The Reception Given to Sadhu Sundar Singh,the Itinerant Indian Christian ‘Mystic’, in Interwar Britain

In 1920 and 1922, an Indian Christian called Sadhu Sundar Singh toured Britain. Widely renowned in the global Christian community in the interwar period, Singh was notorious for certain stories of miracles, for his appearance and for the ways in which he epitomised Eastern Christianity. Using Singh’s correspondence and a range of newspapers, this article argues that British audiences were attracted to Singh because of his appearance and ethnicity and because he conformed to stereotypes of essentialised Indian spirituality despite his Christian faith. It argues that the reception to Singh in Britain must be understood in relation to the perpetuation of Orientalist understandings of Indians and Indian religions in the interwar period.     

The other Chinese: identity work and self-orientalization of Chinese host country nationals in multinational corporations

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on an in-depth case study of narrative identity work to explore heuristically the role of host country nationals in the reproduction of orientalist discourses in multinational corporations (MNCs). Based on this analysis, it presents an identity strategy termed the other Chinese. The other Chinese claims to be in-between the West, that is constructed as superior modern and rational, and China, that is constructed as backwards and chaotic. This in-betweenness allows the other Chinese to take the role of a mediator between locals and expatriates, and at the same time claim superiority towards normal Chinese. Thus, this identity construction is a creative act of hybridization and localization, but it is not subversive to existing power structures in the MNCs. However, as we show, the construction of the other Chinese is not inextricably bound to the field of the MNCs, but is based on a hybrid and creative entanglement of various sources such as class positions and public discourse in China, in which the MNCs only occupy an insignificant role. It is, therefore, to be understood as an aspect of identity construction in China relevant for MNC identity, rather than an aspect of the transnational field of the MNCs.     

“中国情趣”、中国旅行与东方主义——《谷崎润一郎与东方主义》述评

《谷崎润一郎与东方主义》的作者,独出心裁地将赛义德针对西方的东方主义理论应用于日本,并以谷崎润一郎为例具体分析了日本大正时代的东方主义话语。该书有三个特色:1.不仅指出了谷崎的东方主义话语,而且还明确了他的“西方主义”和自我东方主义的倾向。2.以“中国情趣”为突破口,来探讨谷崎与中国文学、文化的关系以及他的中国观。3.详细考察了谷崎的两次中国之旅及与中国作家的交流,并分析了中国旅行对他创作的影响。该书在中国的翻译与出版,对中国读者全面理解谷崎润一郎有较大的参考价值。     

Chinese,Japanese or ‘Oriental’?: Vietnamese-passing in ‘super-diverse’ London

The young British-born Vietnamese are a relatively invisible group in ‘super-diverse’ London who are often misidentified in their everyday encounters. Eluding more straightforward processes of ethnic or racial assignment, the young Vietnamese ‘pass’ in various different ways as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai or ‘Oriental’. Drawing upon primary interview data and participant observation, this article traces ‘passive’ and ‘deliberate’ forms of passing to highlight how intersecting processes of class, gender and place enable/engender different kinds of passing. It is argued that Vietnamese-passing challenges more ‘celebratory’ readings of (super-) diversity by concealing (and depoliticising) difference and erasing Vietnamese voices rather than allowing for their proliferation. It is suggested that practices of passing may become more common in super-diverse societies, as markers of visible difference become increasingly complex and less determinable, especially among newer, non-colonial migrant groups who are more ambiguously positioned within existing identity regimes.     

《喜福会》中的文化内涵及其对“东方主义”的解构

文化的冲突与融合一直都是那些生活在两种文化是的美国华裔作家体验最为深刻的问题之一。《喜福会》以独特的视角关注了华裔群体在两种文化冲撞中的生存以及对于命运和人生选择的思考,从而表达了作者对中美文化最终走向融合寄予了无限的希望。     

Orientalism and Russian speaking minority regions in Europe: representing Narva

ABSTRACT

This paper uses the concept of orientalism to propose a framework for understanding the relationship between international news media and individual representations of minority groups in Europe. Even though the case study focuses on Narva, Estonia, the model here provides a basis for comparing the identity formation practices, particularly of geographically separated Russian speaking minority groups in Europe. Narva’s large Russian speaking population and geographical proximity to Russia have been pinpointed as security concerns due to the convenient source of information and mass media sponsored by the Russian Federation causing a misrepresentation of Russian speaking minority groups in international media.     

Indigenous Psychology: Grounding Science in Culture,Why and How?

My agenda is to ground psychological science in culture by using complex rather than overly simple models of culture and using indigenous categories as criteria of a translation test to determine the adequacy of scientific models of culture. I first explore the compatibility between Chinese indigenous categories and complex models of culture, by casting in the theoretical framework of symmetry and symmetry breaking (Bolender, 2010) a series of translations performed on Fiske's (1991) relational models theory. Next, I show how the dimensional approach to culture, prevalent in mainstream psychology, fails the translation test. Ethical implications of this analysis for cross cultural psychology are discussed.     

李提摩太对大乘佛教的回应:从后殖民对东方学的批判着眼

虽然李提摩太对大乘佛教的诠释受到他自己的基督教信仰影响,甚至是受到传教使命驱使,但他的进路迥然不同于具殖民色彩的东方学,并且在动机和态度上颇为符合大乘佛教的精神。他在翻译佛典的过程中,没有强调东西方宗教观念之间的差异,反而突出它们的相通之处,希望以此作为基督教与佛教建立合作或友谊的共同基础,而不是使佛教徒皈依基督教。基于他的著述,可以发现他实际上实践了一种后殖民的批评,与殖民势力是对抗的。他的终极目的是全人类的解放,但进路与心态截然不同于那种解救东方人的殖民主义式思维,因为他从来不曾假设西方文明更为高等。就萨义德对东方学或东方主义的批判来说,李提摩太对大乘佛教的响应可以说是一个例外,甚至是反例。     

Caught between the orientalist–occidentalist polemic: gender mainstreaming as feminist transformation or neocolonial subversion?*

Here we provide a critical reading of gender mainstreaming as a potential emancipatory force that has been co-opted within orientalist–occidentalist polemics. This remains a critical period in the “mainstreaming” debate, where feminist reappropriation is necessary to repoliticize the concept and reorient development sector focus from tokenistic inclusivity to social transformation. We consider two sides of the debate. In the first scenario, the requirement for gender mainstreaming in international development discourse has not only failed to address its original feminist goals, but has become (or remained) an extension of orientalist, neocolonial projects to control and “civilize” developing economies. Here, a putative concern for gender equality in development is used as a means to distinguish between the modern, civilized One and the colonial, traditional Other. In the second scenario, gender mainstreaming is held up as all that these “othered” occidentalist forces stand against; an exemplar of the inappropriate imposition of “western” moralistic paradigms in non-western contexts. Ultimately, the co-optation of gendered discourses in development through these orientalist–occidentalist polemics serves to obfuscate the continued depoliticization of mainstreaming. A critical question remains: can gender mainstreaming ever transcend this discursive impasse and reassert its feminist transformatory potential?     

对赛义德后殖民主义文学批评的批评

赛义德的后殖民主义文学批评在世界范围内引起争议 ,方兴未艾.为在全球化语境下正确处理文学的民族关系,有必要进一步剖析赛义德后殖民主义文学批评的立场和观点,总结其文学批评的宝贵启示和得失教训,以达到取精用宏,丰富我国文学民族学理论的目的.赛义德文学观的反殖民主义立场值得肯定,但他未能客观理解殖民运动的必然性,混同政治与文学的界限,苛责西方进步作家,使他的反殖民主义愿望反而起到助长殖民主义的作用,这是必须予以澄清和克服的.而且,区分文学的题材和内容, 理清文学与政治的关系,甚至淡化东、西方地理疆域而重视其思想疆域,都是文学研究不可忽视的问题.