Micro-CT-assisted determination of the shattering and non-shattering phenotypes of charred rice spikelet bases from archaeological sites: a new methodological approach

The selection of a non-shattering phenotype is a pivotal change in the process of rice domestication. However, current research is heavily restricted by the preservation conditions of macro-plant remains in early and middle Neolithic sites, as very limited well-preserved rice spikelet bases could be retrieved. We present a non-destructive method based on micro-computed tomographic (CT) scanning, which could provide detailed visualization of the internal structures of charred spikelet bases and efficiently discriminate the shattering and non-shattering phenotypes of rice spikelet bases according to the abundance of fusiform echinate phytoliths. It could be widely applied in different contexts, especially those poorly preserved specimens and tempers in pottery sherds, greatly improving our knowledge of rice domestication.     

Political Commitment,Policy Ambiguity,and Corporate Environmental Practices

A lack of clear political commitment together with confusing rules and enforcement often characterize the institutional context of policy implementation and regulatory compliance in developing countries. By connecting such contextual features to existing models of policy implementation and regulatory compliance, we examine how regulatory factors are related to basic and proactive corporate environmental management practices in the Pearl River Delta region in China. Drawing on data derived from both a survey and in‐depth interviews, we show that a perception of clear political commitment to environmental protection across multiple government levels and units is positively associated with business efforts in basic environmental practices, regardless of the specific enforcement intensity. Nevertheless, a perception of clear political commitment is not related to proactive environmental practices. Conversely, a perception of policy ambiguity, in the form of confusing regulatory standards and enforcement, is negatively associated with corporate efforts in both basic and proactive environmental practices; yet, intensive inspections mitigate these negative associations with policy ambiguity.     

Mapping Qijiaping: New Work on the Type-Site of the Qijia Culture (2300–1500 B.C.) in Gansu Province,China

Recent work at the Qijia Culture type-site of Qijiaping in the Tao River valley of Gansu Province, China, has shed light on the complex nature of this early Bronze Age site. Situated at the intersection between the mixed pastoralists of eastern central Asia and the agriculturalists of China’s northern Central Plain, Qijia peoples absorbed, evolved, and transmitted products and technologies that shaped cultural developments in both directions. The Tao River Archaeological Project (TRAP) used a combination of surface survey, geophysics, digital mapping, and targeted excavation to expand our understanding of the multicomponent nature of Qijiaping. This included identifying potential habitation, mortuary, and production locales; examining site-wide ceramic use; mapping anomalies through geophysics; and further exploring these through targeted excavations. The results have expanded our knowledge of the site structure of Qijiaping and its place in the wider Qijia interaction sphere, while also confirming the usefulness of this methodology.     

Social sustainability of urban regeneration led by industrial land redevelopment in Taiwan

Abandoned industrial sites, usually contaminated by hazardous substances, create social injustice in the surrounding communities. Redevelopment of industrial land has brought prospects of sustainable development to the communities that live in and around them. This research is to identify the critical factors facilitating urban regeneration and particularly social sustainability in Kaohsiung, an industrial city of Taiwan which experienced deindustrialization in recent decades, resulting in several abandoned industrial sites and decay of the adjacent urban communities. Two different industrial land redevelopment projects were examined; (1) Jhongdou Wetland Park, which focuses on environmental sustainability, and (2) Pier-2 Art Centre, which focuses on economic sustainability. Measured by the social sustainability indicators developed by the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development and through findings from a questionnaire survey of community members, this study found that the redevelopment project of the Pier-2 Art Centre has a higher level of social sustainability than the Jhongdou Wetland Park, performing better in six out of nine themes. Critical dimensions resulting in the better performance in social sustainability of the Pier-2 Art Centre included rental affordability, heritage conservation, community image, cultural activity, community association, public space, local organization and higher accessibility to facility.     

Crouching tigers hidden dragons: on the myth of the two birth signs

Sensational reports on the number of newborn in the years of tiger and dragon have aroused great concerns among certain governments. Substantial social cost will be incurred if any age group diminishes or multiplies out of proportion. This article clarifies the facts concealed underneath those breathtaking anecdotes. The statistics of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, where people have strong passion for the birth sign dragon and distaste for tiger, shows that there are neither shrinking tiger nor bulging dragon cohorts for the newborn or the whole population.     

The first discovery of Neolithic rice remains in eastern Taiwan: phytolith evidence from the Chaolaiqiao site

Located in the key junction between mainland China and Island Southeast Asia, Taiwan is of great significance for our understanding of the southeastward dispersal of rice agriculture in the prehistoric period. Until now, quite limited archaeobotanical work has been done in this region. In eastern Taiwan, no archaeological evidence of rice agriculture has been obtained, probably owing to the poor preservation conditions for plant macroremains. Here, we report a new discovery of 4200-year-old domesticated rice remains at the Chaolaiqiao site, which for the first time in detail demonstrates the ancient practice of rice agriculture in this area. Based on a combination of factors that include a rice-based plant subsistence strategy, the mid-Holocene limits to available farmland and the fast-growing Taiwan Neolithic population from settlement pattern data, we infer that this contradiction in eastern Taiwan between land-dependent agriculture and limited suitable farmland encouraged a population movement out of Taiwan during the Middle Neolithic period.     

Modified Full Operator Hybrid Simulation Algorithm and its Application to the Seismic Response Simulation of a Composite Coupled Wall System

A new version of the Full Operator Method (FOM) is proposed in this work. The numerical characteristics of the modified FOM (mFOM) are investigated, both theoretically and analytically. It is found that mFOM is unconditionally stable when the estimated stiffness of the structure is larger than or equal to the actual stiffness. Simulations using two numerical examples are carried out to demonstrate the capability of the mFOM. The seismic response simulation of a composite coupled wall system suggests that the mFOM is capable of generating reasonably accurate solutions despite the presence of structural complexity, material nonlinearity, and displacement control errors.     

Book reviews

CHINA

CHIU‐YEE CHEUNG. Lu Xun: the Chinese “Gentle” Nietzsche. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2001. xviii, 197 pp. SFR 56.00, paper.

PAMELA KYLE CROSSLEY. The Manchus. Oxford and Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1997; 2002. xvi, 239 pp. 26 plates, 2 maps. £30.00, hardcover; £16.99, paper.

GLORIA DAVIES (ed). Voicing Concerns: contemporary Chinese Critical Inquiry. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, 2001. xii, 270 pp. US$75.00, hardcover; US$26.95, paper.

ANDREW F. JONES. Yellow Music—media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2001. ix, 213 pp. Glossary, notes, bibliography, index. US$49.95 hardcover, $17.95 paper.

KAM LOUIE. Theorising Chinese Masculinity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 239 pp. Bibliography, index. A$80.00, hardcover.

LUNG‐KEE SUN. The Chinese National Character: from Nationhood to Individuality. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2002. xx, 299 pp. US$65.95, hardcover.

JAPAN, KOREA

MICHAEL LEWIS. Becoming Apart: national Power and Local Politics in Toyama, 1868–1945. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. Harvard East Asian Monographs, no. 192. $US45.00, hardcover.

KATO SHUICHI. A Sheep's Song: a Writer's Reminiscences of Japan and the World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. 470 pp. Translated and annotated by Chia‐ning Chang. Index. US$24.95, paper.

SUSAN FISHER (ed). Nostalgic Journeys: literary Pilgrimages between Japan and the West. Proceedings of a conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia, September 1999. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, Institute of Asian Research, 2001. 194 pp. Notes on contributors. No price given, paper.

MICHAEL MOLASKY and STEVE RABSON (eds). Southern Exposure: modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2000. 362 pp. Introduction, Notes on translators. US$27.95, paper.

RAJYASHREE PANDEY. Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: the Works of the Poet‐Priest Kamo no Chōmei. Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies No. 21, Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998. xi, 197 pp. US$32.95/£24.50, hardcover.

TAKAMIZAWA JUNKO. My Brother Hideo Kobayashi. Translated by James Wada, introduction by Leith Morton. Sydney: Wild Peony, 2001. x, 166 pp. Photographs. A$30.00, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

I. QADEER, K. SEN and K. NAYAR. Public Health and the Poverty of Reform. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2001. Rs 700, hardcover.

JAVED AHMAD KHAN. India and West Asia: emerging Markets in the Liberalisation Era. New Delhi/Thousand Oaks/London: Sage Publications, 1999. 263 pp. Rs. 395, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

PHILIP J. ELDRIDGE. The Politics of Human Rights in Southeast Asia. London: Routledge, 2001. 256 pp. £55.00, hardcover.

KASIAN TEJAPIRA. Commodifying Marxism. The Formation of Modern Thai Radical Culture, 1927–1958. (Kyoto Area Studies on Asia, Centre for Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Volume 3). Kyoto: Kyoto University Press; Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2001. xiv, 390 pp. Index. No price given, paper.

NICHOLAS TARLING. A Sudden Rampage: the Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia, 1941–1945. London: C. Hurst & Company, 2001. xvi, 286 pp. £12.95, paper.