Over the past two decades, the Sihang Warehouse Battle Memorial, a significant heritage site that highlights Shanghai’s wartime resistance during the Second Sino-Japanese War, has been characterized by interesting interactions between conservation and display that warrant scholarly attention. This essay explores the museum-making process and the role that it plays in shaping and disseminating narratives, particularly with regard to how memories of war that lie outside the mainstream are interpreted, exhibited, and communicated. Set against the backdrop of political directives, it examines photographs from historical newspapers, archives, museum collections, and on-site sources spanning from 1937 to the present. The goal is to explore how museums address and present alternative perspectives on war. By analyzing the curatorial decisions and exhibition strategies that have been employed in this context, this paper aims to investigate the complex dynamics that characterize the relationships among memory, politics, and historical representation in the museum context. It investigates how museums navigate the portrayal of individuals and emotions in the process of recounting war by mediating between official narratives and public recollections. In this context, the Memorial is a paradigmatic case that emerges as a product of political reenactment, while the corresponding exhibition narratives represent a departure from political constraints, thereby providing a platform from which the public can engage with and critically assess wartime history. This process involves balancing the remembrance of past conflicts with their legacies.

The archaeological site of Rayy, on the outskirts of Tehran, has been an object of fascination for centuries. Here, three accounts of the site, ignored in previous scholarly literature on the site, are presented in translation with commentary. Spanning the period from 1807 to 1874, the accounts by Hilarion Truilhier, Heinrich Karl Brugsch and Gustav Theodor Fritsch each present different perspectives on the site. In the winter of 1866–67 Ferdinand Méchin conducted excavations at Rayy on behalf of the Musée National de la Céramique in Sèvres which are known only from incidental remarks in a handful of publications. Together, these constitute valuable additions to the historiography of one of the most important archaeological and historical sites in Iran.

A central issue in the study of Hittite landscape monuments lies in the difficulty of connecting textual references with extant archaeological remains. This article examines the KARAKUYU inscription, attributed to the reign of Tutḫaliya IV, with a focus on the compound hieroglyphic form TONITRUS.PURUS.L.417(4). By integrating Anatolian hieroglyphic data with Hittite cuneiform terminology related to sacred spaces, the study explores the possibility that this form refers to a cultic location conceptually aligned with the ḫateššar. In doing so, it proposes a new interpretation of L.417(4) as an ideographic expression of a liminal, ritual space.

This study aims to identify and analyze the survival strategies employed by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (Jemaat Ahmadiyah Indonesia, JAI) in Parakansalak in response to the discrimination they face. It explores how a religion-based minority community adapts under majority pressure while preserving its religious identity. The study adopts a qualitative approach with a case study design. Primary data were collected through indepth interviews with key informants, including leaders of the Parakansalak Ahmadiyya community, the head of the madrasa (Islamic school), and diversity activists. Direct observations were also conducted to examine the community’s religious and social activities. The findings reveal that discrimination against the Parakansalak Ahmadiyya community includes physical acts such as the burning of a mosque, administrative barriers such asthe sealing of worship facilities and renovation bans, and social exclusion exacerbated by stigma resulting from fatwas (Islamic legal opinions) issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI) and the Joint Ministerial Decree (Surat Keputusan Bersama, SKB) of 2008. The Parakansalak Ahmadiyya community implemented strategies to strengthen faith and foster community ties through social programs and peaceful negotiation (voice) in order to counter these pressures. These strategies successfully enhanced internal solidarity and improved social relations, although administrative discrimination continues to constrain their religious freedom. The study highlights the importance of peaceful approaches, including strengthening internal community resilience and collaboration with external actors, such as NGOs and the government, to combat discrimination. By focusing on the local context of Parakansalak, it offers a fresh perspective that reveals the unique dynamics of discrimination and adaptation experienced by minority communities on a micro-scale. It enriches the literature on the survival strategies of religion-based minority communities in Indonesia and presents an adaptable model for similar contexts in other regions.

This article examines the sale of surplus and defective goods from the Imperial Household Department’s Six Imperial Storehouses, alongside the disposal of unserviceable cattle, excess pelts, and flawed porcelain by designated customs offices under the Department’s direct oversight in the Qianlong reign. Through meticulous analysis of the specific earmarking procedures, bookkeeping practices, and remittance mechanisms governing these sales revenues, the study demonstrates that such income both reflected and reinforced the institutionalization of “surplus” tax revenues from certain salt administrations and customs offices—funds specially designated to finance imperial household expenditure. The court designated proceeds from these sales as “surplus” revenues and credited them to public-expense funds overseen by imperial salt administrations and customs offices. These funds, alongside other surplus tax transfers, were subsequently remitted to the Imperial Household Department in Beijing under identical protocols. Contrary to previous scholarship that posited the direct embezzlement of state revenues as the imperial household’s primary financial strategy, this study argues that the Qing imperial household adopted a distinct approach: it systematically allocated specific “surplus” revenue streams to exclusive imperial use, thereby strategically reducing its fiscal dependence on regular state revenues.

Drawing on a reading of Manoranjan Byapari’s Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit (2018), this article analyzes the traumatic experiences of the Bengali Dalit refugees who witnessed the darkest days of the Partition of India in 1947 and post-Partition conditions in the host nation. It examines the literature on refugee migration, trauma, notions of suffering, displacement, and history. Byapari’s autobiographical narrative records many instances of the refugee experience, including his own experiences after migrating to West Bengal from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). A clear contrast emerges between the experiences of upper-caste bhadralok refugees and Bengali Dalit refugees during the Partition, underscoring the markedly differentlived experience of the latter. The article considers the impact of trauma and migration on the lives of Bengali Dalit refugees and their representation in Byapari’s testimonial narrative.

The well-known “Reform Texts” of IriKAgina, king of Lagash/Girsu (24th century BCE), are a key source for reconstructing the social and economic history of Early Mesopotamia. They offer insights through the lens of royal ideology and its legislative and political embodiments. This article presents an edition of three new fragments belonging to this important composition, which were recently discovered at Girsu during surface surveys conducted by the Girsu Project on Tell H and Tell V, and in their surroundings. To assess their historical value, the paper contextualizes the fragments within their broader archaeological and historical settings. It also provides a brief overview of the previously known sources for the “Reform Texts,” highlighting relevant parallels.Despite its fragmentary nature, the new evidence adds details to the textual record, including variant spellings of known legal formulations and a reference to past conflicts with foreign enemies.

Scholars have identified a dichotomy in the cinematic representation of China’s ethnic minorities, which can be divided into “hard” and “soft” categories. “Hard” minorities, primarily but not uniquely from the northern regions, are generally portrayed in films set in harsh environments, which emphasize masculinity, physical strength, and brutality. In contrast, soft minorities, from the southern regions, tend to be depicted in films showcasing tropical landscapes, singing, dancing, and displaying more liberal attitudes towards sexuality. While the distinction between “hard” and “soft” minorities stems from the analysis of Mao-era films, the same analytical categories have also been applied to cinematic representations from later historical times. By analyzing the post-socialist era films Red River Valley (1997) and Mount Awa (2012), which feature the Tibetan and Wa minorities, respectively, this essay reveals an unprecedented blending of “hard” and “soft” themes within individual films, suggesting a departure from earlier filmic representations of minorities. Notwithstanding this shift, it argues that the films analyzed tend to homogenize ethnic minorities. In a manner reminiscent of Mao-era films, the Tibetan and the Wa are depicted as inferior to the majority. While cinematic representation has evolved, the underlying treatment of ethnic minorities remains largely unchanged in mainstream films.

Desmond Kharmawphlang, a well-known Khasi poet and folklorist, expresses deep concern over the preservation of traditional Khasi culture. In his poetry collections Touchstone (1988) and Here (1993), he reflects on the cultural disruptions brought about by British colonization, which he views as a significant threat to the continuity of Khasi traditions. As the community undergoes rapid modernization, Kharmawphlang explores key elements of Khasi life—its history, traditional institutions, and relationship with the natural world. His engagement with these themes is rooted in the politics of cultural heritage, identifying the values and practices that contribute to a shared cultural identity. His poems reflect how ideas and narratives from the past are actively reshaped and preserved. This article examines how Kharmawphlang’s poetry positions every member of the Khasi community as a participant in the construction of a sustainable and culturally grounded future.

This paper examines how Koh Choon Eiow’s 高俊耀 Chronology on Death (Siwang jishi 死亡紀事, 2011) envisions new cultural subjects within the context of transculturation and the Taiwanese experience. Drawing on Mikhail Epstein’s concepts of transculturation and Roberto Esposito’s theories of immunity and community, it explores how the play addresses cultural identification among immigrants, linking existential precarity to the construction of individual subjectivity in Malaysian Chinese and Taiwanese contexts. The paper further analyzes the precarious bodies dramatized on stage to elucidate the turbulent volatility individuals encounter in cross-cultural experiences, as illustrated by Jeff Lewis’s notion of the “language wars” inherent in transculturation. By discussing the catchphrases “ghost island” and “a little certain happiness” that have shaped debates about Taiwan’s future over the past decade, the paper highlights the opportunities and risks for liberation faced by transcultural subjects, suggesting that the apparent dissolution of a fixed identity within a given cultural discourse may, in fact, signal the formation of new subjectivities within alternative political and embodiedframeworks.