The Chinese Meaning of Just War and Its Impact on the Foreign Policy of the People’s Republic of China

The image of China’s peaceful rise, which the Chinese government is keen to enforce in the world, stands in contrast to the view of China’s ascent as a threat. China’s economic and military growth is perceived as a potential threat to the (East) Asian security structure and as a challenge to the preponderance of the United States. Even though the PRC is more active in international and regional organizations—and better integrated in the international community—than ever before, the ambiguity of China’s true political intentions is still dominant. The focus of this analysis is the Chinese tradition of Just War and its benefits for an enhanced understanding of contemporary Chinese foreign policy. The tradition of Just War has rarely been studied, but the search for an understanding of Just War in Chinese traditional thinking can, nevertheless, assist in the analysis of China’s current foreign policy. Whether China’s foreign policy is benign or malignant or whether China dominates Asia is, therefore, “profoundly uncertain.” With regard to foreign policy analysis, the differentiation between the regional and the international levels might help to transcend the predominant understanding of Chinese foreign policy in international relations theory.China’s foreign policy, Just War theory, Confucianism, harmonious world

Sicong Ma\u27s Amei Suite & Gaoshan Suite : historical background and performer\u27s guide

Before the Spanish, the Dutch, the Japanese, and the Chinese Mainlanders occupied Taiwan, Austronesians are believed to have been the island’s first immigrants. They are acknowledged as the Aboriginal Taiwanese. Since these people do not have a written language, music, especially singing, became an important means of communication and education for the Aborigines, whose culture is today considered one of the most historically valuable cultures in Taiwan. Sicong Ma (1912-1987) is a major composer who also played an important political role in China. After escaping from China during the Culture Revolution in 1967, Ma was protected by the United States government and settled in the Unites States until he died, He traveled to Taiwan several times as an invited guest of the government, where he gave recitals and conducted symphony orchestras on the island. During his trips to Taiwan, Ma had a chance to attend performances of aboriginal music; this document will explore the influence of this tribal music on his Amei Suite (1973) and Gaoshan Suite (1973), composed after his return to the US. This document will comprise four chapters. The first chapter will explore Sicong Ma’s biographical information and his compositional style, and will also emphasize the connection between Ma and Taiwan. The second chapter will be an introduction to the music of the Taiwanese Aborigines. It will review the musical style of the different tribes, and the use of their instruments, such as double nose flutes, jaw harps, and mouthbows. Chapter three will provide an historical perspective on both of the Ma works under consideration. In cases where it is not possible to consult the original score, the author will concentrate on the musical characters in Ma’s version. The fourth chapter will comprise a performer’s guide. The author will analyze the two suites and give suggestions for interpretation. The goal of this document is to promote the culture of the author’s home country. Moreover, the author hopes that this document will inspire more musicians to analyze and perform works that draw on the folkloric and indigenous idioms of their own countries

Coevolutionary Diagenesis in Tight Sandstone and Shale Reservoirs within Lacustrine-Delta Systems: A Case Study from the Lianggaoshan Formation in the Eastern Sichuan Basin, Southwest China

Tight sandstone and shale oil and gas are the key targets of unconventional oil and gas exploration in the lake-delta sedimentary systems of China. Understanding the coevolutionary diagenesis of sandstone and shale reservoirs is crucial for the prediction of reservoir quality, ahead of drilling, in such systems. Thin-section description, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), fluid inclusion analysis, porosity and permeability tests, high-pressure mercury intrusion (HPMI) measurements and nuclear magnetic resonance tests (NMR) were used to reveal the coevolutionary diagenetic mechanisms of a sandstone and shale reservoir in the Lianggaoshan Formation of the Eastern Sichuan Basin, China. The thermally mature, organic-matter-rich, dark shale of layer3 is the most important source rock within the Lianggaoshan Formation. It started to generate abundant organic acids at the early stage of mesodiagenesis and produced abundant hydrocarbons in the early Cretaceous. Porewater with high concentrations of Ca2+ and CO32− entered the sandstone reservoir from dark shale as the shale was compacted during burial. Potassium feldspar dissolution at the boundary of the sandstone was more pervasive than at the center of the sandstone. The K+ released by potassium feldspar dissolution migrated from the sandstone into mudstone. Grain-rimming chlorite coats occurred mainly in the center of the sandstone. Some silica exported from the shale was imported by the sandstone boundary and precipitated close to the shale/sandstone boundary. Some intergranular dissolution pores and intercrystal pores were formed in the shale due to dissolution during the early stages of mesodiagenesis. Chlorite coats, which precipitated during eodiagenesis, were beneficial to the protection of primary pore space in the sandstone. Calcite cement, which preferentially precipitated at the boundary of sandstone, was not conducive to reservoir development. Dissolution mainly occurred at the early stage of mesodiagenesis due to organic acids derived from the dark shale. Calcite cement could also protect some primary pores from compaction and release pore space following dissolution. The porosity of sandstone and shale was mainly controlled by the thickness of sandstone and dark shale

Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments

Previous research has shown that that evaluative verbal information (praise and criticism) conveys different affective values: criticism is perceived as unpleasant while praise is generally considered pleasant. Here, using praise and criticism in Chinese, we investigated how affective value is modulated in men and women, depending on the particular attribute (personality vs. appearance) targeted by social comments. Results showed that whereas praise was rated as pleasant and criticism as unpleasant overall, criticizing personality reduced pleasantness more than criticizing appearance. In men, moreover, criticism of personality was deemed more unpleasant than criticism of appearance while personality-targeted praise was rated more pleasant than appearance-targeted praise. This effect was absent in women and consistent with men’s higher arousal ratings for personality- relative to appearance-targeted comments. Our findings suggest that men are more concerned about external perception of their personality than that of their appearance whereas women’s affective judgment is more balanced. These gender-specific results may have implications for topic selection in evaluative social communication

Taiwanese Traditional Musical Idioms Meet Western Music Composition: An Analytical and Pedagogical Approach to Solo Piano Works by Tyzen Hsiao

Since Western classical music was introduced in Taiwan, many contemporary Taiwanese composers have been experimenting with different musical forms and techniques. The members of the Third Generation of Taiwanese Composers began to lead the modernization of Taiwanese music after 1960. They proposed the establishment of a specifically Taiwanese musical tradition, one which would reach out to Taiwanese audiences through the incorporation of familiar folk songs and musical idioms, while incorporating Western compositional techniques and forms. Tyzen Hsiao (蕭泰然) (1938-2015) was one of the most influential Taiwanese composers. His music is a blend of Taiwanese traditional musical idioms and Western music composition technique. The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the Taiwanese and Western influences in Hsiao’s music through analysis of his solo piano works and to promote these works as valuable pedagogical materials. This dissertation is organized into five chapters. It begins with a survey of traditional Taiwanese music and the influence of Western music in Taiwan. Chapter 2 contains biographical information of Hsiao and a discussion of his musical styles and representative works. Chapter 3 includes a discussion and analysis of the use of Taiwanese musical idioms and Western compositional techniques in Hsiao’s piano compositions. Chapter 4 provides a pedagogical guide of the following pieces: Memories of Home, Op. 49, Farewell Etude, Op. 55, and Toccata, Op. 57. A discussion of each piece follows, including historical background information, formal structure, technical challenges, musical interpretation, and suggestions for teaching. Chapter 5 includes a chart which lists the level of difficulty of each piece and its challenges. My desire is that this dissertation will be a useful resource for educators, performers, and students. Hsiao’s compositions should be considered by pedagogues as valuable teaching material. By mastering the technical and musical challenges in his works, pianists can be better prepared for these same types of challenges in the repertoire of composers like Chopin and Debussy. Those same students will have learned essential trends in modern Taiwanese art music, and by extension about Taiwanese culture as well

Mechanical Self-Assembly of a Strain-Engineered Flexible Layer: Wrinkling, Rolling, and Twisting

Self-shaping of curved structures, especially those involving flexible thin layers, has attracted increasing attention because of their broad potential applications in e.g. nanoelectromechanical/micro-electromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS), sensors, artificial skins, stretchable electronics, robotics, and drug delivery. Here, we provide an overview of recent experimental, theoretical, and computational studies on the mechanical self-assembly of strain-engineered thin layers, with an emphasis on systems in which the competition between bending and stretchingenergy gives rise to a variety ofdeformations,such as wrinkling, rolling, and twisting. We address the principle of mechanical instabilities, which is often manifested in wrinkling or multistability of strain-engineered thin layers. The principles of shape selection and transition in helical ribbons are also systematically examined. We hope that a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanical principles underlying these rich phenomena can foster the development of new techniques for manufacturing functional three- dimensional structures on demand for a broad spectrum of engineering applications.Comment: 91 pages, 35 figures, review articl

Social Media in Rural China

China’s distinctive social media platforms have gained notable popularity among the nation’s vast number of internet users, but has China’s countryside been ‘left behind’ in this communication revolution? Tom McDonald spent 15 months living in a small rural Chinese community researching how the residents use social media in their daily lives. His ethnographic findings suggest that, far from being left behind, social media is already deeply integrated into the everyday experience of many rural Chinese people