Ai Weiwei’s furniture-sculpture: Radical ambiguity and the function of critique

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-91
Author(s):  
Owen Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Important Group ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Western Market ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
Rapid Transition ◽  
Ming And Qing Dynasty ◽  
Artistic Career ◽  
Do So

This article will examine the evolving function of critique in the work of artist, activist and dissident Ai Weiwei since the mid-1990s. It will do so by first considering Ai’s manipulated and transformed furniture in relation to the inundation of Ming and Qing Dynasty antiques on the market during the 1980s and 1990s to demonstrate how his art uses ambiguity to critique western market expectations. Throughout his artistic career from 1996 to the present, Ai has repurposed antique furniture, doors and temple beams as sculptures and installations. If this under-researched yet important group of works by him is considered through a socio-economic framework and a Duchampian sense of irony, as this article intends to do, these pieces will be able to be understood as sardonic assisted readymades, with a specific set of different meanings for people in China and the West. Differing from prevailing views of Ai’s repurposed antiques that have regarded them as objects moving away from their Chinese sources, i.e. their ‘Chinese-ness’, this article will look at his sculptures and installations, which incorporate while dramatically altering these historical objects, as satirizing western consumption of Chinese culture and history. It will also situate the works as critical of a consequence of China’s rapid transition to global stage: consumers’ and government’s tendency to erode cultural heritage, sites, and artefacts in exchange for economic growth and the new. Ultimately, this article will suggest that these works source their political thrust from a type of ‘radical ambiguity’ that Ai has now expunged from his practice in favour of more determinate means of critique.

scholarly journals MODAL AWAL MENGEMBANGKAN WISATA DESA: PENGETAHUAN KESEJARAHAN, PERSEPSI, DAN PARTISIPASI MASYARAKAT PADA SITUS PETILASAN GADJAH MADA DI DESA LAMBANG KUNING

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Samidi M Baskoro ◽  
Sarkawi B Husain ◽  
Ikhsan Rosyid Mujahidul Anwari
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
Historical Heritage ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
Economic Motives ◽  
Depth Interviews

The past is present today through cultural heritage (historical heritage sites), but some ordinary people do not know the importance of the value of these objects, as evidenced by the trade in fragments of artifacts. This action is driven by economic motives and has no knowledge of historical objects. The main problem is how to build knowledge and awareness of historical heritage objects? The answer to this problem can be the elements used as initial capital to develop village tourism. The main value of the development of village tourism is the creation of public spaces where people can relax and gather at leisure. The development of village tourism should not be driven by economic motives that are often echoed by various parties. The methods used to elaborate are observation, in-depth interviews to find collective memory, and counseling or workshops. The findings obtained from observations, interviews, and literature studies are the use of historical sites as a destination for village tourism must be supported by the prerequisites for development, namely the knowledge of local communities on the site will foster awareness of historical heritage, uniformity of perception about the function of the site not for religious purposes, and participation community in site preservation.abstrakMasa lalu adalah masa kini yang hadir melalui warisan budaya (situs peninggalan sejarah), tetapi sebagian masyarakat awam tidak mengetahui pentingnya nilai benda-benda ini, terbukti dari adanya perdagangan serpihan artefak. Tindakan ini didorong oleh motif ekonomi dan tidak memiliki pengetahuan pada benda-benda sejarah. Pokok permasalahan adalah bagaimana upaya membangun pengetahuan dan kesadaran pada benda-benda peninggalan sejarah? Jawaban persoalan ini dapat menjadi unsur-unsur yang digunakan sebagai modal awal mengembangkan wisata desa. Nilai pokok pengembangan wisata desa adalah penciptaan ruang publik tempat bersantai dan berkumpul bagi anggota masyarakat setempat pada waktu senggang. Pengembangan wisata desa tidak harus didorong oleh motif ekonomi yang seringkali digaungkan oleh berbagai pihak. Metode yang digunakan untuk menguraikan adalah observasi, wawancara mendalam untuk menemukan memori kolektif, dan penyuluhan atau workshop. Temuan yang diperoleh dari observasi, wawancara, dan studi literatur adalah pemanfaatan situs sejarah sebagai destiasi wisata desa harus didukung oleh prasyarat pengembangan, yakni pengetahuan masyarakat lokal pada situs akan menumbuhkan kesadaran pada peninggalan sejarah, penyeragaman persepsi mengenai fungsi situs bukan untuk kepentingan religi, dan partisipasi masyarakat dalam pelestarian situs.

scholarly journals The Missionary as Cultural Mediator: Alexander Don and the Chinese and European Communities in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Luke Stephen Tysoe
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Cultural Mediator ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

<p>Missionaries to China, by virtue of their positions and knowledge, frequently became important channels of information between cultures. They transmitted Christianity and Western learning to Chinese people while simultaneously describing China to home audiences through their writings and public speaking. This thesis examines how Alexander Don, Presbyterian missionary to the New Zealand Chinese in Otago from 1879 to 1913, performed similar functions as a "cultural mediator". For most of his career, Don was one of the most significant links between Chinese and European people in New Zealand. He developed a relationship with the Chinese community while simultaneously describing Chinese culture to Europeans in his published reports. While Don's missionary career has been extensively documented, there have been no studies of his significance from the perspective of cross-cultural dialogue and exchange. In this thesis I will discuss the ways that Don acted as a cultural mediator, as well as the factors that impelled him to do so. I will make an in-depth investigation of Don's presentation of Chinese culture to European readers through his mission reports, and how this image changed over the course of his career. The picture Don painted was both motivated and influenced by his mission aims, his growing understanding of Chinese culture, and his developing rapport with Chinese people. In order to demonstrate that Don was unique as a cultural mediator in New Zealand, I will compare him to other sources of information on Chinese culture. It will be shown that he provided very different data and opinions from those conveyed by secular writers and authors, and that his descriptions were generally more detailed than those of other missionaries to the New Zealand Chinese and New Zealand missionaries in China. Don will also be compared to more well-known China missionaries, in order to show that he was similar to them in terms of educating Westerners about the East. Finally, I will weigh the impact of Don's cultural mediation activities. Although he gained few converts, he played a crucial role in improving Sino-European understanding and relations. In the final analysis, Don had a greater impact in these areas than he did in the field of evangelism.</p>

Economic Principles for Medicare Reform

2019 ◽  
Vol 686 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-92
Author(s):  
Amitabh Chandra ◽  
Craig Garthwaite
Keyword(s):  
Pay For Performance ◽  
Medicare Advantage ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Medicare Program ◽  
Commercial Market ◽  
New Treatments ◽  
Do So

In this article, we develop an economic framework for Medicare reform that highlights trade-offs that reform proposals should grapple with, but often ignore. Central to our argument is a tension in administratively set prices, which may improve short-term efficiency but do so at the expense of dynamic efficiency (slowing innovations in new treatments). The smaller the Medicare program is relative to the commercial market, the less important this is; but in a world where there are no market prices or the private sector is very small, the task of setting prices that are dynamically correct becomes more complex. Reforming Medicare should focus on greater incentives to increase competition between Medicare Advantage plans, which necessitates a role for government in ensuring competition; premium support; less use of regulated prices; and less appetite for countless “pay for performance” schemes. We apply this framework to evaluate Medicare for All proposals.

scholarly journals Dark intimacy and the moral economy of sex: Rural migrants and the cultural politics of transgression

2020 ◽  
pp. 0920203X2096380
Author(s):  
Wanning Sun
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Rural Migrants ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Rural Migrant ◽  
Cultural Texts ◽  
Rural Migrant Workers ◽  
Do So

It is difficult to conduct ethnographic inquiries into how China’s rural migrant individuals make decisions about their bodies and their sexual capital, and to date there have been few attempts to do so. Equally scant are examinations of the moral, cultural, and political frameworks that rural migrant workers who live in poverty and in the socio-economic margins use to make sense of sexual decisions and choices. This article starts with an ethnographic glimpse into the lives of some sex workers in Shenzhen, and proceeds to analyse a range of texts: a novella, a novel, a cluster of news stories (from both commercial and state media), and a feature story in a popular lowbrow magazine. Pitting these texts against sex workers’ own statements, as well as reading the texts in juxtaposition, brings into sharp relief the contradictions, connections, and coalitions between a range of discursive positions. The analysis suggests that a critical socio-economic framework, rather than a normative framework of transgression, may get us closer to understanding the emotional consequences of inequality. The analysis also demonstrates that for investigations into how inequality shapes intimacy, cultural texts may contain useful ethnographic insights that complement more traditional ethnographic methods.

National archaeology in the age of European integration

Antiquity ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 64 (245) ◽  
pp. 825-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Kristiansen
Keyword(s):  
European Integration ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Do So

The context Archaeologists of the 1990s are confronted with an apparent paradox: our legal and economic framework is based upon the preservation of the national heritage, while our research objectives and research methods are rather defined by larger regional, European or even international frameworks. In fact this is nothing new – we have always been serving both the present and the past, and will continue to do so. The question that is raised in this context, therefore, is whether the 1990s will see a changed balance between the interests of the present, and what effect that may have upon the working conditions of archaeologists. Will national archaeology be strengthened or can we hope that it will begin to merge into a coming European perception of history?

Food Sufficiency in the Terraces: The Case of Globally-Important Agricultural Heritage Systems In Ifugao, Central Cordillera, Philippines

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
ROMEO A. GOMEZ, JR.
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Science ◽  
Rice Varieties ◽  
Unesco World Heritage ◽  
World Heritage Sites ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Food Sufficiency ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Descriptive Survey ◽  
Central Cordillera ◽  
Do So

The rice terrace clusters in Nagacadan, Kiangan and those in Bocos, Banaue,Ifugao aside from recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Sites are nowregarded as relevant landscapes belonging to the so-called Globally-ImportantAgricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). These landscapes are characterizedby being sustainable showcase of one of humanity’s greatest human-natureinterrelationships, whose ecological flows have maintained these highlandagroecosystems for over two millennia and continuing to do so. Althoughdiffering in soil quality characteristics as a result of gradual introductions ofinorganic inputs into the production system, this rice terraced ecosystem remainspredominantly organic in terms of production. The focal dimension assessed in this paper is the food supply contributions of commonly cultivated native rice varieties to food sufficiency at the community level as well as the basic Ifugaohousehold level. These native rice varieties are, of course, raised in a primarilyorganic farming setting. It is revealed, however, that the average household inthese two study sites has their native rice supply lasting for about six months orless, both at 2001 and 2008 levels.Keywords: Ecology and environmental science, globally-important agricultural heritagesystems (GIAHS), food sufficiency, organic agriculture, descriptive survey,Philippines

scholarly journals Changes in Chinese-Indonesian Identity: Indonesianization or Re- Sinicization?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harryanto Aryodiguno
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The Status ◽  
Rise Of China ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The One ◽  
The Rise Of China ◽  
Do So

During the Suharto era, which began after the anti-Chinese riots in 1965 as a result of the deterioration of the relation between Indonesia and China, forced policies of assimilation was adopted for curtailing the Chinese culture and to control Chinese-Indonesians. Yet, anti-Chinese sentiments remained, and attacks against them reached its climax in May 1998, when anti-Chinese riots recurred because of the allegation that Chinese-Indonesians had an advantageous economic status, and they were the culprit that brought financial crisis to Indonesia. The May 1998 riot ended Suharto’s era, and Chinese Indonesians saw improvement in their position and condition. Now, they strive to find their own identity and political status. Their efforts to do so were also influence by the rise of China. That is why, this paper aims at examining whether the reintroduction of Chinese cultural celebrations into Chinese-Indonesian community would result in the demise of policies of assimilation. It also examines whether the rise of China would propel them to establish a closer identification with the People’s Republic of China. How do Chinese-Indonesians view their identity? How do they choose this identity and their political inclinations? These are the research questions this paper is going to answer. The findings show that the status of the Chinese in Indonesia is divided into two groups. The first group is the one who is determined to break away from Chinese identification, and the second group is the one that still maintains their Chinese culture.

scholarly journals The Missionary as Cultural Mediator: Alexander Don and the Chinese and European Communities in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Luke Stephen Tysoe
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Public Speaking ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Cultural Mediator ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

<p>Missionaries to China, by virtue of their positions and knowledge, frequently became important channels of information between cultures. They transmitted Christianity and Western learning to Chinese people while simultaneously describing China to home audiences through their writings and public speaking. This thesis examines how Alexander Don, Presbyterian missionary to the New Zealand Chinese in Otago from 1879 to 1913, performed similar functions as a "cultural mediator". For most of his career, Don was one of the most significant links between Chinese and European people in New Zealand. He developed a relationship with the Chinese community while simultaneously describing Chinese culture to Europeans in his published reports. While Don's missionary career has been extensively documented, there have been no studies of his significance from the perspective of cross-cultural dialogue and exchange. In this thesis I will discuss the ways that Don acted as a cultural mediator, as well as the factors that impelled him to do so. I will make an in-depth investigation of Don's presentation of Chinese culture to European readers through his mission reports, and how this image changed over the course of his career. The picture Don painted was both motivated and influenced by his mission aims, his growing understanding of Chinese culture, and his developing rapport with Chinese people. In order to demonstrate that Don was unique as a cultural mediator in New Zealand, I will compare him to other sources of information on Chinese culture. It will be shown that he provided very different data and opinions from those conveyed by secular writers and authors, and that his descriptions were generally more detailed than those of other missionaries to the New Zealand Chinese and New Zealand missionaries in China. Don will also be compared to more well-known China missionaries, in order to show that he was similar to them in terms of educating Westerners about the East. Finally, I will weigh the impact of Don's cultural mediation activities. Although he gained few converts, he played a crucial role in improving Sino-European understanding and relations. In the final analysis, Don had a greater impact in these areas than he did in the field of evangelism.</p>

scholarly journals Heritage Multimedia and Children Edutainment: Assessment and Recommendations

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naif A. Haddad
Keyword(s):  
3D Imaging ◽  
Multimedia Technology ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Nonrenewable Resource ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Interactive Programming ◽  
Heritage Education ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Do So

Despite the rising commodification of heritage sites and practices, children engagement in their own cultures remains incredibly low, greatly endangering the future preservation of nations’ unique nonrenewable resource. Considering children’s very early engagement with cultural attitudes and identities, it is increasingly critical to develop a deeply rooted culture of responsibility and conservation from the earliest years, ensuring that children naturally feel invested in their surroundings. Unfortunately, heritage education remains largely undervalued, with most efforts relying on in-person experiences in formal cultural institutions. This paper thus aims to explore how heritage education can be redefined, using some of the most innovative virtual imaging and artificial reality technologies to at once expand access and engagement with one’s own history. Though there have been introductory applications of this edutainment multimedia technology, it will require a multidisciplinary team to create heritage programming which is as entertaining as it is intellectually challenging for young children. With the rich resources of 3D imaging and interactive programming already at our disposal, we are well-equipped to do so, given a coordinated effort.

scholarly journals Careers Boundaries in the Arts in Brazil: An Exploratory Study

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Bendassolli ◽  
Thomaz Wood
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Field Work ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Artistic Career ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

Over the last years the scholarly literature on careers has been enriched by the proposal of new career models which present a rhetoric that asks for the end of career boundaries: individual, hierarchical, organizational and geographical. However, in the real world, many constrains continue to exist. This paper tries to contribute to the understanding of the new boundaries of the 21st century careers. To do so we look at the case of careers in the arts. We review existing literature on careers, present a historical, contextual perspective of artistic careers, and conduct field work in the city of São Paulo based on in-depth interviews with 18 Brazilian artists from nine different occupations in the field of arts, whose data were subjected to qualitative content analysis. Our results show that career boundaries exist even in a sector we could consider as historically boundaryless . We identify and discuss four boundaries of the artistic career, seeking to reflect on the importance of considering the relationship of the individual and the context in which he/she operates in order to understand careers today.

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