Pray the gay away: identity conflict between Christianity and sexuality in Hong Kong sexual minorities

Recognition and respect for sexual minorities in Hong Kong is still a contested area. Public sexual identity politics in Hong Kong has been framed by traditional Chinese gender ideology and imported Christian beliefs which are profoundly negative. Focusing on the interpersonal relationships in three spheres of life, the research adopted the sociological perspective of personal life and the feminist geographers’ idea of spatialization of identity management to analyze how the sexual self of sexual minorities has been marginalized and excluded in intimate social spaces of family, church communities and schools in Hong Kong with specific spatial practices and different forms of power/knowledge. By examining overlooked intimate injustice in personal life, this study illustrates that identity conflicts between Christianity and non-heterosexuality in everyday life is constructed through misrepresentation, misrecognition, harassment and exclusion in intimate relationships. Different types of knowledge are being used to reiterate pre-existing norms and institutionalized patterns of cultural value that constitute the sexual minorities as comparatively unworthy of respect. These micro-political processes involve both conformity and resistance to gender and sexual stereotypes. Participants managed to develop spatial coping strategies such as concealment, compartmentalization, confrontation and alternative sources of support to manage their lives with dignity and self-esteem.     

Artwork securitisation: a Chinese style of artwork investment

A new artwork trading model emerged in China at the beginning of 2010s: the value of a piece of artwork was divided into equal shares, and investors could buy and sell these shares in the cultural artwork exchanges, in exactly the same way as investors trading stocks in the stock market. In China, this trading model, once available, was hotly pursued by investors. This rapid market growth quickly descended into trading market confusion and speculation, forcing the government to deal with this model and eventually putting a stop to it. In this paper, we take a closer look at the reasons for the artwork shares’ price booming and slumping, the disorder and speculation in the artwork share trading market, and the reasons why the Chinese government halted this kind of trade. Taking the Tianjin Cultural Artwork Exchange of China as an example, we found that artwork can be an alternative investment vehicle, but the share trading model, similar in function to the stocks and bonds market, is not fit for artwork. The lack of legal basis and supervision by governmental bodies, together with the changeable trading rules has also contributed to the failure of this artwork trading model in China.     

Biomechanics of coaching maximal instep soccer kick for practitioners

Kicking in soccer has been the subject of scientific research for more than 40 years yet review articles summarizing the biomechanical fundamentals of kick optimization as a guide to coaching are scarcely to be found. The current review article aims to bridge the gap between scientific research into the maximal instep kick (including studies employing 3D motion capture and full-body biomechanical modelling) and the application of such research in coaching. It does so by supplying a scientifically founded, coaching-friendly article explaining identifiable characteristics and motor control sequencing that define this skill. Relevant biomechanical factors are identified in a way that should help coaches better develop training programmes and, at the same time, foster better understanding of the skill among athletes. Such information will contribute to both accelerated skill acquisition and, by concomitant gains in skill efficiency, the development of programmes that minimize risk of injury to athletes during training.     

Study on the lithology of stone chimes (stone musical instruments in ancient China) and Lingbi stone

The oldest extant musical instruments in the world are stone chimes. This music was created by the ‘eight tones’ that could be produced by these ‘stone’ voices. Although many of these stone chimes have been unearthed from sites predating the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China, their discussion in archaeological reports is usually not very thorough. In this paper, the ancient and modern samples are analysed from the point of view of lithology. The aim is to explore how the ancients chose to make these stones, and to check that the type of stone from which these ancient Chinese stone chimes are made is actually those recorded in previous studies. The results show that most of the ancient stone chimes in China are made of limestone. These chimes required a material with a single, homogeneous and compact mineral composition. Lingbi chimes (a kind of ‘lithophone’ produced in Lingbi county, China, are pure in composition and have a fine microcrystalline structure, which is the best choice for making stone chimes. This paper makes a systematic study of the lithology of Chinese stone chimes. The results supplement a significant lacuna in the study of ‘lithophone’ and ancient stone instruments both in China and on a more global scale.     

Epipaleolithic/early Neolithic settlements at Qinghai Lake,western China

Transitions from terminal Pleistocene Upper Paleolithic foraging to Holocene Neolithic farming and pastoralist economic orientations in the northern Tibetan Plateau are examined from the perspective of Epipaleolithic sites located near Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province, western China. Jiangxigou 2 is an artifact-rich, multicomponent midden site with the main period of occupation dating ca. 9000–5000 cal yr BP, containing abundant flaked stone artifacts including a substantial proportion of microlithic tools, abundant faunal remains including gazelle, deer, and sheep, and a small number of ceramics, including the oldest known on the Tibetan Plateau. Heimahe 3, on the other hand, is a brief hunter's camp dating ca. 8450 cal yr BP, with evident affinities to late Upper Paleolithic camps in the same region that date several thousand years older. The two distinctively different sites are probably nodes within a single Epipaleolithic foraging system that developed on the margins of the high Tibetan Plateau during the early Holocene, and that served as a basis for colonization of the high-altitude Plateau at that time. Jiangxigou 2 appears to be connected to early Neolithic agricultural settlements along the upper Yellow River (Huang He) drainage during the middle Holocene, and may provide insights into forager–agriculturalist interactions that lead to the development of pastoralist systems in the region.     

What can pollen grains from the Terracotta Army tell us?

The provenance of more than 2200-year-old terracotta warriors and horses in the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum is still a mystery, even though some researchers have inferred that the terracotta figures were produced near the mausoleum. The sporomorphs (pollen and spores) extracted from terracotta fragments of a warrior and a horse and compared with those obtained from soil samples from the Qin Dynasty layer in Pit No. 2 of the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum indicate that the pollen spectrum from the terracotta horse is different from that of the warrior, but similar to the local soil samples. Herbaceous pollen was dominant in the warrior sample, while arboreal pollen predominates in the horse and soil samples. Palynological evidence suggests that the terracotta horses were produced at a locality near the mausoleum, while the warrior came from a site which was further afield.     

珍本《影山草堂学吟稿》考述

"清诗三百年,王气在夜郎",这是钱仲联先生<论近代诗四十家>对晚清宋诗派代表郑珍(字子尹)和莫友芝(字子偲)的赞语,郑、莫两人虽处西南边陲,但学深诗雄,名动全国,不愧为贵州历史文化宝库中两颗极其璀璨的明珠.     

曹魏景元元年朱书镇墓文读解

2005年5月,西安高新区新型工业园区广丰公司基建工地（位于长安区郭杜镇）清理了一座三国曹魏时期墓葬。该墓出土的一件灰陶镇墓瓶,小口外敞,平沿外斜,圆肩鼓腹,平底内凹,肩上钤有一枚印文,已模糊不清,瓶内尚存少量蛋壳残片。口径11、腹径27．5、底径19、高21．5厘米（图一）。其上朱书铭文有所脱落,尚有许多清晰可辨,或隐约可见,或可根据有关资料补上所缺之字（图二,封三）。尤为可贵的是纪年明确,为墓葬的绝对年代提供了准确的依据,同时也为研究当时的埋葬制度、信仰和习俗提供了重要资料。该镇墓文书体古朴娟秀,多具有楷书特征,尚存隶书意味,也为了解当时书法的发展提供了不可多得的实物资料。现将这些资料一并公布,并试作解读。     

中国古代神话的特色及其成因

中国古代神话是中国本土的产物,它深深地植根于中国悠久的文化土壤之中,渗透着东方智慧的光芒。诚如德国哲学家黑格尔所言,中国是个早熟的儿童,中国的古代神话就是中国这个早熟的儿童,通过神话的方式,对中国历代著名人物的思考与评价。中国古代的神话闪烁着理性的光芒,它有明确的指导思想,那就是尚德、尚功与尚智,着眼于著名人物对时代与民众的贡献,中国的古代神话与中国祭祀文化的精神实质是一致的。因而中国的古代神话,在世界各民族神话之林中,是独具特色的神话之一。     

从“公推”到“票举”：近代天津商会职员推选制度的曲折演进

近代中国具有现代意义的投票选举制度虽然率先在清末的民间工商社团商会中实行,但各地商会的具体实施过程却并非同步进行。上海、苏州等商会正式成立后即开始制订并实行这一制度,天津商会则在清末坚持采用"公推"的方式推举总理、协理和会董,没有真正实施"票举"。到民国初期,天津商会依然认为"公推"优于"票举",直至明定商会必须实行投票选举制度的《商会法》公布之后,天津商会还希望政府"准予特殊办法,仍行公推"。但实施"票举"在当时已是大势所趋,1918年天津商会也在章程中拟订了投票选举制度,并由此进入"票举"会长和会董的新时期。自清末至民国时期天津商会从"公推"到"票举"的曲折演进历程,说明在选举制度的建设中,天津商会的领导人在思想认识和实践操作两个方面都偏向于保守,不仅自身缺乏创造性的举措,而且很少主动借鉴和学习其他商会已有的投票选举制度,这种现象也表明了清末民初各地商会对现代投票选举制度的认识并不完全一致。