Cosmopolitan Culture Research Articles

Simmel on the war for national spirit and cosmopolitan culture

Building and expanding on significant pre-existing scholarship, this article surveys Georg Simmel’s public reactions to the war, concentrating on his most widely circulated statements of the period, before moving on to some further considerations on the significance of the war for Simmel’s sociological and philosophical vision as a whole. At the forefront are three or four main emphases of Simmel’s thinking in the relevant texts. These include the politics of Europe and the nation in Simmel’s thought; themes of death and finitude in modern culture; the West and Western hubris on the stage of world history; and money, law and violence in international affairs at the outset of the 20th century. Though there can be little doubt of the sheer virulence of Simmel’s and other German writers’ reaction to the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, the war’s profoundly transformative experience could move Simmel gradually to embrace another, more reasoned and self-reflective form of salient struggle with ‘the West’ and Western ‘civilization’ in European relations, disabused of nationalistic anguish and resentment.

Hong Kong Poets and the Making of a Sinophone Literary Genre

Hong Kong has always existed on the margins of history. Interestingly, Hong Kong’s liminal status also made it a cosmopolitan space for transcultural exchanges between Chinese and Western worlds throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Despite its unique position vis-à-vis China and the West, however, Hong Kong has long been dismissed as lacking cultural gravitas. As such, Hong Kong culture finds itself self-consciously confronting a perennial crisis: as the People’s Republic of China gains increasing recognition in the canons of world literature, Hong Kong’s cosmopolitan culture is indirectly side-lined in the process. Meanwhile, Hong Kong literature is routinely underrepresented in the canons of modern Chinese literature. Anthologies of modern Chinese poetry and poetry research, for instance, scarcely include Hong Kong poets, if at all. Given this context, this essay seeks to rearticulate the place of Hong Kong in modern Chinese literary history. More specifically, it traces the emergence of Hong Kong poetry as a cosmopolitan literary genre in the latter half of the twentieth century. The goals are threefold: to historicise the confluence of Chinese and Western literary traditions in the city of Hong Kong; to locate specific intersections of identity, language, and politics in the production of Hong Kong poetry; and to introduce biographical and bibliographical data on notable Hong Kong poets.

Exploring Universality and Specificity in Poetry Translation: A Review of Translating Classical Chinese Poetry into World Literature: Burton Watson’s Translation as a Case

Translation, as a means of cross-cultural communication, helps ancient classical Chinese poetry with abundant cultural connotations to enter the world. Scholar Lin Jiaxin’s latest work “Translating Classical Chinese Poetry into World Literature: Burton Watson’s Translation as a Case” expresses readers with the specific process. This book has an innovative perspective, presenting readers with an interactive mechanism between national literature and world literature through both macro and micro perspectives. It promotes the construction of a theoretical framework for literary translation from the perspective of world literature, promotes the study of translators, and provides a valuable cultural promotion model for cultural translation activities. It is a rare academic literature and cultural book. This review aims to explore the cosmopolitan culture and local identity of poetry translation by reviewing the latest work of scholar Lin Jiaxin.

Translation Activities at Dar al-`ilm (The House of Knowledge) or Dar al-Tarjamah (The House of Translation) in Gondesaphur and the Influence of Translations on the Persian and Arab World

If the Alexandrian school was an important centre of culture and science in the Antique Age, the Gondesaphur Academy (or School) was the most important intellectual centre in the Medieval Age because the city of Gondesaphur, located in the south-west Iran in Khuzestan Province, had a particular importance as a city and as a centre of cosmopolitan culture. Between the fifth and ninth centuries, Gondesaphur became a centre of translations of classics and works on medicine, astronomy, astrology and other fields. Important works, especially on medicine, were translated from Sanskrit and Greek into Pahlawi, and then into Arabic at Dar al-‘ilm (The House of Knowledge) or Dar al-Tarjamah (The House of Translation) in Gondesaphur and these translations influenced the Persian and Arab world and science a lot. The translations of the Panchatantra, an Indian collection of stories; Kalila wa Demna and the Almagest of Ptolemy can be cited as some important works done in Gonesaphur. The aim of this study is to give information about the Gondesaphur Academy (or School), to examine the translation activities in Gondesaphur and the influence of these translations on the Persian and Arab world.

Role of Electronic Media in The Globalization Of Culture

Human history depicts that man always endeavored to build relations with other human beings as well as societies. Because of technological advancement and improvements in means of communication, the speed to build relationships with other nations or people has been increased which gives birth to globalization. Advanced technologies of means of communication for example internet and satellite television have joined the people globally. Media is playing a role in the emergence of global culture and urban regions of the world have a resemblance and cosmopolitan culture is emerging. The whole world has been transformed into a global village. The media process of homogenizing the World Cultures is continuing. This study revolves around the media as an agent of globalization of culture. This research explores how media has played a role in the transformation of world cultures into global cultures. The study is qualitative in nature so, qualitative methods are used for data collection. It is analytical and descriptive in nature. For the analysis of data, analytical model is used. Secondary data is used for research. A different point of view is taken from previous studies. This technique is supported to construct an objective approach to the problem and to derive a conclusion to give recommendations.

Place on Parade: Consumerism and Disidentification in the Parade Genre

Abstract The American parade has been investigated in terms of how it transforms urban streets into a place where collective memory and identity are consolidated along lines of class, race, ethnicity, and gender (Ryan; Roach). However, the role of the rural parade has heretofore seen little critical analysis. Since any conception of the urban relies on the rural as a foil, we wonder how the American parade, existing in both urban and rural landscapes, promotes and challenges the unchecked expansion of cosmopolitan culture and dominant ideology. This article examines how the parade genre functions as a civic ritual that seeks to unite individuals through nationalism and consumerism, yet may paradoxically become a stage for political dissent. By juxtaposing performances from the Bread and Puppet Theater at the Fourth of July Celebration in the rural town of Cabot, Vermont, and Tony Sarg’s “upside-down marionettes” in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, I theorize how conventions of the parade work to inculcate spectators with a sense of group identity. I argue that these same conventions lay the foundation for political dissent, via a process that José Muñoz calls disidentification, to propose (and at times enact) alternatives to dominant ideology.

London: diversity and renewal over two millennia

ABSTRACT Ever since its foundation by the Romans in the first century AD, London has been distinct from other cities within the UK politically, commercially, and socio-culturally, reaching its apogee in the mid-nineteenth century but recreating itself anew in the late twentieth century. Migration has played a major role in this story ever since its foundation, both with internal migration from other parts of the British Isles and with international migration especially from other parts of the Roman and subsequently British empires. In the post-war period, this migration helped revive the inner city and contributed to the emergence of a cosmopolitan political culture. However, this cosmopolitan culture coexists alongside continuing racism and inequality.

Turkey’s Syrian Refugees Dilemma between the Triangle of Violence

This paper studies the worsening relations between the Syrian refugees and the citizens of Turkey and argues that the current state of relations can be understood as an example of the renowned pacifist Johann Galtung’s negative peace concept. While no military dispute exists in Turkey, the relationship between refugees and the people of Turkey lacks the behaviour, institutions, and organizations sine qua non (essential) to make and survive the peace that Galtung identifies as positive peace. Turkey is not a kind of advanced democracy with cosmopolitan culture. Maintaining this kind of all-embracing peace in Turkey requires a comprehensive settlement including efforts to get the international community to be involved more, avoiding political rhetoric that securitizes the issue, furthering training and education programs for the orientation of the refugees, clarifying the statute of the refugees and preparing the ground for the return of refugees to their country, if possible.

Cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitics? The roles of university elites in the internationalisation of Indonesian higher education

ABSTRACT This article examines the roles of university elites in enhancing internationalisation agenda in Indonesian higher education. This is done by exploring the relationship between internationalisation and cosmopolitanism. Drawing from two stages of field studies of the internationalisation of Indonesian universities, interviews with key correspondents in the sector, and an analysis of related documents, I argue that there is a tension between the way the university elites see themselves as the agents of cosmopolitan culture and the way they are positioned as intermediaries of global interest and agenda. Cosmopolitan culture that appears to be symbolic, universal, and democratic as represented by the university elites belies the instrumental purpose of internationalisation that yokes higher education into the global marketplace. A shift from mere cosmopolitanism to cosmopolitics would equip the university elites with the analytical tools of global geopolitics regarding the internationalisation of higher education.

Cardiff and the contentious landscapes of postindustrial, urban, and transnational memory work

Since Cardiff became the Welsh capital in 1955 and the subsequent referendum placed the new Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff Bay, the city’s grasp on a Welsh national narrative has only intensified. This paper approaches the various agents of memory work around the city through a landscape analysis to better understand the processes of Welsh memory at work in Cardiff. Furthermore, it focuses on Butetown, the historically multicultural docklands community of Cardiff, and its relationship with the old urban and civic core of the city and the new developments of Cardiff Bay. Butetown fuelled the coal industry which propelled Cardiff towards the wealthy capital and colonial enclave it is today yet continues to be excluded from Welsh national narratives. Redevelopment and gentrification further squeeze Butetown into an ever-smaller core of what it once was. This research indicates that while this resilient cosmopolitan culture continues in many forms, the context of (the) capital continues to complicate Cardiff and its shifting relationship with the history and culture of Welsh identity. By employing a flexible landscape analysis towards historical and ongoing urban development, the memory at work in cultural and political urban landscapes emerges amongst broader considerations of national identity.

PROBLEMS OF REGIONAL IDENTITY IN CENTRAL ASIA: EU EXPERIENCE

In the era of globalization, the most diverse processes of modern life are observed through the prism of ‘identity crisis’ and ‘search for identity. In recent years, the discussion of identity problems has become the main direction of global studies. Some criticize this process and consider that the globalization requires a global, cosmopolitan culture with blurring national identities. Others believe that global interdependence leads to a new level of regional cooperation by giving opportunities and perspectives. In this article the question arose as whether Central Asia will develop regional identity absorbing suitable from European experience or postpone this idea.

The commercialisation of Bengali food: insights into caste, class and commensality in colonial Bengal

ABSTRACT This article argues that the failure of early twentieth-century novelistic, autobiographical and periodical literature to acknowledge or celebrate the novelty and social significance of the commercialisation of Bengali food reflected the deeply rooted caste and class prejudices underlying the dietary choices and literary styles of the Bengali bhadralok (educated middle class). As late as the 1970s, eminent Bengali littérateurs lamented the non-availability of ready-to-eat Bengali food, notwithstanding the fact that a chain of new public eateries called Pice hotels had been serving home-style Bengali food since the 1920s. The gastronomic revolution ushered in by these eateries was more or less ignored in contemporary print literature, with the notable exception of Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay’s celebrated novel, Adarsha Hindu Hotel, written in 1940. The failure of Bengali writers to acknowledge the pioneering role of Pice hotels in offering a socially inclusive dining experience in Bengal contrasted with their effusive celebration of the new culinary experiments that created a cosmopolitan eating culture of public dining in the colonial city of Calcutta at the turn of the twentieth century.

Cultural or Film Tourism? An analysis comparing Hobbiton (New Zealand) and Daguanyuan (China)

The study compares two destinations associated with literature and films. These are Daguanyuan in Beijing, China, and Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand. Both have proven to be enduring tourist attractions. Both are based on popular novels, namely Dream of the Red Mansions and The Lord of the Rings respectively. Both novels have attracted large audiences for television series or films. The question examined in the paper is whether, while both sites reflect different cultures, do they represent a form of tourism described in Asian academic literature as “contents tourism”. The study finds similarities in the reasons given for visits by tourists, which gives credence to concepts of a cosmopolitan or global culture, but context is thought to be important. The study explores the notion of “contents tourism” but concludes that this may only apply to specific circumstances and to highly committed “fans” (as in Otaku pilgrimage), and there is not yet a need to abandon older notions of “film tourism”. Keywords: Contents tourism, film tourism, globalization, interpretation, culture.

A Study on Location Strategy and Trade Area Analysis of Top 10 Malls of Western Suburbs of Mumbai

Mumbai is the financial capital of the country and home to important financial institutions and Multinational companies. The City has a rich cosmopolitan culture. it is also the capital of entertainment industry and city of dreams. These are enough reasons for the growth of organized retail and real estate development here. It is the capital of Maharashtra & the commercial capital of India & is one of the most populous cities of the world. It has a per capita income of more than 2 lakh which is over three times the rest of India. It homes a large middle class, upper middle class, and the rich class of the country. Retail sector is one of the booming sectors of the city in last 20 years a lot of Mall have come up and the people of Mumbai are adapting to the mall culture. Mall is usually a large, enclosed area, a mercantile establishment consisting of a carefully landscaped complex of shops representing leading merchandisers; usually includes restaurants and a convenient parking area. The word shopping mall is made up of two words: shopping and mall. Shopping can be defined as the activity that involves the exchange of goods and services for money. According to Kuria (1975). Lousberg (2009) defines shopping malls as “premises selling general merchandise or fashion related goods. They are enclosed inward facing stores, connected by a common walkway. Parking surrounds the outside perimeters.” A shopping mall can therefore be defined as a complex that encompasses several retail stores, restaurants and other businesses with a common interest in soliciting sales. The complex is put up and managed as a single unit. Shopping malls offer private, off-street parking facilities

“The Zhuangzi and the Classic of Poetry”

“The Zhuangzi and the Classic of Poetry” Michael Hunter Yale University, Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures mick.hunter@yale.edu Few studies of the Zhuangzi 莊子 bother even to mention the Classic of Poetry (Shijing 詩經), no doubt because the Zhuangzi itself so rarely mentions Shi 詩 poetry.1 When it does mention them, the Zhuangzi treats the Shi primarily as objects of ru 儒 learning, a favorite punching bag.2 So when a spurious Shi is quoted in chapter 26, it isn’t out of respect for its authority: Some ru were using the Poetry and rituals to rob graves. The senior ru announced, “In the east, the risen sun, / How does the work proceed—almost done?” The junior ru said, “Robe and jacket still untied, / The mouth has got a pearl inside. As we all know, the Poetry has it, ‘Rustle-rustling is the grain, / Growing on the hill-steep. If in life you are too cheap, / How in death a pearl to keep?’” With that he pushed the hair back from the corpse’s face and patted down its beard while the senior ru with a metal chisel pulled back the cheeks and slowly separated the jaws so as not to damage the pearl inside.3 There isn’t a more savage parody in all of early Chinese literature. If the Shi could be manipulated so cynically, then they would seem to have little substance of their own as far as the Zhuangzi’s authors were concerned. 2 Nevertheless, there are reasons to reject this impression. As the most cited and referenced texts in transmitted and excavated sources from the Warring States through the Western Han, the Shi were the literary linchpin of the elite cosmopolitan culture of the Warring States period and, eventually, the early empire. Seemingly every year we hear of new Shi texts being discovered in tombs (or being looted and purchased on the antiquities market)—for example, the Shi material found among 400 bamboo strips excavated by the Jingzhou 荊州 Museum in 2014-2015 from Xiajiatai 夏嘉台 tomb M106.4 Early sources testify to the Shi’s importance in numerous ways, as when the Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan 左傳) shows elites from across the Central States quoting and decoding the Shi on diplomatic occasions, or when the Qin First Emperor’s stele inscriptions lift whole lines from the Shi.5 When the Kongzi 孔子 (Confucius; trad. 551–479 BCE) of Analects (Lunyu 論語) 16/13 tells his son, “if you don’t learn the Shi, you’ll have no way to speak,” he isn’t exaggerating.6 The Shi were the sine qua non of the early Chinese literary and intellectual scene. Modern scholars of early Chinese thought have mapped all sorts of connections between the Zhuangzi and other self-evidently philosophical works. But in an elite culture defined in part by its participants’ fluency in the Shi, we should also ask how Shi poetry might have conditioned its composition and reception.7 To that end, this paper ventures a Shi-inflected reading of two key features of the Zhuangzi. The first section tackles the enigmatic opening of chapter one, “Free-and-Easy Wandering” (Xiaoyao you 逍遙遊). I argue that the three fantastical vignettes about colossal fish and birds expose the limitations of the Shi imaginary and disrupt the operations of Shi poetics. 3 Second, I read the themes of “wandering” (you 遊) and “lodging” (yu 寓) as counterpoints to the Shi obsession with homeward, ruler-centric movements. Whether the Zhuangzi’s authors definitely knew a Shijing text like ours or were simply working within a cultural milieu influenced by Shi-style thinking is impossible to say. Either way, placing the Shi in conversation with the Zhuangzi opens up new perspectives on the development of Zhuangzian thought. Parodying the Shi If there is a work of ancient literature with a more bizarre opening than “Free-and-easy Wandering,” I’m not aware of it: In the northern darkness is a fish named Kun. It isn’t known how many thousands of li big it is. It transforms and becomes a bird named Peng. It isn’t known how many thousands of li across its back is. It rouses itself and takes flight, its wings like...

Globalization in Egypt in Historical Context: “Globalization, Transnational Mobilities, and the Local in Ancient Egypt”

The historical beginnings of globalization are still being debated. Though many experts believe globalization began in the modern period, others believe it has a lengthy history. Globalization is as old as humanity. Since the dawn of recorded history, major characters such as emperors, explorers, traders, and preachers have traveled in an attempt to grow their political authority, better their standard of living, convert their beliefs, or simply satisfy human curiosity. They traded four major ingredients through varied contacts, experiences, and collisions: people, thoughts, money, and resources. This paper aims to describe the historical process of development and demonstrate that globalization is not a new phenomenon, but rather as old as civilization itself. With each material, scientific, and technological advancement, the velocity of change increased, causing globalization to spread to new and distant locations. This article, which is part of a series named “Globalization in Egypt in a Historical Context”(1-6), discusses globalization in ancient Egypt. Globalization has existed in Old Egypt since the establishment of economic relations between it and the ancient near world, when commercialized urban centers were predominantly oriented around the axis of Egyptian culture, as well as a wide range from Egypt to cities such as Alexandria, Athens, and others. During that time, trade was common, and the concept of cosmopolitan culture evolved for the first time. Egypt, with its lengthy and complicated population history, provides an ideal location for studying population movements. This article investigates key shifts in global relations beginning in 3000 CE and identifies the major turning moments that hastened the progress of globalization inside ancient Egypt.

Mural as public art in urban fabric: An attempt to link configurational approach to perceptual morphology

The intrinsic relationship between art and the public has changed as public art has greater visibility in contemporary urban space. Especially following the growing interest in placemaking in spatial planning and design, many cities in different countries tend to experience an unprecedented transformation of urban space displaying various modes of artistic performances open for the public. As a visual art, the mural could be considered one of the leading creative activities in the cities' public domain. The ever-increasing popularity of murals as public artwork made the local governments tend to introduce some programs to steer the performance of the art within the very spatial condition of the city fabric. Along with its vivid cosmopolitan culture, Istanbul has performed as the cultural hub of the contemporary arts located both indoor (the various size of galleries) and the city's outdoor spaces. As one of the central neighborhoods in Kadıköy district in İstanbul, Yeldeğirmeni, represents a very relevant context to investigate the issue public art in urban space. Having accommodated an international mural festival in 2012, the district has turned into an experimental site for various mural practices. The extent of the art in the urban space calls for morphological research to test the perceptual performance of the artwork in terms of the characteristics of the physical fabric in which the murals locate. The paper, in this context, conducts a spatial analysis focusing on network integration, visibility, and townscape characteristics of the neighborhood fabric. The research findings are correlated with the level of recognition of the murals by the public to reveal the conditional relationship between the spatial morphology and the perceptional capacity of the murals as public art.

Does cosmopolitan culture weaken ethnic and regional diversity: contraceptive behaviours of women in Istanbul, Turkey

Objective The primary aim of the study was to examine the relationship between self-reported ethnic identity, region of birth and contraceptive use, in Istanbul, Turkey. Methods Cross-sectional data from a random sample of 3038 married women of reproductive age living in two urban districts of Istanbul were used in a series of logistic regression models to assess key relationships. Results Kurdish ethnic minority women were less likely than Turkish ethnic majority women to use traditional contraceptive methods over no method (relative risk ratio [RRR] 0.69; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.50, 0.96). However, there were no significant differences between ethnicities (i.e., Turkish, Kurdish and other) and modern method use. Among Turkish women, those born in regions farther away from the western region were more likely to use traditional methods (RRRnorthern 2.06; 95% CI 1.31, 3.22). Conclusion While Kurdish ethnic minority women were less likely to use traditional methods, compared with Turkish ethnic majority women, the difference might have been due to the length of time living in a neighbourhood. Regional variations in contraceptive use were concentrated only among Turkish ethnic majority women and for traditional methods. Regional norms of traditional method use may be a barrier to modern contraceptive use in Turkey.

Literature as a Matter of Policy

Literature as a Matter of Policy

Picturing the River’s Racial Ecologies in Colonial Panamá

This article explores the local histories and ecological knowledge embedded within a Spanish print of enslaved, Afro-descendant boatmen charting a wooden vessel up the Chagres River across the Isthmus of Panamá. Produced for a 1748 travelogue by the Spanish scientists Antonio de Ulloa and Jorge Juan, the image reflects a preoccupation with tropical ecologies, where enslaved persons are incidental. Drawing from recent scholarship by Marixa Lasso, Tiffany Lethabo King, Katherine McKittrick, and Kevin Dawson, I argue that the image makes visible how enslaved and free Afro-descendants developed a distinct cosmopolitan culture connected to intimate ecological knowledge of the river. By focusing critical attention away from the print’s Spanish manufacture to the racial ecologies of the Chagres, I aim to restore art historical visibility to eighteenth-century Panamá and Central America, a region routinely excised from studies of colonial Latin American art.