Seductive Alienation: The American Way of Life Rearticulated in Occupied Japan

This article explores how the notion of American domesticity promoted by US occupation forces in postwar Japan was decoded and rearticulated by non-elite Japanese women, a social group that has been largely overlooked in studies of the global promotion of the American way of life during the early Cold War years. Specifically examined here is the case of Takehisa Chieko, an actress and the wife of an American officer, who enjoyed high visibility in popular women’s magazines as the embodiment of the idealised postwar American lifestyle. A reading of Takehisa’s magazine writings, interviews, and photographs suggests, however, that she was far from a passive recipient and transmitter of this cultural message. As such, a close unpacking of her rearticulation of the idea of American domesticity toward the particular socio-cultural fabric of postwar Japan reveals the particular nature of this supposedly universal American model. In demonstrating the various dilemmas that stemmed from confronting both the seductive and alienating features of the American way as promoted in occupied Japan, this study illuminates a point of rupture in the larger US global promotion of American domesticity as a means toward cultural hegemony and political containment in the early Cold War period.     

An Assessment of the Role of an Open Shelter in Reducing Soiling and Microbial Growth on the Archaeological Site of the Bishop’s Palace,Witney, England

Two sets of twelve Portland limestone tablets were attached to carousels outside and under the open, lightweight shelter at Bishop’s Palace (Witney, England) for 18 months to assess the influence of shelters on soiling and microbiological growth on stone. At the start, and at 6-month intervals, tablets were analysed using microscopy (optical and SEM), colour measurement (spectrophotometry), weight change measurement and salt content determination (ion chromatography). Concentrations of NO₂ and SO₂ were also monitored for a month using diffusion tubes. In addition, results were compared with those obtained by the UK National Materials Exposure Programme (NMEP) on chemical weathering rates. Differences in soiling and biological growth on sheltered and unsheltered samples, and their influence on limestone decay were established. The shelter is likely to reduce biological growth by modifying the micro-environmental conditions. However, it may also exacerbate dust deposition, which might increase decay rates in the long-term.     

Space,time and history in the Polish People’s Republic: the trilogy Sami swoi,Nie ma mocnych,Kochaj albo rzuć

Abstract

The article discusses the meanings of popular culture, authenticity and history in People’s Republic of Poland. As an example it uses a popular film trilogy. The trilogy Sami swoi, Nie ma mocnych and Kochaj albo rzu? (‘All friends here’, ‘Take it easy’ and ‘Love or leave me’) was shown in Polish cinemas between 1967 and 1977. The reviews were written just after the premières. The article uses the concepts of time and space elaborated by Mikhail Bakhtin and Doreen Massey to analyze the different chronotopes of the films. It analyses both the films and the reviews as strategies of creating authenticity and creating cultural meanings: the meaning of history and the meanings of rurality. I will show how history and present, memory and society are interwoven in the light of popular production. In addition, I will emphasize the diverse interpretation possibilities resulting from this micro-historical view and the transnational critique of modernism highlighting the small and local which emerged throughout Europe in the 1970s.     

博物馆女性题材展览的类型与意义

女性题材的展览主要分为女性博物馆的基本陈列和专题展览、综合类博物馆的常设展览和临时展览,旨在以"物"为媒介来展示女性的生存状态和精神追求,与公众一起讨论有关女性的话题,甚至包括一些敏感的、有争议的现象或问题。博物馆以女性为题材,组织展览和教育活动,关注、探讨并传播女性文化,一方面反映出博物馆关注并回应女性广泛参与社会生活并贡献于社会变革与发展的现实,发挥博物馆作为时代潮流倡导者和引领者的作用;另一方面,女性观众数量增多,参观需求多元化且女性广泛参与博物馆事务,对博物馆展览理念也产生一定的影响。然而,博物馆的女性主题展览也存在数量少、展览和诠释活动中对女性价值和意义挖掘不够等问题,需要在理念和实践上进一步改变。     

Urban commons are more‐than‐property

Urban commons are characterised in the literature as collectively shared property in the city shaped by a context of scarce resources, population density, and the interaction of strangers. In the broader commons literature, commons appears as a verb, a noun, and a process made by practices of commoning—albeit still with a focus on property. In this paper, I argue that an understanding of urban commons as more‐than‐property is needed to recognise how present but elusive urban commons are. I use examples from interviews and observations conducted at a Women's Library to discuss how the access, use, benefit, care, responsibility, and ownership of this urban commons bring it into being through particular practices of commoning. By questioning current ways of defining urban commons, urban scholars gain a grounded understanding of the role of property, and other practices, in maintaining an urban commons over time.     

A journey to Mars: John Dewey’s lectures and inquiry in China

ABSTRACT

Instead of the framework of influence–acceptance commonly used in previous studies, the author uses new sources to reexamine John Dewey’s visit to China from the perspective of interactive experience. This study presents Dewey’s lectures in China as the result of interrelationships among a variety of elements – Columbia University, different hosts and audiences, the media, all levels of the Chinese government, the domestic situation in the United States, the international situation, and Dewey’s expectations and work – against the general background of China’s New Culture Movement and new educational reforms. Dewey’s speeches on democracy, science, and new education were remarkably successful in the first year of his visit to China, but began to meet with resistance from some students beginning in June 1920. Because of the Red Scare in the United States, Dewey had to stay in China. In the second year of his visit, he gave warmly welcomed lectures on the same topics in Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces. With a deeper understanding of China, Dewey not only identified himself with reform plans but also began to pay more attention to China’s economic problems. His inquiry into the problems confronting China is a good example of what he advocated in his lectures: seeing democracy, science, and new education as a way of thinking and carrying out actions and making intellectual choices while moving forward.     

Illegible ethnicity and the invention of Scots-Irish narratives on the stages of Belfast and Appalachia

Theatrical stages have long been home to performances of identity, creating and sustaining legible visions of various peoples and groups for their audiences. Indeed, in the nineteenth century, the playwright/actor Dion Boucicault popularised the “stage Irishman” for Irish and American audiences alike, thus contributing to the invention of “Irish-America”. This paper examines a similar attempt in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to query the definition of a distinct group of Irish-Americans: the Scots-Irish. Productions from Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as from the southern Appalachian Mountains, demonstrate how the illegibility of the Scots-Irish – in other words, their status as a non-recognisable, incoherent segment of the white population in the USA – allows for narratives about this group to be highly malleable. Contemporary productions of the Scots-Irish story demonstrate the ways in which ethnic identities emerge as constructions of past and present, memory and history, and politics and culture.     

Decreasing experiences of home range,outdoor spaces,activities and companions: changes across three generations in Sheffield in north England

Home range is commonly understood to be the distance from home that children are allowed to go in the outdoor environment with the term being used within various academic disciplines. Different factors influence children's home range including traffic, age, parental fears and understandings of what it means to be a good parent. Research addressing home range over different generations has identified a context of changes in the built environment, demography and technology. This paper reports results from three generations of two families in Sheffield in the north of England and confirms a reduction in four major domains: home range, variety of outdoor spaces visited, range of activities undertaken and the number of companions.     

Smoking bans for private vehicles: children's rights and children's voices

Smoking bans have recently expanded to private vehicles in which children are present. This study considers the place of children's rights and children's voices in this policy initiative, with respect to the Canadian context, where vehicular smoking bans have been widely adopted. First, we examine print media reports, finding children's right to health was acknowledged less frequently than an array of competing adult rights. Children's voices were largely absent from the record. Second, we report on focus groups involving 23 young people in Edmonton, Alberta, highlighting participants' strong support for bans, based on their knowledge of health harms, aversion to smoke, and awareness that children have limited ability to contest adult authority in vehicles. We conclude that vehicular smoking bans may address the situation whereby children are forced to share an unhealthy environment, in breach of their rights.     

元代徽州路的军功家族

文章利用《汪氏渊源录》和《回岭汪氏宗谱》以及相关元代文集为主要参考资料,研究了元代徽州路的军功家族群体,尤其是其中的典型个案———婺源回岭汪氏。作者认为婺源回岭汪元龙、汪元圭兄弟在宋元易代之际,因为归附蒙元及“保障乡里”之功走上致身荣显的仕宦之路,他们不仅自身建立了可观的权势,而且有效地将之世代传承,以与元朝统治相始终,最终使婺源回岭汪氏家族成为“朱紫满庭”的“新安巨室”。在元代的徽州,类似的军功家族分布广泛,人数众多,深具影响。他们的出现,与元代统治者重视“根脚”的政治铨选原则紧密相关,与那些在蒙元征服战争中出现的“汉军世家”具有相似的来源和特点。