Cultural Reform Research Articles

The Homiliary of Paul the Deacon: Religious and Cultural Reform in Carolingian Europe. By Zachary Guiliano. Sermo Studies on Patristic, Medieval, and Reformation Sermons and Preaching. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. 341 pp. €90,00 hardcover.

The Homiliary of Paul the Deacon: Religious and Cultural Reform in Carolingian Europe. By Zachary Guiliano. Sermo Studies on Patristic, Medieval, and Reformation Sermons and Preaching. Turnhout: Brepols, 2021. 341 pp. €90,00 hardcover. - Volume 91 Issue 2

Modernizing Composition: Sinhala Song, Poetry, and Politics in Twentieth- Century Sri Lanka by Garrett M. Field

Reviewed by: Modernizing Composition: Sinhala Song, Poetry, and Politics in Twentieth- Century Sri Lanka by Garrett M. Field Eshantha Peiris (bio) Modernizing Composition: Sinhala Song, Poetry, and Politics in Twentieth- Century Sri Lanka. Garrett M. Field. South Asia across the Disciplines. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. xii + 213 pp., b&w illustrations, music, bibliography, index. ISBN: 9780520294714 (paperback), $34.95. Garrett Field’s monograph Modernizing Composition: Sinhala Song, Poetry, and Politics in Twentieth- Century Sri Lanka is a study of Sinhala- language song and poetry from 1900 to 1964 that examines how male songwriters and poets of Sinhalese ethnicity modernized their creative output in response to colonial and postcolonial formations. This broad focus constitutes an attempt to bridge the artificial compartmentalization in Western academia that relegates the study of South Asian musics to ethnomusicology and the study of texts to South Asian studies. While many Sinhala speakers will be familiar with the examples and narratives discussed in the book—given their inclusion in the Sri Lankan national secondary- school curriculum—Field moves beyond the isolationist tendencies common in Sri Lanka studies to consider the implications of these cultural histories for interpretating the historical rise of nation- states around the world. The arguments made in this book also serve to nuance some of the foundational theories of postcolonial studies and to bring Western academic insights into dialogue with Sinhala scholarly exegeses. Field’s fluency in spoken and written Sinhala makes his textual analyses rich for both specialists and general readers. Prior to the twentieth century, Sinhala poetry in Sri Lanka was presented to the public through sung performance, similar to other poetic/literary traditions found across the premodern world. Memorization of Sinhala verses was enabled by standard poetic meters and rhyme schemes, which in different eras responded to a variety of poetic conventions rooted in the scriptural language traditions of Sanskrit and Pali (Kulatillake 1976). Among the many labels associated with historical Sinhala poetry, the terms gī and sindu are still used today, referring to what we might now call “song.” As noted in Modernizing Composition, practical distinctions between song (as something sung and heard) and poetry (as something written and silently read) can be traced to the global onset of recorded gramophone song at the turn of the twentieth century (2017, 6). [End Page 144] Modernizing Composition progresses chronologically, with part 1 covering the end of the colonial period (1900–1948) and part 2 the years following political independence (1948–64). Although the analyzed texts are contextualized within the broader contexts of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist movements in Sri Lanka, Field is careful not to attribute or reduce the motivations of songwriters and poets to a linear evolution of nationalist discourses, instead considering (in addition to nationalism) the impact of other factors that might have inspired composition—for example, commercialism, cosmopolitan connections within South Asia and the British Empire, the growth of the recording and film industries, and biographical details of social actors. Chapter 1 discusses theater songs, gramophone songs, and moralistic poetry from the early twentieth century, framing them in terms of Partha Chatterjee’s three- stage theory of anticolonial nationalist thought (1986)—departure, maneuver, and arrival—and contextualizing them as part of the Aryan- Sinhalese movement of Buddhist revivalism that had roots in nineteenth- century Orientalist ideologies. Chapter 2 examines radio songs and social commentary poems from the 1940s that were informed by the nationalist movement of Sinhala linguistic purism known as the Hela Havula. This history is framed in terms of Chatterjee’s theory of the “inner domain” (1993), which refers to the cultural reform movements that preceded anticolonial political action. In contrast to Chatterjee, Field tries in chapter 1 to account more for the relationship between cultural nationalism and cultural commodities, and in chapter 2 argues that “inner domains” are not always created in relation to Western hegemony, using the example of how the Hela Havula movement arose in opposition to the cultural dominance of North India. Chatterjee is admittedly a slippery target given how his own ideas have evolved in the decades since his pioneering theories of postcolonialism. But Field’s argument that postcolonial studies needs to account for social phenomena beyond the India- Britain...

K Viswanath’s Telugu Films- Tools of Gandhian Reform of Caste and Culture and Revival of Classicism and Brahminism

K Viswanath’s Telugu Films- Tools of Gandhian Reform of Caste and Culture and Revival of Classicism and Brahminism

What Do You Think About Change? The Influence of RMC Students’ Conformity to Masculine Norms and Social Dominance Orientation on Embracing Culture Change in the Canadian Armed Forces

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has recently committed to improving its organizational culture after several sexual misconduct allegations were made against its senior leaders (Government of Canada, 2021). Currently, the general goal of cultural reform has been frequently mentioned and used as a notion to inspire CAF members to look forward to the prospective transformations that will come about (Eyre, 2021). On the contrary, research in this area suggests that the military’s institutionalization of uncompromising masculine standards may be an obstacle in the way of true ‘culture change’ (Pendlebury, 2020; Richard & Molloy, 2020). This study evaluated whether service members’ openness to the culture change in the CAF is hindered by their personal endorsement of masculine norms and a dominant social worldview. Military students (n = 145) at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) took part in this research by completing measures of Social Dominance Orientation, Masculinity, and Attitudes towards the CAF culture change. The results of an indirect effects analysis indicated that higher conformity to masculine norms was associated with less acceptance toward the CAF’s movement towards culture reform, which was explained by one’s preference for out-group superiority and inequality. These findings suggest that achieving culture change is not only a matter of ending sexual misconduct, but perhaps more importantly, involves challenging the implicit attitudes of hyper-masculinity and social dominance in the Canadian military.
 Keywords: masculine conformity, hegemonic masculinity, masculine norms, social dominance orientation, culture change, military, Canadian Armed Forces

In Conversation With Dr. Hisham Altalib

In Conversation With Dr. Hisham Altalib about the Legacy of Professor AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman Alyaa Ebbiary and Dr. Hisham Altalib introduction This interview article is a slight departure in form from those in previous issues of JEMS. Thus far we have used this section as a space to explore the thought and work of academic educationalists who work on research about, or in, the Muslim world, with a view to broadening intellectual debates on matters of interest to our readership. In this issue we interview Dr. Hisham Altalib, a cofounder of IIIT—the organization that inspired this journal—and a mentee-friend of the late Prof. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, who is memorialized in this issue. Both these personalities were pivotal in the institutionalization of new Islamic research and education initiatives over the last 50 years, and the interview gives us an insight into the influence of the late AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, in particular. Dr. Hisham Altalib (b. 1940) is the current president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). He graduated in 1962 with a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Liverpool University, UK, and after serving in Iraq in the petroleum industry, he pursued graduate studies in electrical engineering at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, where he obtained his M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1974). Throughout his student career, he was active in Islamic work, first in the UK and then in North America. He has continued his advocacy for Islam and Muslims as an activist and author to this day. He established the Leadership Training Department of the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA) and became its first full-time director, serving from 1975 to 1977. He held several leadership positions in Islamic organizations, such as Secretary-General of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations [End Page 132] (IIFSO), in 1976. He was a founding member and a director of the SAAR Foundation, from 1983 to 1995, and he was also a founding member of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981. Dr. Altalib has conducted many leadership training camps and seminars in the United States and abroad. His published works include Training Guide for Islamic Workers; Inviting to Islam: Ethics of Engagement; and Parent-Child Relations: A Guide for Raising Children (coauthored with AbdulHamid AbuSulayman and Omar Altalib; 2013). He is a father and grandfather. Dr. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman (1936–2021) was a scholar, activist, educationalist, and institution builder. His varied career spanned 60 years, and he will be remembered as a leading intellectual and creative thinker in the Muslim world. He obtained a B.A. in Commerce from the University of Cairo (1959), an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Cairo (1963), and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania (1973). He held various positions throughout his career, including founding member and President of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) in the United States and Canada (1972); Secretary-General, World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1973–1982); Chairperson, Department of Political Science at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1982–1984); and Rector, International Islamic University (IIU), Malaysia (1988–1999). He was instrumental in organizing many international academic conferences and seminars. He was concerned with the alarming condition of Muslims in the modern world and heavily invested in reform on a number of levels. His many books include The Islamic Theory of International Relations: New Directions for Islamic Methodology and Thought; Crisis in the Muslim Mind; Revitalizing Higher Education in the Muslim World; The Qur'anic Worldview: A Springboard for Cultural Reform; and Parent-Child Relations: A Guide for Raising Children (coauthored with Hisham Altalib and Omar Altalib). He is survived by his wife, five children, and many grandchildren. Alyaa Ebbiary: You have had a varied career and worked in very different fields. How would you describe yourself and what you do? As an academic, scholar, writer, activist, educationalist, trainer, or otherwise? Hisham Altalib: I am an electrical engineer who also became an activist, trainer, writer, businessman, and educationalist. I became active in "Islamic work" (faith-inspired activism and community organizing) when I was growing up in Iraq. This...

Reformasi Kelembagaan Unit Pengawas Internal: Mengatasi Desentralisasi Korupsi

Decentralization has led to the shift of corruption to the local level, as evidenced by number of corruption cases at the local governments. The phenomenon indicates the ineffectiveness of the local government's internal audit institutions that should play a role in preventing corruption. This study aims to analyze institutional reforms in the public sector’s internal audit system to effectively prevent the decentralization of corruption. Study of the literature, from previous theories and research, is applied as research methodology. The study found that the reforms, carried out by the internal audit institution to effectively prevent the decentralization of corruption, were carried out through regulatory reform, leadership reform, cultural reform, meritocracy reform and participation reform. This research contributes to the development of theory to strengthen the alignment of public management reforms, in terms of control through the effectiveness of the government's internal audit institutions, and provides input to optimize the duties and functions of the institutions to prevent corruption.

Фойдаланувчиларга кутубхона-ахборот хизмати кўрсатишда кутубхоначининг етакчилик роли

The training of specialist librarians working in library and information institutions requires a deep mastery of theoretical and practical knowledge and active participation in the socio-economic, cultural and spiritual reforms ongoing in our country. Library and information activities are closely related to two factors: the object-reader and the product of the printed publication. The librarian, on the one hand, provides readers with publishing products, on the other hand, provides information about publications and provides reader culture, recommends studying and analyzing printed publications. All of the above requires from the librarian deep erudition, knowledge in the field of library and information activities.

Political, Economical and Cultural Reforms in the Government of Amir Sher Ali Khan

The second rule of Amir Sher Ali Khan (1868-1878) has a special place in the contemporary history of Afghanistan. During this period, new features of the political, administrative, and cultural system were introduced, new institutions were established in the country, and efforts were made to flourish civilization. He is one of the most broad-minded kings in the modern history of Afghanistan who has done his best for the development of Afghanistan. This article discusses the political, social, and cultural reforms of the second sovereignty of Amir Sher Ali Khan to create a sequence of historical events and take a chronological form, therefore, before his rule and especially; during the reign of his father Amir Dost Mohammad Khan, several reform programs have been briefly discussed, which were the base for his reform’s strategy.
 In the conclusion of this article, we can reach to the significant political, social, a cultural reform of Amir Shir Ali Khan to the administration of new Afghanistan. During the period, he faced to a series of internal problems and a big game played between the Russian and British colonial circles and it didn’t allow him to carry out all his plans. The British invaded Afghanistan for the second time and ended its rule, and affected the designed programs for flourishing the new civilization. Afghanistan was left behind in the caravan of global progress.

The Mahdavī Society: The Rise of Millennialism in Iran as the Cultural Outcome of Social Movements (2000–2016)

This study asks questions about the understudied cultural, especially discursive, consequences of social movements at large, and rightist movements in particular. Focusing on the discursive repertoire of the Islamist rightist movement in Iran (known as principlism), I demonstrate that in response to the liberal Reform Movement (1997–2005), the principlist groups in Iran weaponized a millennial language against liberal reformists beginning in the early 2000s. The institutionalization of the Islamist principlist movement in 2005 mainstreamed this politicized language, giving rise to a new cultural reform politics in the country known under Aḥmadīnizhād as the Mahdavī discourse (millennialism). That is, the Mahdavī discourse represented a new cultural reconfiguration, or “cultural engineering,” in state politics. However, the Green Movement of 2009 as well as the Arab uprisings divided the unified Mahdavī discourse within the principlist movement into divergent millennial discourses. Drawing on millennial-oriented news stories and events from the early 2000s until the rise of the self-identified Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, I highlight the millennial discourses, as well as the Islamist-centered cultural engineering project, as the discursive outcomes of social movements.

Leaders and Universities - Revelations of Charismatic Presidents

Contemporary China is the China of reform, and without reform, the development and prosperity of well-established institutions, politics, and culture will be impossible. Universities, as critical institutions that teach, educate, and lead society, require continuous reform in the face of fierce international competition and the relentless push of multicultural waves. In retrospect, a university’s success is inextricably linked to its “famous teachers” and “famous presidents.” While the direction of development varies by university and the reforms implemented by university presidents vary as well, there are some commonalities in presidents’ leadership models that can be learned. The purpose of this paper is to examine the similarities between the charismatic figures represented by Cai Yuanpei and the significant role they played in the reform and development of universities, in order to provide useful inspiration for the reform of contemporary university presidents.

Beyond Reassurance: The Reputational Effect of Cultural Reforms in Peace Agreements

AbstractWe explore whether including cultural reforms in an intra-state peace accord facilitates its success. We distinguish between accommodationist and integrationist cultural provisions and employ a mixed research method combining negative binomial regression on a data set of all intra-state political agreements concluded between 1989 and 2017, and an in-depth analysis of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement for Northern Ireland. We recognize the important reassuring effect of accommodationist cultural reforms in separatist conflicts. However, we also find that they have an important and hitherto overlooked reputational effect across all conflict types. By enhancing the reputation of negotiating leaders, accommodationist cultural provisions contribute to ending violence by preventing leadership challenges, rebel fragmentation and remobilization across all civil conflicts. By the same logic, and despite the overwhelming emphasis of peace agreements on integrationist cultural initiatives, integrationist cultural reforms problematize leaders' ability to commit to pacts and to ensure compliance among their rank and file.

The Homiliary of Paul the Deacon: Religious and Cultural Reform in Carolingian Europe by Zachary Guiliano

Reviewed by: The Homiliary of Paul the Deacon: Religious and Cultural Reform in Carolingian Europe by Zachary Guiliano Rod Thomson Guiliano, Zachary, The Homiliary of Paul the Deacon: Religious and Cultural Reform in Carolingian Europe (Studies on Patristic, Medieval and Reformation Sermons and Preaching, 16), Turnhout, Brepols, 2021; hardback; pp. 339; 1 b/w, 3 colour illustrations, 13 b/w tables, 2 b/w line art; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503577913. This is a model of what a monograph should be. It is a groundbreaking, seductively written introduction to what the author demonstrates to be a text of the first and widest importance (‘The homiliary is a monument in the history of Europe and the world, eminently worthy of further study’, p. 249). Compiled a few years before 800 ce, at Charlemagne’s order, Paul the Deacon’s Homiliary, on the evidence of the surviving copies alone, was to become one of the most widely distributed and most influential liturgical books of medieval Europe. In his first chapter, Dr Guiliano establishes the content of the original text, formerly based (R. Grégoire, Les Homéliares du moyen âge (Spoleto, 1980), pp. 423–78) upon half a dozen ninth-century manuscripts to which were ascribed wrong dates, [End Page 246] provenances, and interrelationships. All this Guiliano corrects, mainly based on first-hand examination of the manuscripts. He lists fifty-seven copies from the ninth and tenth centuries, including thirteen copies of special authority because they preserve at least part of Paul’s original preface. This is an example of the positive help that digital technology is giving to manuscript studies. Whereas nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholars were dependent upon word of mouth, or perhaps printed catalogues (often wrong) for information as to the whereabouts of manuscripts, today one can sweep databases and be reasonably sure of the results. Not that, even now, such research is easy (the difficulties, and Dr Guiliano’s doggedness in tackling them, are outlined on pp. 39–41, 148). Mind you, the difference it makes to Grégoire’s list of the Homiliary’s contents is not so very great (p. 66), mainly involving renumbering rather than alterations to the texts. Dr Guiliano is constantly alert for opportunities to make observations of general importance, and anyone interested in Carolingian Europe should read his book. For instance, at the beginning of his chapter on the Homiliary’s theology: Thus, if we know the theological topics most important to Charlemagne and we know that he thought his homiliary was the greatest collection of patristic texts in his cultural world, it behoves us to ask just what sort of doctrine is found in it and how it relates to the topics outlined in the Admonitio Generalis [... and] other similar pieces of instruction from the period, such as Alcuin’s list of topics for the instruction of the Avars. (p. 175) Again, a painstaking examination of how long it would have taken to make a copy of the (usually two-volume) Homiliary—between one and two years—enables Guiliano to conclude that only a dozen or so copies could have been made before Charlemagne’s death (pp. 127–37). Many more copies survive from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which is why so many manuscripts of this date figure in his list of authoritative copies. This observation must modify the opinion of those scholars who have maintained that Charlemagne ‘ordered’ that the Homiliary should be used, to the exclusion of all others, throughout his Empire: We cannot know how many communities knew they were using or copying Paul’s text; we cannot even assume that Paul’s preface was consulted by every user of the homiliaries that transmitted it, nor that anyone felt constrained by it. Charlemagne and Paul may have intended the homiliary to be used in a particular way, but others could have used it for all sorts of purposes. (p. 199) A discussion of Paul the Deacon as the ‘author’ of the Homiliary leads to a consideration of the medieval concept of ‘author’ generally (pp. 91–101). And an examination of the sources for the Homiliary’s contents leads to the conclusion that no single...

Study on the Influence of Reform of Cultural Administrative System on the Upgrading of Urban Industrial Structure

This paper aims at identifying the causal relationship between the reform of the cultural system and the upgrading of industrial structure, revealing the causal relationship between the reform of the cultural system and the upgrading of industrial structure, which is of great significance for promoting the reform of the cultural system and the upgrading of industrial structure. The impact of cultural administrative reform on industrial structure upgrading is empirically tested using panel data from 261 prefecture‐level cities in China from 2001 to 2017. The double difference model and PSM‐DID method are used. This includes conducting placebo tests and examining the robustness of empirical findings using other methods. The findings indicated that (1) the influence coefficient of the cultural administrative system reform on industrial structure upgrading is positive and passed the significance level test, indicating that the cultural administrative system reform significantly promoted industrial structure upgrading, and on average, it can improve the level of the urban industrial structure by 11.81 percent. (2) Theoretical analysis of the mechanism demonstrates that the innovation level acts as a link between cultural administrative system reform and industrial structure upgrading, implying that cultural administrative system reform promotes industrial structure upgrading by stimulating the innovation level of cultural enterprises. (3) The results of the heterogeneity analysis indicate that the influence of cultural administrative reform on industrial structure upgrading is highly regionally and economically differentiated. The higher the economic level of the local community, the more effective the promotion effect on industrial structure upgrading. The reform of the cultural administrative system has a greater impact on industrial structure upgrading in the eastern region than in the central and western regions. On the basis of the foregoing research findings, this paper makes some policy recommendations for releasing the overall system reform dividend based on the cultural system and promoting regional industrial structure upgrading.

Tripartite tourism trade cooperation through the belt and road initiative

"Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" are part of China's multi-level, and complex network to revive the ancient Silk Road and reconnect countries along with it and others. Today, the tourism industry plays a prominent role to improve the economic growth and welfare of countries and it has an outstanding impact on global transformation, integration, and cultural reforms. BRI is not just a transport network but also contains cultural, and political aspects and emphasis on friendship, peace, cooperation, and mutual understanding and benefit. China seriously peruses tourism trade since 2015 under the BRI by offering “the Building of an Integrated Tourism Market along the Silk Road”. China and Iran two ancient Asian countries with extremely numerous historical and cultural treasures in their hearts, along with the newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan -with economic and security advantages-, can implement large-scale economic-cultural programs in the framework of the BRI project, in the term of Tourism Industry. This article aims to examine Tripartite Tourism Trade Cooperation between Iran, Kazakhstan, and China through the Belt and Road Initiative, Despite all economic and political constraints, enormous sanctions against Iran. More specifically Iran, along with Kazakhstan, could overcome a bunch of these substantial problems and expand their cooperation in the shadow of BRI, with the support of China.

The Research on Demographic Change Patterns, Increase Causes and Issues in the Major Cities of the UK after the WWII

Urban population change has always been an important reference data for the study of urban sustainable development. This paper refers to the data on the population change of British cities after WWII and focuses on the population change and urban development of seven cities, namely London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, and Coventry, through the research method of data analysis. Finally, the paper concludes that, through data analysis, the essay broadly classifies the seven UK cities studied into three categories of cities based on the reasons for population increase in the late 20th century. The first category is those cities where population change is mainly due to economic reasons such as urban expansion; the main representative cities are London and Manchester. The second category is for cities where the population change is mainly due to the reform and development of urban culture. The third category is cities where the main reason for population change is mobility and migration. Typical examples are the “North-South Drift” represented by Birmingham and the “Urban-Rural Shift” represented by Bristol.

Shakespeare’s Englishes: Against Englishness by Margaret Tudeau-Clayton

Reviewed by: Shakespeare’s Englishes: Against Englishness by Margaret Tudeau-Clayton Tom Rutter Shakespeare’s Englishes: Against Englishness. By Margaret Tudeau-Clayton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2020. ix+245 pp. £75. ISBN 978–1–108–49373–4. The title of Shakespeare’s Englishes: Against Englishness neatly encapsulates Margaret Tudeau-Clayton’s argument: that Shakespeare’s dramas stage a clash between a view of the English language (and of Englishness) that values plainness, uniformity, and restraint, and another one open to extravagance, diversity, and play. In Shakespeare’s time, this clash reflected a wider cultural shift that would ultimately produce a sense of national and linguistic identity at whose centre was ‘the plain-speaking, plainly dressed virtuous citizen’ p. 3) as opposed to the cosmopolitan courtier, the naturalized stranger, or the lower-class Englishman (still less Englishwoman). Tudeau-Clayton’s survey focuses primarily on Shakespeare’s Elizabethan plays: the second tetralogy and The Merry Wives of Windsor in particular, but with substantial discussion of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Merchant of Venice. It is also informed by some excellent research into the history of a range of cultural tropes. One is ‘the King’s English’, whose early usage turns out to be as a means of excluding those who do not speak it. Another is the use of financial metaphors (‘clipping the King’s English’, ‘counterfeit’ words; p. 82), which Tudeau-Clayton links to the Elizabethan monetary reforms overseen by Thomas Gresham. A third is ‘the figure of the elite Englishman dressed in a motley of foreign fashions’ (p. 97), which she traces from Andrew Boorde’s Introduction of Knowledge (1547) through Protestant reformers and the chorographer William Harrison to the anonymous play Woodstock and [End Page 112] Shakespeare’s Richard II and The Merchant of Venice. Readers interested in the development of these notions will find Tudeau-Clayton’s work invaluable. However, she is also keen to delineate the broader cultural contest—between inclusivity and exclusion—in which they were made to serve. She identifies the banishment of the ‘extravagant, nomadic’ Falstaff in 2 Henry IV as the victory of a ‘plainness’ (p. 178) that is, in Hal/Henry, merely the cover for a cynical will to power. By contrast, she finds in Shakespeare’s contribution to Sir Thomas More a sympathy for the straying and the strange that is both in keeping with his documented relationships with foreigners and his own status as a migrant to London, and informed by parliamentary debates about the treatment of ‘strangers’ (p. 135). The second tetralogy, with its stress on regional, stylistic, and lexical diversity, depicts the English as ‘a nation of strangers’ (p. 146), while the early comedies evoke a Christian sense of all humanity being both pilgrims and members of the city of God. Other than a brief reference to Brexit, Tudeau-Clayton wisely soft-pedals the modern relevance of these ideas, but the hospitable, diverse version of Englishness with which she aligns Shakespeare will be appealing to many readers. However, she also notes the exclusion of Parolles in All’s Well that Ends Well and the ambivalence with which Othello’s verbal extravagance is treated, wondering if these indicate a ‘shift towards cultural reformation ideology’ as the dramatist aged (p. 130). This point left me wondering, though, whether the openness to diversity that she discusses may stem from the inherently dialogic nature of drama as much as from Shakespeare’s own attitudes. Nor was I entirely convinced by the contrast she draws between Shakespeare and allegedly more xenophobic dramatists such as William Haughton, whose Englishmen for my Money is certainly exclusionary in some respects but which in depicting ‘the triumph of three English citizen daughters’ over foreigners (p. 66) also depicts (from another perspective) the success of three daughters of a Portuguese immigrant, possibly of Jewish descent, in marrying into English gentry. Critical elevation of Shakespeare depends, perhaps, on its own acts of exclusion. Nevertheless, the vision of Shakespeare’s drama that this book offers is a timely and generous one, underpinned by careful scholarship and nuanced critical analysis. Tom Rutter University of Sheffield Copyright © 2022...

Government’s Role in the New Era of Intangible Cultural Heritage Online Communication and Reflections

The 14th Five-Year Plan starts a new journey of building a comprehensive socialist modernization country. In this new phase, along with the popularization of the 5G network and technological innovation, the Internet is becoming more and more prominent in the communication media, which provides a new path for intangible cultural heritage preservation. This paper explores the role of the government in the online communication of intangible cultural heritage, starting from the user consumption model, or SIPS model, in the social media era. To realize the resonance of sharing of intangible cultural heritage, the government should adjust its role to meet the needs of the times and play its role as a planner, trainer, facilitator, and evaluator in the online communication of intangible cultural heritage, to promote the inheritance of national outstanding traditional culture and facilitate the successful implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for Cultural Reform and Development. We will also contribute to the smooth implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for Cultural Reform and Development.

On the Methodological Enlightenment of Classical Criticism to Chinese Film Creation and Criticism

The paper will study and reinterpret, from a modern perspective, The Imperfection of the Cinematic Mode of Xie Jin authored by Zhu Dake. It aims to dig into its way of writing and criticism as well as its enlightenment to modern film criticism.Discussions about the cinematic mode of Xie Jin will be sorted out in the paper. Besides, reinterpretations of the cinematic mode of Xie Jin from a modern perspective will be conducted, in an attempt to throw enlightenment to future film creation in China.This paper holds that Zhu Dake's criticism of Xie Jin model is related to the background of the times at that time, the theme of the meeting where the viewpoint originated and the overall value orientation of young intellectuals at that time.Zhu Dake's article has very avant-garde and advanced critical thinking and research methods. His writing method of Sinicizing western theory is worth learning from current literary criticism.He made a more precise, original and capable summary of Xie Jin's films, but the starting point of his judgment and his own ideas were a bit extreme. Carrying out the modernization cultural reform does not mean the wanton denial of the fine traditions of the country, nor does it mean to deny the "shadow play" tradition from a completely critical angle.The scale of the discussion on Xie Jin film model is very large, and the views of all parties are wonderful and unique. For the present, the result is not so important. Paying attention to the current enlightenment of Xie Jin's film is the key and focus at present.Balancing artistry and commerciality, artistry and politics, practicing the production concept of "beauty of ordinary people", fully respecting the audience, carrying out "production within the system", and creating with the aesthetic production concept of film industry are the creative enlightenment given by Xie Jin model to current filmmakers, and also the overall creative characteristics of new force directors.

Илья Федорович Копиевский (Жизнь и судьба одного просветителя петровского времени)

In 1699, on the initiative of Peter the Great, the printing of Russian secular books began in Amsterdam, most of which were textbooks: on history, arithmetic, astronomy, navigation, and foreign languages. The compiler, translator, and publisher of these books was a native of the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ilya Fedorovich Kopievsky (or Kopievich). For many decades, historians have turned to the biography of this man, but it is still full of gaps and factual errors. The article summarizing the various information about Kopievsky available today (from archival documents to the latest works of historians) contains a detailed reconstruction of his life path. It also includes materials to return to the question of the contribution of this enlightener to the cultural reforms of Peter the Great.

The Changing Landscape of Women's Rights Activism in China: The Continued Legacy of the Beijing Conference

The Beijing Conference was a watershed moment in the history of the global women’s movement and had an unprecedented impact in the Global North and South on lawmaking, institution building, and movement building. This Article details the development of women’s activism in China since the Beijing Conference and how a changing legal landscape impacts this activism. While its progress is emblematic of the inconsistencies in the progression of women’s rights activism since the Beijing Conference, China’s efforts have been significant and varied and represent a modelfor other countries seeking to reform women’s rights legislation. This Article identifies important lines of inquiry that merit further investigation in China and offers insights for conducting similar investigations elsewhere. This Article also outlines a framework for the shifting nature of women’s legal activism from 1995 to 2020 and the ways that the international community can capitalize on these changes and continue to galvanize efforts toward legislative and cultural reform. This Article concludes that the Beijing Conference’s goals may be actualized with financial backing and an apolitical and academic focus, and asserts that increased unity among activist groups is needed in China.