Racing for the Bed

No one knows when the people ofMacheng City began to employthe marriage custom of racingfor the bed, once a custom unique to theTujia ethnic minority. It is said that at the end of awedding, bride and bridegroom enter thebridal chamber together and race for thebed. The one who is the first to sit on thebed will be the master of the new familyIt sounds unreasonable, but quite anumber of people believe in it.Therefore, on the wedding night, manybrides and bridegrooms try their best to     

Postmarks for the Year of the Tiger

This is the year of the tiger, according to the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, which used twelve animals to symbolize each year in The and Telecommunications has issued a set of "tiger Stamps" to commemorate the event, complete with postmarks issued by local post authorities. Shown here are postmarks from one bears the chinese characters “戊寅” (read as "wu yin"), which is how this year is marked on the Chinese lunar Calendar.     

Sartre for the twenty-first century?

By virtually dominating French intellectual life (literature, philosophy, culture) during the early post-World War II period, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) embodied what Pierre Bourdieu calls a “total intellectual” – one who responds to and helps frame public debate on all the intellectual and political issues of the day. During his lifetime and even after his death in 1980, Sartre’s thinking and political engagements provoked sharp reactions, both positive and negative, in France and abroad. Marxism, decolonization struggles, and violence are three key themes on which Sartre’s public positions continue to generate considerable debate – a debate that remains relevant today.

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For better,for worse? Public support for the capitalist model of the economy

A capitalist market economy is based on several institutional elements, such as private ownership and competition. Does public support for this economic model rise if the economy prospers, and fall during a downturn? Or is public support largely independent of the ups and downs of economic cycles? We hypothesize that positive economic performance increases support and that persons profiting personally are more supportive of the economic system's constitutive institutional elements. Using multilevel regression we study the determinants of individual-level support for the economic system. We also test for differences in the perception of economic performance due to political attitudes and personal properties. The findings partly support the hypotheses, indicating that macro-economic factors matter for individual-level attitudes towards the economy. Attitudes towards different institutional elements of the economic system also differ in the degree to which they are political or economic, and influenced by economic performance. Individual features – education and personal economic stakes – affect attitudes towards the economy, but a substantial share of the individual-level variation in economic attitudes remains unexplained.     

Speaking for the Common People and Taking Action for Women

WU QING has become a well-known figure among an increasing number of people in recent years. Those in the literary world know her as the daughter of Bing Xin, the most celebrated contemporary writer in the country. Wu has often participated in important events in literary circles on her mother's behalf. People in academia know her as an excellent English professor at the Beijing University of Foreign Languages Studies. Her educational philosophy of teaching and cultivating morals simultaneously makes many of her     

By the Masses or for the Masses? The Transformation of Voluntary Action in the Czech Union for Nature Protection

After the fall of state-socialism, efforts were made to build democracy by creating civil society organizations (CSOs) and forming independent nonprofit sectors across Central and Eastern Europe. However, most of these efforts ignored the mass organizations, state-sponsored interest groups, and quasi-independent associations in existence for many years. To understand how the transition affected existing associations and the forms of volunteerism they promoted, this paper investigates changes in the Czech Union for Nature Protection (ČSOP), an organization that has endured since 1979. Here, it is found that rather than retaining its emphasis on classical modes of voluntary action and participant interaction, ČSOP favors professionally managed activities designed to attract financial support. The case suggests that some of the participatory practices and collectivist norms advanced by associations in socialist times are being weakened as these groups attempt to secure the resources necessary to survive.     

Governing the Global Land Grab: What role for Gender in the Voluntary Guidelines and the Principles for Responsible Investment?

The heightened interest in large-scale foreign agricultural investment in regions with ‘unused’ arable land has triggered a great deal of international attention. Concerns about ‘land grabbing’ have initiated efforts at the global level to establish standards for ‘responsible investment’ and good governance. These initiatives warrant critical examination given the social, political, and economic inequalities to which they are designed to respond, yet the scholarship on these initiatives frequently fails to incorporate gendered analyses. This article argues that gendered analysis of the governance of land grabs not only belongs at the local level—where it continues to yield important insights into how gender inequality is manifested in various forms of local governance—but that it is sorely needed at the global level as well. As such, this article begins an assessment of these governance frameworks and how they consider local realities, with particular attention to gender-based inequalities.     

Educated for the 21st century?

Using cameos of children whose schooling spans the millennium and of teachers' attempts to foster their individuality and talents under pressures for conformity, we question whether the long‐term educational interests of pupils are being fully served. We suggest that even for the secure and stable majority the school curriculum has serious shortcomings in limiting the freedom and creativity of teachers and in prioritising technicist over humane values. Moreover, the goal of social inclusion depends considerably on educational inclusiveness. We ask whether the depth of social and psychological disadvantage in Britain is within the capacity of the current system to correct. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Institute for the Art of Peking Opera

CHANG’AN Grand Theater,locatedon the eastern side of Chang’an Avenue,is regarded as the place toperform traditional Chinese operas.1998’s demonstration performance wasgiven there by excellent youngpostgraduate performers of Peking opera.     

Longing for the Green(woodblock)

Jiang Bibo loves to employ the image of rocks in her woodblocks. Her figurines often bear veins of the rocks, featuring an interweaving of strength and softness, a mixture of a humanized nature and naturized humans. In her woodblock Longing for the Green the artist expresses her call for an unpolluted nature. The Goddess of Nature looks sad because nothing is left of her green gown but a small bunch of grass in her hand.     

What's In It for the Volunteers?

This article reports on a social return on investment (SROI) analysis of volunteers of the Good Food Market program, a food access initiative run by FoodShare Toronto, one of Canada's largest food‐justice organizations. Unlike conventional SROI research, which typically focuses on the entire ecology of an organization or program, this article focuses solely on isolating the return volunteers receive on their investment of time, skills, energy, and the like—an SROI of volunteering. The article reviews the challenges of adapting the SROI methodology to the context of volunteer benefits and finds that ultimately SROI is a useful tool for articulating the value of volunteering.     

Sun Baiqiu Fights for the Human Cause

SUN Baiqiu liked to read well known literature from all over the world when she was a little girl. She sympathized with the good-hearted characters and hated the greedy and the evil. She imagined that she would become like a fairy godmother, holding a magic wand and helping the poor but kind people in distress. In 1963 she graduated from Haerbin     

Quest for BeautyTimes and Methods ChangBut the Goal is the Same

THE Chinese traditionally have held a contradictory attitude about female beauty. In the Book of Songs women's good looks are praised: "How pretty she looks when she smiles at the right moment, how inviting her beautiful eyes are." These are lines which remain famous because the ideal they convey is still popular in modern China. Even the Ballad of Mu Lan, written during the Northern Dynasty, describes how Mu Lan made up in front of the mirror after she returned from active service for her father. Female beauty and women's jewelry was so appreciated in the past that fendai (fen is cosmetic powder and dai is a black pigment used by women in ancient times to darken their eyebrows) and qunchai (qun is a skirt and chai a hairpin) became synonymous with women. Yet at the same time, female beauty was considered mysterious, a taboo whose temptation was very much feared by men. Historically, great beauties were placed in two     

Should cloning be banned for the sake of the child?

It is widely believed that reproductive human cloning is morally wrong and should be prohibited because it infringes on human uniqueness, individuality, freedom and personal identity. The philosophical and ethical discussion has, however, shown that it is far more difficult than might initially be supposed to sustain arguments against cloning on these and related grounds. More recently, a potentially viable argument, initially put forward by Hans Jonas, has regained new prominence. The argument holds that cloning is wrong because it denies the clone an `open future', that is, the ability to freely shape her own personal identity, life plans, self-chosen goals, etc. After a critical exposition of the argument, I argue as follows: If one understands the Open Future Argument as an argument about the welfare of the cloned child, then it cannot show that cloning harms the child in a person-affecting sense of harming and benefiting. If, on the other hand, one understands the argument in a non-person-affecting sense, then some, but not all, reproductive cloning decisions can be shown to be wrong. The argument does not show, however, that cloning ought to be prohibited by law. While cloning, like other widely accepted reproductive decisions, will sometimes fail to minimize harm to `the child', such acts – to the extent that they do not constitute harm in a person-affecting sense – ought to be tolerated by proponents of the Open Future Argument. Attempts to prohibit reproductive choices on the basis that they are not optimal, will undermine the same set of values that the Open Future Argument seeks to uphold.     

Government guidance for the Care Act: undermining ambitions for change?

The UK Government claims to be creating a historic change to social care in England through the Care Act by putting people in control of their support. However, this is fundamentally contradicted by the draft guidance published to support the Act. This amounts to a formula for maintaining the prevailing resource-limited approach to assessing and meeting needs. This reality is obscured by a welter of choice and person-centred rhetoric. However, it need not be like this. Councils with a genuine commitment to being person-centred could refer directly to the Care Act to create an alternative future, while service users and their allies could bring about systemic changes if they use the Act to establish new rights.     

Men and Women Compete for the Dragon Crown

1. Members of the Zhengmingsi Village Women's Dragon Dance Team performed with this 208-meter long dragon, the longest in the world and noted in the Guiness Book of World Records.     

Preparing for the Fourth World Conference on Women

Wide Support From People THE FWCW is drawing near. The whole country and all walks of life are making preparations for the conference. Ms Wu Wenying, President of the China National Textile Council, arranged a special knowledge contest to greet this conference, and many other kinds of recreational and sports activities to publicize the conference with office