Post‐Zionist orientalism? Orientalist discourse and Islamophobia among the Russian‐speaking intelligentsia in Israel

This article attempts to shed light on a special kind of Orientalist discourse that circulates in Russian‐Israeli literature and press. This discourse feeds on the cultural sources buried in the Russian‐Soviet imperialist discourse about ‘Russia’s Orient', which has been articulated by modern Russian literature, including prominent Russian‐Jewish authors, and corresponds to the racially grounded discursive practices currently widespread in post‐Soviet Russia with regard to natives of the Caucasus and Central Asia. The article investigates the ways of transferring Orientalist concepts from the (post‐)Soviet cultural experience to the Israeli one, identifying the Orientalist discourse's dual role in shaping the immigrants' self‐awareness on two levels, the local and the global. On the local level, the Russian‐Israeli intelligentsia deploys ‘Soviet‐made’ Orientalist interpretative tools to read and decipher the reality of a new country, by presenting it as a familiar reality. Identifying and labeling the local Orientals — the Palestinians on the one hand and the Mizrahi Jews on the other — by means of negative concepts borrowed from the Russian‐Soviet Orientalist repertoire, a Russian‐Israeli intellectual locates her/himself within the Eurocentric Ashkenazi component of Israeli society. On the global level, the extreme Islamophobic rhetoric of the Russian‐Israeli Orientalist discourse, according to which today Israel and Russia, as well as the West, all share a common Islamic ‘enemy’, enables a Russian‐Israeli intellectual on the one hand to reassert her/his cultural ties with her/his country of origin, and on the other to heighten the validity of her/his self‐image as part of Western culture.     

Between a ‘student abroad’ and ‘being from Latvia’: inequalities of access,prestige, and foreign-earned cultural capital

ABSTRACT

This paper visualises tertiary-level students who study abroad as simultaneously both international students and members of an emerging diaspora. Coming from a country (Latvia) which is peripheral and relatively poor by European standards, students go abroad for multiple reasons not necessarily directly connected with study (e.g. family reasons, labour migration); yet their evolving diasporic status is instrumentalised by the Latvian government which wants them to return and contribute to the country’s development. Based on 27 in-depth interviews with Latvian students and graduates who have studied abroad, our analysis focuses on three interlinked dimensions of inequality: access to education at home and abroad; the varying prestige of higher education qualifications from different countries and universities; and the inequalities involved in getting recognition of the symbolic and cultural capital that derives from a non-Latvian university. Within a setting of neoliberal globalisation and conflicting messages from the homeland, students and graduates are faced with a challenging dilemma: how to balance their materialistic desire for a decent job and career with their patriotic duty to return to Latvia.     

明代清真寺汉文碑刻所见穆斯林士人对汉文化的态度

本文主要以明代穆斯林士人所撰清真寺汉文碑刻为基本史料,考察了穆斯林士人对待汉文化的态度,认为他们基本的态度是肯定儒家而否定释、道二家,但具体的立场还有所不同,有的穆斯林士人的文化立场是倾向于儒家的。     

哈萨克斯坦东干人的民族教育与群体建构

东干人是与中国有着密切历史文化联系的中亚少数族群,是了解当下中亚政治经济发展和复杂民族关系的绝佳素材。在历史的演进中,他们形成了一套能维持文化传承和族群边界的民族教育体系,但当下受到很大的冲击和影响。     

National Identity Formation in the Baltic Provinces of the Russian Empire: The Skerst Family in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The modern history of the Baltic provinces of the former Russian Empire has essentially been written from an ethnic/national perspective. It is basically the story of the formation of the Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian and German 'communities', of their 'specific' national identities and eventually of nation states. With those who acquired a German identity, the focus has essentially been upon the landed nobility, the so-called 'Baltic Barons', the traditional elite that formed a minority even of the ethnically German population. The existence of other German groups has been recognised, such as the 'literary estate' (Literatenstand), which in the nineteenth century 'brought into Baltic higher culture, rationalist viewpoints and represented a potential threat to noble control of local politics.' However, such groups have received comparatively little attention from historians, especially among those publishing in English. Even then there is limited acknowledgement of their possessing distinctive cultural and other forms of self-identification. A recent study by a Canadian scholar of the Germans of Riga before 1914 tends to impose the values of the landed elite upon them. In works published in post-1945 (West) Germany by emigres from the region, there is an inclination to present a distinctive 'Baltic German' identity that is largely derived from the experience of the landed elite.     

多维的矛盾:中国图瓦人的族群建构差异

族群进行的＂划界＂行动是在特定社会历史条件下族群精英因应某种利好利用学术精英的研究成果及族群文化实践而在族群内外展开的族群建构行动。20世纪七十年代末以来中国图瓦人的＂图瓦人＂族群建构肇始于学术精英对其族源的研究以及外界的持续关注,并在族群精英、地方政府以及文化精英等的助推下延伸到了普通大众。为期一年的参与观察及问卷调查证明：中国图瓦人的族群建构有着明显的区域、性别、年龄等维度上的层次差异,并因族群建构中去蒙古化乃至试图通过国家层面吁求＂图瓦族＂民族身份的确认而引发了族群内外的多维矛盾。     

‘Arab Jews’ after structuralism: Zionist discourse and the (de)formation of an ethnic identity

We revisit the term ‘Arab Jews’, which has been widely used in the past to depict Jews living in Arab countries, but was extirpated from the political lexicon upon their arrival in Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. We follow first the demise of this discourse and then its political reawakening in the 1990s, which was carried out mostly by second-generation Mizrahi intellectuals and activists. We review this surge of the 1990s, distinguishing between structural and post-structural interpretations of the concept, although we also show that they are often interwoven. According to the structural interpretation, the term ‘Arab Jew’ was founded on a binary logic wherein Jews and Arabs are posed as cultural and political antagonisms. The post-structural interpretation rejects the bifurcated form in lieu of a hybrid epistemology, which tolerates and enables a dynamic movement between the two facets of ‘Arabs’ and ‘Jews’. We spell out the differences between these two heuristic modes of interpretation and speculate about their relevance to the political conditions in the Middle East today.     

蚩尤崇拜与民族认同——论当今中国苗族树立“精神共祖”的过程及背景

本文回溯与分析了20世纪90年代中期以后在中国苗族社会中"蚩尤热"兴起的过程及背景,对蚩尤与苗族的渊源关系的历史形成过程进行了若干回顾.在此基础上,探讨了20世纪80年代以后以苗族知识分子为中心推动的"苗学研究"和苗族民族认同意识重构之间的关系.指出20世纪90年代以后苗族社会中兴起的"蚩尤崇拜",事实上是从"他者"叙事到"自我"内化的一种转变,是凝聚苗族民族认同意识最为核心的"受难者记忆"进行重构的组成部分.     

近代报刊对民间传统胎教习俗的重构（1912-1949）

胎教作为一种在中国绵延千年的民俗观念,最初是为培养天子而创设,后历数代发展而逐渐成为寻常百姓家庭教育中至关重要的一环。近代以来,在西学浪潮的冲击之下,近代知识人也以报刊为阵地,对传统礼俗进行“理性调适”。笔者立足于民国时期的报刊材料,以传统民俗——“胎教”的嬗变过程为切入点,呈现转型时期文化浑融对于产育知识的影响,厘清近代知识人传统文化的重构,并对中国的“现代性”问题做出反思。     

‘We Lay Claim to Him!’ Berlin,Rothko, Eisenstein,and the Reorientation of Latvian National Identity

Since the late 1990s, Latvia has increasingly made claim on the intellectual and cultural heritage of Sir Isaiah Berlin, Mark Rothko, and Sergei Eisenstein. This article adopts a social constructivist approach in comparing and contrasting the role of intellectuals in framing nineteenth-century national identities and their contemporary instrumentalization as tools in the construction of national identity. The article then considers the “seizure” of Berlin, Rothko, and Eisenstein as “Latvians,” arguing that this process has been undertaken for both international and domestic purposes—to socialize and integrate Latvia with the West, and to promote domestic value change.     

试论北宋后期士大夫变法思潮与王安石变法对经略河湟民族政策的影响

北宋从仁宗后期到神宗即位之初,变法改革是当时士大夫的共同呼声.不少士大夫开始在"三代"理想的号召下,提出了对当时社会文化、政治进行革新的理念,而王安石正是顺应了这一潮流,其所阐发的变法见解主张,推进了变法的进程.王安石的变法对北宋河湟民族政策的影响是很大的,其本身变法内容中就含有经略河湟、兼制西夏、以攻为守、抚战结合、收复汉唐旧境,以及开拓西北边疆的民族政策的内容.王安石变法对河湟民族政策的影响具体表现在军政、经济、文化、法律等方面,增进了汉蕃之间经济、政治、文化等方面的交流.     

民国时期天山北麓东路城市多民族居民生活的变化

Although the Republican era of China did not last very long, it was a significant period in which China transformed from an agricul-tural to an industrial era, and from a traditional so-ciety to a modern one. During this period, not only did the politics and economics change dramatical-ly, but also the lives of urban residents. Although Xinjiang is located in the western frontier area of inland China, since the Qing dynasty, its politi-cal, economic and cultural connections with inland China gradually increased. Xinjiang is not an iso-lated region, it actually is located in the central ar-ea of Asia. So, its openness is very pronounced. Even though during the Republican era, inland China was gripped in the chaos of war, Xinjiang’s political, economic and cultural connections with the inland were never broken. Although sometimes the central government’s control in Xinjiang was not so strong, the central government’s policies had always impacted strongly on Xinjiang. In addition, due to the continuous migration of the inland popu-lation ( especially intellectuals, and political and military people) into urban areas, such as Dihua in Xinjiang during the Republic era of China, the politics, economics and culture of inland China had a big impact on the lives of Xinjiang urban res-idents. Moreover, Xijiang is neighbors with Rus-sia. Since the middle of the 19th century, Russia, whose industrialization and modernization occurred earlier and faster than China’s, often made political and military invasions, as well as cultural infiltra-tion, into Xinjiang. After the founding of the Sovi-et Union, its influence on the cities of Xijiang gradually increased. Especially during the period when Sheng Shicai managed Xinjiang, the influ-ence of the Soviet Union on Xinjiang was the stron-gest. In addition to political influence, economic and cultural influences became more pronounced, and numerous industrial and cultural products made in the Soviet Union were imported into Xin-jiang. This had a dramatic impact on the urban residents of Xinjiang. As a political, economic and cultural center of Xinjiang, Dihua was alive with many Russians who engaged in political, economic and cultural activities. Hence, their direct or indi-rect influence on the lives of Dihua residents was stronger than in other cities. At present, the research on Xinjiang during the Republican era of China mainly focuses on the political and economic domains , and less attention is paid to its urban life. However, the changes of modernization are not only reflected in the aspects of politics and economics, but also in the field of social life. Hence, to strengthen the research on the changes in social life in urban areas of Xinjiang during the Republican era of China is significant. The Republican era of China was an important pe-riod for Xinjiang society. Although if we compare it with the urban areas along the eastern coastal ar-ea of China, the impact of western culture on the lives of urban residents in Xinjiang during this pe-riod was not so strong, and the changes in social life also reflected multi - ethnic characteristics. The changes in urban life in Xinjiang were also an important part of the changes following China’s modernization. It reflected a both generalization and a diversity of the urban changes created by China’s modernization. In addition, one should note the impact of the changes in Xinjiang’s urban life during the Republican era on that of Xinjiang during the latter half of the 20th century. Thus, it is very necessary to conduct a research on the lives of Xinjiang’s urban residents during the Republican era of China. Xinjiang has been a multi-ethnic area since ancient times, a fact which contributes the ethnic diversity that characterizes the social life of Xin-jiang cities. During the Republican era, the mate-rial life of the various ethnic groups living in Xinjiang’s cities changed successively due to the impact of external cultures, and the wave of mod-ernization. However the changes to the material lives of the various ethnic groups were different. The content of material life is very broad. General-ly speaking, it comprises people’s daily life, inclu-ding clothing, food, shelter and transportation, all of which are regarded as basic essentials for peo-ple. In a period of scarcity of goods and materials, material life became the most important thing for most of the public. Hence, changes with regard to material life, to a large extent, is reflected in the changes in the social lives of urban residents. Generally speaking, compared with the situa-tion in the Qing dynasty, the clothing in Xinjiang cities such as Dihua exhibited a big change. How-ever , this change displayed multi-ethnic and diver-sified characteristics. Concerning the food culture of Dihua urban residents during the Republican era of China, it reflected more open, inclusive and mutually influential features. In other words, the existence of a diversified food culture and diverse development was an important characteristic of the time. Concerning shelter during this period, a big change in Dihua’s urban style was that some mod-ern buildings co-appeared alongside traditional style buildings, no matter whether it was in the pri-vate space or public space. Moreover, the trans-portation mechanisms also changed during this pe-riod. Roads for cars appeared in Dihua, which opened the gate for Xinjiang’s automobile age. During the Republican era of China, most ur-ban residents in Xijiang’s cities, such as Dihua, kept their traditional customs. However, there were also some changes due to the influence of ex-ternal cultures—these changes were presented as the characteristics of pluralism, diversity and a mixture of the old and new. Multiple ethnic groups concentrated in an area in the eastern zone line of the northern foot of Mount Tianshan. During the process of history, the different ethnic groups formed their own cultures and religious beliefs. In the Republican era of China, the various ethnic groups lived in harmony most of time, and the plu-ralism and inclusiveness of cultures gradually in-creased. Generally speaking, the lives and cus-toms of the Han in Xinjiang cities, such as Dihua during the Republican era of China, were almost same as those of the Han in inland China. On one hand, they kept many of their traditional customs;yet, on the other hand, they also gradually accept-ed some new ones from external cultures. The eth-nic minorities, such as the Uygur and Hui, were deeply influenced by Islamic religious culture. Their religious cultural life exhibited almost no change during the Republican era of China, and they, for the most part, maintained their tradi-tions. During this period, in keeping with the gradual consciousness of ethnic equality, although various ethnic groups kept their own traditions, and they did not reject each others’ traditions, and instead, there was some mutual exchanges among them. This made the urban culture more diversi-fied . Not only were the festivals of the Uyghur pop-ular among themselves, the Han were also invited to participate in them. Moreover, the Han’s festi-vals, especially the Spring Festival, Lantern Festi-val and others, were also gradually accepted by other ethnic groups, and, for example, the Uy-ghur, Hui, Mongolian and Kazakhs, and others all participated in these festivals. In the middle and latter period of the Republican era, the urban cul-ture of Xinjiang exhibited a sense of openness. Within the basis of maintaining their own ethnic cultural traditions, each ethnic group showed an opened attitude to new cultures, and, hence, ur-ban culture became more diversified and rich. During the time when agriculture was more dominant , traditional cities lacked of public cultur-al spaces. Hence, Buddhist monasteries, Taoist temples and mosques became the sites for organi-zing public cultural activities in the urban areas. Since modern times, the public cultural spaces in urban areas have experienced a great change. Parks, as a new mode of public space, began to appear successively in some important cities. At the end of the Republican era of China, the public cultural space of Dihua had been further expand-ed. In 1948, there were four such kind of public cultural sites in Dihua, such as Zhongshan Park, Hongyan Lake, Shuimo River, and Wulabai. In addition to these, the cinema also played a very important role in the new entertainment life of the urban residents of Dihua. In 1944, Dihua had three movie theaters which were run respectively by the government, a businessman and a Russian. Movies had a very direct impact on the residents’ vision and mind, especially on the youth. A new movie sometimes would change some people’s view of life or the rules of their behavior. In short, the Republican era was a dramatic period of change during which China transformed from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial one. Following the changes in politics, economics and culture, people’s material life and cultural life were also changed. Due to the vast territory, and uneven political and economic devel-opment of China, the changes differed in various regions. Xinjiang is a frontier area in western Chi-na. Its communication with the outside world was not so convenient. Hence, compared with the east-ern coastal region, the degree of change in Xin-jiang was lower, and the speed of change was also relatively slower. However, this kind of change ac-cumulated over several decades, so, with time, the changes also became very noticeable. Howev-er , due to the uneven regional development in Xin-jiang, the changes in some cities were slow while in some they were fast. Compared with other places of Xinjiang, the changes along the eastern line of the northern foot of Mount Tianshan, and taking Dihua as the center, were faster and more obvious in the Republican era. On one hand, Di-hua was more strongly influenced by the politics, economics and culture of inland China; and, on the other hand, Dihua was also influenced more di-rectly by the politics, economics and culture of the Soviet Union With the combined role played by the both sources, the material life of the urban resi-dents of Dihua, including clothing, food, shelter and transportation, as well as the customs, and cultural entertainments, changed dramatically. This change was not only similar to that of inland cities, but it also reflected regional characteristics of Xinjiang—the characteristics of ethnicity and di-versity wee more pronounced. In addition, com-pared with Tibet which is also in the western fron-tier of China, the changes brought by the urban modernization in Xinjiang was more dramatic. This was directly connected with Xinjiang’s geographical location, natural climatic conditions, as well as its political, economic and cultural development. Al-though Xinjiang lies in the western frontier of Chi-na, its transportation connections with inland Chi-na and the outside world were more convenient than those in Tibet. During the Republican era, the railways, highways and aviation routes devel-oped relatively well, the Xinjiang’s economic, and cultural connections with both inland China and the Soviet Union were also relatively close. In addi-tion, an important natural condition which also created good conditions for the opening up of Xin-jiang is that the elevation of most areas of Xinjiang is not high—the average elevation is around 1000 meters. Hence, the natural geographical conditions promoted a population flow between Xinjiang and inland China, as well as between Xinjiang and the Soviet Union. Moreover, after the settling of Xin-jiang province at the end of the Qing dynasty, the feeldings and unity with inland China were ensured from an institutional aspect. It was just under such kind of background that the lives of the urban resi-dents living in the eastern zone of the northern foot of Mount Tianshan experienced a dramatic change, and presented a characteristic of ethnic diversity, pluralism and mixture of old and new.     

民国初期回族宗教观念与社会习俗的改良与适应——以民国回族知识分子报刊文章为例

民国初期的回族虽然在经济及社会发展方面仍在较低层次上徘徊,但在思想与文化方面却受到近世以来涌入中国的新思潮、新文化气象以及国内新文化运动的影响,出现了回族新文化运动的热潮,回族知识分子一方面以兴学校、办报刊觉醒民众,另一方面也对回族宗教与社会习俗进行反思与改革,要求回族在应对时代变化中实现自身的社会发展。宗教观念上大力...     

知识·价值·权威——从知识群体权威的视角解析"后传统时代"的乡村整合

传统上,乡村知识群体是社会学研究的一个重要主题,但自20世纪中期以来,由于各方面的原因,这一群体较少有人关注。事实上,这一群体一直在乡村中扮演着重要角色,一方面它与历史上的乡村"士绅"有着渊源性的关系,另一方面,作为国家与乡村、历史与现实的纽带,它对整合乡村、传承文明和推动乡村现代化发挥着重要的作用,而且,它很可能是当前各种传统整合力量均已衰弱背景下探索新整合机制的一个突破口。     

Images of 1812: Ivan Terebenev and the Russian Wartime Lubok

This article explores the articulation of national identity in Russia during the Napoleonic Wars. It examines this expression by focusing on the work of Ivan Terebenev, who produced 48 popular prints known as ‘lubki’ between 1812 and 1815. These images represented one of the first attempts by a Russian artist to redefine Russian national identity in the wake of Napoleon's invasion. By mocking the French emperor and emphasising the strengths of the Russian peasants, Cossacks and the Russian spirit in his images, Terebenev established themes that would continue to appear in prints in future Russian wars. Moreover, this article focuses on the reception of these images in Russia as a means of exploring how Russians who encountered them thought about their Russianness. Terebenev's images of 1812, as this article concludes, left a lasting impression on Russian visual culture and national identity.     

The Great Departure: Rethinking National(ist) Common Sense

This article argues that, in order to overcome the national(ist) common sense that continues to haunt everyday political and scholarly interpretations of mobility, scholars need not diagnose nationalism with greater vigour, but should rather move beyond facile diagnoses of nationalism. The article calls for a meticulous tracing of relations and practices of emplacement and displacement that ubiquitous national(ist) interpretive frames both co-opt and exceed simultaneously. The argument is elaborated on the basis of an analysis of historical articulations of emplacement and displacement in Latvian understandings of ‘the good life’. The article pays particular attention to the ways in which the figure of the migrant has emerged historically as an aberration to Latvian understandings of the good life. It also considers how this ethical configuration is being unsettled through massive labour migration to Western Europe—or ‘the Great Departure’.     

传统的继承与重构:巍山回族圣纪节的当代变迁

圣纪节是云南回族的三大传统节日之一。作为云南回族民间与外界互动较多的节日庆典,圣纪节打造了开放性的公共文化空间。巍山回族圣纪节的当代变迁,是对传统的继承与重构。当代圣纪节通过继承传统,保持了节日的宗教民俗特质和文化连续性;通过对传统与时俱进的文化建构,强化了节日传统,丰富了节日文化,赋予节日宗教、政治、文化多重意义,使圣纪节始终保持生机活力,并成为回族民间社会与国家基层政权成功互动的文化平台和展示窗口,成为中国政府在少数民族宗教事务管理方面的成功典范。     

马福祥与现代回儒对话——兼谈回儒对话的价值与意义

马福祥（1876-1932）,字云亭,回族,甘肃临夏人,与其侄马鸿宾、子马鸿逵执政宁夏长达37年之久,先后出任宁夏护军使、绥远都统、西北边防会边、航空督办、国民党军事委员会委员、故宫博物院理事、青岛特别市市长、安徽省主席、蒙藏委员会委员长等要职,曾得到西北回族军人拥戴,以西北回民领袖身份自居。马福祥一生饱读经书,崇尚儒家文化,同时非常关心回族文化教育事业,为消除清代在回汉民族间造成的创伤及隔阂,提倡回儒对话,成绩显著,成为现代社会著名回族人物。     

Impostors of themselves: performing Jewishness and revitalizing Jewish life among Russian-Jewish immigrants in contemporary Germany

In the early 1990s, Germany officially opened its gates to the immigration of Russian Jews as part of the politics of repentance and restitution for the Holocaust. The immigration of Russian Jews seemed to offer an opportunity to strengthen and revitalize Jewish life in the country, even to restore it to its pre-war scale and condition. For the Russian-Jewish immigrants, that task has proven a difficult challenge. Tracking the stumbling blocks and difficulties of the project of revitalization and recreation of Jewish life, this article moves through different arenas of the immigrants' performance of Jewishness – artistic, ritual, and mundane, individual as well as communal. It examines the situation in which role-playing or ‘passing’ as Jews fails to be perceived as credible and is interpreted as ‘imposture.’     

中国俄罗斯族民俗游初探——以中俄边境小镇室韦为例

内蒙古自治区额尔古纳市室韦俄罗斯民族乡的俄罗斯族,具有俄罗斯人和华人两个族群的文化特点,体质上依然保留着俄罗斯人的某些特征;这种特殊性使其民俗风情成为当地政府开展俄罗斯民俗游活动的资源.