Regimes of Temporality: China, Tibet and the Politics of Time in the Post-2008 Era

While the politics of time are an important dimension of Chinese state discourse about Tibet, it remains insufficiently explored in theoretical and practical terms. This article examines the written and visual discourses of Tibetan temporality across Chinese state media in the post-2008 era. It analyses how these media discourses attempt to construct a ‘regime of temporality’ in order to manage public opinion about Tibet and consolidate Chinese rule over the region. While the expansion of online technologies has allowed the state to consolidate its discourses about Tibet’s place within the People’s Republic of China (PRC), they have also provided Tibetans a limited but valuable space to challenge these official representations through counter readings of Tibet’s past, present and future. In doing so, this article contributes new insights on the production of state power over Tibet, online media practices in China, and the disruptive potential of social media as sites of Tibetan counter discourses

A qualitative evaluation of a mentoring reading programme for 9-10 year olds in Northern Ireland

This paper discusses the qualitative evaluation of a mentoring reading programme for 9-10 year olds, which was part of a larger evaluation that used a mixed-methods approach including a Randomised Controlled Trial to determine whether there was evidence of improved outcomes for children participating in the scheme (Miller et al. 2009). The mentoring reading programme started in 1999 with 3 schools and by the time of this evaluation had more than 130 schools involved, with an emphasis on socially deprived areas. The programme consisted of volunteers from businesses in Northern Ireland, who were going one hour a week to schools to read books with children with the aim of improving the children’s reading skills and develop their enjoyment of reading. Each volunteer mentored two children for 30 minutes weekly, and stayed with the same children for the duration of the programme. This type of support scheme is perceived as very timely because the need to improve the children’s opportunities, particularly in socially deprived areas, where conditions are in part exacerbated due to recent historical events

Sexual Knowledge and the Formation of Chinese Modernity

Across various epochs of Chinese history, eunuchs held considerable political power and control over the state. During the late Qing, however, at a time when China came to be regarded as the ‘Sick man of Asia’ and as a ‘castrated civilization’, the figure of the eunuch became synonymous with ideas of backwardness, oppression and national shame. While many studies of Chinese eunuchs have tended to center on questions of their political life and institutional power, After Eunuchs, written by Howard Chiang, takes a very different approach

Truth, Good and Beauty: The Politics of Celebrity in China

A visit to a Chinese city of any size – looking up at downtown billboards, riding public transport, shopping at a mall – is to be in the presence of a Chinese celebrity endorsing a product, lifestyle or other symbols of “the good life.” Celebrity in China is big business, feeding off and nourishing the advertising-led business model that underpins the commercialized media system and internet. It is also a powerful instrument in the party-state’s discursive and symbolic repertoire, used to promote regime goals and solidify new governmentalities through signalling accepted modes of behaviour for mass emulation. The multi-dimensional celebrity persona, and the public interest it stimulates in off-stage lives, requires an academic focus on the workings of celebrity separate to the products that celebrities create in their professional roles. The potential to connect with large numbers of ordinary people, and the emergence of an informal celebrity-making scene in cyberspace symptomatic of changing attitudes towards fame among Chinese people, marks the special status of celebrity within China’s constrained socio-political ecology. The motivation for this article is to further scholarly understanding of how celebrity operates in China and to bring this expression of popular culture into the broader conversation about contemporary Chinese politics and society

Timing in trace conditioning of the nictitating membrane response of the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) : scalar, nonscalar, and adaptive features

Using interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 125, 250, and 500 msec in trace conditioning of the rabbit nictitating membrane response, the offset times and durations of conditioned responses (CRs) were collected along with onset and peak latencies. All measures were proportional to the ISI, but only onset and peak latencies conformed to the criterion for scalar timing. Regarding the CR’s possible protective overlap of the unconditioned stimulus (US), CR duration increased with ISI, while the peak’s alignment with the US declined. Implications for models of timing and CR adaptiveness are discussed

The Common Zine: Responding to the Common Reader as a Community and Building Information Literacy Skills

To support NYU Read’s first ever common reading, librarians developed a program that invited the community to respond to Tara Westover’s Educated. In addition to hosting a film series, author talk, and engagement board in the atrium of the library, a collaborative zine program was developed where all members of the community were encouraged to submit their poetry, short stories, photos, riddles, collages, playlists, comics, or any variety of expression to be included in the zine (which will be archived and distributed to the community). Zines have become an increasingly popular source used in and collected by libraries. Several themes related to the book were identified and we provided guidelines for submission which was published in zine format that was shared at various service points in the library and online. Although the program at NYU is not exclusive to first year students, the engagement with the book was mostly conducted in first year programs. The zine program has larger information literacy implications so we developed outreach strategies that would complement the first year information literacy program already in place. This included providing opt in classes about zines--what they are, how they’re made, and what kind of information is included in them. In future years, the zine program will be used in the first year library classroom to introduce concepts like the creation of information, authority, and evaluation of sources. This presentation will provide attendees with an overview of this program and how it can be incorporated into information literacy instruction

'I Want to Make Queer Films, But Not LGBT films’: An Interview with He Xiaopei

Despite decriminalization in 1997 and partial pathologization in 2001, homosexuality remains a sensitive topic in contemporary China. This is reflected in mainstream and online media where representation of LGBTQ-related issues are often subject to heavy censorship. However, despite the austere restrictions that exist, the past two decades have witnessed the emergence of “‘new queer Chinese cinema”’ (Leung 2012; Yue 2012; Pecic 2016; Bao 2018). Led by a number of young independent queer filmmakers along with advancements in new media technologies, this underground movement of queer filmmaking have has created new possibilities for imagining sexuality and gender as well as opportunities for community -building.He Xiaopei is a leading queer feminist filmmaker, activist, and director of Beijing-based NGO Pink Space, an NGO dedicated to promoting sexual rights and gender equality. Her films include The Lucky One (Chong’er, 2012), Our Marriages: Lesbians Marry Gay Men (Yisheng qiyuan, 2013), Yvo and Chrissy (Ruci Shenghuo, 2017) and Playmates (Wanban, 2019). The Lucky One tells the story of Zhang Xi, a HIV- positive woman with only a short time to live. A kind of video diary of Zhang’s life, the film questions notions of fact and fiction, as well as the politics of representation when working with marginalized people. Our Marriages: Lesbians Marry Gay Men explores how two lesbian couples in Northeast China negotiate norms and expectations around marriage, and the possibilities for queer life in Chinese society. Yvo and Chrissy follows the lives of two people from England who gave up an inheritance of one million pounds as well as several properties, and reflects on questions of wealth, gender, sexuality, and happiness. He’s work to date has demonstrated a distinctly antinormative approach to gender and sexuality, while also highlighting some of the less discussed issues of class, precarity, and marginality in China and elsewhere.In February 2017, Séagh Kehoe, PhD candidate from the University of Nottingham, spoke with He about her work and the place of documentary filmmaking in queer activism in China today

Diagnosis of Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in women worldwide, with 239 000 new cases diagnosed in 2012.1 As with many other types of cancer, geographical variation in the incidence of and mortality from ovarian cancer is substantial, with a higher incidence in economically developed regions of the world.2 Incidence is highest in the 50-70 year old age group, with 75% of cases diagnosed in women aged more than 55 years.3 In 80% of women the disease will be advanced at presentation, with a low five year survival rate; the all stage five year survival in the United Kingdom is 46%.4 This low survival rate in the UK has been recognised in the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership and has been attributed at least partly to less timely diagnosis.5 This review summarises the presenting features, diagnostic tests, risk factors, and groups at high risk of ovarian cancer and is aimed at primary care practitioners and hospital doctors in other specialties

The Zine Union Catalog

Lauren Kehoe and Jenna Freedman have been working on the Zine Union Catalog, aka ZineCat or ZUC, since their Introduction to Digital Humanities course in Spring, 2017: MALS 75500, Digital Humanities Methods and Practices. ZineCat is the home of a union catalog dedicated to zines. A union catalog is a resource where libraries and other cultural institutions that collect materials can share cataloging and holdings information from their individual collections. The most familiar union catalog is probably WorldCat which is used to locate books, journals, CDs, DVDs, and other materials in the world’s libraries. ZineCat facilitates researchers\u27 discovery of zine holdings by searching a single catalog search interface that aggregates information from several collections, helps catalogers copy zine records that are included in ZineCat, and facilitates the lending of materials between libraries. Zines are self­-produced and self­-published literature that often feature counter­cultural, political, and artistic content. Typically zines are produced in small print runs, and are often distributed directly by the author or through “distros” (i.e., specialized distributors of zines, crafts, and art prints). Zines provide a first­hand, intimate, and authoritative account of social, political, and art historical movements and provide evidence of knowledge production and dissemination within radical, queer, and other subculture communities. They are used by scholars as primary source documents on a range of topics, and are regarded as a critical record of third wave feminism and the riot grrrl movement, punk rock and the punk aesthetic, popular culture and fandom, and local history in colleges, local scenes, and communities (small and large) around the world. ZineCat serves educators, researchers, creators, librarians, archivists, and anyone in the general public with an interest in zines. Their ephemeral nature makes it difficult to identify where zines are collected as well as makes cataloging zine consistently across collections very difficult. Additionally, the information ecosystem grows ever complex as more information is produced both physically and online. Furthermore, because zines exist in a countercultural space, they have historically been collected and circulated first by independent collectors, then zine libraries and activist centers, followed later by research institutions. Over the last fifteen to twenty years, public libraries, special collections, and academic research libraries have begun collecting zines as scholarly resources as well as part of leisure reading collections. This hybrid environment of zine collections translates into dispersed and sometimes erratic mechanisms for access (not all libraries describe material in the same, standardized way)