China in Fiji: displacing traditional players?

A widely held perception in Oceania is that China has taken the opportunity of Western sanctions against Fiji's military-led regime to expand its influence in Fiji. Observers and media in the region were alarmed by the sudden increase of China's pledged aid to Fiji shortly after the 2006 military takeover. They are concerned that China has a well-calculated strategy of displacing traditional Western players in Fiji, most notably Australia and New Zealand. Such concern is not well founded. While China does have multiple interests, including strategic interests, in Fiji, there is no clear evidence to suggest that China aims to displace the traditional players there. China's growing influence in Fiji is part of China's global rise. Both Australia and New Zealand are committed to Fiji and the South Pacific as a whole. Given its substantial interests in Australia and New Zealand, it is not in China's interest to increase its influence in Fiji at the cost of its relations with these two traditional players.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON LEAD ISOTOPIC FRACTIONATION DURING METALLURGICAL PROCESSES

In this paper, experiments are designed to imitate the non‐equilibrium evaporation metallurgical process of lead. The lead isotope ratios of the remaining lead liquid with different percentage losses were then determined using high‐solution MC–ICP–MS. The results show that this process does alter lead isotopic ratios of the remaining liquid. However, the variations are so much smaller than the speculated values using the theoretical formula that in most ancient metallurgical processes, the lead isotopic fractionation can be neglected.     

THE TECHNOLOGY OF GLAZED ISLAMIC CERAMICS USING DATA COLLECTED BY THE LATE ALEXANDER KACZMARCZYK

During the 1980s, the late Alexander Kaczmarczyk undertook the analysis of some 1200 glazed Islamic ceramics from Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Syria spanning the period from the eighth to the 14th centuries ad , using a combination of XRF for the glazes, and AAS or PIXE for the bodies. The aim of the present paper is, first, to bring to the attention of researchers into Islamic ceramics the fact that these analytical data are available on the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art website, and also that some 400 of the analysed sherds are held in the Research Laboratory. Second, the paper provides a preliminary interpretation of the analytical data in terms of the choice of glaze type (i.e., alkali–lime, lead–alkali and high‐lead), tin‐opacification, body type (i.e., quartz or stonepaste, calcareous clay, and non‐calcareous clay), and colorants.     

ELECTROCHEMISTRY AND AUTHENTICATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL LEAD USING VOLTAMMETRY OF MICROPARTICLES: APPLICATION TO THE TOSSAL DE SANT MIQUEL IBERIAN PLATE

An essentially non‐invasive electrochemical methodology addressed to the authentication of archaeological lead is described. The method is based on the record of the voltammetric response of nanosamples from the archaeological artefact mechanically transferred to a graphite ‘pencil’ electrode in contact with aqueous buffers. Three diagnostic criteria for authentication are described based on the appearance of: (i) oxidative dissolution signals for trace metals like copper, arsenic, antimony and, often, tin and silver accompanying stripping peaks for lead, (ii) peak potential shifts for reduction peaks for patination products, and (iii) the presence of reduction peaks for PbO₂. The method is applied to the authentication of an Iberian lead plate from the Tossal de Sant Miquel (Llíria, Spain) site using a series of genuine and false pieces from different provenances in the Valencian region (Spain).     

Early Chinese Migrants to Australia: A Critique of the Sojourner Narrative on Nineteenth-century Chinese Migration to British Colonies

This paper critically assesses the issues surrounding nineteenth-century Chinese migration to British colonies, especially Australia. The issues discussed in the paper include the origin of the term “sojourner” and its relationship to Western colonialism, and the origin of the term huaqiao (overseas Chinese) and its relationship to Chinese nationalism. By being critical of the narrative of the “sojourner” for its cultural essentialist approach to Chinese migration, the paper highlights two important aspects of Chinese migration patterns and behaviour that are often neglected by the sojourner narrative: socioeconomic circumstances at the origin of migration and Western colonialism at the destination of migration. The paper argues that the Chinese publications by the migrants and what happened in Hong Kong at that time demonstrate the consequences of the combination of these two aspects of history. The paper finally observes that the little understood behaviour of the Chinese peasantry migrants appears to be post-modern and transnational.     

‘A Local Terrorist Made Good’: the Callaghan government and the Arab–Israeli peace process, 1977–79

The British government had played an important role during the 1950s and 1960s as a mediator in the Arab–Israeli conflict, most notably through the development of Project Alpha between 1954 and 1956, and through the negotiation of United Nations Security Council resolution 242 in 1967. Between 1977 and 1979, British Prime Minister James Callaghan played a supporting role to US President Jimmy Carter as he negotiated the Camp David Accords of 1978. Callaghan adopted a pro-Israeli stance, cultivating close relations with the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and defending Begin’s position over key issues, particularly his reluctance to remove settlements from the occupied territories. In this respect Callaghan’s government departed from established British policy, even abstaining over United Nations Security Council resolution 446 in March 1979 which condemned continuing Israeli settlement activity. This resulted in damage to Britain’s relations with moderate Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan.     

Hierarchical tendencies and functional patterns among Mainland China’s megaregions

This paper presents an empirical analysis of hierarchical tendencies and functional patterns in the development of Mainland China’s space-economy by operationalizing the concept of “megaregions.” Drawing on the burgeoning literature on megaregions, we first argue that under conditions of economic globalization the megaregion concept does indeed present an effective tool to study the spatial agglomeration of the key components of China’s economic development. Second, we analyze the development status and the key functional characteristics of 16 prospective Chinese megaregions by constructing an index system consisting of 5 functions and 36 indicators. Third, we calculate an entropy index to rank megaregions according to their overall development status and reveal functional differences by applying cluster analysis. We find that the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Metropolitan Area, and the Pearl River Delta stand out, identify different varieties of megaregions according to their dominant functional characteristics, and explore the main policy dimensions of the persistent west–east divides observed. The paper is concluded with a discussion of potential avenues for future research.     

Striated agency and smooth regulation: kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space for the construction of child and adult relations

Deploying an everyday life approach, this article focuses on the kindergarten meal, defined as a space in which humans, materials and discursive elements interact. The article identifies and discusses two co-existing perspectives on the everyday meals that emphasise children as future beings and here-and-now beings. Through the concepts of smoothing and striation the paper discusses how these perspectives produce different mechanisms of regulation and agency, and position the eaters differently. The paper emphasises kindergarten mealtime as an ambiguous space that does not offer simple discussions about good and bad meal situations. The paper thereby adds to the existing literature within children’s geographies which emphasise interactional, relational and material aspects of children’s lives. It does so by revisiting some concepts, striation and smoothing, that has been used to explore children’s spaces and child–adult relations, but argue that these concepts describe ambivalent and complex processes in children’s and adult’s everyday lives.     

Consumption of Chinese goods in southwestern Europe: a multi-relational database and the vicarious consumption theory as alternative model to the industrious revolution (eighteenth century)

This article discusses the application of new technologies, software coding and computer analysis in the social sciences and humanities, mainly in the field of economic history. In the last two decades, the use of new computer technologies among historians to develop theories and solve questions has fostered a vibrant historiographical debate. However, these new digital tools have largely been used as an end in themselves, rather than as a means to develop hypotheses and answer questions. This has prevented researchers from fully exploiting such technologies in their field. In this article, I discuss how I designed a new multi-relational database using the “Access” package and SQL language to test the “industrious revolution” hypothesis and present the “vicarious consumption” theory as an alternative model for analyzing the eighteenth-century circulation of Chinese goods in the Western Mediterranean region. It presents the cross-referencing method I used to analyze the historical information I collected, mainly from probate inventories and trade records. This method makes it possible to navigate through the data in a way that goes beyond the traditional use of “excel” tables.     

AT THE ROOTS OF THE ‘FINLAND BOOM’

Finland enjoys a positive country image in Japan, where, reportedly, enthusiasm for things Finnish reached the state of a ‘boom’ during the 2000s–2010s. What is this positive visibility based on? To shed light on the foundations of Finland’s visibility in Japan, this article tracks Finland’s national imaging there from a historical perspective. Through an empirical study of Finnish diplomatic archives, the article looks beyond nation branding – the latest mode in the official promotion of states to foreign audiences – and opens a window into the past practices of Finland’s official promotion in the distant East Asian case. In the 1960s, the Press Bureau of Finland’s Foreign Ministry drafted an image policy to support Finland’s neutrality and to broaden the country’s interaction with the West. The policy was implemented through Finland’s embassies, and therefore Finland’s newly defined characteristics also became actively promoted in Tokyo. As a result of this intensification of Finnish public diplomacy in the Cold War, many of the modern aspects of Finland’s later nation branding in Japan were introduced. Of the redefined official autostereotype, cultural and commercial dimensions proved the easiest to promote, whereas its foreign political dimension was met with the most local contradiction.