Showing papers in "European Journal of East Asian Studies in 2007"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare the regional integration process in Europe in the 1980s and in Southeast Asia in the new millennium by comparing the business representation in the process towards creating a unified market.
Abstract: This article aims to articulate business representation in the process towards creating a unified market by comparing the regional integration process in Europe in the 1980s and in Southeast Asia in the new millennium. Both the European Community (EC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted the creation of a single market as a feasible strategy to respond to an economic hardship. In this process, US business associations played a critical role in identifying problems and issues in promoting actual integration. As for local business, the existing business associations did not function effectively and a new association comprising individual business executives was formed. Importantly, an initiative to create a new association came not from the private sector in Europe but from the member states in Southeast Asia. This difference led to disparities in the relative influence of the two associations on the actual integration processes.
14 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a survey of gendered advertising images from one important Shanghai newspaper, the Shenbao, in 1931, presented in the form of 'visual itineraries', is presented.
Abstract: Visual culture used to be seen as a 'distraction from the serious business of text and history' while images can in fact also be seen as a locus of cultural and historical change. This paper addresses the issue of using visual sources in the construction of a historical narrative in Chinese social history. Through a survey of gendered advertising images from one important Shanghai newspaper, the Shenbao, in 1931, presented in the form of 'visual itineraries', the paper turns towards the moment of consuming the image. It attempts to recapture and draw conclusions from the visual everyday experience in and of this modern city.It will become clear that just looking at images focuses the eye. Prejudiced preconceptions about gender and gender relations (such as 'men do not care for children', 'women are the weaker sex', 'women occur more frequently in illustrated advertisements') can all be negated or questioned by the study of images. Thus, through visual perception and visual reflection it may be possible to challenge and redefine the conventional reading of textual materials so as to bring out new perspectives, new modes of questioning and new conceptions, to open up fresh possibilities of research.
7 citations
TL;DR: The female impersonator became the representative and high point of Chinese cultural achievements as mentioned in this paper, with Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) as the most famous example. But the success of the impersonator was limited to three visits to Japan in 1919, the United States in 1930 and the Soviet Union in 1935.
Abstract: One of the seminal cultural transformations in twentieth-century China was the rise of the female impersonator, the dan actor, to national stardom, with Mei Lanfang (1894–1961) as the most famous example (see Figure I). In the short span of 20 years, this figure, once strongly associated with being the 'male flower' and the 'call-boy' of elite men, became the representative and high point of Chinese cultural achievements. The three visits Mei Lanfang made to Japan in 1919, the United States in 1930 and the Soviet Union in 1935 helped establish the image of cultural China through the art of the female impersonator.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an in-depth analysis of a British television documentary series, Roads to Xanadu (1990), focusing on dominant perspectives constructed in the series by analysing documentary narrative as a mode of realising discourse is presented.
Abstract: Despite a growing body of literature on the study of the Western media's portrayal of China, little attention has been paid to the structures underlying the representation of China. This essay aims to address this issue through an in-depth analysis of a British television documentary series, Roads to Xanadu (1990). It focuses on dominant perspectives constructed in the series by analysing documentary narrative as a mode of realising discourse. The essay argues that underlying the representation is a technological view of society. Shifting between realpolitik industrialism and liberal democratic humanism, the series attempts to arrive at a unified and unifying version of 'progress' through a modernist discourse.
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the image of the EU according to public opinion in Hong Kong and identified areas where improvements can be made to promote the EU's visibility as a global actor that is also relevant to Hong Kong.
Abstract: In Hong Kong as elsewhere, the European Union (EU) is known more for its collective economic and trade powers than its political clout. Since autumn 2005, the Office of the European Commission in Hong Kong and Macao has steadily stepped up its efforts to disseminate information about the EU. It has also begun to reach out to the local community, while retaining its traditional ties with the elite circles. This study examines the image of the EU according to public opinion in order to identify areas where improvements can be made. By and large, we have found that the image of the EU is rather positive, and the significance of the EU widely recognised. Still, the EU has yet to acquire adequate means of advancing its own values, while systematic collaborations with strategic partners in the non-governmental sectors could be further strengthened to promote the EU's visibility as a global actor that is also relevant to Hong Kong. Moreover, the normative-cum-civilian approach continues to matter in three ways: in the formulation of the EU's policy towards Hong Kong, in promoting the EU as a responsible global actor while EU–China relations develop, and in promoting lesson-learning and sharing of values.
5 citations
5 citations
TL;DR: The role of cultural borrowing in the thought and educational praxis of Obara and Matsumae as mentioned in this paper was explored in the study of Danish gymnastics in the early 20th century.
Abstract: Obara Kuniyoshi (1887–1977), the founder of Tamagawa Gakuen, and Matsumae Shigeyoshi (1901–1991), the founder of Tokai Educational System (TES), were both inspired by Denmark and Danish education, although in different ways. Obara, a representative of the New Education Movement in Japan, became interested in Denmark when he heard about Danish gymnastics, which seemed to be ideally suited to his vision of rigorous but non-competitive physical education. In 1931, two years after founding his own school, he succeeded in inviting the Danish gymnast Niels Bukh and a group of his students to Japan. The interest in gymnastics sparked off a wider interest in Denmark. Matsumae Shigeyoshi's attention was drawn to Denmark and to the Danish folk high schools as a result of his encounter with Uchimura Kanzo. Although not an educator by training, he decided to devote his life to education. This article explores the role of cultural borrowing in the thought and educational praxis of Obara and Matsumae. Although they uncritically accepted a Danish cultural memory (Denmark's recovery from military defeat in the nineteenth century through spiritual strength and education) and cultivated a stereotypical image, the adaptation of this image to suit their own needs represents a highly creative process which resulted in two successful private schools.
3 citations
2 citations
2 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Wang Renmei, Chen Yanyan and Li Lili worked for the Lianhua Film Company between 1930 and 1937, and their image was created by the entanglement of three spheres: their private lives, their public lives and their fiction lives played on screen.
Abstract: Between 1930 and 1937, the Lianhua Film Company was one of the major studios in China, and in many ways was a symbol of modernity. The policy of the Company towards its actors was quite new and contributed to the creation of a new social status for this group, especially for the women. This paper focuses on three female stars (Wang Renmei, Chen Yanyan and Li Lili,) who worked for the Lianhua Film Company. Through a detailed analysis of the photos published in its magazine, Lianhua Huabao, as well as feature films produced by the Company, we will study Lianhua's strategies to transform these women into professional actresses. Their image was created by the entanglement of three spheres: their private lives, their public lives and their fiction lives played on screen. We will consider the sometimes conflicting relationships between these spheres by looking at the visual sources (photos and feature films) in conjunction with the actresses' biographies and movie roles. This will underline the complexity and ambiguity of a process understood by the Lianhua Film Company not only as the making of professional actresses but also as the creation of a new, modern Chinese woman.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Hedda Hammer made a visual record of shop signs with her camera and argued that shop signs constituted an expression of Chinese material culture, but were also a form of visual language to guide the gaze and pace of Beijing urbanites.
Abstract: During her stay in Beijing (1933–1946), Hedda Hammer (later known as Hedda Morrison) made a visual record of shop signs with her camera. In this paper I rely on this visual record to examine what shop signs represented in Chinese material culture and their function in the urban setting. I argue that Morrison's photographic record reveals a fascinating element of street culture in the capital city that the textual records cannot document. I also contend that shop signs worked as genuine urban markers of the various trades and crafts in the city. As such, these artefacts constituted an expression of Chinese material culture, but were also a form of visual language to guide the gaze and pace of Beijing urbanites. This paper supports the idea that photographs have a particular relevance and value for the exploration of the Chinese urban setting in the Republican period. The use of photography goes beyond the record of disincarnated artefacts. It allows us to perceive and understand a fascinating dimension of visual culture in Republican Beijing, one of the numerous layers of signs that were displayed quite extensively through the city.
TL;DR: This paper explored the career of a British member of the Shanghai Municipal Police between 1929 and 1943, using only those that had accompanied letters he had sent home to his family, and the narrative he created with these can be clearly presented and discussed in the first part of the paper.
Abstract: What narratives can be fashioned by the historian from visual documents, and how might this relate to the narrative intention of those who created them? This paper explores the handful of surviving photographs recording the career of a British member of the Shanghai Municipal Police between 1929 and 1943. War and internment destroyed most of the visual records that former coalminer Frank Peasgood had collected during his police service, saving only those that had accompanied letters he had sent home to his family. The narrative he created with these can be clearly presented, and is discussed in the first part of the paper. Clearly, only visual documents could so powerfully demonstrate the transformation undergone by a man coming from his background, and provide the tools for showing that transformation. The photographs are then revisited and a further, complicating, layer of narrative is added, one which puts the policeman back into his place as a colonial subject.