scholarly journals Equality of Access? Chinese Women Practicing Chan and Transnational Meditation in Contemporary China

Religions ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Ngar-Sze Lau
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
Buddhist Meditation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Different Parts

This paper examines how the Buddhist revival, the Chan revival, and recent popularity of transnational meditation practices have facilitated Chinese women practicing Buddhist meditation in contemporary China. With the influence of the opening of China and growing transnational networks, there has been an increasing number of Han Chinese monastics and lay people practicing transnational meditation, such as samādhi, vipassanā and mindfulness, in the past two decades. Despite the restriction of accessing Chan halls at monasteries, some Chinese nuns and laywomen have traveled to learn meditation in different parts of China, and international meditation centers in Southeast Asia to study with yogis from all over the world. Surprisingly some returned female travelers have taken significant roles in organizing meditation retreats, and establishing meditation centers and meditation halls. Through examining some ethnographic cases of Chinese nuns and laywomen, this paper argues that the transnational meditation movement has an impact not only on gender equality, especially concerning Chinese women practicing meditation, but also on the development of contemporary Chinese Buddhism. The significant role of Chinese female meditators in promoting Buddhist meditation can reflect a trend of re-positioning the Chan School in contemporary China.

scholarly journals Singapore as a nexus of migration corridors: The qiaopi system and diasporic heritage

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-226
Author(s):  
Hong Liu ◽  
Huimei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Chinese Immigrants ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Migration Corridors ◽  
The World ◽  
Migration Corridor

Singapore has served as a strategic hub of immigration in Southeast Asia over the past two centuries since its founding as an entrepot in 1819. It is not only due to its geographic location at the crossroads between the East and West, but also to its vibrant social and business organizations that have provided effective institutional links both within Southeast Asia and between the region and China. This has, in turn, contributed to the making of Singapore as a key migration corridor among the Chinese diaspora. An overlooked institutional link in this corridor is qiaopi, the remittances-cum-letters sent home by Chinese immigrants from the 1820s to the 1980s, which was part of the intra-regional circulation of capital, goods, people and information. Qiaopi was officially selected into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO’s) “Memory of the World” Register in 2013, thus demonstrating its heritage significance. This paper examines the role of the qiaopi trade in establishing and consolidating Singapore’s place as the most important migrant corridor in Southeast Asia. It also discusses qiaopi from a transnational perspective of diasporic heritage and its contemporary relevance to the heritage corridor.

The Struggle for Public Recognition: Understanding Early Marriage through the Lens of Honour and Shame in Six Countries in South Asia and West Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 328-346
Author(s):  
Esther Miedema ◽  
Winny Koster ◽  
Nicky Pouw ◽  
Philippe Meyer ◽  
Albena Sotirova
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Early Marriage ◽  
Social Standing ◽  
Public Recognition ◽  
The World ◽  
Economic Future ◽  
Different Parts

There is a burgeoning body of research on the role of ‘shame’ and ‘honour’ in decisions regarding early marriage in different parts of the world. Conceptualizing shame and honour as idioms through which gendered socio-economic inequalities are created and maintained, we examine early marriage decisions in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Senegal. While we acknowledge the existence of important differences between countries in terms of the nature and manifestations of shame and honour, we argue that regardless of setting, neither shame and honour, nor female sexuality and chastity can be separated from the socio-economic hierarchies and inequalities. Thus, in this article we seek to identify the cross-cutting dynamic of marriage as a means to overcome the shame associated with young single women’s sexuality, protecting family honour and social standing, and/or securing young women’s social-economic future. Building on our data and available scholarship, we question the potential of emphasizing ‘choice’ as a means of reducing early marriage and advancing women’s emancipation in international development efforts. Instead, we argue in favour of initiatives that engage with young people and caregivers on the ways in which, at grassroot levels, communities may revise narratives of respectability, marriageability and social standing.

Man and Nature in China

1967 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhoads Murphey
Keyword(s):  
Public Good ◽  
New Order ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
Individual Actions ◽  
Communist Past ◽  
Chinese View

After nearly two decades of revolutionary rule in China, the break with the past which Communist direction has seemed to represent is increasingly being seen in a wider perspective. Few scholars would attempt to argue that the Communists have not brought a genuine revolution or that their ascendancy is merely the equivalent of a new dynasty. But as the character of the new order has become clearer with time and as an analysis both more detailed and less concerned with short-term matters has become possible, many scholars have been as much impressed by continuities with the pre-Communist past as by discontinuities. To take perhaps the clearest example, the current Chinese view of their relation to the rest of the world appears to represent little change from the traditional Sinocentric image. Ideological absolutism is also not new to China with Mao Tse-tung, nor is the conception of individual subsevience to public good, the unquestioned rightness of close social limits on individual actions. And contemporary China retains, for all its professed egalitarianism, a strongly elitist and hierarchial pattern.

scholarly journals Where Does the World Historian Write From? Objectivity, Moral Conscience and the Past and Present of Imperialism

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 671-685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Drayton
Keyword(s):  
Iraq War ◽  
Imperial History ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Academic Subject ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Ethical Responsibilities

The contemporary historian, as she or he speaks to the public about the origins and meanings of the present, has important ethical responsibilities. ‘Imperial’ historians, in particular, shape how politicians and the public imagine the future of the world. This article examines how British imperial history, as it emerged as an academic subject since about 1900, often lent ideological support to imperialism, while more generally it suppressed or avoided the role of violence and terror in the making and keeping of the Empire. It suggests that after 2001, and during the Iraq War, in particular, a new Whig historiography sought to retail a flattering narrative of the British Empire’s past, and concludes with a call for a post-patriotic imperial history which is sceptical of power and speaks for those on the underside of global processes.

REGIONALISM APPROACH UNDER THE COVID-19 CIRCUMSTANCES

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 126-133
Author(s):  
E. Rasoulinezhad ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World Economy ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Productive Capacity ◽  
Economic Convergence ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The World ◽  
And Control ◽  
Different Parts

The outbreak of Covid-19 disease since late 2019 has led to fundamental changes in the process of globalization and liberalization of the world economy. In order to prevent the spread of this disease and control its negative consequences, many countries have implemented policies such as urban quarantine, cutting off passenger communication with neighboring countries and the world, closing tourist and tourist places, and implementing policies to protect domestic industries. In general, it led to the phenomenon of reverse globalization. According to the development of new economic convergence, which is based on the role of the market in economic relations between countries can play an important role in improving the productive capacity of countries in a region and create economic integration in different parts of the world. Such a state of integration in different parts of the world could be the solution to the process of globalization and in the post-Corona era, the concept of “one for all, all for one” was created at the regional and global level. As policy implications, the paper recommended some points to make a greater integration between Iran and Russia in the region

Jerzy Topolski’s Marxist Anthropocentrism

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-377
Author(s):  
Ewa Domańska ◽  
Paul Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current State ◽  
The World ◽  
Separate Discipline

Abstract In this article I demonstrate that the ideas outlined in Jerzy Topolski’s Methodology of History (Polish 1968, English translation 1976) could not only offer a reference point for and indeed enrich ongoing debates in the philosophy of history, but also help to set directions for future developments in the field. To support my argument, I focus on two themes addressed in Topolski’s work: 1) the understanding of the methodology of history as a separate discipline and its role both in defending the autonomy of history and in creating an integrated knowledge of the past, which I read here through the lens of the current merging of the humanities and natural sciences; and 2) the role of a Marxist anthropocentrism based on the notion of humans as the creators of history, which I consider here in the context of the ongoing critique of anthropocentrism. I point to the value of continuing to use concepts drawn from Marxist vocabulary, such as alienation, emancipation, exploitation and overdetermination, for interpreting the current state of the world and humanity. I stress that Marxist anthropocentrism, with its support for individual and collective agency, remains crucial to the creation of emancipatory theories and visions of the future, even if it has faced criticism for its Eurocentrism and might seem rather familiar and predictable when viewed in the context of the contemporary humanities. Nevertheless, new manifestations of Marxist theory, in the form of posthumanist Marxism and an interspecies historical materialism that transcends anthropocentrism, might play an important role in redefining the humanities and humanity, including its functions and tasks within human and multispecies communities.

scholarly journals The Growing Accountability Agenda: Progress or Mixed Blessing?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamil Salmi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Public Resources ◽  
The World ◽  
Mixed Blessing ◽  
University Leaders ◽  
Accountability Practices

In the past decade, however, accountability has become a major concern in most parts of the world. Governments, parliaments, and society at large are increasingly asking universities to justify the use of public resources and account more thoroughly for their teaching and research results. The universal push for increased accountability has made the role of university leaders much more demanding. The successful evolution of higher education institutions will hinge on finding an appropriate balance between credible accountability practices and favorable autonomy conditions.

scholarly journals THE CLASSIFICA ASSIFICATION OF PHRASEOL TION OF PHRASEOLOGICAL UNI OGICAL UNITS WITH ONOMASTIC COMPONENTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 139-147
Author(s):  
Marjona Akhmadovna Radjabova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
National Character ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World

Abstract. The following article discusses the role of onomastic components in phraseological units and their meaning as well as giving a classification of onomastic components in phraseological units based on the materials of different structural languages. Through examples the author proves that the presence of names in the ancient rich phraseological layer of non-fraternal English, Russian and Uzbek languages is related to the national and cultural values, customs, ancient history, folklore and daily life of the peoples who speak this language. Besides, in the process of study of onomastic components it is also determined that names, along with forming their national character, are a factor giving information about the past of a particular nation. Background. In the world linguistics there have been carried out a series of researches in the field of the study of phraseological units with onomastic components in comparative-typological aspect revaling their national and cultural peculiarities, analyzing and classifying their content structurally and semantically

scholarly journals Hot Mums. Motherhood and Feminism in Post-socialist China

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifei Shen
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
Chinese Media ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Chinese Mother

The term “hot mum” (La Ma, 辣妈) has become popular in the Chinese media in the 21st century, being regarded as a “feminist” image of the modern mother, as it breaks with the stereotype of the traditional Chinese mother. Departing from a historical framework of motherhood and feminism, as well as western theories of subjectification and individualization, the article explores the discourses of hot mums in contemporary China. Based on an analysis of more than eight hundred articles in a Chinese database, this article explores the impacts of the image of the hot mum upon practices of motherhood among contemporary Chinese women. The findings show that the notion of the hot mum has been transformed into the concept of “all-around hot mums” who take care of both their families and their careers. It is argued that this process has not changed power relations between men and women, nor the roles of father and mother. Commercial and market aspects have turned hot mums from an initial expression of women’s subjectivity with particular maternal values into subjects of consumerism. The hot mum discourse is apparently contributing to the oppression rather than empowerment of Chinese women, let alone their increased sense of individuality.

scholarly journals Western Objections to the Islamic Concept of Gender Equality: A Critical Review

Fahm-i-Islam ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70
Author(s):  
Dr Aurangzeb
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
View Point ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Viable Solution ◽  
The World ◽  
Islamic View

Over the past several years, despite the constant evolution of the legislation the problem of gender equality in the West has been steadily increasing. What is the reason why there is no significant progress in solving gender equality issues in the West yet? Several reports and researches have pointed out to this problem. On the contrary, Islam provides a viable solution to this ever increasing problem; for Islam has a comprehensive yet simple view of gender equality. But the West, instead of understanding Islamic principles objectively, raises objections without a thorough study. However, the Western principle of gender equality has completely failed. In this article a critical analysis of the western gender equality and Islamic principles has been carried out. It also highlights Islamic view point of gender equality. The study argues that the contemporary gender equality problems and issues that have engulfed the world particularly the Western countries can be mitigated by employing the Islamic principles of gender equality

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