Nuclear science and the story of a preserved leaf from a copy of the Great Bible

Three pressed leaves of Ulmus glabra (Wych Elm) were found within the pages of a copy of the Great Bible in the Library of the University of Western Australia. The Bible dates from AD 1540 and was originally housed at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire. A radiocarbon age on one of the leaves found it was about as old as the Great Bible itself, and stable C and N isotope and neutron activation analyses were carried out on the same leaf. The δ¹⁵N values were elevated and the content of iron, arsenic, bromine, silver, gold and mercury were relatively high. These analyses are consistent with an environment where water logging is present, as at Ely at the time, and the silver and gold content are probably consistent with the cathedral setting. The mercury was found to be associated with the red ink in the Bible. It is intriguing to ponder why Wych elm leaves were placed in the Bible, especially in the light that a copy of an original edition of the King James version of the Bible from Ely, also in the library in Perth has many dozens of U. glabra leaves also preserved within in its pages.     

Owning Valence Issues: The Impact of a “Culture of Corruption” on the 2006 Midterm Elections

The 109th Congress commenced with a huge ethical cloud hanging over the Capitol. In January 2005, prominent Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff admitted conspiring to defraud Native American tribes and corrupt public officials. As a result, the Democratic Party chose to adopt corruption as a central theme of their 2006 congressional campaign. They argued that the scandal resulted from a “culture of corruption” fostered by Republicans, who controlled Congress. Although past research shows that voters do punish at the polls congressional incumbents under criminal investigation, little is known about whether the mere appearance of wrongdoing can be assigned to an entire party and cost its candidates votes. Utilizing data from a variety of sources, we find that systemic efforts by House Democratic leaders to frame Republicans as “owning” the scandal—whether individual members actually received Abramoff funds or not—were largely successful in the polls and at the ballot box. These findings suggest that scholarly views of the influence of corruption may have been overly restrictive and that voters are willing, at least in this case, to punish public officials who “appear” to be corrupt.     

The Mystery of Capital: Eurasian Entrepreneurs' Socio-Cultural Strategies for Commercial Success in Early 20th-Century Hong Kong

Unlike economic capital, which is visible and easy to calculate, social capital is intangible and difficult to assess. Although both types of capital are crucial in determining social relations and social behaviour, little solid research has been done on the latter. This paper attempts to use the rags-to-riches story of Sir Robert Ho Tung, a first-generation Hong Kong Eurasian entrepreneur who commenced life without traditional social/cultural capital as the illegitimate son of a Chinese woman and a Dutchman, to illustrate the processes involved in cultivating and accumulating social capital. With special reference to economic development in early colonial Hong Kong and major social transformations in the Chinese mainland, this paper also demonstrates how a group of so-called social/racial “half-caste bastards” (Eurasians) were able to form their own social networks of mutual help and protection. It also considers how they worked to consolidate, mobilise, aggrandise and transmit their social capital. In conclusion, it is argued that Eurasians in early twentieth-century Hong Kong constructed their personal networks like a web, with different interconnecting layers that functioned at different socio-economic-political levels to serve different purposes.     

Book reviews

CHINA

GILLIAN BICKLEY. The Golden Needle — The Biography of Frederick Stewart (1836–1889). Hong Kong: David C. Lam Institute for East‐West Studies, 1997. 308 pp. Index, illustrations. HK$168, paper.

ZHENG CHAOLIN. An Oppositionist for Life: memoirs of the Chinese Revolutionary Zheng Chaolin , ed. and trans, by Gregor Benton. New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1997. xxiii, 333 pp. Index, biographical reference list. US$49.95, hardcover; US$18.50, paper.

JOHN W. DARDESS. A Ming Society: T'ai‐ho County, Kiangsi, in the Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996. 322 pp. Maps, tables. US$45.00, hardcover.

LEO M. DOUW and PETER POST (eds). South China: state Culture and Social Change during the 20th Century. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1996. xvi, 253 pp. Figures, tables, glossary, introduction, bibliography, index. Dfl. 75, paper.

GEORGE C. S. LIN. Red Capitalism in South China: growth and Development of the Pearl River Delta. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1997. xii, 219 pp. C$75, hardcover.

KAM LOUIE (ed). Strange Tales from Strange Lands: stories by Zheng Wanlong. Ithaca, NY: Cornell East Asia Series, East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1993. vii, 133 pp. US$18.00, hardcover; US$12.00, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

PURNENDRA C. JAIN (ed). Distant Asian Neighbours: Japan and South Asia. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Ltd, 1996. xii, 235 pp. Appendices, index. Rs400, hardcover.

B. McVEIGH. The Nature of the Japanese State: rationality and Rituality. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. xx, 251 pp. Index. No price given (reviewed from proofs).

SOUTH ASIA

SEKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY. Caste, Protest and Identity in Colonial India: the Namasudras of Bengal, 1872–1947. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1997. xii, 325 pp. Abbreviations, table, map, bibliography, index. £40.00, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

LEE TING HUI. The Open United Front: the Communist Struggle in Singapore 1954–1966. Singapore: The South Seas Society, 1997. xi, 417 pp. Preface, abbreviations, select biography, index. No price given, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

JACQUELINE S. ISMAEL and ENID HILL (eds). Social Welfare and Social Development. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises Ltd, 1997. v, 195 pp. Contents, preface, contributors, articles, tables, endnotes. No price given.     

Dissolution and Reconstruction of National Identity: The Experience of Subjectivity in Taiwan

Abstract. Due to unique historical and structural conditions Taiwan society has long been troubled by a national identity problem. While this dilemma has captured significant academic interests in recent years, most treatments of the subject pay insufficient attention to the subjective factors which shape the national identity discourse on the island. This study attempts to reconstruct, from the subjects' perspectives, the discourses on national identity as they are devised by Taiwan residents. Based on Q methodology, we identify five discourses: Chinese nationalism, status-quoism, confused identity, Taiwan-prioritism and Taiwanese nationalism. These discourses are intertwined along the independence/unification continuum and share the common ground of respect for democratic institutions and liberal values and an awareness of Taiwan's de facto autonomy/independence. Our findings stand in sharp contrast to the ‘unification/independence’ dichotomy or the ‘unification/status quo/independence’ trifurcation commonly applied by the existing literature. Thus, the findings may serve as the basis for constructing a more comprehensive analytical framework facilitating further research on national identity issues in Taiwan.     

State Violence in Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979) and Retribution (1979–2004)

Along with perhaps North Korea, Democratic Kampuchea (DK), as the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime called itself, can be regarded as the ultimate twentieth-century paradigm of the totalitarian state. Using sheer violence and terror, a small clique usurped state power viewing itself as endowed with the messianic mission to bring happiness and prosperity faster than any of its revolutionary model and competitors. It came to control every aspect of social and private life. No one was allowed to nurse, let alone express, any form of opposition.