On Becoming Nora

Author(s):  
Yifen Beus

Henrik Ibsen’s work Nora in A Doll’s House was a timely and influential inspiration to Chinese writers particularly in advocating gender equality and it offered a role model for many a Chinese woman to ‘walk out’ (of household/family bounds) during an era when China looked to the West to reform its society traditionally governed by Confucian principles. ‘To choose the path of Nora’ was a public statement the female singer Zhou Xuan made in 1941 when she announced her ‘walking out’ of her marriage with the famed composer husband Yan Hua. As China’s pop diva with a ‘golden voice’ in the late 1930s and the 40s, Zhou has been credited by cultural historians and musicologists to have popularized a music trend that fused Western jazz and Chinese folk tunes. Her stardom legitimized her role as a cultured, virtuous and sympathized female singer, a profession and public image that was no longer scrutinized as it had been in the 1920s. Highlighting Zhou’s cross-media performance and her ‘walking out’ as a female public figure in this case study, this paper aims to fill the gap between the readings of music and film experts by examining Zhou’s life and career as a performer.

Nordlit ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Kwok-kan Tam

<p>This is a study of a Hong Kong Chinese film adaptation of <em>Ghosts</em> made in 1960. It deals with processes of cross-cultural and cross-media adaptation, and probes issues of how stage techniques are turned into cinematographic devices. Ibsen’s plays, except <em>Ghosts</em>, have been adapted numerous times for the Chinese stage and screen in Hong Kong and China. Unlike in China, the reception of Ibsen in Hong Kong is not meant for political purposes. In most Hong Kong adaptations, Ibsen is valued for the purpose of theatrical experimentation. Among the stage adaptations, <em>A Doll’s House</em> and <em>The Master Builder</em> are the most popular. However, there was a film adaptation of <em>Ghosts</em> in 1960, which has never been discussed in Ibsen scholarship. In this adaptation, Director Tso Kea borrowed the plot from <em>Ghosts</em> and made a perfect Chinese melodrama film highlighting the Chinese emotions and relations in a wealthy family that undergoes a crisis. In traditional Chinese drama, there is the lack of psychological rendering in characterization and characters act according to moral considerations. In Tso Kea’s film, the portrayal of the mother provides a new sense of characterization by combining Mrs Alving with the traditional Chinese mother figure. The borrowing from Ibsen makes it possible for the Chinese film to create a character with emotional and psychological complexities. Images from the film are selected as illustration in the article.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anne Katrine De Hemmer Gudme

This article investigates the importance of smell in the sacrificial cults of the ancient Mediterranean, using the Yahweh temple on Mount Gerizim and the Hebrew Bible as a case-study. The material shows that smell was an important factor in delineating sacred space in the ancient world and that the sense of smell was a crucial part of the conceptualization of the meeting between the human and the divine.  In the Hebrew Bible, the temple cult is pervaded by smell. There is the sacred oil laced with spices and aromatics with which the sanctuary and the priests are anointed. There is the fragrant and luxurious incense, which is burnt every day in front of Yahweh and finally there are the sacrifices and offerings that are burnt on the altar as ‘gifts of fire’ and as ‘pleasing odors’ to Yahweh. The gifts that are given to Yahweh are explicitly described as pleasing to the deity’s sense of smell. On Mount Gerizim, which is close to present-day Nablus on the west bank, there once stood a temple dedicated to the god Yahweh, whom we also know from the Hebrew Bible. The temple was in use from the Persian to the Hellenistic period (ca. 450 – 110 BCE) and during this time thousands of animals (mostly goats, sheep, pigeons and cows) were slaughtered and burnt on the altar as gifts to Yahweh. The worshippers who came to the sanctuary – and we know some of them by name because they left inscriptions commemorating their visit to the temple – would have experienced an overwhelming combination of smells: the smell of spicy herbs baked by the sun that is carried by the wind, the smell of humans standing close together and the smell of animals, of dung and blood, and behind it all as a backdrop of scent the constant smell of the sacrificial smoke that rises to the sky.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhinandan Kohli ◽  
◽  
Emile Fokkema ◽  
Oscar Kelder ◽  
Zulkifli Ahmad ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
В. Зинько ◽  
V. Zin'ko ◽  
А. Зверев ◽  
A. Zverev ◽  
М. Федин ◽  
...  

The seismoacoustical investigations was made in the western part of the Kerch strait (Azov sea) near Kamysh-Burun spit. The fracture zone with dislocated sedimentary rocks layers and buried erosional surface was revealed to the west of spit. Three seismofacial units was revealed to the east of spit. The first unit was modern sedimentary cover. The second ones has cross-bedding features and was, probably, the part of early generation of Kamysh-Burun spit, which lied to the east of its modern position. The lower border of the second unit is the erosional surface supposed of phanagorian age. The third unit is screened by acoustic shedows in large part.


1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
John Obert Voll

The relationships between Islam and the West are complex. Even theperceptions of those relations have an important impact on the nature ofthe interactions. If the basic images that are used in discussing “Islam andthe West” are themselves ill-defiied or viewed in inconsistent ways, therelationships themselves are affected in sometimes dangerous ways.Inconsistent and contradictory terms of analysis can lead to misunderstandingand conflict.One of the most frequent conceptual mistakes made in discussingIslam and the West in the modem era is the identification of “the West”with “modemity.” This mistake has a significant impact on the way peeple view the processes of modernization in the Islamic world as well as onthe way people interpret the relationships between Islam and the West inthe contemporary era.The basic generalizations resulting from the following analysis can bestated simply: 1) “modernity“ is not uniquely “western”; 2) “the West” isnot simply “modernity”; and 3) the identifixation of “the West” with“modemity” has important negative consequences for understanding therelationships between Islam and the West. Modernity and the West aretwo different concepts and historic entities. To use the terms interchangeablyis to invite unnecessary confusion and create possible conflict’andinconsistency. This article will address the problem of definition and theapplication of the defined terms to interpreting actual experiences andrelationships.Understanding the difficulties raised by the identification of theWest with modernity involves a broader analysis within the frameworkof world history and global historical perspectives. In such an analysis, ...


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Moulay Rachid Mrani

If the development of technology, means of communication, and rapid transportation have made continents closer and made the world a small village, the outcome of the ensuing encounters among cultures and civilizations is far from being a mere success. Within this new reality Muslims, whether they live in majority or minority contexts, face multiple challenges in terms of relating to non-Muslim cultures and traditions. One of these areas is the status of women and gender equality. Ali Mazrui was one of the few Muslim intellectuals to be deeply interested in this issue. His dual belonging, as an African and as a westerner, enable him to understand such issues arising from the economic, political, and ethical contrasts between the West and Islam. This work pays tribute to this exceptional intellectual’s contribution toward the rapprochement between the western and the Islamic value systems, illustrating how he managed to create a “virtual” space for meeting and living together between two worlds that remain different yet dependent upon each other. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
Nesya Shemer

This article suggests a new way of looking at the preeminent methodological principles informing the oeuvre of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the greatest Muslim scholar of our generation, specificallywith regard to his rulings for and about Muslims living in Europe.The case study presented here is taken from the field of Muslimprayer law, a field that has to date been subjected to very little research.By comparing the discussions of classical Muslim scholarson the topic with the new interpretations proffered by al-Qaradawi,one can notice the process of change undergone by the Shari‘ahconcerning prayer under extraordinary circumstances from Islam’searly days down to the present. We can also see how his politicaloutlooks have influenced his ruling on this issue and the discussionthereof among Muslims who do not reside in the West.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 379-397
Author(s):  
Elmar Holenstein

AbstractNot everything that is logically possible and technically feasible is also natural, for example, placing China in the exact center of a world map. Such a map would not correspond to the laws of perception.Matteo Ricci, who was the first to create Chinese world maps on which the Americas were depicted, had to choose between two ideals, between a world map that obeys the gestalt principles of perception and a world map with the “Central State” China in its center. The first ideal mattered more to him than the second, although he took the latter into account as well. The result was a Pacific-centered map.Since we live on a sphere, what we perceive to be in the East and in the West depends on our location. It is therefore natural that in East Asia, world maps show America in the East and not – as in Europe – in the West. This was the argument underlying Ricci’s creation of Pacific-centered maps, and not the intention of depicting China as close to the center of the map as possible.It is only in East Asia that Ricci was the first to create Pacific-centered maps. World maps with the Pacific in the midfield were made in Europe before Ricci, motivated by the traditional unidirectional numbering of the meridians (0°–360°) from West to East starting with the Atlantic Insulae Fortunatae (Canary Islands).


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5513
Author(s):  
Muhammad Jamil ◽  
Numair Ahmed Siddiqui ◽  
Abdul Hadi Bin Abd Rahman ◽  
Noor Azahar Ibrahim ◽  
Mohd Suhaili Bin Ismail ◽  
...  

Deepwater lobes constitute a significant volume of submarine fans and are primarily believed to exhibit a simple sheet geometry. However, recent studies interpret the geometries of these deep-marine lobes as distinct with respect to the complexity of the facies and their distribution. Hence, a conceptual model of deep-marine sediments is essential to discuss the deep-marine sediments associated with the fan and lobe architecture. The present study highlights the facies heterogeneity and distribution of various lobe elements at a multiscale level by considering a case study of the West Crocker Formation of Sabah in northwest Borneo. The formation was logged on a bed-to-bed scale from recently well-exposed sections, with a total vertical thickness of more than 300 m. The lithological characteristics, bed geometry, sedimentary textures and structures of individual beds were used to categorize the rock units into nine sedimentary lithofacies: five sandstone lithofacies (S1–S5), one hybrid bed facies (H), two siltstone facies (Si1 and Si2) and one shale or mudstone facies (M). These facies were grouped into four facies associations (FA1–FA4), which were interpreted as lobe axis (FA1), lobe off-axis (FA2), lobe fringe (FA3) and distal fringe to interlobe (FA4) facies associations. This study is applicable for the distribution of lobes and their subseismic, multiscale complexities to characterize the potential of hydrocarbon intervals in deep-marine sand-shale system around the globe.


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