Popular Italian cinema,the media,and the economic miracle: rethinking commedia all’italiana

This article seeks to reposition the popular cinematic genre commedia all’italiana within the context of the rapid expansion of the media industries which accompanied Italy's postwar economic miracle. The article looks at three distinct aspects of the relationship between commedia all’italiana and other media. First, it outlines the important role played by the media during the boom in disseminating images of consumer lifestyles, and highlights the way in which commedia all’italiana participated in this process. Second, through a discussion of media appearances by Vittorio Gassman and Nino Manfredi, the article emphasises the extent to which their commedia all’italiana star personas were constructed and circulated in a multimedia context. Finally, it examines how the genre represented other media, focusing in particular on the representation of gender in advertising scenes. Through close readings of commedia all’italiana advertising scenes, the article notes points of continuity with and difference from advertising imagery that was circulating at the time. The article argues that in order to further our understanding of commedia all’italiana and its relationship to Italian society, it is essential to understand the genre's relationship to other media production of the period, which both influenced the comedies’ representations and was influenced by them in turn.     

中国历代驿站发展特点略论

驿站是中国历代兼具军政职能的交通运输组织,是中国古代社会中央集权体制发展的需要和重要体现之一。自商周至清朝末年,历代驿站不断发展和完善。在管理体制上,从中央到地方形成了一套完整的管理系统,并逐步实行军事化管理在勤务体制上,各类驿站推陈出新,并在职能上逐步统一;在服务对象上,实行军政两用、平战结合。其中,管理体制上的军事化,勤务体制上的统一化,服务对象上的军政结合、平战结合,是中国历代驿站在发展过程中表现出来的重要特点。     

Professor Penck's Bluff: Geography,Espionage and Hysteria in World War I

This article considers the image of geography during World War I through a discussion of newspaper controversies about the pre‐war activities of German and British geographers. Early in the war, Sven Hedin and Albrecht Penck, renowned geographers whose achievements had been widely celebrated by the British geographical establishment, were named in the media as enemy spies whose supposedly disinterested scientific inquiries in Britain and the Empire had masked their real intention to pass sensitive information to the German High Command. British geography stood accused of collusion with enemy ‘super spies’. This article examines how Britain's geographical community, represented by the Royal Geographical Society, sought to defend the discipline's patriotic virtue and head off a full‐scale media witch‐hunt. In so doing, the article comments on the media's role in shaping the image of geography and on geography's place in public debates about the sanctity of the national space.     

On the Question of Regulating the Level of the Caspian Sea

The author tries to show that the level of the Caspian Sea could be stabilized at relatively low cost at its present low level without further damage to the coastal economy. He denies the need for costly projects designed to increase the inflow into the Caspian or to separate the shallow northern section from the main body of the sea. He maintains that water gained by diverting the northern streams into the Volga basin should be used to irrigate the arid Southeast rather than to replenish the water supply of the Caspian Sea.     

Forging a nation: the Ethiopian millennium celebration and the multiethnic state

Due to a different calendric system, Ethiopia celebrated the turn of the millennium in September 2007. This paper investigates how Ethiopia's coalition government, associated by many Ethiopians with minority rule, set up and mobilised a year‐long millennium project to propose new idioms of nationhood redefining Ethiopia's identity to deal with the challenges of ethnic federalism and to accommodate its multiethnic society. I argue that the millennium celebration sought to find a solution to the divisive effects of the politics of ‘difference’ derived from a policy of ethnic federalism, and to the existing outdated metaphors of nationhood rooted in Semitic culture and Orthodox Christianity. It proposed more suitable idioms of common identity based on the idea of ‘unity in diversity’. This paper contributes to our better understanding of the role of symbolism, commemorative events and appropriation of the ‘sites of memory’ in the complex process of the transition of multiethnic societies into nation states.     

Risk and the Sacred: Environment,Media and Public Opinion in Bali

This exploration of controversies over environmental regulation in the Indonesian province of Bali traces the relationship between the media, environmental attitudes and Balinese identity, focusing on the religious dimension of that identity and the ways in which this has become bound up with conceptions of environmental imbalance and a popular critique of capitalist development on the island. The fusion of cultural and environmental metaphors of ‘erosion’ and ‘preservation’ in public discourse is striking in the Balinese case, since sites of great spiritual significance are also attractive to investors for their aesthetic appeal and heritage value (Verschuuren et al. 2010). From the earliest emergence of environmental conflict on the island, the emotive power of cultural identity became intimately connected with environmental politics. This article traces several of the pervasive and interconnected dichotomies ‐ sacred and profane, cultural value and economic interest, environmental preservation and use (exploitation), certainty and uncertainty (risk) ‐ that characterise debates surrounding environmental regulation and development on the island.     

读魏宏运先生的新编《中国现代史》

魏宏运新编《中国现代史》教材运用丰富翔实的资料,以新体例对1919～1949年的中国社会政治、经济、思想、化和社会生活作全面、科学、客观评述,是一部学术性的中国现代史教材。     

论民国时期中西史学交流的特点

民国时期的中国史学在欧风美雨的浸润下,艰难地然而终于剥离传统史学的脐带,迈向史学现代化的新途。在这一过程中,中西史学的交融呈现鲜明的特点：史学的传播渠道由欧美直接输入为主,以取代从日本的间接输入;中国学人留学欧美成为时尚,从欧美学成归国的留学生在中西史学的交流中发挥了不可或缺的作用,是传播西方史学的主体;而传播的内容以西方史学理论与方法为主,历史哲学的引入更令人瞩目;出版机构在民国时期中西交流中起到重大和显著的作用。     

从学术史看华侨华人研究的学科发展

本文试图从学术史角度探讨华侨华人研究的学科建设。从国内外研究华侨华人的历史看 ,涉及的学科包括历史学、政治学、经济学、法学、社会学、人类学等诸多方面 ,尤其是西方对于华侨华人的学术研究 ,从一开始就不是历史学或经济学、政治学之类的单一学科的研究 ,而是综合性、全方位的研究 ,其覆盖面甚广。其特点在于研究对象的单一性 ,而不是学科或研究方法的单一性。因此 ,欲建立华侨华人学 ,必须包括诸学科的研究 ,即历史、经济、文化、政治、社会等各方面。尤其重要的是 ,这些多学科研究并非单指研究对象的改变 ,而是指研究的方法和手段 ,特别是研究的理论架构方面必须有所变化 ,以建立综合性的华侨华人学。     

论华文教育的定位及其发展趋势

有关华文教育的定位,历来是一个很有争议的问题。华文教育涉及诸多的学科、政府与民间部门以及复杂多变的国际关系和各国社会状况、教育文化政策等,我们应对以上诸多因素给以全面、充分的重视。本文据此提出,华文教育应分属海外华人的民族文化教育、政府的侨务工作、中国的对外汉语教学以及华侨华人研究等几个领域。同时,华文教育自身的这种复杂性,也决定了其在今后一个时期的发展趋势,主要表现在低龄学生人数增加、华文学校功能进一步扩大、教学中的语言文字更加统一以及华文教育社会化并逐步进入所在国主流教育系统等方面。