Chinese ethnography

This study provides a window on many aspects of Mangghuer culture, through the lens of singing performances in traditional weddings. Drawing on field work in the Mangghuer community over an entire generation, Wen Xiangcheng provides insights about how traditional rituals were conducted and what their significance was in community life; he also shows how these ritual events have evolved in the last 25 years. The songs on which the study is based are transcribed from performances by cultural insiders, and provide not only insights about culture but also invaluable facts about the Mangghuer language and its use in these forms of oral literature.
本书以传统婚礼中的歌唱表演为窗口，生动而细腻地呈现了三川土族文化的诸多层面。文祥呈基于其在三川土族地区进行的长达一代人的田野调查，凭借深厚的学术造诣与丰富的文化理解，深入剖析了传统仪式的举办方式在社群生活中的意义和价值，并清晰勾勒出这些仪式活动近 25 年来的演变轨迹。本研究所依据的歌曲均来自族群内部成员的实际演唱，不仅为我们解读三川土族文化提供了独特的观察视角，更为考察三川土族语言及其在口头文学中的具体运用，留存了极为珍贵的语言样本。
Keith W. Slater, University of North Dakota

This is an impressive, detailed, and thorough study of marriage ritual and song which greatly expands our linguistic and cultural understanding of the Mangghuer.
本书对婚姻仪式与婚礼歌谣展开了详尽且深入的研究，极大地拓展了我们对三川土族语言与文化的认知，其学术价值极具分量。
Keith Dede, Lewis and Clark College

Following the establishment of the trans-Pacific trading network in the Philippines in 1571, the islands emerged as a vibrant hub for commercial, social, and cultural interactions between the Chinese and Spaniards for over four centuries. This dissertation delves into the Sino-Hispanic cultural interactions in the late sixteenth-century Philippines, utilizing the creation of the Boxer Codex (c. 1590s) as its primary source. As a large-scale Spanish project displaying Asian ethnography, geography, and history, the Boxer Codex is essentially a product of colonial knowledge creation. However, more than half of its content, particularly illustrations, is devoted to China. In addition, Chinese individuals in the Philippines played a significant role in the codex’s production, serving as informants, translators, and illustrators. This dissertation examines the textual and visual details found in the Boxer Codex to illuminate the intellectual backgrounds of the Spanish and Chinese individuals involved in its creation, as well as the interactions between their distinct literary practices, political worldviews, and cultural beliefs.
The dissertation is structured into two parts. The first part situates the Spanish codex within the broader context of sixteenth-century book cultures. Chapter 2 traces the arrival of European prints in the Spanish colony and the influence of European book decoration art on Chinese artisans. Chapter 3 connects Ming reading culture to knowledge production in the Philippines. Chapter 4 investigates how the interactions between European and Chinese book cultures in the Philippines enabled the construction of the “Chinese Bestiary” in the codex. The second part shifts its focus to the tensions. Chapters 5 and 6 delve into the representation of the “Other” and the Sangley couple, respectively. Chapter 7 questions the omission of the patron goddess of Chinese maritime communities in the codex’s chapter on “Chinese Deities.” In all, this dissertation argues that the sixteenth-century book reading and print cultures of both China and Europe, along with local tensions in the Philippines during the 1590s, impacted the decisions and actions of the Spanish and Chinese participants in the creation of the Boxer Codex, consequently shaping the knowledge the Spanish codex presented.

This thesis takes Nüshu (women's writing), a national intangible cultural heritage (ICH), as a case study, investigating ICH stakeholders' interactions and how their underpinning values have constituted heritage discourses in contemporary China. It also examines the implications of heritagisation and commercialisation on the traditional meanings and values of this unique script. This study presents two findings. Firstly, it teases out that Nüshu AHD (Authorised Heritage Discourse) has consisted of a range of dominant cultural, historical, and economic values established by heritage experts and authorities from top-down processes. This discourse has been reinforced by authorities' interactions with grassroots stakeholders through Nüshu tourism, apprenticeship transmission pattern, and commodification. As a result, Nüshu is not only identified as authorised ICH and but also serves as an economic driver for the local government. In this process, the traditional roles of Nüshu as an instrument of expression, sisterhood and mutual support, and spiritual pursuit are diminished, while its moral value remains accentuated. Secondly, the study highlights the discourse that extends beyond AHD, termed as "Beyond AHD" in this thesis, has been shaped by the interactions among grassroots stakeholders and the values that underpin such dynamics, rooted in individual perceptions, needs, and discursive practices. Within this discourse, Nüshu is regarded as a living folk culture inherited from ancient women and shared by all community members, with the potential to inspire contemporary society spiritually. Furthermore, the research underscores the role of digital technology and the cultural and creative industries in fostering heritage democratisation and the development of "Beyond AHD" of Nüshu. This study used qualitative methods to collect data, including in-depth interviews, onsite observations, and secondary sources. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) techniques, the data was systematically analysed. The study contributes to the Critical Heritage Studies by expanding the scope of it within the Chinese context. Moreover, it advances Nüshu studies by offering an in-depth understanding of the evolving meanings and values of Nüshu within the ICH framework.

This paper explores the ethnographic representation of tributary neighbors, which I argue belong to the ancient Chinese genre of the zhigong tu (“illustrations of tributaries”), in order to ascertain the genesis of the Boxer Codex as a whole. I suggest that the complete ethnographical accounts contained in the Codex reflect a rough translation of the zhigong tu along with a first-hand experience account in the fashion of the illustrations of tributaries. Finally, I advance a hypothesis about its subsequent compilation in Madrid and its authorship, which I attribute to Fray Martín de Rada.

The article presents the result of the joint Russian-Taiwanese research project at the Research Historical Archive of
the State Museum of the History of Religion (RHA SMHR) on the archives of prominent Russian sinologist academician
V. M. Alekseev (1881—1951). Manuscripts from the Archive identified as belonging to V. M. Alekseev have not been studied and
published before. Their research resulted in the systematization and description of V. M. Alekseev's materials. For instance, it has
been discovered that V. M. Alekseev's archives at SMHR include fragmented handwritten and typed materials in Chinese, Uighur,
Russian, and English dated to 1907—1940s that have undergone preliminary classification by the academician himself. The analysis
of the manuscripts demonstrates that two categories of documents have the greatest potential for further research: so called
“Chinese diary” kept by the scholar during his expedition around North China and written explanations of Chinese popular woodblock
prints nianhua provided by Alekseev's mentors xiangshengs.

C’è una rivoluzione che si sta compiendo sotto i nostri occhi: la scalata della Repubblica Popolare Cinese verso l’empireo delle superpotenze mondiali. Nella vita quotidiana di un sempre maggior numero di persone questa ascesa appare evidente nei consumi, nei rapporti di lavoro e nelle mete di viaggio. La Cina la incontriamo ogni giorno, ma la conosciamo poco.
Molti ne ignorano la cultura eterogenea, i costumi popolari e gli effetti irreversibili che uno strabiliante sviluppo economico sta avendo su di essi. Per capire la Cina di oggi è necessario conoscerne affondo il processo di formazione nazionale e culturale,il modo in cui la modernità è stata costruita in questo paese. Similmente a quanto accaduto durante l'industrializzazione in Europa - processo guidato da nuove idee sulla società e sul suo sviluppo - parte cruciale in questo percorso di formazione nazionale in Cina è stato ricoperto dall’Antropologia.
Quello che ne esce è un quadro di incredibile complessità: la Cina in tutta la sua polivocalità e ricchezza culturale.