Editorial

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it faced the enormous task of building not only a new national economy, but also a new class politics. Mao realised that a cultural transformation, rather than simply a political commitment, was necessary for his “continuous revolution.” For this purpose, how to mobilise workers and peasants, previously exploited and oppressed by capitalists, to identify with and actively participate in the socialist modernisation process became the biggest challenge. To this end, cultural production under the ideological tutelage of the CCP was geared toward actively promoting the idea of class identity transformation

En souvenir de l’Âge de fer

Ces dernières années, nous avons assisté à un phénomène culturel mineur en Chine, avec l’accueil enthousiaste réservé à plusieurs séries parlant des ouvriers chinois durant les années socialistes. Ces séries, dont l’intrigue est située dans les usines de la province du Liaoning, dans le Nord-Est de la Chine, ancien centre industriel de la nation socialiste, s’intéressent à la transformation spectaculaire de l’expérience ouvrière entre 1949 et le début des réformes économiques. Dans cet article, j’essaie de comprendre ce que la réception enthousiaste de ce genre, pourtant produit à petite échelle, nous apprend sur la politique culturelle de classes aujourd’hui. Pour ce faire, je mets en avant les différents aspects de la vie ouvrière à l’épreuve du socialisme, tels qu’ils sont décrits dans ces programmes télévisés (1) ; j’étudie le programme créatif de Gao Mantang, le scénariste des séries télévisées à caractère industriel les plus regardées (2) ; et j’identifie les voies essentielles par lesquelles les subjectivités des ouvriers et des autres groupes sociaux dans la société chinoise contemporaine se croisent en modelant la politique culturelle de classes (3). Je veux ainsi démontrer que les séries télévisées sont devenues le terreau de forums publics largement accessibles, qui promeuvent un nouveau regard sur l’intégrité morale de la classe ouvrière chinoise, expriment un sentiment d’injustice généralisé et favorisent une certaine solidarité entre les ouvriers et les autres classes sociales. Toutefois, même si ces séries ont un potentiel mobilisateur non négligeable en faveur de la classe ouvrière et de la défense des intérêts des ouvriers, cette présentation suggère qu’il n’a pas encore été pleinement exploité

Editorial

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, it faced the enormous task of building not only a new national economy, but also a new class politics. Mao realised that a cultural transformation, rather than simply a political commitment, was necessary for his “continuous revolution.” For this purpose, how to mobilise workers and peasants, previously exploited and oppressed by capitalists, to identify with and actively participate in the socialist modernisation process became the biggest challenge. To this end, cultural production under the ideological tutelage of the CCP was geared toward actively promoting the idea of class identity transformation

Éditorial

Lorsque le Parti communiste chinois (PCC) a fondé la République populaire de Chine en 1949, il a dû faire face à la tâche colossale de construire une nouvelle économie nationale, mais aussi une nouvelle politique des classes. Mao avait conscience qu’une transformation culturelle, plus qu’un simple engagement politique, était indispensable pour assurer sa « révolution continue ». Pour y parvenir, il était primordial de mobiliser les ouvriers et les paysans – auparavant exploités et opprimés par les propriétaires et les capitalistes – afin qu’ils s’identifient au processus de modernisation socialiste et y participent activement. C’est pourquoi la production culturelle, sous la tutelle idéologique du PCC, a été orientée vers la promotion active de l’idée de transformer les identités de classe

Éditorial

Lorsque le Parti communiste chinois (PCC) a fondé la République populaire de Chine en 1949, il a dû faire face à la tâche colossale de construire une nouvelle économie nationale, mais aussi une nouvelle politique des classes. Mao avait conscience qu’une transformation culturelle, plus qu’un simple engagement politique, était indispensable pour assurer sa « révolution continue ». Pour y parvenir, il était primordial de mobiliser les ouvriers et les paysans – auparavant exploités et opprimés par les propriétaires et les capitalistes – afin qu’ils s’identifient au processus de modernisation socialiste et y participent activement. C’est pourquoi la production culturelle, sous la tutelle idéologique du PCC, a été orientée vers la promotion active de l’idée de transformer les identités de classe

Remembering the Age of Iron

Over the past few years we have witnessed a minor cultural phenomenon in China, with the production and enthusiastic reception nationwide of several television dramas about Chinese workers in the socialist decades. Set in the industrial plants of Liaoning in China’s northeast, once the industrial powerhouse of the socialist nation, these drama series centre on the dramatic transformation in workers’ experiences from 1949 to the start of economic reforms. In this paper I explore these series, asking: what does the smallscale production but enthusiastic reception of this genre tell us about the contemporary cultural politics of class? This paper addresses this question by (1) highlighting the key aspects of workers’ experiences with socialism as depicted in these television narratives; (2) considering the creative agenda of Gao Mantang, the script writer of the most successful industrial-themed television series; and (3) identifying some crucial ways in which the subjectivity of workers and other social groups in contemporary Chinese society intersect to shape the cultural politics of class. This discussion shows that television dramas have indeed become the basis of a widely accessible public forum that helps forge a renewed appreciation of the moral integrity of China’s working class, vent a widespread sense of injustice, and foster a certain degree of solidarity between workers and other social classes. At the same time, while television dramas about workers may hold significant potential for mobilising public support for the working class and advocating workers’ interests, this discussion also suggests that so far this potential has not been fully exploited

FedHM: Efficient Federated Learning for Heterogeneous Models via Low-rank Factorization

One underlying assumption of recent federated learning (FL) paradigms is that all local models usually share the same network architecture and size, which becomes impractical for devices with different hardware resources. A scalable federated learning framework should address the heterogeneity that clients have different computing capacities and communication capabilities. To this end, this paper proposes FedHM, a novel heterogeneous federated model compression framework, distributing the heterogeneous low-rank models to clients and then aggregating them into a full-rank model. Our solution enables the training of heterogeneous models with varying computational complexities and aggregates them into a single global model. Furthermore, FedHM significantly reduces the communication cost by using low-rank models. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that FedHM is superior in the performance and robustness of models of different sizes, compared with state-of-the-art heterogeneous FL methods under various FL settings. Additionally, the convergence guarantee of FL for heterogeneous devices is first theoretically analyzed

The status and potential of regional integrated energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa: an investigation of the feasibility and implications for sustainable energy development

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is experiencing rapid economic growth and rising demand for energy, accompanied by significant low energy access and sustainability challenges. Globally, to address similar issues and unlock a region's energy potential, regional integrated energy systems have gained traction, and initiatives such as establishing power pools for regional electricity markets, cross-border power exchanges, and integrating renewable energy resources are being promoted. This paper describes the status of regional integrated energy systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. We analyze the energy growth achieved through effective strategies and policies that support regional integrated energy systems in developed and developing regions (the United Kingdom and China). Our findings show that challenges, including limited access to financing, regulatory barriers, lack of effective energy planning model, inadequate supporting policies, and fragmented institutional frameworks, hinder the region's widespread deployment of regional integrated energy systems. Taking lessons from the case studies, addressing SSA's energy challenges requires concerted efforts from governments, international organizations, and the private sector to create enabling policy environments, mobilize investments, and build technical capacity and supporting infrastructures. Regional integrated energy systems can enhance energy security by diversifying energy sources, fostering economic development, and stimulating cross-border energy trade. In the United Kingdom, the implementation of integrated energy systems has contributed to a 25% reduction in carbon emissions and a 15% increase in energy efficiency over the past decade. Similarly, in China, the integration of renewable energy sources into regional energy systems has led to a 30% increase in renewable energy capacity and a 20% decrease in coal consumption since 2010. China owns 32% of global renewable energy market, alongside an installed capacity of about 1.26 TW in the first quarter of 2023. Our findings from the power pools indicate that three out of the four pools possess significant hydro energy resources. Specifically, within the CAPP region, 7 out of 10 countries heavily rely on hydro energy, while in EAPP, 6 out of 11 countries exhibit a similar dependency. Moreover, within SAPP, 9 out of 12 countries and within WAPP, 5 out of 14 countries rely significantly on hydro energy

Development of micro-fibrous solid dispersions of poorly water-soluble drugs in sucrose using temperature-controlled centrifugal spinning

Solid dispersion technology represents a successful approach to addressing the bioavailability issues caused by the low aqueous solubility of many Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) Class II drugs. In this study, the use of high-yield manufacture of fiber-based dispersion is explored as an alternative approach to monolith production methods. A temperature-controlled solvent-free centrifugal spinning process was used to produce sucrose-based microfibers containing the poorly water-soluble drugs olanzapine and piroxicam (both BCS Class II); these were successfully incorporated into the microfibers and the basic characteristics of fiber diameter, glassy behavior, drug loading capacity and drug-sucrose interaction assessment were measured. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that bead-free drug-loaded microfibers with homogenous morphology and diameter in the range of a few micrometers were prepared using our process. Differential scanning calorimetric and X-ray diffraction analyses showed that both drug and carrier were present in the amorphous state in the microfibers, although in the case of piroxicam-loaded microfibers, the presence of small amounts of crystalline drug was observed under polarized light microscopy and in Fourier transform infrared spectra. Drug dissolution performance was evaluated under both sink and non-sink conditions and was found to be significantly enhanced compared to the corresponding crystalline physical mixtures and pure drugs, with evidence of supersaturation behavior noted under non-sink conditions. This study has demonstrated that microfiber-based dispersions may be manufactured by the centrifugal spinning process and may possess characteristics that are favorable for the enhanced dissolution and oral absorption of drugs. © 2016 The Authors