Tourism development,rights consciousness and the empowerment of Chinese historical village communities

In recent years, China's tourism researchers have started to pay attention to the empowerment of rural communities. Current theoretical research and social practices reflect that tourism needs to seek localized empowerment with respect to different types of tourism destinations. This paper, taking Furong Historical Village in Zhejiang Province as a case study, examines a special kind of Chinese historical village community in which the villagers’ consciousness of their rights is weak and tourism development is only in its initial stages. Based on the field surveys, this paper points out four roots of such a community's disempowerment: (1) the failure of political institutions to ensure the community's public interest; (2) accusations of historical villages ‘damaging protection’; (3) information asymmetry in the relationship between rural leaders and villagers; and (4) a sense of powerlessness in the daily lives of rural residents. Based on these findings, this paper suggests several empowerment paths: (1) placing the enhancement of psychological power as the core of community empowerment; (2) addressing villager empowerment needs according to different types, rather than generalizing a community as a whole; and (3) including a diversity of subjects in the process of empowerment. These empowerment paths would be a moderate extension toward increasing community empowerment, based on this empirical study.     

Young women and public leisure spaces in contemporary Beijing: recreating (with) gender,tradition, and place

Feminist geographers and leisure scholars have long argued that one critical way to understand gendered norms and expectations is through examining women's access to and experiences of leisure activities. Set in the context of the rapid economic, political, and social changes that have taken place in Beijing over the past half century, this article draws on in-depth interviews and extensive participant observation to explore the role of newly available public leisure spaces in the lives and leisure of young women in Beijing, in particular by examining the way that these spaces provide an opportunity for the negotiation of new gender norms and identities. Through an analysis of the interaction of gender norms and practices with women's use of and behavior in public leisure spaces, we argue that women's behavior in public leisure spaces in contemporary Beijing remains strongly circumscribed by gendered norms. Rather than their presence itself constituting a challenge to gender expectations, in many cases their leisure behavior and experiences serve to reinforce the social norms that masculinize public leisure spaces. In spite of this, however, the findings of this research suggest that public leisure spaces may, in some cases, provide women with a place from which to challenge gender norms.     

Performing Guangzhou and Guangzhou Ren: analysing popular music in Guangzhou

The main purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which popular music in Guangzhou is implicated in the performance of places and identities, and how it is located in Guangzhou. Drawing on the qualitative methods of participant observation and interviews, this research analyses the popular music and musical performances in Guangzhou through three spatial dimensions: the place of Guangzhou, the performance venues and the human bodies. The findings of this research suggest that popular music in Guangzhou sets up the emotional communications and engenders different spaces for the participants to negotiate their embodied identities; popular music and musical performances make the connections between three spatial scales—the place of Guangzhou, the performance venues, and the human body—through its capacity of social mediation and the musical performances articulate the power relations between local residents, the local and national authorities, and the global. This research can be read as a contribution towards the wider literatures on musical performance and the exploration of doing/making place and place-based identity through popular music.     

Deformation of Ancient Buildings inferred by Terrestrial Laser Scanning methodology: the Cantalovo church case study (Northern Italy)*

The study of the health of a building connects humanistic and scientific research, and a complete characterization can be achieved by integrating all the available historical documentation, architectural and metrological studies, as well as laboratory and in situ analyses of the materials. A contactless, non‐invasive surveying technique such as terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) allows the acquisition of dense and accurate geometric and radiometric (electromagnetic measurements such as signal intensity) information about the observed surface of the building, which can be easily integrated with data provided by high‐resolution digital imaging. The early Christian Cantalovo church was surveyed for the first time in April 2011, by means of the ILRIS‐3D ER very long range scanner. The second and last survey was performed in June 2012, after the main shocks of the Emilia earthquake seismic sequence. A very long range instrument is suitable for fast, simple and independent measurements, due to its technical characteristics and, for this reason, is easily usable for accurate surveying in emergency conditions. The main results are obtained by applying a data analysis strategy based on the creation of TLS‐based morphological maps computed as point‐to‐primitive differences, which allow the creation of a deformation map and its evolution in time.     

Contested enclave metageographies: The offshore islands of Taiwan

The offshore islands of Taiwan (Republic of China) are dynamic examples of contested metageographies, island spaces caught in between competing and opposing interpretations of their identities, relativities, notions of sustainability and futures. Three cases – (1) population growth, land use conflict, a switch from a military to a tourism economy, and ever closer links between mainland China and Kinmen Island; (2) the rejection of a move to establish a casino economy on the Penghu archipelago; and (3) protests against the storage of spent nuclear waste on Orchid Island – are presented as illustrative of such changing topographies, themselves reflective of a transition to a more democratic and pluralist society in Taiwan. The paper hints at an evolving shift in both vertical (top/down) and horizontal (island-to-island) relations in the construction of development paths and futures for Taiwan's de facto archipelago. This re-territorialization offers a fresh, archipelagic repivoting of political geography for and beyond Taiwan.     

‘Filial son’, the family and identity formation among male migrant workers in urban China

This article is based on an ethnographic study of life histories of 28 rural–urban (internal) migrant men located within southern China. It explores their narratives with a particular focus on changing social relations within the family, from the perspective of migrant sons. It argues that traditional gender norms, such as those attached to being a ‘filial son’, are lived out, albeit reworked, among Chinese male migrant workers across generations. The men recount the role of traditional familial gender norms, which are central cultural resources in forging their ‘dislocated’ identities within specific temporal and spatial conditions. For example, being a ‘filial son’ has become an important reference point for these mobile male workers to actively negotiate their emerging masculine identities in the process of negotiating urban lives, while living away from their rural homes. The article also explores a more complex understanding of rural–urban migration in terms of critically engaging with the men's well-being as urban workers.     

民初贵州的“实业兴黔”讨论

辛亥革命后,振兴实业成为朝野各界的共同心声。贵州的知识分子也借助报刊这一传媒,对在贵州振兴实业进行了广泛而深入的讨论。贵州舆论界普遍认为,贵州落后的经济社会状况和特殊的自然条件决定了贵州必须振兴实业。振兴实业要分轻重缓急,应以农业和矿业为要务,要群策群力,有的放矢,要引进西方先进技术和经营管理模式等。这次大讨论,为贵州知识分子就实业兴黔问题深入交换意见搭建了一个平台,展现了知识分子的思想脉动、贵州情怀。但是,知识界设计的实业兴黔的路子存在着明显的缺陷。     

中国网络媒体中的移民报道框架——以新浪网为例的分析

论文从新闻传播学的角度,运用框架分析(Framing Analysis)方法,通过对新浪网2012年中国移民报道的文本分析,考察中国网络媒体中出境移民的报道框架和网络媒体是如何建构中国出境移民的形象以及如何引导公众对移民的舆论的。结论是,不少移民话题并不在新浪网的移民报道框架之内,受众在网络上所看到的是对移民的不完整表达。大众媒体的新闻报道并非对现实的镜像反映,而是根据一定的新闻立场和新闻价值标准对事实进行取舍和加工的过程,是对现实世界的"重构"。     

旧石器时代亚欧大陆高纬度地区人群的扩散及其对中国旧石器文化格局的影响

欧亚大陆高纬度地区气候与资源环境迥异于人类的起源地——热带非洲。人类需要具备更多的文化适应手段才能适应高纬度地区的生存。在旧石器时代早中期,人类向该地区的迁移扩散极为有限,而旧石器时代晚期,随着技术、社会组织等文化层面的进步,人类开始广泛向高纬度地区扩散,打破了东亚地区与欧亚大陆西侧的文化隔离屏障,对中国旧石器时代西北、东北及华北地区的文化格局产生了不同程度的影响。本文拟通过人类适应的视角,结合考古材料,分析人类向欧亚大陆高纬度地带的扩散历程及由此而引发的人类迁徙、交流对中国旧石器时代文化面貌格局产生的具体影响。