An Interpretation of the Paratexts of Three Kingdoms Translated by Moss Roberts

Paratext is an inseparable part of translation. It can reveal what the translated text cannot explain and is of great significance to translation studies. This article uses the English translation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by American Sinologist Moss Roberts as the research object, and attempts to interpret Roberts’ translation views and translation promotional factors through peritext, such as the cover, acknowledgments, annotations and postscripts, and epitext, such as interviews, reviews and other external paratexts. It is found that Roberts’ translation motivation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is mainly to spread Chinese culture by literature. He always keeps readers in his heart and has a strong reader consciousness. Therefore, he mainly adopts domestication strategies and uses a lot of annotations to make the readers better understand the meaning and Chinese culture. Secondly, the author found that the translator’s own erudite and rigorous attitude, the cooperation of Chinese and foreign publishing houses, and the evaluation of well-known sinologists all promoted the spread and acceptance of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. This study interprets Roberts’ translation view and the promotional factors of the translation from the paratext, hoping to help comprehensively and objectively evaluate the value of Roberts’ translation, and at the same time promote the in-depth and development of translation studies from the perspective of the paratext

Borders and Objects: Representing the Geopolitical in New World Art Histories, 1990-2010

Several contemporary art historians have been interested in exploring how their discipline could respond to the increasing globalisation of knowledge and information by encompassing global perspectives into the methodologies that underpin their approaches to art historiography. This dissertation aims to explore how, in developing their new approaches to world art history, they have drawn on a range of natural and social sciences, thus enabling their work to be placed in a wider social, political and indeed global context. While their individual approaches are many and varied it is important to identify commonalities between them so as to highlight unifying approaches across such diversity. The dissertation begins with literature review of the key concepts I want to explore. The work of the 19th century historian, Aby Warburg is highlighted to draw attention to his early pioneering attempts to provide an intercultural perspective to art history. Recent attempts to develop new approaches to world art history are then analysed. These include works by David Carrier, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, David Summers, Esther Pasztory and John Onians. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the recent exhibition at the British Museum entitled A History of the World in 100 Objects. The dissertation will show that despite the diverse methodologies used by all of these writers and the challenges of the different media employed, all utilise concepts of borders and objects in an explicitly geopolitical context

The effect of high-top and low-top shoes on ankle inversion kinematics and muscle activation in landing on a tilted surface

Background There is still uncertainty concerning the beneficial effects of shoe collar height for ankle sprain prevention and very few data are available in the literature regarding the effect of high-top and low-top shoes on muscle responses during landing. The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of high-top and low-top shoes on ankle inversion kinematics and pre-landing EMG activation of ankle evertor muscles during landing on a tilted surface. Methods Thirteen physical education students landed on four types of surfaces wearing either high-top shoes (HS) or low-top shoes (LS). The four conditions were 15° inversion, 30° inversion, combined 25° inversion + 10° plantar flexion, and combined 25° inversion + 20° plantar flexion. Ankle inversion kinematics and EMG data of the tibialis anterior (TA), peroneus longus (PL), and peroneus brevis (PB) muscles were measured simultaneously. A 2 × 4 (shoe × surface) repeated measures ANOVA was performed to examine the effect of shoe and landing surfaces on ankle inversion and EMG responses. Results No significant differences were observed between the various types of shoes in the maximum ankle inversion angle, the ankle inversion range of motion, and the maximum ankle inversion angular velocity after foot contact for all conditions. However, the onset time of TA and PB muscles was significantly later wearing HS compared to LS for the 15° inversion condition. Meanwhile, the mean amplitude of the integrated EMG from the 50 ms prior to contact (aEMGpre) of TA was significantly lower with HS compared to LS for the 15° inversion condition and the combined 25° inversion + 20° plantarflexion condition. Similarly, the aEMGpre when wearing HS compared to LS also showed a 37.2% decrease in PL and a 31.0% decrease in PB for the combined 25° inversion + 20° plantarflexion condition and the 15° inversion condition, respectively. Conclusion These findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting that wearing high-top shoes can, in certain conditions, induce a delayed pre-activation timing and decreased amplitude of evertor muscle activity, and may therefore have a detrimental effect on establishing and maintaining functional ankle joint stability