The Postcolonial Librarian
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Mobility and Cultural Authority in Contemporary China
As Chinese tourists, migrant workers, and students are becoming increasingly mobile, both inside China and abroad, the authoritarian state is wedged between the benefits and dangers posed by mobility. Communist China delicately balances its own conflicting impulses to support and discourage such mobilization by apparently loosening its restrictions on internal and international migration while still tightly regulating the promotion of domestic leisure industry with what NyĆri (Vrije Univ., Amsterdam) sees as a type of "indoctritainment." Concurrent with its integration into the global economic order is the portrayal of a new, optimistic, and modernized China, yet one in which the state has reshaped the culture of tourism, carefully manicured and interpreted through its public spaces and media infrastructure.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Multiversity of physical and cyberspace
The multiversity of physical and cyberspace has merged into a confluence of online and offline cultures that can no longer be classified
With globalization, migration, and cutting edge technologies that tie people over vast geographical distances once unimaginable, ethnicity, culture and identity have blurred to the point where many have argued that “race is dead.” Just how true is this? The answer seems to be more historical than it is contemporary, stemming from theorists and academics laying the foundation of these answers to the present early in the 20th century.
Cultural relativism - As a paradigm shift in 20th century, Boaz and his followers ascertained that civilization is not something absolute, but relative, with the caveat that “ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes." The idea eventually evolved into "cultural relativism."
MacLuhan’s Gutenberg Galaxy - In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan painstakingly argued that communication technology (alphabetic writing, the printing press, and the electronic media) not only influences human cognition, but also profoundly changes human social organization. As he saw it, a “new technology extends one or more of our senses outside us into the social world, then new ratios among all of our senses will occur in that particular culture.”
Identity in cyberculture - A concept first coined by science fiction writer William Gibson in the 1980’s, cyberculture relies on establishing identity and credibility. Although in the absence of direct physical interaction, thus leading the process for such establishment to be more difficult, human relationships are two-way in cyberculture, with identity and credibility being both used to define community in cyberspace and to be created within and by online communities.
Cultural relativism - As a paradigm shift in 20th century, Boaz and his followers ascertained that civilization is not something absolute, but relative, with the caveat that “ideas and conceptions are true only so far as our civilization goes." The idea eventually evolved into "cultural relativism."
MacLuhan’s Gutenberg Galaxy - In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan painstakingly argued that communication technology (alphabetic writing, the printing press, and the electronic media) not only influences human cognition, but also profoundly changes human social organization. As he saw it, a “new technology extends one or more of our senses outside us into the social world, then new ratios among all of our senses will occur in that particular culture.”
Identity in cyberculture - A concept first coined by science fiction writer William Gibson in the 1980’s, cyberculture relies on establishing identity and credibility. Although in the absence of direct physical interaction, thus leading the process for such establishment to be more difficult, human relationships are two-way in cyberculture, with identity and credibility being both used to define community in cyberspace and to be created within and by online communities.
Cultural Diversity as Software Package - With the rise of social media in the web 2.0 mashup and remix world, some have coined this era “diversity 2.0” where technology impacts the way people view themselves and interacts with those around them. This cultural engineering in fact takes on the cyber qualities of mashing up videos, text, and web coding and remixing them with anachronistic analogies and metaphors.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Empires at War
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In my Choice review of Empires at War, Francis Pike offers a concise geopolitical analysis of Asia since WW II subsequently followed by the political and economic emergence of the continent. In meticulous fashion, the author spans the entire continent, focusing on the century-long nation building of each state from the Far East to the South Asian subcontinent. The chronology begins during the Cold War era of political bargaining and struggle between the US and the Soviet Union, and Asia emerges from the ashes of a century-long struggle for land and power that was in many ways a continuation of the struggle with European colonial powers. Contrary to the dominant Western-centric viewpoint that Asian nations were powerless colonial regions carved up after centuries of warfare, historian and journalist Pike argues that modern Asia's development was, for the most part, independent of the struggle between the two superpowers. Chronicling the major characters during this period, such as Mao, Gandhi, Kim Il Sung, and Sukarno and their roles in leading their nations to independence, the author reveals that Asia very much determined its own path into the present day. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Playing Our Game: Why China's Rise Doesn't Threaten the West
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom
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In this sequel to North Korea Through the Looking Glass, which focused on Kim Jong-Il's political apparatus, Hassig (psychology, adjunct, Univ. of Maryland) and Oh (Inst. for Defense Analyses) discuss the lives of North Korea's citizens. Revealing the haunting details of daily life in an authoritarian state, the authors boldly declare that the current regime is unraveling despite its feverish attempts to hold on to power; even sprouts of capitalism are appearing in North Korean society. Unlike other authors, e.g., Jasper Becker in Rogue Regime, who portray Kim Jong-Il as fanatically eccentric, Hassig and Oh view Kim as a shrewd politician who understands the deficiencies of socialism but chooses to hold on to the status quo. The authors, who gained an intimate knowledge of North Korean society through their interviews with refugees in China, describe a defeated populace that for the most part disregards the constant barrage of state propaganda. VERDICT Western readers will gain a rare view of the hidden world of North Korean citizens. Recommended for those interested in international affairs or inquisitive about this last remnant of the Communist world.—Allan Cho, Univ. of British Columbia Lib., Vancouver
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers
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Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Race to the Past
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For that reason alone, rather than pulling out altogether, Google sidestepped any potential conflict this past winter by automatically redirecting its users from Google.cn to Google.com.hk, its Hong Kong search engine. This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for its users and for Google, as it reports on its latest blog entry.
However, the PRC has stepped up its firmness, as government officials have made it clear that the automatic redirection to Google Hong Kong is no longer acceptable. Google's solution? Instead of redirecting users directly from Google.cn to Google.com.hk, the Chinese homepage will now simply link to its Hong Kong counterpart, which allows users to search free of censorship. As many have commented, the best Google can hope for is to find an acceptable middle ground so that it can honor its own commitment to unfiltered search results while working within the rules set by the Chinese government. And Hong Kong's Google site seems to be that solution, if not long-term, then at least temporarily.
It's interesting, and perhaps historically relevant that Hong Kong is the compromise. A landing spot for much of its history until its recent commercial success this latter part of the 20th century, Hong Kong has always been an entrepot, an entry point where migrants, travelers, and traders stationed temporarily to either evade state authorities or build support for political upheaval. In fact, Hong Kong is where the seeds of Sun Yat-sen's 1911 revolution had taken place. Almost 100 years later, Hong Kong finds itself enmeshed again between the two powers which divide the orient.
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