brought together with a new regime of inclusive and homogeneous work and culture, all of which supported a vision of national unity and industrial development. Such an understanding may prove useful in working through difficulties in theorizing this period and in pursuing new directions for research.