Did the Nationalist Government Manipulate the Chinese Bond Market? A Quantitative Perspective on Short-Term Price Fluctuations of Domestic Government Bonds, 1932–1934

Based on a newly constructed set of data, this paper offers a quantitative perspective on the Nationalist Government’s relations with China’s domestic bond markets during the period 1932–34. For all the recent revisionist scholarship on the achievements of Nationalist state-building, the perception of the Nationalist elite as corrupt is still widely accepted. In order to demonstrate the empirical potential of quantitative financial history, this paper tests one particular assertion: that members of the Nationalist elite manipulated the issue price of domestic government bonds in order to enrich themselves and their associates. We test this by calculating two price data correlations: that of a first sample of government bonds, all of them issued before 1932, and that of a second sample of government bonds, which includes bonds issued during the period under review. The price fluctuations of the first sample are correlated with each other to a much higher degree than those of the second sample. This indicates that the prices of bonds in the first sample were reacting similarly to the same range of influences, while the bonds issued during the period under review and included in the second sample were displaying individual price fluctuations. One possible explanation for this is that members of the Nationalist elite enriched themselves or their associates by issuing domestic government bonds at artificially low prices. In sum, the article illustrates both the potential and the limitations of quantitative history: it allows us to test and dismiss a precisely formulated hypothesis about Nationalist corruption, but it is only one possible way in which statistical analysis can be applied and does not cover the whole realm of state practices.     

Labour after Land Reform: The Precarious Livelihoods of Former Farmworkers in Zimbabwe

What happens to labour when major redistributive land reform restructures a system of settler colonial agriculture? This article examines the livelihoods of former farmworkers on large‐scale commercial farms who still live in farm compounds after Zimbabwe's land reform. Through a mix of surveys and in‐depth biographical interviews, four different types of livelihood are identified, centred on differences in land access. These show how diverse, but often precarious, livelihoods are being carved out, representing the ‘fragmented classes of labour’ in a restructured agrarian economy. The analysis highlights the tensions between gaining new freedoms, notably through access to land, and being subject to new livelihood vulnerabilities. The findings are discussed in relation to wider questions about the informalization of the economy and the role of labour and employment in a post‐settler agrarian economy, where the old ‘farmworker’ label no longer applies.     

Lost in conceptualization: Reading the “new Cold War” with critical geopolitics

Focusing on the debates on energy security in Germany, this paper analyzes the structure, logic, and circulation of the “new Cold War” as a geopolitical narrative. We use the literature in critical geopolitics to analyze the conceptual implications of an apparent dissociation between the media and governmental stance toward the new Cold War and its embedded geopolitical logic. The relationship between the “kind” of geopolitics inherent in the new Cold War and the different “forms” in which it circulates suggests a blurring of boundaries between all such geopolitical forms, through multiple crossings-over between institutions, textual genres, and circulating actors. The media presence of the New Cold War also highlights the ambiguity of the “popular” in popular geopolitics, which is further refracted on other geopolitical forms which share its characteristics. This not only makes imperative the more precise formulation of key conceptual categories such as popular or banal geopolitics, but also calls into question the link between the state and particular geopolitical logics, as well as the relationship between the mass media and geopolitics.     

缺失彩绘的虚拟三维重建——秦俑彩绘

利用三维测量技术和计算机技术,以及科学的数据计算,计算机可以制造出虚拟三维形象,便于展示与交流。至今为止,秦俑坑中出土的大多数陶俑的彩绘留存不多甚至没有。色。大部分原始彩绘均已脱落,只有极少部分彩绘保留至今。本文以虚拟三维模型重构了秦俑原始彩绘,显示了其功能与意义。俑（T21G18-03）是这次工作的对象。陶俑主要显现出灰暗的陶一尊将军俑（T9：1）和一尊跪射陶俑出土时彩绘的纪录档案是重构工作的出发点。通过三维扫描仪将陶俑表面形状进行数据记录,这是重构工作的基础。然后通过数码照片记录彩绘现状,并将这些照片进行三维机理处理。采用三维绘制软件进行重建和摹绘工作。数据模型过程可以模拟和大多数彩绘和表面情况。这项工作的开展通过几件典型陶俑,将秦俑的原始状态展示给大家。通过计算机模拟,多彩的秦俑军阵活灵活现的呈现在观众面前。     

Localizing HIV/AIDS discourse in a rural Kenyan community

This paper examines the effectiveness of multimodal texts used in HIV/AIDS campaigns in rural western Kenya using multimodal discourse analysis (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 2006; Martin and Rose, 2004). Twenty HIV/AIDS documents (posters, billboards and brochures) are analysed together with interview data (20 unstructured one-on-one interviews and six focus groups) from the target group to explore the effectiveness of the multimodal texts in engaging the target rural audience in meaningful interaction towards behavioural change. It is concluded that in some cases the HIV/AIDS messages are misinterpreted or lost as the multimodal texts used are unfamiliar and contradictory to the everyday life experiences of the rural folk. The paper suggests localization of HIV/AIDS discourse through use of local modes of communication and resources.     

A Newly Discovered Acheulean Assemblage in the Mbulu Plateau,Northern Tanzania

African Archaeological Review - This article reports a newly discovered Acheulean assemblage in Tanzania’s Northern Mbulu Plateau. Recent investigations in the region have documented surface...