Race,Class and Politics in Peninsular Malaysia: The General Election of 2008

Racial politics have bedevilled peninsular Malaysia since independence in 1957, largely sustained by a ruling coalition of partners sharing power unequally, in a consociational government. The effect of a racialised practice over fifty years is the institutionalisation of the politics of ethnic pluralism, each component driven by its own internal dynamic and cultural logic: for the Chinese it is the politics of economic security, for the Tamils the politics of religion and caste, and for the Malays incipient class antagonisms that are historically rooted in a feudal society. In the general election of 2008, there was an unprecedented swing of votes across the ethnic divide against the ruling government, resulting in the loss of five state governments to an opposition coalition espousing multiculturalism and the loss of the government's two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time. However, we argue that these developments do not signal the beginning of the end of racial politics in peninsular Malaysia. Instead, the opposition has skilfully recoded multiculturalism as social justice and accountability in racial terms, and effectively communicated this to an essentially racialised electorate at a time when Malays, Chinese and Tamils had lost faith in the ruling government's ability to address deep-seated grievances specific to each of these communities.     

金文所见周代思想中的德与心性学说

根据西周青铜器铭文的记载,中和与至德是周人伦理学的核心,《师才鼎》铭文中记载了七种德目,反映了当时伦理学说的发达。周人的"敏德"即是"善",指仁义礼智。《师望鼎》铭文中关于明心的记载属于心性学说。     

Buddhist temples and ancestral halls: The reconstruction of native official rituals in western Yunnan

Abstract

In the process of abolishing the native officialdoms of southwest China, the Ming court justified its actions by citing violations of ethical and ritual principles. During the Zhengtong 正統 period, offices of native officials in Heqing 鶴慶 were abolished and replaced with an office for centrally appointed imperial officials. These imperial officials turned Buddhist temples into Confucian schools and attacked local beliefs regarding living Buddhas. At the same time, local Confucian scholars advocated orthodox ritual in the name of doing away with improper ritual practice. In response, nearby native officials began cautiously handling political issues, and sought to legitimize the foundations for their status by conducting rituals in the classical Confucian tradition. The author examines the history of Lijiang 麗江 and Menghua 蒙化 Prefectures in Yunnan 雲南 and discusses how their native officials used the statuses of ancient nobles as they sought to establish Confucian rituals and temples corresponding to their status within the Ming bureaucracy. Several strategies are identified, including (a) building Buddhist temples, ancestral halls, and official shrines; (b) transforming mythical figures into protective deities by creating mountain and river rituals that conformed to ritual orthodoxy; and (c) establishing official genealogies and using textual methods to incorporate clan myths and legendary lineages into orthodox historical narratives, thereby strengthening the superiority of border native official lineages. By analyzing a series of actions of native officials in this process, the author explores the cultural strategies adopted by native officials to safeguard their prestige and local interests.     

Dendroid multicellular thallophytes preserved in a Neoproterozoic black phosphorite in southern China

Du, W., Wang, X.L., Komiya, T., Zhao, R. & Wang, Y., April 2016. Dendroid multicellular thallophytes preserved in a Neoproterozoic black phosphorite in southern China. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new form of dendroid multicellular thallophyte is documented in the Ediacaran Doushantuo phosphorite at Weng’an, Guizhou Province, southern China. The dendroid thallophytes have variable forms, possibly owing to heteromorphic variation. Many lateral branches extend from the upper portions of the main axes; the lateral branches bear terminal vegetative vesicles, reproductive vesicles, monosporangium-like discoidal vesicles and urn-shaped pseudoparenchymatous structures. The vegetative vesicles give rise to clavate pseudoparenchymatous structures, characterized by differentiation of the thallus medulla/cortex, which might represent an early stage of thallus development. An oogamous conceptacle arising from one carpogonial vesicle forms a highly specialized goblet-shaped conceptacle. The discovery of the new dendroid multicellular thallophytes provides not only the first fossil-based evidence of the morphological complexity and tissue differentiation in the Precambrian organisms but also insights into the life cycle of the Precambrian red algae.

Wei Du* [duwei@ea.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp], School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, PR China; Xun Lian Wang [wxl@cugb.edu.cn], School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, PR China; Tsuyoshi Komiya [komiya@ea.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp], Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan. Ran Zhao [zhao_ran13@eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp], Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. Yue Wang [gzyuewang@126.com], School of Resources and Environments, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, PR China. *Also affiliated with Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.     

追寻逝去的年俗记忆——上海小校场年画述略

早期上海小校场木版年画,深受苏州桃花坞年画影响,店铺多为仿冒桃花坞的作品。清末民初,小校场石印年画以其题材新颖、色彩艳丽、物美价廉而盛极一时,木版年画开始走向尾声。而月份牌年画的出现,又开创了中国年画史上一个特殊的辉煌时期。正是近代西方印刷技术的传入,彻底改变了中国年画的命运。上海小校场年画的嬗变,清晰地呈现了传统年画消亡的历程。     

Simulation of Spatially Variable Seismic Underground Motions in U-Shaped Canyons

This paper focuses on the study of simulations for spatially variable seismic underground motions in U-shaped canyons. First, a canyon ground cross-coherence function based on commonly used coherence function models of flat terrain, is deduced and presented. To further obtain the underground cross-coherence function, a mathematical expression, including its specific deduction process for describing the relationship between coherence functions of multi-support ground and underground motions, is also given in detail and adopted. Then, the key factors (i.e. canyon underground power spectrum density and canyon underground coherence function) for simulating the spatially variable seismic underground motions are obtained by a two-step transferring method from flat-ground to underground soil. Furthermore, a program is coded for generating the spatially variable seismic underground motions. The effectiveness of the generated seismic motions is further verified. Finally, two numerical examples are taken to validate the proposed simulation approach, illustrating the specific characteristics of canyon coherence function. The analysis results show the apparent differences of the simulated seismic motions using the canyon coherence function from those using conventional coherence function models of flat terrain. The proposed approach provides some insights for anti-earthquake analysis of soil-structure interaction or underground structures in canyon topography.     

江陵天星观一号楚墓出土饱水木漆器F455中细菌对硬松木的腐蚀研究

研究木质文物中的细菌对木材腐蚀性影响,筛选防腐剂抑制腐蚀性强细菌的腐蚀作用,是延长木质文物保存期的一种有效的生物保护措施。为研究饱水木漆器F455及其水环境中细菌的种类,以及对木材的腐蚀程度,采用16S rRNA基因序列分析方法及生理生化试验,对饱水木漆器F455及水环境中细菌进行鉴定,并选取典型菌按5×10~8个/瓶菌量接种马尾松心材(悬于无菌自来水中),37℃培养120d,测试木材的损失率。结果发现,从F455文物挑选的32株细菌中,有29株菌鉴定为芽孢杆菌属(Bacillus),为优势菌属,其余为短杆菌属(Brevibacterium)、短波单胞菌属(Brevundimonas)和产碱杆菌属(Alcaligenes)各1株。水样样品中细菌菌属较F455文物样品中丰富,27株菌有9个属,其中短杆菌属(Brevibacterium)有9株,为优势菌属,其余交替赤细菌属(Altererythrobacter)有5株,短波单胞菌属(Brevundimonas)有4株,产碱杆菌属(Alcaligenes)有3株,黄杆菌属(Flavobacterium)有2株,芽孢杆菌属(Bacillus sp.)、白色杆菌属(Leucobacter)、类芽孢杆菌属(Paenibacillus)、苍白杆菌属(Ochrobactrum)各1株。从2种样品材料的分离菌中共挑选出14株典型菌进行木块腐蚀试验,与对照组比较,其中有9株菌差异极显著。说明这些菌对马尾松木材有一定的腐蚀作用,但是腐蚀率非常低,最高仅1.56%。表明这些细菌对试验木材马尾松腐蚀并不严重。该研究分析了饱水木漆器长期保存在水槽中细菌对木漆器的影响,丰富了饱水木漆器文物生物影响的理论依据。     

18世纪英国上流社会的性道德问题

18世纪英国上流社会性道德问题突出,豢养情妇、通奸、嫖妓不一而足,在双重道德标准下,人们对这些问题见怪不怪。这些问题的存在是社会转型期道德价值体系混乱与缺失、上流社会婚姻制度缺陷、王室成员不良影响、欧陆尤其是法国影响等因素使然。这些问题的存在带坏了社会道德风气,对上流社会的家庭生活带来不利影响,引发政治腐败,损害了上流社会的声誉与威望,也引发了有识之士的批判与道德整肃运动的出现。     

Completeness Verification of Complex Response Spectrum Method for Underdamped and Overdamped Multiple-Support Systems Regarding the Decoupled Damping as Mathematical Parameter without Physical Meaning

The completeness of the complex response spectrum method for both formally underdamped and overdamped modes is theoretically proved, and the physical meanings of the decoupled modes as well as involved parameters are recognized and clarified in this paper. For the system with relatively large non-classical damping, the eigenvalue pairs generated by the complex mode decomposition method are real and the so-called modal damping ratios are larger than unity. In this paper, we firstly clarified that the decoupled modes are virtual and the so-called modal frequency and damping ratio are mathematical parameters that have no physical meaning. Then, the completeness of the complex response spectrum method for both formally underdamped and overdamped modes is rigorously proved by allowing the “damping frequency” to be an imaginary number. For the virtually overdamped modes, Duhamel integral involved in the calculation for formally underdamped modes automatically convert to hyperbolic Duhamel integral. A numerical example taken from the published literature is given to verify this method. Structural responses for the system with coupled damping under multi-support seismic excitations are further analyzed and numerical results indicate the accuracy of complex response spectrum method.