Cultural policy and revolutionary music during China’s Cultural Revolution: the case of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

This paper examines the relation between the cultural policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the music of model plays (yangbanxi 样板戏), especially music produced by Western symphony orchestras, during the ten-year Cultural Revolution in China. It takes the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra (SSO) as the focal point of this historical episode. Model plays of the Cultural Revolution promoted communist and revolutionary themes. All aspects of their performance were examined for conformity to Maoist thought. This paper explores how the CCP’s ideology and its cultural policy were embodied in revolutionary music, using one of the model plays, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, as an analytical case study. Most of the historical materials cited in this research are held by the SSO Archive. The SSO played a crucial role in creating and performing the music for Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy. The academic value of its archive has long been overlooked. This paper provides a new perspective on the Cultural Revolution, one viewed through policies of a Western symphony orchestra, and it suggests that scholars apply the term ‘cultural policy’ more deliberately in future studies of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.     

North Korea’s participation in the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights

North Korea’s participation in the UNHRC’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)—a peer review in which states make recommendations to one another for improving human rights implementation—is a notable exception to its rejection of other human rights mechanisms. What explains North Korea’s willing participation in the UPR? This essay analyses North Korea’s participation in the first (2008–11) and second (2012–15) UPR cycles through its written submissions, responses to recommendations, and recommendations to other states. It finds that North Korea has consistently accepted weak recommendations, rejected more specific policy changes, and implemented accepted recommendations on a limited basis, allowing it to claim compliance with human rights at minimal cost. The UPR’s reliance on states’ self-reports and its inability to adjudicate competing factual claims allow North Korea to reject claims of egregious abuses, openly advocate for a radically state-centric vision of human rights, and challenge the legitimacy of human rights mechanisms like the Commission of Inquiry and Special Rapporteur while building support from other states with similar views. Notably, the Commission of Inquiry appears to have motivated North Korea to increase its cooperation with the UPR, demonstrating that the UPR complements but cannot replace other UN human rights mechanisms.     

战后自由主义者民族复兴的路径选择(1945—1949)——以自由主义期刊中的中共形象为中心

抗战胜利后,中国面临民族复兴的重要时代机遇,自由主义者以"中间道路"相号召,形成了不同于国共两党的民族复兴的蓝图设计。本文以自由主义政论期刊对中共的评价为切入点,从分析共产党的社会主义理论与新民主主义路线、共产党的性质、共产党现行政策及其政绩三方面展现自由主义期刊中的中共形象,并以此为视角,从一个侧面彰显和印证自由主义者特有的民族复兴的路径选择。     

Is a ‘Modi doctrine’ emerging in Indian foreign policy?

Narendra Modi's election as India's prime minister in May 2014 has generated speculation that a new ‘Modi doctrine’ is emerging in Indian foreign policy. This article assesses the evidence for that claim. It argues that a ‘doctrine’ should embody a set of clearly stated principles for foreign policy making. It analyses the main achievements of Modi's policy in the months after his election. It finds that while Modi has brought new energy to the conduct of foreign policy, his approach is essentially pragmatic, and his objectives are similar to those pursued by his two immediate predecessors—Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.     

“Oh,what matter,when for Erin dear we fall?”: music and Irish nationalism, 1848–1913

Between the failed uprising of the Irish Confederacy in 1848 and the formation of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, music was a constant presence in the political life of Ireland. Physical force and constitutional nationalists alike found ample use for music, commemorating the martyrs of nationalism, intimidating opponents and expressing shared ideologies. Nationalist music was a regular feature at political rallies, at funerals and during elections, allowing parliamentary nationalists such as Charles Stewart Parnell to associate their cause with more radical ideals. This article employs a combination of historical and ethnomusicological methods in an analysis of songbooks, memoirs, oral histories and contemporary documents to reconstruct the nature and function of musical culture in nationalist politics between 1848 and 1913.     

20世纪20年代国民党"反帝"口号评析

在20世纪20年代的中国,国共两党曾共同高举反帝旗帜,但由于源自不同的政治理念与思想资源,双方对反帝口号内涵的理解并不一致,在合作过程中对于反帝问题也时有摩擦。在一个相同的政治口号之下,国共两党实际上执行着不同的反帝策略。     

The place of politics and the politics of place: Housing,the Labour Party and the local state in England

This paper argues that geographical research needs to pay greater attention to political parties and their relationship to local governing. In returning to, and updating the concept of the local state, analysis of local socio-spatial and political relations reveals the quieter registers of political power in local governing, and in turn what this means for the condition of local democracy. The long-term housing regeneration of a neighbourhood in Gateshead, North East England is used here as an optic to do just that. Through moments of housing activism, the social and political relations between and within a local Labour Party and local state are considered. A local manifestation of a growing trend that questions the representation of mature structures of power that the Labour Party holds in deindustrialised areas of the UK is considered through struggles over decision-making, belonging, representation and legitimacy. Such accounts of the local scale are critical in relation to global political trends; where apathy, cynicism, lack of expectation and representation and insurgent populist parties are increasingly framed as potential political crises of mature western democracies.     

Scotland,Atlantic slavery and the Scottish National Party: From colonised to coloniser in the political imagination

Over the last three decades, a major shift has taken place in Scottish nationalist understandings of Scotland's colonial past. During the second half of the twentieth century, independence supporters viewed Scotland's relationship with England in colonial terms. Since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999, nationalists have increasingly recognised Scots' role in Atlantic slavery. This paper explores this change within the Scottish National Party (SNP) using archival sources, published material and Scottish Parliamentary records. It demonstrates that a maturing historiography has drawn attention to Scotland's slavery past. History has become politically relevant in transatlantic deliberations over racial injustice, which have grown in intensity since the international Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. SNP ministers and parliamentarians have responded to this context by incorporating addressing Scotland's role in Atlantic slavery within a case for independence that is styled as progressive and contrasts with the more recalcitrant attitudes, which predominate at UK level.     

中国共产党对知识分子阶级属性认识的曲折过程

中国共产党对知识分子的阶级属性的认识经历了一个曲折的过程。新中国成立前后,刘少奇、周恩来等人从经济地位上界定了知识分子的工人阶级属性;1956年,周恩来和邓小平将经济地位和为谁服务统一起来界定了知识分子的工人阶级属性;1961、1962年间,周恩来将经济地位、为谁服务、思想状况初步统一起来界定了知识分子的工人阶级属性;1978年,邓小平在全国科学大会上将经济地位、为谁服务、思想状况重新统一起来界定了知识分子的工人阶级属性;党的十一届三中全会以后,邓小平、江泽民、胡锦涛在坚持经济地位、为谁服务、思想状况统一的基础上,着力解决知识分子是工人阶级中怎样的“一部分”的问题。     

"三个代表"重要思想的双重主题及其理论体系

对"建设什么样的党、怎样建设党"和"什么是社会主义、怎样建设社会主义"的回答,是"三个代表"重要思想的双重主题."三个代表"重要思想具有党的建设理论和中国特色社会主义建设理论两大体系.辩证认识"三个代表"重要思想的双重主题及其理论体系,有助于准确把握"三个代表"重要思想的历史地位.