Translation in distraction : on Eileen Chang’s “Chinese translation: a vehicle of cultural influence”

This essay focuses on a previously obscure and only recently republished English text held at USC that offers an unparalleled window into Chang’s engagement with translation. The untitled manuscript, typed with handwritten additions and corrections, is contained in a folder marked “Untitled article or speech” and appears to be the script of an oral presentation in which Chang surveys the development of translation in China from the late-Qing period, through the 1911 revolution, the May Fourth period, the war with Japan, the 1949 revolution and the Cultural Revolution. Her speech emphasizes how translation functioned as an index to China’s fraught relationship with the outside world, particularly the West (including Japan and Russia); to that end, the text engages with historical movements such as imperialism, modernization, and the ideological polarization of the Cold War, resulting in an account that belies her reputation as an apolitical figure. While the rediscovery of a text by Eileen Chang is certainly a matter of anecdotal interest, the purpose of this essay is not only to reconstruct its history but also to consider how it illuminates her lifelong relationship to translation through which, I will argue, she tried to unsettle the geopolitical categories that Chih-ming Wang 王智明 (2012) has identified as foundational to modern Chinese literary culture. In what follows, I start by providing an overview of the text based on archival and other sources and provide a summary of its contents. Turning to Shuang Shen’s 沈雙 (2012) discussion of translation as impersonation, I consider how the oral address, a rare textual form in the oeuvre of a notoriously reclusive writer, involves navigating the roles of reader, author, and translator. Through this genre, Chang hints at the possibility of distancing herself from the geopolitics of translation even as the ultimate failure to do so reveals the constraints of her diasporic condition

Reduction of cogging torque in interior-magnet brushless machines

An investigation into the cogging torque in a four-pole interior-magnet brushless machines having either a six-slot stator and a short-pitched nonoverlapping winding or a 12-slot stator and a full-pitched overlapping winding is described. It is shown by finite-element analyses and measurements that, by appropriately defining the pole-arc to pole-pitch ratio, the optimal pole-arc to pole-pitch ratio for minimum cogging torque, which has been derived for surface-mounted magnet machines, is equally applicable to interior-magnet machines

Philippe Paquet, Madame Chiang Kai-shek – Un siècle d’histoire de la Chine

Il faut, avec Simon Leys qui en rédige la préface, saluer l’arrivée de cet ouvrage monumental (p. 16) – près de 700 pages – sur la vie et la longue carrière de Soong Mayling, la cadette des trois sœurs Soong et sans aucun doute une des femmes les plus influentes et controversées du xxe siècle. En racontant la vie de cette grande figure, l’auteur nous offre un portrait particulièrement bien documenté d’une époque complexe et souvent brutale – celle de la construction de la première république ..

ASCA Observation of the Low-Luminosity Seyfert 1.5 Galaxy NGC 5033

We present the results of an ASCA observation of the low-luminosity Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 5033. A point-like X-ray source with a luminosity of 2.3x10^{41} erg s^{-1} in the 2--10 keV band (at 18.7 Mpc; Tully 1988, AAA045.002.054) was detected at the nucleus. The X-ray light curve shows variability on a timescale of ~10^4 s with an amplitude of ~20%. The X-ray continuum is represented by a weakly absorbed (N_H~9x10^{20} {cm^{-2}) power-law with a photon index of 1.72+/-0.04, which is quite similar to Seyfert 1 galaxies with higher luminosities. A Fe Kalpha emission line is detected at 6.40^{+0.08}_{-0.06} keV (redshift corrected) and the equivalent width is 290+/-100 eV. The line width is unresolved. The narrower line width and larger equivalent width compared to Seyfert 1s imply that fluorescent Fe Kalpha emission from matter further out from the center than the accretion disk significantly contributes to the observed Fe Kalpha line. We suggest that fluorescent Fe Kalpha emission from the putative torus contributes to the observed Fe Kalpha line.Comment: 17 pages, To appear in PASJ, Vol. 51, No.

Soil Fertility and Changes in Fertilizer Use for Intensive Rice Cultivation in the Red River Delta and Mekong Delta of Vietnam

Rice farmers in Vietnam’s Red River Delta and Mekong Delta are now fully addicted to using fertilizers to sustain intensive rice production. The introduction of high yielding rice varieties in the late 1960’s brought with it the ability to grow crops continuously throughout year, and the need to supplement natural soil conditions with both organic and inorganic fertilizers. Rice yields have increased rapidly in the past 40 years. If intensive agriculture is to continue producing the high yields that Vietnam has come to expect, however, proper management of fertilizer use must begin now. In this study, three intensive rice fields from alluvial soils of the Red River Delta and two from the Mekong Delta were sampled and tested for nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic matter content. The results of the analysis showed that levels of nitrogen were very low in all five fields, phosphorus levels were higher in the Red River Delta in general, and organic carbon levels were low and corresponded with low nitrogen levels. Fertilizer use data was inconclusive, but cropping patterns can be analyzed based on the natural conditions of the field locations. Based on these nutrient levels, it is apparent that the use of organic matter, in the form of farmyard manure and compost, must be increased to sustain soil conditions suitable for high yielding rice production in the future. Crop rotation between rice and a leguminous crop would also help to maintain healthy soil conditions. The discrepancy between phosphorus levels deserves further consideration

Reducing iron loss in interior PM machines under field-weakening conditions

Field-weakening in interior PM machines is performed by using negative rf-axis current to oppose the magnet flux and hence reduce the total fundamental rf-axis flux at high speeds. Due to the rotor saliency, the rf-axis current produces large amplitude harmonic airgap flux density components which can cause large harmonic stator iron losses. Reducing the magnet flux density reduces the required rf-axis stator mmf to oppose it and hence reduces the field-weakening iron losses. However reducing the magnet flux density also reduces the magnet torque and hence increases the stator current requirement, particularly at lower speeds. This paper examines this trade-off for an automotive integrated starter/alternator using a graphical interior PM machine parameter plane approach.W.L. Soong, S.H. Han, T.M. Jahns and N. Ertugru

Strategic re-repositioning in a dynamic environment

Version of RecordPublishe

International Column

Female Infanticides and Dowry Deaths by Remla Parthasarathy The 1993 World Conference on Human Rights by James Han In the Footsteps of Las Hermanas Mirabal: Women\u27s Labor Groups in the Dominican Republic by Bonnie Butler The Crisis of Somali Women by Cheryl M. Gandy Women Refugees by Susan Y. Soong Status of Women by Ellen Shanahan The Women\u27s Convention by Julia Hal

The Tolstoy-Dolan Mission and the Establishment of US-Tibetan Relations: An investigation into the events that unfolded after the first visit of American representatives to Lhasa in 1943

This article investigates the events that unfolded during and after the visit of two Office of Strategic Service (OSS) agents to Lhasa in spring 1943. To date, not much is known about this first visit of American representatives to the state of Tibet, which happened at a time when the US and its allies’ strategic priority was the containment of Japanese influence in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. Through an analysis of cables between the US government agencies in Washington and with embassies of allies in both Washington and Chongqing, this article reconstructs these events. More specifically, the complications that unfolded throughout the year 1943 can be traced back to the visit of Captain Ilia Tolstoy and Lieutenant Brooke Dolan to Lhasa in February. The major findings of this analysis are: 1) Lhasa was actively endeavoring independence from China and sought to do so by establishing friendly relations with the US, prior to the end of WWII; 2) the involvement of the OSS in the Tibetan independence struggle, at the time against the advice of the State Department, foreshadows the CIA’s actions in Tibet in the 1950s; 3) the suboptimal communication between US government agencies, as well as the secretiveness among the Allied forces, most prominently the Chongqing Government