Natural history connects medical concepts and painting theories in China

The earliest decipherable Chinese history traces back to the Shang Dynasty (B.C. 1766 – 1154). This period was considered prehistory until the discovery of artifacts describing divination rites in this era, practices that forge a culture. Divination rites included patterns in nature (natural law, li) such as the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams. The Eight Trigrams were the first attempt at writing ancient philosophies. Eight symbols represent categories that are not static, but the changing patterns in nature are captured by organizing events and forms in nature relative to seven other influences. Later this idea expanded eight-fold, embracing the patterns of nature as well as human nature, thus creating Sixty-four Hexagrams. Such categories illuminating ‘likeness’ and ‘kind’ in nature originated in ritualistic practices and were the theoretical foundations of Chinese traditional art and medicine still in practice today. This thesis finds that ancient philosophies and rituals are the roots of Chinese culture, medicine and art. One ancient concept that is still prevalent in medical theories today is that of the body as a microcosm reflecting the macrocosmic universe. Medical concepts about the body illuminate a view of nature based on the concept of largeness in smallness. The technique of ‘depicting things as they are’ asks artists to capture the likeness of forms in nature. This is a time-honored aim of Chinese artists. Artists should strive to capture ‘likeness’ representing nature’s complexity, such that there is largeness in the smallest forms (such as humans) and space in nothingness (such as mist)

Designing Fashion with Qi Energy

This practice-led research explores the significance of Qi energy for fashion by materialising the East Asian culturally-specific concept of Qi. Qi features prominently in the traditional philosophy of everyday life in East Asia and my research aims to show how this philosophy can also provide an understanding of the relationship between body, garment and making, which is new to more Western concepts of fashion culture. This reflective journey unravels fashion practice in this context, focusing on the making process and the methods that were developed during that process. I engaged in significant handwork in the field of contemporary womenswear, integrating concepts of the body and garment as a circulatory system for Qi energy. It is the objective of this research to realise garments which help the understanding of Qi as a communication tool in relationships that arise in fashion, namely those that exist between the material and the maker during the making process, the body and the garment, and the wearer and the viewer. My research question originates from a desire to find a way to materialise Qi in garments through the making process. To pursue this, I explore a range of fields including anthropology, material culture, psychoanalysis, literature, cultural theory, and language. Apart from contextual studies, I adopted conversations and filming as methods to develop my research further. In practice, I investigate the meridians (as seaming which constructs garments), the finishing and the openings of the garment, all of which amount to a transitional interface. I view this as a concrete way of injecting Qi energy into the garment on a material level. I have reflected deeply on my making experience; this reflection has led the entire process and also given me a much better understanding of body and garment. Through my making process, aimed at materialising Qi in the garment, I essentially tried to establish a better connection between body and garment. This thesis oscillates between practice and theory. My research suggests Qi energy as a new perspective on fashion making; it offers a new understanding of the body in fashion and tries to fill the gap between practice and theory through embodied knowledge

Teaching Phonetic-ideograph Rules to English Speaking Students of Chinese

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the teaching of phoneticideograph rules would improve the memorization and character retention abilities of English-speaking students of Chinese. Two groups participated in the experiment, an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was taught using the Concentrated Character Recognition Method, which employs the teaching of phonetic-ideograph rules, while the other group was taught using a more traditional teaching approach, without receiving instruction on phonetic-ideographic rules. Subjects were enrolled in the first-year university Chinese class. All subjects were pre-tested before the treatment. Data of subjects who scored much higher than the others on the pre-test were excluded from the analysis. The number of subjects who participated in the study was 30. One group of native speakers of Mandarin Chinese also participated in the rare character test of the study. A short-term character recall test was held on the sixth week of the treatment. A long-term character recall test was held on the ninth week of the treatment. One rare-character test was given to both groups and to the group of native speakers. The experimental group performed better than the control group on both the short-term character recall test and the long-term character recall test. Moreover, the experimental group predicted pronunciation more accurately than the control group on the rare-character test, and their performance was closer to the level of the group of native speakers than the control group

Liveability analysis of gated and non-gated low middle income communities in kuala lumpur, Malaysia

The aim of this paper is to examine the liveability conditions in gated and non-gated low middle income communities in Kuala Lumpur where rapid urban growth has led to many disruptions in the urban living environment. Hence, a livability framework was developed with dimensions from housing condition, economic condition, functional environment, social relations and community safety towards achieving the research objectives of – a) to study the liveability level in gated and non-gated communities, b) to compare the level of liveability between gated and non-gated communities, and c) to determine the dimensions and indicators which influence the level of liveability in both communities. Residents’ views were collected through a questionnaire survey which consisted of twenty-four indicators of liveability belonging to five dimensions from three communities in Kuala Lumpur. Two communities belong to non-gated and one community had gated living status. The findings of the research revealed that gated community has a better living conditions compared to the non-gated community. Thus, this research can be used as a turning point to improve the living environment of both gated and non-gated communit

Cinema of Dislocation: the geo-emotional journeys of the suffering women in 21st century Chinese cinema

This thesis argues that there is a genre of film concerned with the travels of disenfranchised women in 21st century Chinese cinema. An identifiable set of film narratives have largely emerged in China’s neoliberal moment since the 1980s; and especially after the 2000s when China has been more engaged with the processes of globalisation, modernisation, urbanisation (Rofel 2007; Ong and Zhang 2008). Such a socio-economic procedure has stimulated massive population flows, spatial transition and development-induced displacement, uprooting and destabilising identity and sense of belonging (Wagner et al. 2014; Chen and Yang 2013). These subjects are often dislocated physically and socially from the dreams of the nouveau-riche and older cosmopolitan subjectivities that surround them. Heroines in such a cinema are either the village/suburban indigenous whose intra-village travels define their status of marginalisation and resistance, the rural migrants who have worked or lived in the city and choose to return, or urban middle-class women who are troubled by urban lives and set off on journeys to remote regions for self-revival. I argue that, in the cinema of dislocation, on the one hand, heroines are all displaced to various degrees by their unique circumstances; on the other hand, the status of dislocation serves as the women’s agency and empowers them, enabling them to seek for a new sense of location, belonging and identity during their travels and search for homecoming. Apart from contextual and thematic exploration, the challenges for this thesis will be to identify the other qualities that will justify defining the Cinema of Dislocation definitively as a genre of Chinese film in its own right: the network of directors, a shared aesthetic, distinctive dislocation narratives and cinematographies, and a degree of flexibility that allows the genre to develop

Performing Local Identity in a Contemporary Urban Society: A Study of Ping-tan Narrative Vocal Tradition in Suzhou, China

China has many rich traditions of storytelling and story singing, which are deeply rooted oral traditions in their particular geographical areas, carrying the linguistic and cultural flavours of their localities. In Suzhou, the central city of the Yangtze Delta’s Wu area, the storytelling genre pinghua and the story singing genre tanci have become emblematic of regional identity. Since the 1950s, the two genres have been referred to under the hybrid generic name ‘Suzhou ping-tan’ after the city, or simply ping-tan in abbreviation. Nowadays typically comprising extended narratives performed over the course of half a month, ping-tan has maintained popularity up to the present day. Each afternoon, people go to the unique performance venue of the shuchang (‘story house’), which combines teahouse, performance venue and social centre, to enjoy solo or duet performances given by shuoshu xiansheng (‘storytellers’). The sung episodes are set to an accompaniment of sanxian banjo and – in duet performance – also pipa lute. In the context of face-to-face communication, establishing an empathetic bridge between storyteller and audience is of paramount importance, necessitating storytellers to polish and tailor their artistry efficiently in response to audience feedback. Following the development of radio broadcasting since the 1920s and television since the 1980s, ping-tan has also been widely delivered directly into people’s homes. Listening to and watching ping-tan has become a part of many local people’s daily habits. This thesis seeks to explain how Suzhou ping-tan has maintained its vitality in contemporary society. Various oral performance traditions have declined with the range of alternative types of entertainment that have bloomed in recent times, yet a great many Suzhou citizens still take for granted that ping-tan represents their local cultural identity. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted since 2011, this thesis explores the interconnectedness between the storyteller and audiences during and outside of performance. It analyses performer/audience ‘feed-back loop’ communication within a variety of fields of ping-tan activity, focusing in particular on the following areas: the role-playing and identity presentation of storytellers and audience members, the different types of ping-tan follower and their respective forms of involvement, the use of gesture in performance to communicate further layers of meaning, the nature of the mutually complementary relationship between words and music in ballad singing, and the effects of television and radio dissemination on ping-tan culture. This thesis identifies ‘feed-back loop’ interplay as being a key factor in ping-tan’s success, facilitating the multi-faceted involvement of all participants within a flexible and unpredictable shared experience

Redefining Nymph of the Luo River: A Practice-based investigation into a feminist reinterpretation of a traditional Chinese painting through the creation of animations

Since the last century, in mainland China, an interest in adapting classic stories into animated films, notably Princess Iron Fan (1941) and Lotus Lantern (1999), has developed, in order to promote Chinese history and traditional culture (Gu, 2013 and Fu, 2015). However, few of these adaptations reflect equal gender relations, and female characters have been generally written from a masculine point of view (Qin, 2012). This study thus aims to explore how aspects of the process of creating animation, including character design and the use of camera perspective, can be used to both analyse a traditional painting and propose an alternative model for the representation of female characters. This practice-based project also focuses on an analysis of female representation in the story Nymph of the Luo River, a traditional Chinese love story set in the Wei and Jin dynasties (220-589 BC), that was adapted from a famous scroll painting by the artist Gu Kaizhi (348-409 BC). Although Gu Kaizhi challenged the stereotypical portrayal of women in the past in terms of its emphasis on feminine beauty, the concept of which was influenced by Taoism, he was also affected by a Confucianist view. Because of this, he still portrayed the goddess from a male perspective, and created the stereotype of the goddess as an object of a man’s desire. This painting can be also viewed as reflecting John Berger’s (1972) argument that the depictions of women in traditional European paintings were created to satisfy a male audience, which has been further explored by a visual analysis in this study. Visual analysis is also used to critique the image of women in animated adaptations of traditional Chinese stories. The theoretical research then focuses on film-making: two animated adaptations (hereafter referred to as Film 1 and Film 2) were created, based on the Nymph of the Luo River story, demonstrating two different gender perspectives. It draws upon the theories of contemporary scholars of feminism, such as Laura Mulvey (1975), and traditional Chinese philosophy, Taoism, which supports gender equality. Through the reflected practice of making animation, progress and decisions were made that convey the reasons for making the changes between the two films. A focus group interview and quantitative survey were conducted as evaluation for this research by showing the two animated films to Chinese audiences for them to compare

Residents’ perceptual analysis on liveability in the planned housing estates of nigeria: empirical evidence from niger state

The government of Nigeria and the state government of Niger in particular, are committed to the development of housing, especially for the low-income group in the state. The housing estates as popularly called have housed many families of the low-income group in the state, however, till to date no effort have been made to understand the perception of the beneficiaries about the liveability of their housing estate. This paper intends to focus on the state of liveability of three public low-income housing estates in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria and the investigation used data derived from a pool of household surveys with 366 respondents. This paper used survey research design to unveil the challenges confronting the residents of the selected housing estates. The residents’ perception of liveability was assessed through five dimensions - housing unit characteristics, economic vitality, security, neighbourhood facilities and social interaction. Data elicited from the structured questionnaire administered were subjected to descriptive statistics, factor analysis and structural modelling. The results show that the respondents were dissatisfied with most of the neighbourhood facilities in the housing estates. Hence, to improve the liveability of these housing estates, this paper recommends rehabilitation of the neighbourhood facilities in these housing estates. Also, the neighbourhood facilities management strategy should be put in place by the appropriate authority in collaboration with the residents of these housing estates

Chinese elements : a bridge of the integration between Chinese -English translation and linguaculture transnational mobility

[Abstract] As the popularity of Chinese elements in the innovation of the translation part in Chinese CET, we realized that Chinese elements have become a bridge between linguaculture transnational mobility and Chinese-English translation.So, Chinese students translation skills should be critically improved; for example, on their understanding about Chinese culture, especially the meaning of Chinese culture. Five important secrets of skillful translation are introduced to improve students’ translation skills

Beyond Sumi-e: A practice-led investigation into the influences of an ancient art form on contemporary artists,with reference to the artworks of Hiroshi Senju and Yoshio Ikezaki.

Master of Art in Fine Art. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.This study investigates the influence of traditional ink painting from Japan, Sumi-e, on the artworks of two contemporary artists, Yoshio Ikezaki and Hiroshi Senju. It also examines the impact of these influences on my own artmaking. This research included the identification and description of the key elements, characteristics and philosophy forming the basis of Sumi-e, as a framework of reference. The philosophy and aesthetics associated with traditional Sumi-e reflect Zen Buddhism as well as traditional Japanese culture. There is very limited literature available in English on Sumi-e. It has strict principles, one of which is ‘learn the rules and break the rules’. This principle has been a point of departure for my own art practice, and I explore the influence of this principle on the art practices of Senju and Ikezaki. This study used practice-related research methodology with a case study approach. These combined methods offered subjective flexibility through using personal experience of learning, teaching and practicing Sumi-e. In addition to a literature review, data was collected through questionnaires conducted with the two artists, and the analysis of their artworks. My own practice is captured visually in my workbooks where I have recorded and photographed my practice, together with swatches of materials. These ten workbooks form the link between my research and my art practice, and viewing these enhances the interpretation of both bodies of work. The case studies of the artists revealed that while Senju was not explicitly influenced by Sumi-e, elements of this aesthetic resonated in his work. The influence of Sumi-e on Ikezaki was more pronounced because his initial traditional Japanese artistic training included Sumi-e. Both artists expanded beyond these boundaries. New insights challenged my assumptions about Japanese culture and art practices. Breaking the rules of traditional Sumi-e and a nexus of other influences catalysed my artmaking, manifesting in the materiality of the works. Theories of materiality expand on the role of materials and material thinking in artmaking. Investigations of sites and contexts of display result in a shift beyond conventional modernist display of two-dimensional artworks hung vertically on gallery walls. Results vi included an installation of my artworks in a forest, and the evolvements of three-dimensional forms. The forest atmosphere enhanced and intensified the materiality through the movement of air, light and shadow. The final gallery exhibition titled “Beyond” recreated the ambience of the forest installation, using limited lighting, shadows, a breeze, the sounds of the forest, and film footage projected over the artworks. Key words: Sumi-e, natural materials, Japanese art, practice-related research, material thinking, materiality, holistic art practice