Industry and gender in recent representations of Sino-Italian relations

Modern Italy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-399
Author(s):  
Mark Chu
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Women ◽  
Environmental Responsibility ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Chinese Industry ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Made In China ◽  
Made In

As Italian society struggles to come to terms with the presence of Chinese immigrants and with changing global patterns of industrialisation and shifts in the dynamics of industrial power, the question of Sino-Italian relations is increasingly present in Italian cultural representations across media and genre. Among the themes which recur within Italian discourse on Chinese industry are Made in Italy vs Made in China, tradition vs modernity, and environmental responsibility. In this paper, I offer a reading of the complex and, at times, ambivalent treatment of these themes in Gianni Amelio's 2006 film, La stella che non c’è (The Missing Star), and Alessandro Perissinotto's 2014 novel, Coordinate d'Oriente (Oriental Coordinates). Central to my analysis of the two works is an examination of the trope of contacts between the economies and societies of the two countries being sublimated in the fictional narratives into relationships between Western men and Chinese women. Against this backdrop, I propose an interpretation of the power dynamics which underpin the narratives.

The crisis of social reproduction and 'Made-in-China' feminism

Soundings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 79 (79) ◽  
pp. 10-23
Author(s):  
Yige Dong
Keyword(s):  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Chinese Economy ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Made In China ◽  
Made In

Crises of care and social reproduction have led to new debates and social movements around the world, but there has been little scholarly scrutiny in the global North on these issues as they are unfolding in China. Facing rapid population ageing and historically low birth rates, the Chinese government believes the country is suffering from a demographic crisis. Yet, the so-called population question is fundamentally a political one: who is bearing the brunt of biologically and socially reproducing the Chinese labour force who have fuelled the Chinese economy in the last four decades? As this essay unpacks, the country's long-existing urban-rural divide and the unchecked patriarchal-capitalist mode of accumulation have produced uneven consequences among different social groups, intersectionally defined by class, gender and urban/rural citizenship, and thus have exacerbated existing inequalities. Rural migrants and the urban poor, mostly women, have become domestic servants for urban middle-class families, at the cost of their own well-being and of their families and communities. Across social classes, Chinese women are making their voices heard and taking actions to protest against systemic appropriation and exploitation of their care and reproductive labour, in what is a hostile political environment. Ranging from organised protests to individuals' spontaneous complaints, 'made-in-China' feminism can shed new light on future feminist movements and solidarity building with feminists in the international community.

scholarly journals Rapid increase in Asian bottles in the South Atlantic Ocean indicates major debris inputs from ships

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (42) ◽  
pp. 20892-20897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter G. Ryan ◽  
Ben J. Dilley ◽  
Robert A. Ronconi ◽  
Maëlle Connan
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Atlantic Ocean ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
South Atlantic Ocean ◽  
The West ◽  
International Convention ◽  
To Come ◽  
Made In China ◽  
Central South ◽  
Made In

Most plastic debris floating at sea is thought to come from land-based sources, but there is little direct evidence to support this assumption. Since 1984, stranded debris has been recorded along the west coast of Inaccessible Island, a remote, uninhabited island in the central South Atlantic Ocean that has a very high macrodebris load (∼5 kg·m−1). Plastic drink bottles show the fastest growth rate, increasing at 15% per year compared with 7% per year for other debris types. In 2018, we examined 2,580 plastic bottles and other containers (one-third of all debris items) that had accumulated on the coast, and a further 174 bottles that washed ashore during regular monitoring over the course of 72 d (equivalent to 800 bottles·km−1·y−1). The oldest container was a high-density polyethylene canister made in 1971, but most were polyethylene terephthalate drink bottles of recent manufacture. Of the bottles that washed up during our survey, 90% were date-stamped within 2 y of stranding. In the 1980s, two-thirds of bottles derived from South America, carried 3,000 km by the west wind drift. By 2009, Asia had surpassed South America as the major source of bottles, and by 2018, Asian bottles comprised 73% of accumulated and 83% of newly arrived bottles, with most made in China. The rapid growth in Asian debris, mainly from China, coupled with the recent manufacture of these items, indicates that ships are responsible for most of the bottles floating in the central South Atlantic Ocean, in contravention of International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships regulations.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 264-270
Author(s):  
Nancy E. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Asian Immigrants ◽  
Chinese Exclusion ◽  
Global Commerce ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Made In China ◽  
Exclusion Act ◽  
Made In

The author uses the theory of parsimony to explain Afong Moy’s final years. The epilogue relays the changes occurring in the later nineteenth-century marketing, public perception, and use of “oriental” goods with the opening of Japan in 1854. The author considers the lives of other Asian immigrants such as Chang and Eng Bunker (called the Siamese Twins) and several known Chinese women who came after Afong Moy. The epilogue addresses the position of the Chinese immigrant in the nineteenth century with the passage of the 1884 Chinese Exclusion Act. A comparison of the “Made in China” goods of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries with those of the earlier trade provides an understanding of China’s place in the golden chain of global commerce.

Doctors ’Made in China’ – Locally Trained, Globally Excellent

Praxis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 109 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Ewelina Biskup ◽  
Feng Li ◽  
Shixian Dong ◽  
Yan Wo
Keyword(s):  
Made In China ◽  
Made In

Made in China: How Chinese Innovation Is Changing the Patent Landscape

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay P. Kesan ◽  
Alan C. Marco ◽  
Richard Miller
Keyword(s):  
Patent Landscape ◽  
Made In China ◽  
Made In

Call Your "Mutha"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Caputi
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Mother Nature ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Mother Earth ◽  
Made In

The proposed new geological era, The Anthropocene (a.k.a. Age of Humans, Age of Man), marking human domination of the planet long called Mother Earth, is truly The Age of the Motherfucker. The ecocide of the Anthropocene is the responsibility of Man, the Western- and masculine-identified corporate, military, intellectual, and political class that masks itself as the exemplar of the civilized and the human. The word motherfucker was invented by the enslaved children of White slave masters to name their mothers’ rapist/owners. Man’s strategic motherfucking, from the personal to the planetary, is invasion, exploitation, spirit-breaking, extraction and toxic wasting of individuals, communities, and lands, for reasons of pleasure, plunder, and profit. Ecocide is attempted deicide of Mother Nature-Earth, reflecting Man’s goal to become the god he first made in his own image. The motivational word Motherfucker has a flip side, further revealing the Anthropocene as it signifies an outstanding, formidable, and inexorable force. Mother Nature-Earth is that “Mutha’ ”—one defying translation into heteropatriarchal classifications of gender, one capable of overwhelming Man, and not the other way around. Drawing upon Indigenous and African American scholarship; ecofeminism; ecowomanism; green activism; femme, queer, and gender non-binary philosophies; literature and arts; Afrofuturism; and popular culture, Call Your “Mutha’ ” contends that the Anthropocene is not evidence of Man’s supremacy over nature, but that Mother Nature-Earth, faced with disrespect, is going away. It is imperative now to call the “Mutha’ ” by decolonizing land, bodies, and minds, ending rapism, feeding the green, renewing sustaining patterns, and affirming devotion to Mother Nature-Earth.

Made in China, fashioned in Africa: ethnic dress in Ethiopia and Mozambique

Africa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-336
Author(s):  
Johanna von Pezold ◽  
Miriam Driessen
Keyword(s):  
Design Elements ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Made In China ◽  
Made In ◽  
Naming Practices

AbstractThe influx of Chinese-made African ethnic dress has been central to debates about the consequences of the growing Chinese presence in Africa. Exploring the reception of the Chinese-produced capulana in Mozambique and net'ela in Ethiopia, we demonstrate that Mozambican and Ethiopian manufacturers and traders, from the grass roots up to cultural elites, engage with Chinese imports with creativity and verve. While welcoming Chinese materials for their affordability, bold and bright colours and suitability for dressmaking, they fashion them in ways that fit their own tastes and the local fashion trends. We distinguish three practices by which people do this: first, by incorporating Chinese materials or design elements into their own products; second, by co-creating new designs and dress with their Chinese counterparts; and third, by altering the imported fabrics. Apart from fashioning imports, some manufacturers use strategies to distinguish their own products from Chinese counterparts. These strategies include naming practices linked to the stories of their origin and alterations to the material.

scholarly journals Sex as a Prognostic Factor in Systematic Reviews: Challenges and Lessons Learned

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 441
Author(s):  
Elena Stallings ◽  
Alba Antequera ◽  
Jesús López-Alcalde ◽  
Miguel García-Martín ◽  
Gerard Urrútia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prognostic Factor ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Disease State ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Baseline Factor ◽  
Clinical Domain ◽  
Made In

Sex is a common baseline factor collected in studies that has the potential to be a prognostic factor (PF) in several clinical areas. In recent years, research on sex as a PF has increased; however, this influx of new studies frequently shows conflicting results across the same treatment or disease state. Thus, systematic reviews (SRs) addressing sex as a PF may help us to better understand diseases and further personalize healthcare. We wrote this article to offer insights into the challenges we encountered when conducting SRs on sex as a PF and suggestions on how to overcome these obstacles, regardless of the clinical domain. When carrying out a PF SR with sex as the index factor, it is important to keep in mind the modifications that must be made in various SR stages, such as modifying the PF section of CHARMS-PF, adjusting certain sections of QUIPS and extracting data on the sex and gender terms used throughout the studies. In this paper, we provide an overview of the lessons learned from carrying out our reviews on sex as a PF in different disciplines and now call on researchers, funding agencies and journals to realize the importance of studying sex as a PF.

Platform Capitalism ‘Made in China’? Intelligent Manufacturing, Taobao Villages and the Restructuring of Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boy Lüthje
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Manufacturing ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Employment Policy ◽  
Social Shaping Of Technology ◽  
Social Shaping ◽  
Made In China ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Conditions Of Employment ◽  
Made In

The article examines the development of advanced digital manufacturing (as outlined in the ‘Made-in-China 2025’ government plan) from the perspective of the changing socio-technical paradigms of production. The analysis focuses on the transformations of value chains and work, based on theories of social shaping of technology, regulation theory and regimes of production. Analytically, the author proposes to distinguish between ‘production-driven’ and ‘distribution-driven’ pathways of manufacturing digitalisation. The transformation of semi-rural industrial areas (‘Taobao villages’, named after China’s largest e-commerce platform Taobao) into mass production clusters for e-commerce is depicted as a paradigmatic model of distribution-driven transformation and as a characteristic Chinese strategy in this field. The article examines the impact on industry supply chains and work, leading to ever-more precarious conditions of employment. Policy recommendations focus on local strategies to stabilise supply chain structures and working conditions, as an alternative to the present top-down approaches to manufacturing modernisation in China.

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