Ethnic Heritage as a Tourist Attraction: the Peranakans of Singapore

Singapore's multiculturalism is an important theme in the country's destination marketing and the paper explores the manner in which ethnicity is depicted in promotional material and the forces shaping the decision-making process. The nature of Peranakan culture, a unique synthesis of Chinese and Malay influences, is the subject of particular discussion and its actual and potential role as a tourism resource is analysed. State authorities are seen to exercise considerable power, making use of tourism images to reinforce political ideologies through the communication of messages about preferred versions of identities. However, tourism representations also convey something of the complex realities of identity in Singapore and perhaps can assist in increasing awareness of, and protecting, the cultural heritage of more marginalised groups. Insights are thus offered into the relationship between tourism and ethnic heritage in plural societies and its management.     

Regional cultural heritage versus national heritage in Scania's disputed national landscape

This article argues that the official landscape heritage in Sweden is formed in an interplay between regional and national discourses, and that the national ideology during the last century has promoted the preservation of stereotyped landscapes that partly ignores the conditions under which these landscapes were actually formed. This tends to naturalise the landscape, often cleansing it of human action and thereby generating a notion of an innate and given national landscape. To illustrate this, the landscape of the province of Skåne in southernmost Sweden is discussed from a heritage perspective. This province (which was Danish up to 1658) has a landscape characterised by its openness and contrasting to the emblematic Swedish cultural landscape of forests and small hamlets. A conclusion is that Skåne's landscape heritage runs the risk of being alienated when it is valued from a national criterion, and that a critical questioning of official heritage practice is therefore needed.     

Dynamic Characteristic Analysis of Two Adjacent Multi-grid Composite Wall Structures with a Seismic Joint by a Bayesian Approach

Field ambient vibration tests and modal identification using a Bayesian approach are conducted for a building made of multi-grid composite wall structure and divided into two adjacent parts by a seismic joint, to investigate the dynamic characteristics of the special structural type and the effects of the infilled seismic joint. It is found that dynamic interactions between the two structural parts exist possibly induced by the infill of the building separation. Natural frequencies obtained from other two modal parameter identification methods and modal analysis results of finite element models considering dynamic interactions agree with those identified by the Bayesian approach.     

The Study of Local Public Economies: Multi‐organizational,Multi‐level Institutional Analysis and Development

One important extension of the IAD framework has been to the study of local public economies. These are multi‐organizational, multi‐level arrangements defined as the set of governmental jurisdictions, public and nonprofit agencies, and private firms that interact in various patterns to provide and produce public goods and services within a specific locality or region. Commonly, the localities or regions studied from this perspective have been U.S. metropolitan areas, often defined as a central city and its surrounding or adjoining county. Localities can be delineated, however, on various terms, and in the IAD framework, it is the geo‐physical nature of a locality that, in substantial part, drives the analysis. One of the strengths of the approach is its capacity to explain local variations in public organization as a function of the geo‐physical diversity of localities, while at the same time developing empirical generalizations and normative principles that apply across diverse regions. What, for example, might the organization and governance of a complex metropolitan area have in common with the organization and governance of a complex protected area, such as the greater Yellowstone eco‐region or the Adirondack Park? Construing both sorts of regions as local public economies can enhance our overall understanding of public organization at the same time that it permits a more nuanced understanding of diverse localities. Such work contributes to the ongoing IAD project of “understanding institutional diversity.”     

“Punching Above its Weight”. The Mafikeng Anti-Repression Forum (Maref) and the Fall of Bophuthatswana

Abstract

This article traces the history of the Mafikeng Anti-Repression Forum (Maref) that operated in the former homeland of Bophuthatswana from early 1990 to late 1994. It was the only human rights organisation in Bophuthatswana. Maref's work was in five areas. Firstly, it monitored human rights abuses as a consequence of political repression in the homeland. Secondly, it responded to these abuses by means of disseminating the facts behind them. Thirdly, it attempted to defend the interests of the victims by means of seeking legal redress and relief from suffering and deprivation. Fourthly, it agitated for political change in Bophuthatswana in accordance with the changing nature of political reform in South Africa as a whole. Lastly it collated and published the information that formed an essential component of the negotiations that led to the new dispensation in 1994. For these activities, Maref members were severely harassed. The role the organisation played generally has received little analysis or comment, and is deserving of a place in the annals of human rights activities and activists during this period of transformation and upheaval in South Africa.     

Picturing knowledge: Chinese brushwork illustrations of Western natural history in a late Qing periodical, 1907–1911

In recent years, a number of studies have examined the introduction of Western learning into China after the late nineteenth century. Many of these works discuss how Chinese scholarship might have been reshaped by Western classification and structure of knowledge, and ask how it absorbed and adopted the vocabulary and language of Western learning. While defining the newly emerged idea of “national essence”, late Qing Chinese literati, notably the members of the Society for Preserving National Learning, also tried to incorporate Western scientific knowledge, as they understood and perceived it, into the framework of Chinese learning. From 1907–1911, more than a hundred botanical and zoological illustrations, drawn more or less according to Western scientific norm, appeared in Guocui xuebao, a journal published by the Society for Preserving National Learning. These pictures are an indication of the attempts made by late Qing Chinese literati to integrate Chinese and Western scholarship. Focusing on these drawings, this paper examines how the painter Cai Shou might have adopted and applied the natural history knowledge and the drawing techniques he acquired through various means. It also asks with what ideal late Qing and early Republican Chinese literati might have identified themselves.     

The National Flood Insurance Program: A Case Study in Policy Failure,Reform, and Retrenchment

In this paper, I present an intensive case study of the development of the National Flood Insurance Program to advance two key arguments. First, the conventional model of adoption of general interest reform neglects an important aspect of political context: whether the relevant policy domain is one with or without “publics.” I argue that in domains without publics the politics of reform will differ substantially from the accepted model. Second, I argue that the type of learning necessary to address a given policy failure matters in reform politics. Instrumental learning is necessary but may not be sufficient for successful general interest reforms. When the social construction of a policy failure is such that many people misconceive of the fundamental purpose of a policy, social learning must take place before instrumental learning can be effective.     

关于司马光民族观的若干思考

司马光充分汲取自先秦儒家与他同时代欧阳修等人民族观中的有益成份。他提倡了民族和睦观 ;发展了民族平等观 ;丰富了民族诚信观。司马光将孟子的“气节观”、“大丈夫”精神 ,渗透入其民族观中 ,大力倡导民族气节。     

实录体起源、发展与特点

实录的直接源头是起居注 ,实录仅是名称借用 ;实录体的编年性 ,是由起居注的编年性所规定的。编年体与实录虽问为编年史 ,但记录单位不同 ;前者是多帝多朝史 ,后者是一帝一朝史 ,单位更小 ,内容更详。最初出现的实录为“今上实录” ,唐代始逐步向“前上实录”过渡 ;五代、宋、元、明、清的实录编纂 ,完全规范化 ,是清一色的老皇帝实录。实录体有两种模式 ,一有大臣附传 ,如唐、宋、明 ;一是大臣传单独成书 ,如元朝与清朝。实录是最基本的皇家历程史长编 ,实录的传播与否 ,直接决定民间当代史撰修活动的兴衰。     

德国承认伪满问题与国民政府的外交方针

1932年伪满洲国成立后,国民政府一直希望各友好国家不予承认,对有着重要政治、军事及经济联系的德国,更是抱有期待,甚至不惜作"依德和日反苏"之试探。但德国在纳粹上台并逐步集权后,日益将对日外交置于对华外交之上,终在1938年2月宣布承认伪满。正处于对日抗战重要关头的国民政府为继续争取德国军援,对此一再忍让,但稍后德国又禁运军火、强制撤退在华军事顾问。处此外交重压之下,这时力求在对德、对苏外交中保持相对平衡的国民政府一度表示了更为坚定的联苏决心。