Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fractal Geometry In African American Quilt Traditions, Judy Bales

4th Biennial Symposium of the International Quilt Museum: Proceedings

My first encounter with African American quilts was in the early 1980’s in Madison, Georgia. I have a distant memory of an exhibition at the Madison Cultural Center--I do not remember whose collection it was. But I felt an immediate kinship with the way these particular quilters worked, and the experience planted a seed for future interest in similar works. I had always rebelled against the precision and tidy stitches of traditional quilting, and these quilters seemed to favor improvisation, color, texture and “punch” over precision of stitches and precise repetition of pattern. The quilts seemed as much paintings as …

China’S Growing Cage: The Legacy Of Tiananmen, Zhang Lijia

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Whenever “1989” is mentioned, people in the West instantly think about the protesting students in Tiananmen Square. In fact, although it started in Beijing and was led by the students there, the democratic movement was a nationwide event, drawing together people from all walks of life.

Twenty years on, I remember vividly every detail of that day when I organized a demonstration among the workers from my Nanjing factory in support of the movement. It was Sunday, May 28, a week before the crackdown in Beijing.

The death of Hu Yaobang had triggered the spontaneous democratic movement. The popular former …

Another Anniversary

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In Taiwan, June 4 marks another anniversary, namely the 185th day of Chen Shuibian’s detention without having been convicted of a crime. Chen was first ordered to be held in custody on the night of November 11, 2008, with actual detention beginning on November 12. Taking into account the few days during which he was released in December, Chen’s incarceration has lasted almost 200 days now, with no end in sight. In principle, he can be held in detention indefinitely due to the fact that he has been charged with a felony, and because prosecutors have expressed concerns that Chen …

Tsingtao Beer: A Complex Brew, Robert Bickers

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

‘What are we to drink?’ asked a British doctor in Shanghai in 1867, reflecting on the precautions needed to maintain health in the sweltering city. His answer, asShanghai water was too filthy a solution, was simple: beer. For ‘7 or 8 months of the year’ he wrote, bitter was ‘as wholesome a drink as we could have’. Its medicinal properties were, I rather suspect, far from the minds of the inhabitants of the new military garrisons established in north China after the late 1890s ‘scramble for concessions’, and the Boxer rising and war. They wanted the relief only a cool …

Weather Derivatives As A Potential Risk Management Tool For Irrigators, Ray Supalla, Christopher L. Thompson, Brooks Neely

Cornhusker Economics

Irrigators in the Republican Basin and in parts of the North Platte Basin must learn to incorporate multiple year drought risk into their management plans, as they adapt to the limitations imposed by five-year pumping allocations. A major concern involves the implications of being water-short during the later years of the allocation period, because of an accumulative rainfall shortage or drought. Currently, producers can either ignore the risk of substantially lower incomes if their allocation is exhausted too soon, or reduce the risk by using less water early in the allocation period. The latter approach, however, may substantially reduce the …

It’S So French, Paul French

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Five foreign correspondents of the past I never tired of reading while doing my research for this book:

1) JOP Bland – the man who (about 1906) complained there were too many books on China being written and then promptly wrote about half a dozen himself (can’t not feel a kindred spirit there).

2) BL Putnam Weale – who decided mocking the pompous was not enough and dedicated his life to getting involved in one warlord intrigue after another until he got himself butchered and assassinated in Tianjin in some dodgy deal.

3) Aleko Lilius – who came to China …

Do I Still Love China?, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In Sunday’s New York Times, Ha Jin reflected on his decision to remain in the West after graduate school and to write primarily in English:

That was when I started to think about staying in America and writing exclusively in English, even if China was my only subject, even if Chinese was my native tongue. It took me almost a year to decide to follow the road of Conrad and Nabokov and write in a language that was not my own. I knew I might fail. I was also aware that I was forgoing an opportunity: the Chinese language had …

6/4 Reader

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A set of links to readings about 6/4 from various sources:

1. A short and straightforward documentary from Al Jazeera (in English), posted at YouTube in two parts: Part I and Part II. This documentary has notably less emphasis on the influence of Western-style democracy than the average (Western) doc on the subject, and more on the opposition to authoritarianism…

2. Mara Hvistendahl has written a piece for The Chronicle of Higher Education on a well-trod topic—the shifts in China post-89, particularly among those of the 6/4 generation. Yet, Hvistendahl, in addition to getting the basics right (unlike others we …

Ingesting Tei Metadata Into Encore At The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln: Tei/Encore Task Force Report--University Libraries, June 2009, Charity Martin, Stacy Rickel, Laura Weakly, Elaine L. Westbrooks

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: White Papers

In January 2009, a library task force was formed to inform the digital asset management group about which dates from a TEI record should be used in an Encore record. While investigating this issue, the taskforce encountered a host of other issues that they did not anticipate but were addressed in this report.

This report documents the key problems that emerged as a result of the Cather and Lewis and Clark harvesting. Before and after metadata is ingested quality control is necessary. Responsibility for quality control rests with all library departments. The key recommendations for Encore quality control are:
1. …

Shanghai Girls

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few months ago, we ran an interview with Lisa See about her new novel,Shanghai Girls. The book was released last week and See is in the middle of a series of talks and readings, including one that China Beat is co-sponsoring on June 6 in Corona del Mar.

For those interested in learning more aboutShanghai Girls or Lisa See, you can check out this link to a few of her favorite books, anearly review of the novel, and an autobiographical piece in this Sunday’s Los Angeles Times.

See talks frequently about the historical research that undergirds her novels. Here …

Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Developments 2008–2009, Bruce B. Johnson, Ryan Lukassen

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Following strong value advances over the past several years, Nebraska farmland values throttled down and stabilized across most of the state during the 12-month period ending February 1, 2009. According the 2009 UNL Nebraska Farm Real Estate Survey, the average all-land value rose just over 1% for the year. Some modest decreases in value were reported for some classes of land, but relative to recent trends for residential and commercial property across the U.S., stable values for agricultural land speaks to its relative strength in the current recession.

Regional differences in value shifts were rather significant over the time period. …

Reinventing An Innovation Ecology With New Models For Research And Research Parks, Robert G. Wilhelm, Barry L. Burks

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

A novel effort to reinvent the innovation ecology of the Charlotte region is described. The methods and approaches are particularly relevant for restarting both local and global economies. Addressing requirements for faster innovation and more diverse innovation cycles, the research enterprise of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Charlotte Research Institute, the University Research Park, and a diverse collection of partners are working together to recast university research models and research park paradigms. Best practices are discussed for technology transfer based on interdisciplinary applied research. A novel collaboration model developed by the Charlotte Research Institute is described. Guiding …

Too Many Friends: Social Integration, Network Cohesion And Adolescent Depressive Symptoms, Christina D. Falci, Clea Mcneely

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Using a nationally representative sample of adolescents, we examine associations among social integration (network size), network cohesion (alter-density), perceptions of social relationships (e.g., social support) and adolescent depressive symptoms. We find that adolescents with either too large or too small networks have higher levels of depressive symptoms. Among girls, however, the ill effects of over-integration only occur at low levels of network cohesion. For boys, in contrast, the ill effects of over-integration only occur at high levels of network cohesion. Large social networks tend not to compromise positive perceptions of friend support or belonging; whereas, small networks are associated with …

Bidirectional Partner Violence Among Homeless Young Adults: Risk Factors And Outcomes, Kimberly A. Tyler, Lisa A. Melander, Harmonijoie Noel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

One of the most prevalent forms of violence in contemporary society is the victimization of intimate partners. Although it has been established that homeless young people experience high levels of victimization on the street, little is known about partner violence (PV) experiences among this group, especially bidirectional violence. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of PV and bidirectional violence and to investigate risk factors and outcomes of this form of violence using a sample of homeless young adults. Overall, 59% of the sample experienced bidirectional violence. Multivariate results reveal that sexual abuse and neglect …

The Continuing Relevance Of Family Income For Religious Participation: U.S. White Catholic Church Attendance In The Late 20th Century, Philip Schwadel, John D. Mccarthy, Hart M. Nelsen

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The relevance of family income for religious participation in the United States has been largely ignored in recent decades. Addressing this neglect, we focus our attention primarily upon white Catholics, the poorer of whom we reason have fewer options to participate in the context of an increasingly middle-class Church. Analyzing the 1972-2006 cumulative General Social Survey data, we show that net of all other factors low-income white Catholics attend church less often than other white Catholics, although social integration mechanisms significantly moderate the effects of income. Additional analyses suggest that the effects of income on church attendance are greatest for …

Hetero-Romantic Love And Heterosexiness In Children’S G-Rated Films, Karin A. Martin, Emily Kazyak

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This article examines accounts of heterosexuality in media for children. The authors analyze all the G-rated films grossing $100 million dollars or more between 1990 and 2005 and find two main accounts of heterosexuality. First, heterosexuality is constructed through hetero-romantic love relationships as exceptional, powerful, magical, and transformative. Second, heterosexuality outside of relationships is constructed through portrayals of men gazing desirously at women’s bodies. Both of these findings have implications for our understanding of heteronormativity. The first is seemingly at odds with theories that claim that heterosexuality’s mundane, assumed, everyday ordinariness lends heteronormativity its power. In fact, the authors suggest …

Geithner In Beijing–What To Read (Or Perhaps Re-Read)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With press reports circulating about Timothy Geithner’s plan to speak at Peking University/Beida tomorrow, this might be the perfect time to dip into China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance and read Geremie Barmé’s “Facing Up to Friendship” (pages 212-214), a smart look at the talk Kevin Rudd gave at the same campus on April 9, 2008. (If you don’t have the book, check out the earlier and slightly shorter version of it that appeared in the April 12, 2009, edition of theSydney Morning Herald, under the title “Rudd Rewrites the Rules of Engagement.”)

For two typically smart wrap-ups …

5/28/09: Chai Ling’S Last Will And Testament, Philip J. Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This piece is excerpted from the manuscript of Philip J. Cunningham’s forthcoming book, Tiananmen Moon, part of an on-going China Beat feature of excerpts from Cunningham’s book, and describes the set-up for one of the most famous interviews of the final days of the student movement. Interested readers can see more at Cunningham’s website.

A petite sun-bronzed woman wearing a stained white tennis shirt and dusty beige trousers sits next to me in the back of the taxi, grimacing as if in pain, weeping quietly to herself. Named to the police blacklist, she says she fears imminent arrest. Up front …

In Search Of Old Shanghai (Buildings)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this week, the Washington Postpublished a fascinating article by Maureen Fan, paired with a very effective video that the same reporter narrates (hat tip to Shanghaiist for bringing both to my attention), that combines architectural and family history. This is because the grandfather of the Post‘s Beijing bureau chief was Robert Fan, a leading local architect who designed, among many other buildings, the one pictured here.

I won’t try to summarize her piece, which is part memoir and part analysis of the fate of buildings her grandfather designed (some of which are shown in the accompanying video), as it …

5/26/89: An Audience With An Audience, Philip J. Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On May 26 I got another glimpse of student command central, when Chai Ling was at the height of her power. She was holding court in the broadcast tent, the ideological hothouse of student-occupied Tiananmen Square. It wasn’t easy getting in. I had to pass three rings of student security to secure an “audience.”

The BBC had yet to give me any kind of ID, so I learned to talk my way into things. My only “press” pass was my wit, which worked okay because I liked to talk and could do so in Chinese. There were times when the …

A News Story On School Collapses Tantalizes, Then Disappears, David Bandurski

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Yesterday, China Media Project’s David Bandurski published a post that highlights the best of what CMP does: muckraking in the China media and blogosphere, in this case regarding school construction in Sichuan. If CMP isn’t already on your RSS feed, we encourage you to add them. In the meantime, Bandurski kindly agreed to let us re-post this piece on the suppression of findings regarding shoddy school construction in Sichuan.

China Economic Weekly, a spin-off magazine of the official People’s Daily, ran an important story Monday about the collapse of school buildings in last year’s Sichuan earthquake. But the story, posted …

Evaluating The Edge: What Are The Impacts?, Marilyn Schlake

Cornhusker Economics

In 2008, the Center for Applied Rural Innovation conducted a comprehensive five-year evaluative study of the NebraskaEDGE program. Two different surveys were sent to former NebraskaEDGE training participants who were enrolled in the EDGE training courses between the Fall of 2002 and Spring of 2007. The objective of the surveys were to: 1) measure changes in participant knowledge and skills as a result of the entrepreneurial training class, and 2) better learn how participants applied their new skills to their businesses and what those impacts were on the businesses.

Reading Roundup

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. A very cool set of reports from 1949 on what happened in Shanghai sixty years ago when the Communist Party took control (Hat tip: Shanghaiist).

2. Alec Ash continues with brief insights on critical issues. Here’s a nugget on the Chinese “brain drain.”

3. A very smart review of Zhao’s memoir by Richard Rigby at East Asia Forum:

What was not generally known at the time to outside observers was Zhao’s determination, mentioned several times in the book, that he not go down in history as the General Secretary who approved unleashing the PLA against the demonstrators.

In so …

5/22/89: The Hunger Of Provincials, Philip J. Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On the evening of May 22, BBC asked me to take one of the crews to the Square for a closer look at the protest, which was thought to be on the wane now that martial law was coming into force. We did the usual look-see, I conducted a few spot interviews and the talented camera crew captured ironic and iconic visuals. Then we took a break in front of the History Museum, parking the hotel van near the camp of the provincial students.

The protesters around us didn’t seem to mind our presence, until we decided to crack out …

Better City, Better Life, Part Ii, Gina Anne Russo

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In my first post on the “Better City, Better Life” Expo promotion campaign, I focused on the centrality within it of visions of Shanghai as a special sort of distinctively modern and distinctively international Chinese metropolis, but here I’ll emphasize the second half of the slogan, which draws attention to the quality of urban existence. Expo public advertisements don’t just glorify Shanghai’s place in the modern world, they also strive to present Shanghai as a place where good behavior is on display. For example, on the subway one day I ran across a person dressed up as Haibao, and he …

Should China Copy The West On Academic Integrity?, Susan D. Blum

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In recent years, articles have appeared from time to time in the Western press that deal with cases of plagiarism in China and speculated on what these incidents may reveal about how academic life and the educational system in the PRC work. When we learned that anthropologist Susan Blum, one of the contributors toChina Beyond the Headlines, a book that was co-edited by a contributor to China Beat (Timothy Weston) and in a sense was trying to do in print form some of the things that this blog now tries to do online, has been combining writing about various aspects …

Better City, Better Life, Gina Anne Russo

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This month began with the countdown clocks ticking away the time until the start of the 2010 Shanghai Expo hitting the one-year-to-go point, and the weeks that have followed have seen the international press pay a good deal of attention to this upcoming event, which had gotten relatively little media coverage in the Western media. There have been a flurry of op-eds (including this one by China Beat‘s Jeff Wasserstrom), reports on the question of whether the U.S. will have a national pavilion (such as this one by Shanghai Scrap‘s Adam Minter), and feature stories on the city of Shanghai …

North Central Risk Management Education Center, Cheryl Griffith

Cornhusker Economics

The North Central Risk Management Education Center has been providing program coordination for extension risk management education in the North Central Region since 2001. During this time, nearly five million dollars has been awarded to public, private and non-profit entities to carry out producer-focused, results-based risk management education programs. The North Central Region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

A Few Readings Around The Web

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. China Digital Times is on our RSS feed, and, hopefully, on yours too—it is one of the essential places where English-language readers can find easily accessible updates of what is happening in China and in the Chinese media and blogosphere.CNReviews has posted an interview with CDT’s Sophie Beach that gives further details about the site’s management and goals.

2. In the interview, Beach also mentions her own website (好妈妈) on raising bilingual children, chockfull of information and references for those who are interested. At Hao Mama, Beach references Anna Greenspan’s website, Waking Giants, on Greenspan’s experiences sending her son …

5/18/89: Working Class Heroes, Philip J. Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

New, creative links were being made, reflected in the flags and slogans draped on industrial strength trucks with factory logos packed to the brim with red-sashed workers.

WORKERS SUPPORT BRIGADE!

WORKERS UNITED WITH STUDENTS IN SUPPORT!

But the really eye-catching, breath-stopping slogans took aim at the most powerful man in China.

XIAOPING GAODE RENREN FENFEN BU PING

“Wow! You see that Lotus?

It says Xiaoping is ruining it for all of us!” Quite a few posters and political cartoons were openly critical of Deng, representing a logical but politically dangerous turn of heart. But the most novel element today was …