Bad Jokes,Bad English,Good Copy: Sukiyaki Western Django,or How the West Was Won

Miike Takashi’s Sukiyaki Western Django is a contemporary remake of Sergio Corbucci’s Spaghetti Western Django. In this updated Japanese version all of the characters speak English and there is a notable cameo appearance by Quentin Tarantino that references the continuous series of filmic exchanges that have taken place between Asia and the West, most notably in the context of action cinema. Rather than conceiving of the various movements and exchanges between the two films (and their predecessors) in terms of the search for an “original” or for the conceptualisation of good or bad copies, this paper focuses on the question of genre and what it can bring to a discussion of cross-cultural value in cinema. In particular, the paper explores what the recurring turn to Westerns in Asia reveals about the search for new frontiers of value and aesthetics in global cinema. From the serious to the self-conscious to the downright “bad” (and bad-ass) Western, Sukiyaki Western Django is a notable recent example of how the “Asian Western” both localises and globalises a peculiarly American genre, and at once de-values and re-values the “original”.     

Desocializing space: the decline of the public realm in Western Sydney1

This paper addresses the public realm and considers its contemporary context in an important Australian region, Western Sydney. Although problematized by social theory in recent years, my base position is the Habermasian premise that a public realm is critical to the healthy functioning of liberal democracies, such as Australia. This paper has three specific aims. First, I note the erosion of the public realm in an important Australian region, Western Sydney, and the obfuscation of its presence and role by new institutional arrangements emerging principally but not exclusively from federal policy settings. I then consider the consequences of this ‘desocialization of space’ for democracy and equity in a socially and culturally diverse urban region such as Western Sydney.

Désocialiser l'espace: le déclin de la sphère publique dans le Western Sydney

espace public, Western Sydney, néolibéralisme

Le présent article s'intéresse à la question de la sphère publique et examine sa condition actuelle à Western Sydney, une région australienne d'une importance capitale. Bien que la théorie sociale l'a récemment remise en cause, je m'appuie sur la prémisse d'Habermas selon laquelle la sphère publique est essentielle pour le bon fonctionnement des démocraties libérales comme celle qui prévaut en Australie. Les trois principaux buts de cet article sont de faire état de l'érosion de la sphère publique dans une des plus importantes régions australiennes qu'est Western Sydney. Je souligne à quel point sa présence et son rôle sont embrouillés par de nouveaux arrangements institutionnels qui naissent surtout mais pas uniquement grâce aux instances politiques fédérales. J'aborde ensuite les conséquences qu'entraînent la «désocialisation de l'espace» pour la démocratie et l'équité dans la vaste mosaïque socioculturelle urbaine de Western Sydney.

La desocialización del espacio: la disminución del terreno público en el oeste de Sydney

espacio público, el oeste de Sydney, el neo-liberalismo

Este papel trata el terreno público y considera su contexto contemporáneo en una región importante de Australia, el oeste de Sydney. Aunque la teoría social lo ha problematizado en recientes años, yo me baso en la premisa de Habermas de que un terreno público es esencial al buen funcionamiento de las democracias liberales, como la de Australia. Este papel tiene tres objetivos específicos. Primero, hablo de la erosión del terreno público en una región importante de Australia, el oeste de Sydney, y de la ofuscación de su presencia y de su papel, causada por nuevos arreglos institucionales que han surgido principalmente, pero no exclusivamente, de la política federal. Luego, considero las consecuencias para la democracia y la igualdad de esta ‘desocialización de espacio’ en una región urbana donde hay gran diversidad cultural y social, como el oeste de Sydney.     

They're here—I can feel them: the epistemic spaces of Indigenous and Western Knowledges

Indigenous Knowledges (IK) are continually contrasted with Western positivist sciences. Yet the usual conception of IK—as a translatable knowledge about things—renders incomprehensible its discussion as a spiritual or ethical practice. A practice taking place within what we call an epistemic space. A moose hunting event can demonstrate how IK is produced through the epistemic spaces within which hunting is performed. Part of the performance is becoming-animal; as practiced by Koyukon Athabascans, a moose hunt reproduces the social relations between hunter and prey, spiritual relations that demonstrate an ontology and ethics seemingly distinct from those of the Western wildlife sciences founded upon Enlightenment humanism. Yet such ‘Western–Indigenous’ dichotomies falsely indicate entirely separable spaces within which to produce accounts of reality. Instead, this account of a moose hunt demonstrates an assemblage of actors within one space, who together become more than the authors' individual positions and selves, and becomes an event. We additionally argue that more faithfully representing this assemblage requires changing the form of the usual academic paper. Thus tacking between a narrative and theoretical approach that switches from each of our first-person points of view, we aim to depict how knowledge of one hunting event becomes assembled.     

Continental excursion, 1928, of the Glasgow university school of geography

An assessment is made of developments in agriculture and fish farming within the Integrated Development Programme (I.D.P.) for the Western Isles. The five‐year I.D.P., which was launched in 1982, was partly funded by the E.E.C. The extent of investment in agriculture and fish farming is reviewed. The growth of employment and output in fish farming is reported, and various agricultural indicators such as trends in livestock numbers and performance are assessed. Various conclusions and lessons that can be drawn from the experience of the Western Isles I.D.P. are discussed. The paper is a summary of a detailed assessment recently carried out by the author for the Highlands and Islands Development Board.     

14世纪以前钴蓝在西亚和中国的运用——兼谈元青花的产生

本文探讨了14世纪以前钴蓝釉料在西亚和中国的使用情况,指出钴蓝在西亚有着悠久的使用传统,出于对青金石的崇尚,钴蓝釉料被广泛运用在模仿青佥石色彩的人工制品上,主要包括釉面砖、玻璃、陶器等。而在14世纪以前的中国,钴蓝釉料的使用出现较晚,运用也缺乏普遍性、延续性。通过西亚和中国情况的对比,笔者对元青花在14世纪得以突然勃兴的原因．提出了新的见解。     

A review of rock art dating in the Kimberley, Western Australia

This paper critically reviews the various approaches used to estimate the age of the rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. They include: (i) the relative superimposition of styles; (ii) the use of diagnostic subject matter (depictions of extinct animals, stone tool technology, introduced European and Asian objects and animals); (iii) the recovery of a ‘painted’ slab from a dated archaeological unit; (iv) radiocarbon dating of beeswax figures, charcoal pigments, organic matter in overlying mineral deposits and ‘accreted paint layers’ (oxalate rich crusts and amorphous silica skin), pollen grains from an overlaying mud-wasp nest; and (v) optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of quartz grains from overlying mud-wasp nests. Future directions for rock art dating in the Kimberley include uranium-series dating of overlying and underlying mineral deposits.     

Human activity and its impact on the landscape at the Xishanping site in the western Loess Plateau during 4800–4300 cal yr BP based on the fossil charcoal record

The taxonomic identification of fossil charcoal can be a useful archaeobotanical tool, as it can reveal information about prehistoric humans' use of plant resources and other factors. In this study, we quantify the fossil charcoal in a cultural sequence from Xishanping in the western Loess Plateau of China representing 4800–4300 cal yr BP to consider aspects of humans' impact on this landscape. The fossil charcoal assemblages reveal that the relative abundances of Picea, Betula, Acer, Ulmus and Quercus decreased markedly after 4600 cal yr BP. This suggests a marked decline in the mixed coniferous-broadleaved forest after this time. Concurrently, an increasing abundance of Bambusoideae charcoal has been suggested to reflect the expansion of the bamboo forest. The marked changes in the vegetation after 4600 cal yr BP were not obviously influenced by climate; they may be a better reflection of the results of human activity. Furthermore, other genera that provide important resources to humans also increased after 4600 cal yr BP, including Castanea, Cerasus, Padus and Diospyros. It is nearly certain that nuts and berries were an important food resource and that fruit trees were managed by prehistoric humans in the late Neolithic. This work suggests that the scale of prehistoric human impact on the western Loess Plateau landscape during the late Neolithic was much greater than was previously believed.     

The Uses and Abuses of Amity in Mid-Tudor Diplomacy, 1542–1560

Abstract

Amity, an affective as well as pragmatic political relationship, was the primary mechanism of mid-Tudor foreign policy. It was often the first step toward a formal alliance, but it did not constitute a binding agreement in itself. In fact, political friendship’s inherent legal ambiguity allowed the Tudors to work around the strictures of existing international treaties when diplomatic circumstances changed and it became necessary to reevaluate relationships abroad. Amity’s flexibility could also limit its effectiveness as a collaborative partnership. This was especially the case if two parties challenged a consensus in the international community. In negotiating amity diplomats appealed to moral, affective, and contractual obligations simultaneously. They did not acknowledge any categorical difference between emotive personal friendship and utilitarian public amity. Rather, they asserted that loving friends at once promoted each other’s strategic advantage and growth in virtue. Friendship was ultimately grounded in mutual trust, which was established by personal encounters and reinforced through law and ritual. This essay considers the application of amity in Anglo-Imperial, Anglo-Schmalkalden, and Anglo-Scottish contexts in 1542–1560 as a basis for comparative analysis.     

工业化时期德国西部城市的崛起及其影响

工业化时期是德国西部地区城市化发展的关键时期。这一时期该地区城市的发展速度明显加快,产业结构日益优化,城市体系逐渐完善,城市类型也朝着多样化的趋势发展。西部城市的强势崛起不仅得益于工业化的高速发展、大规模的铁路建设以及农业生产率的提高等因素,而且也加快了工业化进程,促进了经济重心的西移,进而带动了西北地区港口城市的快速成长。     

西汉诸侯王墓棺椁及置椁窆棺工具浅论

西汉诸侯王墓在继承前代的基础上多用棺椁,并有相关配套用具,体现出与身份地位相符的棺椁制度。棺椁在质地、重数及装饰等方面均存在着一些差异,反映了多样化的特点。棺椁是盛放墓主尸身的重要设施,在置椁下棺时会使用较多的工具以达到要求,保证安全。相关工具的使用一方面是对旧葬制、葬俗的继承,另一方面又与墓葬形制、结构,棺椁自身特点等密切相关,体现出丧葬礼俗的演进、相应科学技术的进步及诸侯王墓的时代特点和地域特征等。