Everyday Society Research Articles

A most remarkable community: Anglo-Indian contributions to sport in India

The Anglo-Indians are one of India's constitutionally recognized minorities, a microscopic community of combined South Asian and European ancestry that emerged after the arrival of the Portuguese and other Europeans on the subcontinent. Among the Anglo-Indians' contributions to modern India has been a remarkable involvement in sport that is altogether disproportionate to the community's size. Anglo-Indian schools have long promoted Western sports, and Anglo-Indians have often been India's instructors, coaches and Olympians. As in other fields, Anglo-Indian women pioneered Indian women's sport. A lasting imprint has also been made with regard to organized games, which continue to be the primary leisure activities of countless Indian service workers. The subject at large encourages a different view of Western cultural influences in South Asia as they now tend to be rather uniformly rejected. In Anglo-Indian contributions to sport in India, we find insight into a Western cultural feature that has been thoroughly integrated into everyday Indian society. The article makes use of textual sources as well as contributions from Anglo-Indian families located in India and several countries of re-settlement.

Holding Hostages In China, Holding China Hostage: Sovereignty, Philanthropy, and the 1923 “Lincheng Outrage”

Holding Hostages In China, Holding China Hostage: Sovereignty, Philanthropy, and the 1923 "Linch eng Outrage" by.Caroline Reeves In the early morning of 6 May ·1923, Chinese bandits swooped down from the hills of Shandongoverlooking the Tianjin-Nanjing train line and derailed the elegant· and opulent "Blue Express"-aluxury train. carrying foreigners and Chinese between Nanjingand points north. The bandits kidnapped twenty-six foreigners, killing one, and also took more than one hundred Chinese passengers captive. As the first reports of the incident slipped out, the international press exploded . "Outrage in China! The Worst Insult to the Civilized Powers since the Boxers!"ITheLincheng Outrage (as it came to be called in the Western press) burst onto the world stage. In a matter of days, the name' "Lincheng"-previously nothing more than a remote way station on the Tianjin-Nanjing train linewas on the lips of the world. The story dominated local and international newspapers for weeks, riveting Chinese and non-Chinese alike with details of foreigners -including women-held captive by bands of Chinese outlaws.2 The media frenzy did not begin to subside until 12 June, when the last of the foreign prisoners were released after lengthy and acrimonious negotiations. The Chinese prisoners, whose fate was less pivotal to world politics, remained hostage for another two weeks before they too. were freed. The Lincheng Incident brought to a head the antagonism building through thepost~World War I period between China and the Western powers on precisely the subject most sensitive to both sides: China's ability to govern herself. Extraterritoriality, the judicial system denying native jurisdiction over non-Chinese , had been well entrenched in China since the Opium Wars, supported by the Great Powers , superior armaments as well as by their firm belief that China lacked the degree 'of "Civilization" to be entrusted with the care of foreign nationals-Lor frankly, of the Chinese people themselves.3 To the foreign community , the Outrage proved quite simply that China's increasingly strident calls for the repeal of the unequal treaties were irrational and premature. China could notsafeguardber own train .lines, never mind guarantee the well being of foreignersand their property in China.4 Twentieth-Century China, Vol. 27, No.1 (November, 2001): 39-69. 40 Twentieth-Century China For the Chinese, for whom the events of 1919, the betrayal of the Versailles Treaty, and the disappointments of the 1921 Washington Conference still festered ominously, the Westerners' intervention in the resolution of the affair highlighted the degree of meddling to which the colonial powers felt entitled on China's soil, and emphasized the insecurity and indignity to which China was subjected at the hands of foreign powers. Yet at the same time, as John Fitzgerald points out in his analysis of the event, "this was a tale of captivity with a difference : it was not China that was held against its will, but uninvited Westerners .... [A] distinct sound of cheering could be heard emanating from the Chinese quarter."5 The potential for "China" -writ large-to stand up to foreign interlopers was a subtle, yet powerful subtext of the affair. These issues played out not only in diplomatic circles, but among the relief community, as well. A closer look at this discrete area of activity will highlight the attitudes of both sides towards China's international position. As William Kirby has written, foreign relations in the Republican era were "quite simply, all penetrating, all permeating, all prevailing ... ultimately forcing their way into every part of Chinese society."6 The Lincheng story, worthy in its own right, and indeed the subject of books, articles, and movies,7 exposes this penetration of everyday society by foreign relations, and particularly the allpervasive impact of the humiliation of compromised sovereignty, so overwhelming in this period of Chinese history. Earlier English and Chinese language scholarly literature on this incident focuses on the diplomatic impact of the affair, concentrating for the most part on the negotiations between the Chinese government and the offended powers for reparations and future guarantees.8 But the fact of extraterritoriality and the lack of sovereignty were felt not only in diplomatic circles, but in all spheres of Chinese life. The philanthropic realm...

Interacting with People who have Severe Communication Problems: Ethical considerations

People who have severe speech and communication problems have difficulties making themselves heard both in everyday communications and society at large. In spite of the positive results which have followed the development of non-vocal intervention strategies, this group of people is at risk for being left out of the social common and being alienated. It is important to realise that one cannot do in the technical what one cannot do in the ethical. Unless both social interaction and intervention with people who have severe communication impairments are based on ethical reflection, the moral standards that are applied to this group may be lower than for other people. True communicative interaction depends on the acceptance that the other partner has something of value to communicate, even if the means for expressive communication are limited and the messages are vague and difficult to understand. A moral requirement for autonomy, that is, an equal footing or right to expression, places an ethical imperative on the more competent communication partner to strive to overcome the asymmetrical relationship and help the disabled person create authentic messages. Ethics is awareness based on the reflection on moral phenomena, grounded in the norms and values of the society and typically the result of discourse and co-constructive reflection, in the form of everyday discussions as well as of public philosophical scrutiny. Communication is a vehicle of reflection and discourse may be regarded as joined reflection. Thus, time for discourse in professional work may be a prerequisite for ethical practice.

Johann Heinrich Merck Über Den Roman

Merck's concept of the novel which emerges very clearly from his reviews and his essay “Über den Mangel des epischen Geistes in unserm lieben Vaterland” represents the only major contribution of Storm and Stress to the incipient discussion of the theory of the novel. In accordance with the realistic tendencies of Storm and Stress, he advocated a realistic novel which was to deal seriously with everyday life and contemporary society, excluding, however, political themes. Among the earliest critics of the novel, Merck was unique in paying particular attention to narrative technique. Whereas Blanckenburg propagated a character novel told by a personal narrator (Tom Jones, Agathon), Merck—long before Spielhagen—called for an objective narrative technique without intrusions from the narrator, his ideal being Homer. Characteristic is his attitude toward Sterne; he rejected Blanckenburg's and Wezel's imitation of Sterne's personal comments but admired the latter's gift for realistic scenes. In the history of the theory of the novel Merck occupies a significant place in the long line of critics who saw in the objectivity of the epic the ideal for the narrative technique of the modem novel.