Of Grocery Stores and Barbershops: Slices of Taiwan in Ruan Guang-min's Manhua

Although not as popular as Japanese manga, Taiwanese comics, known as manhua, are an important cultural product, which is being promoted both locally and internationally through several governmental initiatives. Ruan Guang-min is among the most wellknown contemporary manhua artists, the author of many graphic narratives that circulate domestically and, through translation, abroad too. The main characteristic of his oeuvre is that it is often set in the rural milieu, and it nostalgically reflects on the simplicity of small-town life. In this paper, I will focus on two of his works, namely The Grocery Store and Dong Hua Chun Barbershop, paying special attention to some of their cultural-specific features. Through an analysis of the two manhua, my aim is to show that the Taiwanese elements in Ruan's graphic narratives can be perceived differently depending on the readers' background: for local readers they have a nostalgic and sentimental impact, while for foreign audiences they represent a window to Taiwanese society and culture

The search for Portuguese identity in the cork furniture made by Raul Cunca : a study case

Neste caso de estudo propôs-se uma análise sobre o mobiliário em cortiça desenvolvido pelo professor da Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa Raul Cunca. O objetivo principal foi a procura da identidade portuguesa nas peças deste designer. Verificou-se como o sistema simbólico orienta seu fazer. A metodologia da invesgação passou pela leitura de textos diversos, realização de entrevistas com o profissional e outros atores inseridos na cadeia produva de suas obras. Visitas de campo para compreensão da matéria-prima escolhida como recorte também foram realizadas. Foi possível reconhecer seu talento; entender como ocorre a valorização da cortiça, material identitário; e analisar o processo criativo deste importante designer.ABSTRACT : This is a case study. We analyzed the cork furniture developed by Raul Cunca, a professor at the Fine Arts Faculty at Lisbon University. The main aim was the search of Portuguese identity in the pieces of this designer. We verified the symbolic system that guides its making. The research method involved the reading of several texts. We also interviewed professionals and other actors inserted in the productive chain. Field visits were also carried out to understand the material chosen. It was possible to recognize his talent, to understand how the valorization of cork occurs, and to analyze the creative process of this important designer.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

At the margins of the margins : Liang Fang and Sinophone Sarawakian fiction

Sinophone Sarawakian literature is produced and circulates in a position of multiple marginality. Written in Sarawak, a geographically peripheral entity within the Federation of Malaysia and not produced in the national language (Malay or Bahasa Malaysia), it finds itself on the fringes of several literary realms: at the margins of Malaysian Sinophone literature, which has its center in Peninsular Malaysia, and at the periphery of Malaysian national literature, which only includes texts written in Malay. Despite this position, I argue that Sinitic-language Sarawakian literature goes beyond its frontiers and is able to deal with issues of great relevance, such as the environment and multi-ethnic relations, without having to compromise its local characteristics. Through the analysis of "Longtuzhu" a short story by prominent Sarawakian writer Liang Fang, both representative of Sinophone Sarawakian literature in terms of themes and sensibility, I aim at exploring the characteristics of Sinitic-language Sarawakian fiction, while also presenting an author, a text and, ultimately, an entire body of literature unjustly neglected by international scholarshi

'Bie zai tiqi' and 'You mean the world to me' : two subversive sinophone Malaysian metatexts

This article aims at exploring the subversive nature of two Sinophone Malaysian cultural products, namely "Bie zai tiqi" (2002) a short story by Ho Sok Fong and You Mean the World to Me (2017), a full-length feature film by director Saw Teong Hin. I argue that, despite their differences, both fictional products use powerful metafictional and metanarrative devices to challenge factuality. In doing so, they not only blur the fine line between fiction and reality, but they also question cultural power dynamics and ethnic politics in Malaysia. Moreover, they defy the truthfulness of Mandarin as the preferred Sinitic cultural language as well as the idea that, in Malaysia, literature and film can be considered Malaysian only if produced in Malay, the official language of the country. By performing an analysis of the linguistic choices made by Ho Sok Fong and Saw Teong Hin, I will suggest that both the short story and the feature film analysed in this article use metafiction and metanarration to subvert widely-accepted, yet problematic, notions of national culture and common ethnic languag

Mis/communication and identity in Chang Kuei-hsing’s novella Wandao. Lanhua. Zuolunqiang (1983)

This paper analyses Wandao. Lanhua. Zuolunqiang (彎⼑·蘭花·左輪 槍 Machete, Orchid, Revolver) (1983), an early novella by Taiwan-based Sinophone Malaysian (Sarawak) writer Chang Kuei-hsing (張貴興 Zhang Guixing) . A widely read and one of the most respected Sinophone authors, since the 1990s Chang has been known for writing both short and long fiction centred on the trope of the Bornean rainforest, often processing it by means of personal and literary memories. However, through a close reading of the novella, I demonstrate that such a trope was already present in his early writings, albeit in an unprocessed way, being the rainforest a crude environment as well as a shared site of inter-ethnic mis/communication between ethnic Chinese and Malays. Additionally, the novella is Chang Kuei-hsing’s only work of fiction that directly addresses the issue of national identity, thus urging us to examine the ‘Sinophone Malaysian writer’ label he has unproblematically been given, especially considering that the term ‘Malaysian’ most often refers to West Malaysia and marginalises the Bornean states of Sarawak and Sabah. The paper, therefore, seeks to promote a deeper understanding of the multiple factors that should be taken into account when investigating and categorising Sinophone literature by authors who are (or once were) Malaysians

Quality of service on ad-hoc wireless networks

Over the last years, Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANETs) have captured the attention of the research community. The flexibility and cost savings they provide, due to the fact that no infrastructure is needed to deploy a MANET, is one of the most attractive possibilities of this technology. However, along with the flexibility, lots of problems arise due to the bad quality of transmission media, the scarcity of resources, etc. Since real-time communications will be common in MANETs, there has been an increasing motivation on the introduction of Quality of Service (QoS) in such networks. However, many characteristics of MANETs make QoS provisioning a difficult problem.In order to avoid congestion, a reservation mechanism that works together with a Connection Admission Control (CAC) seems to be a reasonable solution. However, most of the QoS approaches found in literature for MANETs do not use reservations. One reason for that, is the difficulty on determining the available bandwidth at a node. This is needed to decide whether there are enough resources to accommodate a new connection.This thesis proposes a simple, yet effective, method for nodes in a CSMA-based MANET to compute their available bandwidth in a distributed way. Based on this value, a QoS reservation mechanism called BRAWN (Bandwidth Reservation over Ad-hoc Networks) is introduced for multirate MANETs, allowing bandwidth allocation on a per flow basis. By multirate we refer to those networks where wireless nodes are able to dynamically switch among several link rates. This allows nodes to select the highest possible transmission rate for exchanging data, independently for each neighbor.The BRAWN mechanism not only guarantees certain QoS levels, but also naturally distributes the traffic more evenly among network nodes (i.e. load balancing). It works completely on the network layer, so that no modifications on lower layers are required, although some information about the network congestion state could also be taken into account if provided by the MAC (Medium Access Control) layer. The thesis analyzes the applicability of the proposed reservation mechanism over both proactive and reactive routing protocols, and extensions to such protocols are proposed whenever needed in order to improve their performance on multirate networks. On mobile scenarios, BRAWN also achieves high QoS provisioning levels by letting the nodes to periodically refresh QoS reservations. This extension of the protocol for mobile nodes is referred as BRAWN-R (BRAWN with Refreshments).Summarizing, the outstanding features of the reservation mechanism proposed by this thesis are: (i) Multirate, i.e. it allows wireless nodes to choose among different transmission rates, in order to accommodate to different channel conditions. (ii) Targeted to CSMA-based wireless MAC protocols, e.g. 802.11. (iii) Reservation based, allowing the network nodes to pro-actively protect ongoing QoS flows, and applying an effective CAC. (iv) Adaptive to topology changes introduced by the mobility of the nodes, re-routing QoS flows to more efficient paths. (v) Feasible and simple to implement over existing MANET routing protocols (as it is shown by the prototype presented at the end of the study).Postprint (published version

Orientalismo e humanismo em Tanka II de H. J. Koellreutter

Based on some formal aspects in the work Tanka II by H. J. Koellreutter and his correspondence with Satoshi Tanaka during the 1970s, in which a utopian position is highlighted in relation to the possibilities of a culturally integrated world, the article establishes considerations about of the limits and scope of this utopia in view of the unfolding of the globalization process, subsequent to the writing of the letters and the composition of the play. To do so, it addresses the concept of orientalism, by Edward Said, potentially critical of Koellreutter's utopian position, but considering, on the other hand, the concept of humanism, also according to Said, which recovers the contemporaneity of some ideas raised by the composer, such as possibility of critique of current forms of cultural interaction conditioned by global capitalism.A partir de alguns aspectos formais da obra Tanka II de H. J. Koellreutter e de sua correspondência com Satoshi Tanaka durante a década de 1970, na qual se destaca uma posição utópica em relação às possibilidades de um mundo culturalmente integrado, o artigo estabelece considerações a respeito dos limites e alcances dessa utopia tendo em vista os desdobramentos do processo de globalização, posterior à escrita das cartas e à composição da peça. Para isso aborda o conceito de orientalismo, de Edward Said, potencialmente crítico em relação ao posicionamento utópico de Koellreutter, mas considerando, por outro lado, o conceito de humanismo, também segundo Said, que recupera a contemporaneidade de algumas ideias levantadas pelo compositor, como possibilidade de crítica às formas atuais de interação cultural condicionadas pelo capitalismo global

O Devir-Docência das "Pessoas Grandes", Agenciado Pelos Devires-Menores do Povo-Criança

Este trabalho é um convite às pessoas grandes docentes, em seu devir-criança, que habitam os territórios-CMEIáions a problematizar práticas educativas que ainda tendem às prescrições, burocratizações e clichês que insistem numa educação escolarizada com crianças. Busca, nas Filosofias da Diferença, conceitos que movimentem o pensamento e aposta nas enunciações infantis como possíveis para potencializar os processos formativos docentes a partir de uma educação-menor. Tem como principais intercessores teóricos Deleuze e Guattari, em interseção com Espinosa. Além desses autores, o presente trabalho compõe com colaboradores no campo dos currículos e cotidianos (CERTEAU, ALVES, CARVALHO, FERRAÇO, GARCIA e OLIVEIRA) bem como nos estudos com crianças e formação docente (CORAZZA, GALLO e KOHAN) da experiência (LARROSA) e da invenção (KASTRUP) e também com o povo criança e as pessoas grandes docentes com suas narrativas enunciativas que, produz uma escrita que afirma a potência das vidas nos Cmeis. Os deslizamentos com os processos de pesquisa ganham forças ao fabular, ao modo deleuziano, com o pequeno príncipe e a rosa, suas personagens conceituais, que traçam mapas intensivos com a cartografia (não)método-intervenção em composição com os estudos com os cotidianos. Como objetivos-resultados, cartografa linhas que podem ser pistas para práticas docentes que ocupam brechas em meio ao caos e afirmam a vida nos Territórios-CMEIaión como possível para uma educação-menor; linhas só pensáveis com as enunciações do povo criança

X9 Lives man : historia agridulce de amores taiwaneses

OBRA RESSENYADA: Monday RECOVER, Manhua x9 Lives Man - Wallow in Light. Moondust Ediciones, 2022