Social distance,ethnicity, and religion in Northwest China: a survey of inter- and intra-group attitudes among Han,Hui, and Tibetan students

Building on existing research concerned with social distance in multi-ethnic states, this study of college students in Gansu Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region provides a picture of social attitudes, intra-group attachment, and inter-group social distance along ethnic and religious lines in Northwest China. The study measures inter-ethnic group fissures in Chinese society as measured in social distance between three ethnic groups: Han, Hui, and Tibetan. Comparative survey methods are used to examine inter- and intra-group relations by mapping dimensions of social distance among 382 university students. Our results indicate only very subtle differences that suggest a closer majority–minority relationship than the previous literature indicates, especially between the Hui and Han. The findings show some clustering and segregating patterns along ethnic lines, specifically when accounting for degrees of trust and tolerance and levels of ethnic and religious attachment. The Hui and Han in Ningxia exhibit closer inter-group relations in comparison to wider measurements of social distance between the Tibetan and Han in Gansu. Where the survey data revealed clustering among ethnic groups, the analysis shows that religious, geographical, and economic differences fail to account for the attitudinal differences between ethnic groups.     

The Limits of Sasanian History: Between Iranian,Islamic and Late Antique Studies

This essay discusses the position of Sasanian Studies from its inception in the late nineteenth century, to its reinvigoration at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The work also discusses the development of the field of Sasanian history and civilization vis-à-vis the three fields of Iranian, Islamic and Late Antique Studies. It is posited that Sasanians have benefited from cross-disciplinary and new historical frameworks that go beyond the traditional field of Iranian Studies, which was never as interested in the history of the period.     

The Persian Presence in Nineteenth-Century English Poetry: A Taxonomy

This study employs keyword searches of literary databases such as Literature Online (LION) in an attempt to map the image of “Persia” in nineteenth-century English poetry as it was molded by a proliferation of thoughts and ideas in a variety of contexts. Completeness is not possible, of course, but the article aims to identify and explore some of the major categories within which the image of Persia was formed and disseminated in the nineteenth-century. The scope of the study is not confined to a corpus of poetic works that were written specifically on or about “Persia,” but takes account of a broader range of poems, and attends to the structure, texture and variations of the presence of “Persia” in nineteenth-century English poetry.     

Hedwig revisited

The mainstream success of the 2014 Broadway revival of John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch is in stark contrast to the precarity of the central protagonist’s life and the communities out of which the original Hedwig production emerged. While these tensions reveal some of the complicities between homonormativity, gentrification, and neoliberalism, by tracing Hedwig’s other genealogies, a more complicated vision of queer possibility emerges.     

Ruling the Land of the Yellow Lama: Religion,Muli, and geopolitics in the 17th century Sino-Tibetan borderland

Abstract

The author scrutinizes the history of Muli (木里) as a semiautonomous political entity in the 17th century southern Sino-Tibetan borderland. By tracing Muli’s improvization in the face of multiple powerful regimes such as the Naxi kingdom, the Geluk Tibetans, the Khoshut Mongols, and the Chinese dynasties, the author explores how an indigenous notion of power took shape in the wake of geopolitical turbulence. Before 1580, Muli was a colony of the Naxi kingdom and dominated by the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. After 1640, it became a stronghold of the Tibetan Buddhist Geluk school and was deeply involved in the power struggles between the Geluk and Kakyu schools as well as the Tibetans and Mongols. Despite of acknowledging multiple sovereigns, Muli rulers utilized various tactics to hold on to power and prioritize local interest. The nuanced, yet creative, strategies Muli people adopted showcases the significant role border regimes played and their agency in shaping the power dynamics in pre-modern Eastern Asian borderlands.     

Epipaleolithic/early Neolithic settlements at Qinghai Lake,western China

Transitions from terminal Pleistocene Upper Paleolithic foraging to Holocene Neolithic farming and pastoralist economic orientations in the northern Tibetan Plateau are examined from the perspective of Epipaleolithic sites located near Qinghai Lake, Qinghai Province, western China. Jiangxigou 2 is an artifact-rich, multicomponent midden site with the main period of occupation dating ca. 9000–5000 cal yr BP, containing abundant flaked stone artifacts including a substantial proportion of microlithic tools, abundant faunal remains including gazelle, deer, and sheep, and a small number of ceramics, including the oldest known on the Tibetan Plateau. Heimahe 3, on the other hand, is a brief hunter's camp dating ca. 8450 cal yr BP, with evident affinities to late Upper Paleolithic camps in the same region that date several thousand years older. The two distinctively different sites are probably nodes within a single Epipaleolithic foraging system that developed on the margins of the high Tibetan Plateau during the early Holocene, and that served as a basis for colonization of the high-altitude Plateau at that time. Jiangxigou 2 appears to be connected to early Neolithic agricultural settlements along the upper Yellow River (Huang He) drainage during the middle Holocene, and may provide insights into forager–agriculturalist interactions that lead to the development of pastoralist systems in the region.     

藏族苯教文化中的冈底斯神山解读

本文认为,在藏族的苯教文化中,冈底斯神山占有重要的地位。由于特殊的地理位置、俊美奇险的山形以及宗教、历史、神话和传说所赋予的神秘感,使冈底斯山具有了强烈的感召力、诱惑力,对它的崇拜和祭祀,已经成为千百年来藏族永恒不变的情结。     

文本话语与行为规范:西藏宗教人物传记的史学史意义

From the perspective of historical anthropology, this article examines a great deal of the biographies of religious figures in Tibetan history, reveals their special way of writing, classification, and circulation. In Tibetan Buddhism, biographies of religious figures are considered as a subject’s demise (lung-rgyun) and have their special meanings. They are the text of the largest quantity in the historical works of Tibet and had great influence on Tibetan historiography. A comprehensive research on their cultural characteristic, historical evolvement and historical influence will help us understand the Tibetan culture in depth. __________ Translated from Shixueshi Yanjiu 史学史研究 (Journal of Historiography), 2007, (4): 67–77     

翁方纲及其经学思想

在清代乾嘉学者群体中,翁方纲是一个很有成就的人物。他生平精心汲古,宏览多闻,既能诗文,又擅书法,更精鉴赏。他对诗歌、书画、谱录、金石学等都有很深的研究,而且著作等身,仅流传下来的著作就有《两汉金石记》、 《汉石经残字考》、《焦山鼎铭考》、《苏米斋兰亭考》、《复初斋文集》、《复初斋诗集》、《石洲诗话》、《经义考补正》、《礼经目次》、《苏诗补注》、《苏斋笔记》等数十种。而长期以来,学术界对翁方纲的研究却付诸阙如。本文仅就其生平及经学思想略加论述,以期引起学界同仁的重视。     

《通典·吐蕃传》的史料价值

《通典》是第一部为吐蕃设立专传的史书 ,包括三个方面的内容 :第一 ,吐蕃的族源风俗与典章制度 ;第二 ,吐蕃大事记及唐蕃关系大事纪年 ;第三 ,吐蕃大相论钦陵与唐朝使者郭元振的长篇对话及郭元振上疏文。本文认为《通典·吐蕃传》是唐代人所著唐代吐蕃史 ,可靠性更高 ,同时也保存了不少为两唐书“吐蕃传”所忽略的珍贵史料 ,值得研究者给予新的重视。