Editorial

A resurgent China nowadays looms ever larger in the public consciousness of its East Asian neighbours, with implications not just for their external relationships, but also for their domestic political dynamics. However, Japan still supplies, as it has for over a century, the benchmark of successful “catch-up” modernisation for states, including China, that see themselves as still “catching up.” For authoritarian governments keen to minimise “spiritual pollution,” Japan has also long provided a model for the selective preservation of native “essence” alongside imported modern “technology,” even while attracting condemnation for the nationalistic excesses associated with this enterprise: colonialism, invasion, and associated brutality. And at the popular level, the impact of Japanese culture – high-brow, low-brow, literary, or visual – on the societies of the region has been manifold and profound

Transcending Victimhood: Japan in the public historical museums of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China

This article looks at how the major national (or pseudo-national) historical museums in China and Taiwan interpret and display very different “new rememberings” of Japan. The main focus is on the permanent exhibitions of the modern history wing of the National Museum of China (NMC; formerly the Museum of the Chinese Revolution), which finally reopened in 2011 after almost a decade of refurbishment, and of the National Museum of Taiwan History (NMTH), which opened in the same year. It discusses how museum portrayals of Japan reflect divergent public discourses on national identity. Through examining the relationship between museums and the apparatus of the Chinese state (ROC and PRC), the first section locates the NMC and NMTH in their bureaucratic and political contexts. A typology of approaches to the construction of national identity is then offered, considering the implications of different conceptions of identity for portrayals of Japan and its relationship with China or Taiwan. The remainder of the article looks in turn at the NMC and NMTH, outlining the history of each before examining how Japan is represented in their permanent exhibitions. It concludes by considering what can be learnt from this about the evolving relationship between official historical discourse and the broader political context on both sides of the Taiwan Strait

Clinical and pharmacological studies of orofacial pain.

For pain research, the orofacial region is unique in a number of ways. The region has complex local anatomy, including substantial sensory innervation from neural pathways, and muscles of facial expression that convey important information concerning pain intensity and associated psychological traits. Although chronic orofacial pain conditions appear prevalent, useful documentation on pain intensity ratings using well established instruments is sparse. In particular, two conditions, atypical facial pain and atypical odontalgia, are poorly understood in aetiology so that definitive treatment modalities are severely limited. The region's local biofluid, saliva, has been used to diagnose various local and systemic disease states, and to quantitate drug concentrations. However, recent studies indicate that saliva also contains some of the same peptides, e.g. bradykinin, that are involved in pain mechanisms. It may be that pharmacological-pharmacokinetic studies of these peptides could shed more information on thesignificance of their presence in saliva. This thesis consists of four major sections. Section 1 comprises of three clinical studies investigating orofacial pain. Section 2 deals with clinical laboratory studies of saliva. Section 3 is concerned with the development of chromatographic methods to assay bradykinin and its pharmacokinetics in saliva. Section 4 uses chromatography for the identification of novel salivary peptides. This thesis, then, presents clinical studies of orofacial pain and pharmacological investigations of saliva as the local biofluid

Neuropathic orofacial pain: a review and guidelines for diagnosis and management.

Neuropathic pain is defined as "pain initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system". In contrast to physiological pain that warns of noxious stimuli likely to result in tissue damage, neuropathic pain serves no protective function. Examples of neuropathic pain states include postherpetic neuralgia (shingles) and phantom limb / stump pain. This pain state also exists in the orofacial region, with the possibility of several variants including atypical odontalgia and burning mouth syndrome. There is a paucity of information on the prevalence of neuropathic pain in the orofacial region. One study assessed patients following endodontic treatment and found that approximately 3 to 6percent of patients reported persistent pain. Patients predisposed to the condition atypical odontalgia (phantom tooth pain) include those suffering from recurrent cluster or migraine headaches. Biochemical and neurobiological processes leading to a neuropathic pain state are complex and involve peripheral sensitisation, and neuronal plasticity of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Subsequent associated pathophysiology includes regional muscle spasm, sympathetic hyperfunction, and centralisation of pain. The relevant clinical features of neuropathic pain are: (i) precipitating factors such as trauma or disease (infection), (ii) pain that is frequently described as having burning, paroxysmal, and lancinating or sharp qualities, and (iii) physical examination may indicate hyperalgesia, allodynia and sympathetic hyperfunction. The typical patient complains of persistent, severe pain, yet there are no clearly identifiable clinical or radiographic abnormalities. Often, due to the chronicity of the problem, afflicted patients exhibit significant distress and are poor pain historians, thus complicating the clinician's task of obtaining a detailed and relevant clinical and psychosocial history. An appropriate analgetic blockade test for intraoral sites of neuropathic pain is mucosal application of topical anaesthetics. Other, more specific, tests include placebo controlled lignocaine infusions for assessing neuropathic pain, and placebo controlled phentolamine infusions for sympathetically maintained pain. The treatment and management of neuropathic pain is multidisciplinary. Medication rationalisation utilises first-line antineuropathic drugs including tricyclic antidepressants, and possibly an anticonvulsant. Topical applications of capsaicin to the gingivae and oral mucosa are a simple and effective treatment. Neuropathic pain responds poorly to opioid medication. Psychological assessment is often crucial in developing strategies for pain management. Psychological variables include distress, depression, expectations of treatment, motivation to improve, and background environmental factors. To enable a greater understanding of neuropathic pain, thereby leading to improved treatments, high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry is one analytical technique that has the potential to contribute to our knowledge base. This technique allows drugs and endogenous substances to be assayed from one sample in a relatively short time. The technique can identify, confirm, and measure the concentrations of multiple analytes from a single sample

Accelerating Hong Kong's reeducation: 'mainlandisation', securitisation and the 2020 National Security Law

Whilst Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 has influenced education in various ways, major reforms perceived as promoting mainland control have been resisted. For two decades, Hong Kong’s educational autonomy under the ‘one country, two systems’ formula was thus largely maintained. This changed radically with the response to the protests of 2019–2020, culminating in the introduction of a National Security Law. This has drastically constrained Hong Kong’s civil society, enhanced central government control of education and accelerated efforts to reeducate Hongkongers as loyal PRC citizens. We trace how this transformation has been enacted and justified, and reflect on its consequences. We analyse the current situation through the lenses of ‘internal colonialism’ and securitisation, which have characterised governance of China’s restive periphery under Xi Jinping. We argue that analytical perspectives in Comparative Education, relating to postcolonialism/decolonisation and globalisation, obstruct or distort understanding of Hong Kong’s present predicament

Histoire, identité et politique des musées à Taiwan

Comme c’est le cas également dans d’autres pays, les musées à Taiwan ont toujours été impliqués dans des débats politisés sur l’identité collective, reflétant et dessinant les contours des discours identitaires. Au cours des quatre décennies de Loi martiale, les musées ont servi au Kuomintang (KMT) de plateformes de propagande pour ancrer dans la population taiwanaise le mythe d’une « République de Chine » qui s’étendrait au continent chinois tout entier. À l’inverse, avec la démocratisation engagée à la fin des années 1980, les musées se sont fait l’écho d’un consensus croissant pour mettre en valeur le caractère distinct de l’histoire et de la culture taiwanaise, tout en reflétant le considérable pluralisme de la conscience identitaire populaire. Après 2000, cette tendance s’est accentuée sous le régime du Parti démocratique progressiste (DPP selon l’acronyme anglais), jusqu’en 2008 qui a vu le retour au pouvoir d’un KMT déterminé à réchauffer les liens avec la Chine. Cet article analyse dans quelle mesure l’approche plus accommodante du nouveau régime envers la Chine s’est poursuivie également sur le terrain des musées, et cherche à cerner si les événements qui ont eu lieu dans ce secteur, et plus largement dans la société taiwanaise, signifient que les musées ne sont plus, autant qu’ils le furent jadis, des outils manipulés par la politique culturelle officielle

Transcending Victimhood: Japan in the public historical museums of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China

This article looks at how the major national (or pseudo-national) historical museums in China and Taiwan interpret and display very different “new rememberings” of Japan. The main focus is on the permanent exhibitions of the modern history wing of the National Museum of China (NMC; formerly the Museum of the Chinese Revolution), which finally reopened in 2011 after almost a decade of refurbishment, and of the National Museum of Taiwan History (NMTH), which opened in the same year. It discusses how museum portrayals of Japan reflect divergent public discourses on national identity. Through examining the relationship between museums and the apparatus of the Chinese state (ROC and PRC), the first section locates the NMC and NMTH in their bureaucratic and political contexts. A typology of approaches to the construction of national identity is then offered, considering the implications of different conceptions of identity for portrayals of Japan and its relationship with China or Taiwan. The remainder of the article looks in turn at the NMC and NMTH, outlining the history of each before examining how Japan is represented in their permanent exhibitions. It concludes by considering what can be learnt from this about the evolving relationship between official historical discourse and the broader political context on both sides of the Taiwan Strait

Dépasser la victimisation

Cet article examine les approches radicalement différentes adoptées par les grands musées d'histoire nationaux (ou pseudonationaux) de Chine et de Taiwan pour interpréter et exposer un « nouveau travail de mémoire » sur le Japon. L'article analyse plusparticulièrement les expositions permanentes de l'aile consacrée à l'histoire moderne du Musée national de Chine (MNC; ancienMusée de la révolution chinoise), qui a rouvert ses portes en 2011 après presque une décennie de travaux de rénovation, et du Muséenational d'histoire de Taiwan (MNHT), inauguré la même année. Il montre comment les représentations du Japon dans ces musées reflètentdifférents états du débat public sur l'identité nationale. À travers l'étude des relations entre les musées et les appareils d'État(de République de Chine et de République populaire de Chine), la première partie resitue le MNC et le MNHT dans leur contexte bureaucratiqueet politique. La seconde partie propose une typologie des approches de la construction de l'identité nationale étant donnéesles implications des différentes conceptions de l'identité dans la représentation du Japon et de ses relations avec la Chine ou Taiwan.La dernière partie de l'article, consacrée au MNC puis au MNHT, offre un aperçu de l'histoire de chacun de ces musées afin d'analysercomment le Japon y est représenté dans les expositions permanentes. La conclusion envisage les enseignements qu'il est possibled'en tirer sur l'évolution des relations entre le discours historique officiel et le contexte politique plus large de part et d'autre dudétroit de Taiwan