The Qing Empire's Last Flowering: The expansion of China's Post Office at the turn of the twentieth century

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 895-930
Author(s):  
WEIPIN TSAI
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
General Public ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Postal Service ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Railway Network ◽  
Opium War ◽  
Great Rivers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up

AbstractThe Great Qing Imperial Post Office was set up in 1896, soon after the First Sino-Japanese War. It provided the first national postal service for the general public in the whole of Chinese history, and was a symbol of China's increasing engagement with the rest of the globe. Much of the preparation for the launch was carried out by the high-ranking foreign staff of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, an influential institution established after the first Opium War.With a mission to promote modernization and project Qing power, the Imperial Post Office was established with a centrally controlled set of unified methods and procedures, and its success was rooted in integration with the new railway network, a strategy at the heart of its ambitious plans for expansion. This article explores the history of this postal expansion through railways, the use of which allowed its creators to plan networks in an integrated way—from urban centres on the coasts and great rivers through to China's interior.

scholarly journals ”The History of Human Stupidity”: Vojtěch Frič and his Program of a Comparative Study of Religions

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-67
Author(s):  
Markéta Křížová
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
General Public ◽  
Central European ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Czech Lands ◽  
The Comparative Study

Abstract The present article represents a partial outcome of a larger project that focuses on the history of the beginnings of anthropology as an organized science at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, in the broader socio-political context of Central Europe. Attention is focused especially on the nationalist and social competitions that had an important impact upon intellectual developments, but in turn were influenced by the activities of scholars and their public activities. The case study of Vojtěch (Alberto) Frič, traveler and amateur anthropologist, who in the first two decades of the twentieth century presented to European scientific circles and the general public in the Czech Lands his magnanimous vision of the comparative study of religions, serves as a starting point for considerations concerning the general debates on the purpose, methods, and ethical dimensions of ethnology as these were resonating in Central European academia of the period under study.

scholarly journals Mutaciones y tensiones de la escuela contemporánea: miradas críticas

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
María Alejandra Taborda Caro ◽  
Ínia Franco de Novaes
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Control ◽  
School System ◽  
The State ◽  
State Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Siglo Xx ◽  
Contemporary School

A fines de la década de los años 70 del siglo XX, se percibieron los primeros síntomas de las mudanzas a las que fue sometida la escuela de la modernidad. Estas variaciones fueron usadas como pretexto para exponer un profundo cambio que la época develada, la educación de masas, explosión demográfica, entre otras. La reforma estatal más importante, omnipresente, amplia y extendida de todas las épocas es la vinculación a la escuela de las dificultades propias de la economía, el Estado y las organizaciones. En los últimos treinta años se han configurado las subjetividades más complejas presentes en la historia de la escuela, donde el más crudo de los individualismos colonizó este espacio. Las anteriores mutaciones parecieran pertenecer al género de obviedades que no es preciso explicar, pues “los cambios son porque están”. De ahí que se requiera, desde miradas históricas y pedagógicas, comprender la génesis de estos cambios que determinaron el formato de la escuela contemporánea. Desde miradas genealógicas arqueológicas para futuras revisiones, este documento dará algunas pistas sobre el giro de la escuela dentro del consenso transcultural adherido a la educación de masas y sobre la creación de un dispositivo de control social del mundo escolar a través de las disciplinas escolares.Palabras clave: escuela, cambios, historia, crítica.AbstractIn the late 70s of the twentieth century, the first signs of the changes to which the School of modernity was brought under are perceived. These variations were used as a pretext to expose an existing deep change that stood out above others: education to the masses. The most important, pervasive, widespread and extensive state reform of all ages is the link to the school of the own difficulties of the economy, the State and organizations. In the last thirty years, the most complex subjectivities present in the history of the school have been set up, the crudest model of individualism colonized this space. The previous mutations seem to belong to the genre of truism that is not necessary to explain: “The changes are because they are”. Hence, it is required from historical and pedagogical understanding the genesis of these changes that determined the format of the contemporary school. From archaeological genealogical looks for future reviews, this document will give some clues about the shift of the school in the transcultural consensus adhered to the education to the masses, and the creation of a device for social control of the school system through school subjects.Keywords: school, changes, history, criticism.

scholarly journals Naitō Konan (1866-1934) and Chinese Historiography

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua A. Fogel
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Large Volume ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Proper Sense ◽  
Period Style ◽  
History Of ◽  
Chinese Historiography

Abstract Naitō Konan (1866-1934) was one of towering figures of twentieth-century Sinology, in Japan, China, and elsewhere. His theories concerning Chinese history continue to influence us all, often through secondary or tertiary means. Among his many books and articles is a large volume entitled Shina shigaku shi (History of Chinese historiography), arguably the first such comprehensive work in any language and still unsurpassed to this day, roughly eighty years after the chapters which comprise it were first delivered as lectures in Kyoto. Naitō argued that Chinese historical writing was divided, as we all know now, into two traditions: the comprehensive style (tongshi) launched by Sima Qian and the single-period style (duandai shi) begun somewhat later by Ban Gu. Naitō himself always favored the former, and he showed a marked predilection for the major historical works over the centuries by Chinese with the character tong in their titles: such as Liu Zhiji's Tong shi, Du You's Tong zhi (about which he lectured before the Japanese emperor in 1931), Ma Duanlin's Wenxian tongkao, and most notably Zhang Xuecheng's Wenshi tongyi. He did not disragrd or disrespect the duandai shi approach, but he did believe that by cutting off chunks of history one could not get a proper sense of the long-term forces at work in the historical process, what the great French historians later would call la longue durée.

scholarly journals Using field-portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to identify the origin of Linqing brick: Considering for impact factors, assessing reliability and providing scientific advices

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zexuan Chen ◽  
Long Zhang ◽  
Feng Hou ◽  
Jialiang Xie
Keyword(s):  
Influential Factors ◽  
Fluorescence Spectrometry ◽  
Impact Factors ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Scientific Advice ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Heritage Buildings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up

Abstract Linqing brick is very famous in Chinese history. In 2008, "The manufacturing process of Linqing brick" was selected as the intangible cultural heritage list in China. Now in China, how to identify the origin of Linqing brick is an important issue in archeology and architectural history research. It can be used to verify some assumptions about the history of heritage buildings which cannot be solved only by historical documents. It can also be used to study the history of Linqing brick. Field portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (FPXRF) can quickly and non-destructively determine the main elements and concentrations of Linqing brick in situ. It may be significant for identifying the origin of Linqing brick. But FPXRF could be affected by many factors and it can only measure the element concentrations of surface. Which method we use can provide the most reliable data is an important issue. The aim of this study was to verify the reliability of FPXRF and to systematically evaluate different influential factors on measurement precision and accuracy, which can help with scientific advice for its use. We set up four experiments to determine the influential factors and assess reliability by cross validation using ICP-OES. Finally, we ensured that the FPXRF was reliable and determined the scientific advice required to use it to measure the main elements and concentrations of Linqing brick.

Liberal Reason and the Culture of the Sommerfrische

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 145-159
Author(s):  
Deborah R. Coen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
General Public ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
History Of

Fin-de-siècle Vienna continues to supply historians and the general public alike with a paradigm of the modernist subversion of rationality. From the birth of the unconscious, to the artistic expression of feral sexuality, to the surge of populist politics, Vienna 1900 stands as the turning point when a nineteenth-century ideal of rationality gave way to a twentieth-century fascination with subjectivity. In fact, we know little as yet about what rationality really meant to those to whom we attribute its undoing. Allan Janik writes that today the “‘big’ questions about Viennese culture” center on “just how ‘rational’ developments there have been,” and to answer these questions, Janik argues, we need research on the history of natural science in Austria. Indeed, as Steven Beller notes, the topic of science has been “strangely absent” from the animated discussions of fin-de-siècle Vienna over the past three decades.

Chinese Collection 457: the Call for Global History

2015 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
Zheng Yangwen
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Global History ◽  
Opium War ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Qianlong Emperor

With the help of the Jesuits, the Qianlong emperor (often said to be Chinas Sun King in the long eighteenth century) built European palaces in the Garden of Perfect Brightness and commissioned a set of twenty images engraved on copper in Paris. The Second Anglo-Chinese Opium War in 1860 not only saw the destruction of the Garden, but also of the images, of which there are only a few left in the world. The John Rylands set contains a coloured image which raises even more questions about the construction of the palaces and the after-life of the images. How did it travel from Paris to Bejing, and from Belgium to the John Rylands Library? This article probes the fascinating history of this image. It highlights the importance of Europeans in the making of Chinese history and calls for studies of China in Europe.

Translating Domesticity in Chinese History and Historiography

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 1278-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth LaCouture
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Gender History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Anglo American

Abstract This article examines knowledge about “domesticity” in China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and argues against the naturalization of Euro-American historiographical frameworks around “domesticity.” “Domesticity” was not a Chinese concept: although Confucianism had long connected the household to the state through ideology and prescriptive practices, Anglo-American ideas about “domesticity” were translated into Chinese first by way of Japan in the late nineteenth century, and second by way of American missionary educators in the twentieth century. “Domesticity” did not translate easily into Chinese, however; neither the ideology nor its pedagogical practices ever became popular in China. The history of translating “domesticity” into Chinese thus reveals that Euro-American historiographical terms that were once thought to be universal map poorly onto other places and suggests that we need more inclusive frames for comparative gender history.

scholarly journals Senza cattedra

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Guarnieri
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Academic Career ◽  
Scientific Psychology ◽  
University Professors ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Anti Jewish

How was the profile defined for aspiring university professors of a new and controversial discipline such as scientific psychology at the turn of the twentieth century? Who made these assessments when there were as yet no or insufficient professors in the sector? What effect did the hegemonic cultural and political orientations – the ostracism of Croce and Gentile – have on the quality of the discipline, on the fate of the single scholars and on the range of recruitment and academic career mechanisms? A journey into the history of highly topical issues through sources from institutional and private archives. From the liberal age to fascism, the volume concentrates on the first, prestigious Istituto di Psicologia in Italy, set up in Florence by Pasquale Villari, and on the traumatic stories, culminating in the anti-Jewish laws from 1938, of three generations of teachers beginning in 1903.

Urban planning in the twentieth century

Urban History ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Hourihan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Planning History ◽  
High Rise ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The 1960S

Over the past thirty years, one of the fastest growing fields of urban history has been the history of planning. In some respects, this is surprising, as urban planning had existed on an institutional basis only since the early twentieth century. In other ways, though, it was a very logical development. Planning reached its high point during the 1960s, and by the 1970s was being condemned in many quarters, being blamed, for example, for disasters like high-rise tower blocks and sacrificing old cities to crude commercial and transport developments. Historical research was necessary to understand how a movement which promised so much at the start of the century had degenerated so badly in sixty years. Criticism became so severe that, in the words of one historian, ‘many planners have certainly thought in more pessimistic moments . . . that the past may be the only thing they have to look forward to’. For whatever reason, the Planning History Group was set up in 1974 and a massive body of historical research on planning has been produced. This paper reviews four recent books on planning, two from North America and two European. They represent different aspects of planning and different time periods and will be treated in chronological order.

Sir Robert Hart and the Writing of Modern Chinese History

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Chihyun Chang
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
Modern History ◽  
Inspector General ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Modern Chinese History ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Modern China ◽  
Academic Debate

AbstractThis article examines the conflicts in writing the imperial modern history of China among various stakeholders, particularly Chinese and American historians, and their dealing with a set of personal documents of Sir Robert Hart, Inspector-General of the Chinese Maritime Customs Services (CMCS) during the Qing period. This set of documents is called “Hart Industry” and contains Hart's personal papers and seventy-seven volumes of diaries, among others. Revealing the imperial Inspector-General's view on “westernization” in modern China, the Hart Industry played a key role in the development of the history of modern China throughout the twentieth century. From around 1957 until 1995, the diaries became a source of a highly politicized academic debate between Chinese Communist historians of the People's Republic of China and western historians of the Hart Industry. By providing a “study of studies” on the historiography of the colonial modern history of China, this article argues that the Hart diaries were critical to historians’ understanding of their own academic discourse.

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