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The ArtsNovember 2022In good taste
How Britain’s middle classes found their style
by Ben Highmore, Christopher Breward
In postwar Britain, journalists and politicians prophesised that the class system would not survive a consumer culture where everyone had TVs and washing machines, and where more and more people owned their own homes. They were to be proved entirely wrong. In good taste charts how class culture, rather than being destroyed by mass consumption, was remade from flat-pack furniture, Mediterranean cuisine and lifestyle magazines. Novelists, cartoonists and playwrights satirised the tastes of the emerging middle classes, and sociologists claimed that an entire population was suffering from status anxiety, but underneath it all, a world was being constructed out of duvets, quiches and mayonnaise, easy chairs from Habitat, white emulsion paint and ubiquitous well-scrubbed, second-hand pine kitchen tables. This was less a world of symbolic goods and more an intimate environment alive with new feelings and attitudes.
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FictionNovember 2022WAY WAY OUT THERE
by Cat S.
Are you going somewhere, Big Bear? Way Way Out There is where big things reside. They're so big - they cast shadows impossible to ignore. It's a long way away, but sometime big things come to shore on White Cliff to watch fascinating little things. Jules is an aspiring Big Bear born in White Cliff. He's been dreaming big from an early age, but has yet to figure it out. How does one grow Big? Where does one find directions? Who do you listen to? Can one so small really get There? To take one giant's advice--you'd have to see it for yourself. Way Way Out There.A wonderful fable told from the point of view of a small mind mapping out a path that would lead to something beautiful, good and true.
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The ArtsRepresentative Works of Chinese Woodblock New Year Paintings
by Feng Jicai
Woodblock new year painting is an old handicraft of China, going back thousands of years. People celebrate the Spring Festival by posting up woodblock new year paintings, praying for their good wishes. Chief edited by the contemporary Chinese author, artist, and cultural scholar Feng Jicai, the Representative Works of Chinese Woodblock New Year Paintings is a collection of the masterpieces selected out of over ten thousand woodblock new year paintings. It has two volumes, the Northern and the Southern, from which one can see the differences in the custom of the two regions. The book has received support from scholars and institutions worldwide, among which the Japanese museums' collections of Gusu woodblock new year paintings in the early Qing Dynasty and the Russian museums' collections of late Qing and early Republic China are disclosed to the world for the first time. So the book is not only a historical art collection, but also of high cultural heritage significance.
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Born in A Great Era
by A Record of Changes in Contemporary Lifestyle
1978-2018, a big era. Reform and opening up have profoundly affected the changes in the way of life of the Chinese people. The manuscript replays the development of social life in China over the past 40 years of reform and opening up. It mainly sorts out the great changes in our lives in the past 40 years from the aspects of clothing, food, housing, market, love, and play. Adhering to the purpose of "a magazine and the body temperature of an era", the manuscript has a unique perspective and rich details, which can be regarded as a brief history of alternative life with warmth in this era.
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Humanities & Social SciencesMarch 2024Ageing and new intimacies
Gender, sexuality and temporality in an English salsa scene
by Sarah Milton
The 'baby boom' generation, born between the 1940s and the 1960s, is often credited with pioneering new and creative ways of relating, doing intimacy and making families. With this cohort of men and women in Britain now entering mid and later life, they are also said to be revolutionising the experience of ageing. Are the romantic practices of this 'revolutionary cohort' breaking with tradition and allowing new ways of understanding and doing ageing and relating to emerge? Based on ethnographic fieldwork in salsa classes and life history interviews, this book documents the meanings of desire and romance, and 'new' intimacies, among women in mid and later life. Challenging notions of the revolutionary 'baby boomers', it details how these practices, experiences and identities are intersected and informed by age, class, whiteness, and a pervasive concern to remain respectable.
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October 2024Renunciation and Freedom
Survivial in the future
by Jean-Pierre Wils
The situation in our society is precarious. The ecological shocks are omnipresent. The mere continuation of our lifestyles fixated on expansion and self-development has long since reached its limits. As if intoxicated by ourselves, we consume our world voraciously and without restraint. We need moderation and frugality that lead us out of the ecological and social dead ends and hold both the individual and Politics to account. We are by no means powerless and are perfectly capable of leading a life that offers prospects for a humane future. However, our idea of freedom needs urgent correction. For this endeavour to succeed, we need the courage to face reality and the willingness, in a spirit of solidarity, to say goodbye to a false life and join the alliance of renunciation and freedom. Then we will be free – differently and better.
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2022A Healthy Pregnancy with Selected (Micro)Nutrients
by Uwe Gröber
Adequate nutrition and a healthy lifestyle – before and during pregnancy - are of great importance for a trouble-free pregnancy, birth, and the subsequent development of the child. Since the nutritional status before the onset of pregnancy influences both fertility and the course of pregnancy, including complications, the birth and breastfeeding, close attention should be paid to a healthy diet and adequate supply of essential (micro)nutrients well in advance and not only at the family planning stage. Poor micronutrient status prior to conception is often carried over into pregnancy, and can significantly increase the risk of pregnancy complications and, for example, lead to the dreaded spina bifida in the child. This patient guide tells you what you need to know! Various micronutrients are described in detail. Special emphasis is placed on the latest study results concerning pregnancy and nutrition.
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The ArtsJanuary 2019The new pornographies
Explicit sex in recent French fiction and film
by Victoria Best, Martin Crowley
The turn of the twenty-first century has witnessed the striking advance of pornography into the Western cultural mainstream. Symptomatic of this development has been the use by writers, artists, and film-makers of the imagery and aesthetics of pornography, in works which have, often on this basis, achieved considerable international success. Amongst these artists are a number of French authors and directors - such as Michel Houellebecq, Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, or Catherine Millet - whose work has often been dismissed as trashy or exploitative, but whose use of pornographic material may in fact be indicative of important contemporary concerns. In this, the first study of this significant trend, the authors explore how the reference to pornography encodes diverse political, cultural, and existential questions, including relations between the sexes, the collapse of avant-garde politics, gay sexualities in the time of AIDS, the anti-feminist backlash, the relation to the body and illness, the place of fantasy, and the sexualisation of children. It will be of interest to undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in the fields of French culture, gender, film and media studies.
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The ArtsJune 2021Contemporary Spanish cinema and genre
by Jay Beck, Vicente Rodríguez Ortega
This volume is the first English-language collection exclusively dedicated to the study of genre in relation to Spanish cinema. Providing a variety of critical perspectives, the collection gives the reader a thorough account of the relationship between Spanish cinema and genre, drawing on case studies of several of the most remarkable Spanish films in recent years. The book analyses the significant changes in the aesthetics, production and reception of Spanish film from 1990 onwards. It brings together European and North American scholars to establish a critical dialogue on the topics under discussion, while providing multiple perspectives on the concepts of national cinemas and genre theory. In recent years film scholarship has attempted to negotiate the tension between the nationally specific and the internationally ubiquitous, discussing how globalisation has influenced film making and surrounding cultural practice. These broader social concerns have prompted scholars to emphasise a redefinition of national cinemas beyond strict national boundaries and to pay attention to the transnational character of any national site of film production and reception. This collection provides a thorough investigation of contemporary Spanish cinema within a transnational framework, by positing cinematic genres as the meeting spaces between a variety of diverse forces that necessarily operate within but also across territorial spaces. Paying close attention to the specifics of the Spanish cinematic and social panorama, the essays investigate the transnational economic, cultural and aesthetic forces at play in shaping Spanish film genres today.
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The ArtsJanuary 2019Contemporary Spanish cinema and genre
by Jay Beck, Vicente Rodríguez Ortega
This volume is the first English-language collection exclusively dedicated to the study of genre in relation to Spanish cinema. Providing a variety of critical perspectives, the collection gives the reader a thorough account of the relationship between Spanish cinema and genre, drawing on case studies of several of the most remarkable Spanish films in recent years. The book analyses the significant changes in the aesthetics, production and reception of Spanish film from 1990 onwards. It brings together European and North American scholars to establish a critical dialogue on the topics under discussion, while providing multiple perspectives on the concepts of national cinemas and genre theory. In recent years film scholarship has attempted to negotiate the tension between the nationally specific and the internationally ubiquitous, discussing how globalisation has influenced film making and surrounding cultural practice. These broader social concerns have prompted scholars to emphasise a redefinition of national cinemas beyond strict national boundaries and to pay attention to the transnational character of any national site of film production and reception. This collection provides a thorough investigation of contemporary Spanish cinema within a transnational framework, by positing cinematic genres as the meeting spaces between a variety of diverse forces that necessarily operate within but also across territorial spaces. Paying close attention to the specifics of the Spanish cinematic and social panorama, the essays investigate the transnational economic, cultural and aesthetic forces at play in shaping Spanish film genres today.
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Medieval historyMay 2006The life–cycle in Western Europe, c.1300–c.1500
by Deborah Youngs
This is the first study to examine the entire life cycle in the Middle Ages. Drawing on a wide range of secondary and primary material, the book explores the timing and experiences of infancy, childhood, adolescence and youth, adulthood, old age and, finally, death. It discusses attitudes towards ageing, rites of passage, age stereotypes in operation, and the means by which age was used as a form of social control, compelling individuals to work, govern, marry and pay taxes. The wide scope of the study allows contrasts and comparisons to be made across gender, social status and geographical location. It considers whether men and women experienced the ageing process in the same way, and examines the differences that can be discerned between northern and southern Europe. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries suffered famine, warfare, plague and population collapse. This fascinating consideration of the life cycle adds a new dimension to the debate over continuity and change in a period of social and demographic upheaval.
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January 2023Wigglers: The Survival of Small-town People in the City
by Yi Hong, a reporter for Hunan Broadcasting System, has devoted himself to TV programs and copywriting related to art all year round. He has published the novels Endless Love to Changsha and Love is a Ghost, and compiled the books Bright Future and Absolute Loyalty. He won the first “Taofen Award for New Talents” in China.
It is a realistic novel with unique characteristics in content and text. The novel describes the different lives of the hero and Brother Liaoliao, his fellow villager and classmate, two young people who came from a small town. The town and the city work as mirror images of each other, as was the case with the two main characters. They share common childhood and juvenile memories, which are the source of life that has been turned into fantasy stories over time. As friends, they went out to college together and lived in the city after graduation. One got promoted, while the other spent time in a mediocre position...
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2024Brave new city
Smart Cities - a survaillance-nightmare?
by Peter Schaar
The dream of the ideal city is as old as the city itself. Since real cities often develop chaotically, the idea of perfecting them, even tearing them down if necessary, and rebuilding them according to the prevailing patterns of thought is an obvious one. The latest manifestation of this utopia is the smart city - the intelligent city, packed with the latest technology and extensively digitised. But will air taxis and hyperloops, ubiquitous sensors, access control systems and data-driven management really make the city of the future a better place to live? Are they the answer to the enormous challenges facing today's fast-growing metropolises? Or will the supposed administrative paradise ultimately mutate into a digital juggernaut?
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The ArtsJanuary 2018Useless Beauty
by LIN Xi
In Useless Beauty, Lin Xi analyzes the essential of art aesthetic education and shares the fun of Chinese calligraphy, the method of being focused, the cultivation of mental power and the way of learning art. From the perspective of a Chinese literatus, Lin Xi introduces the aesthetic taste in a contemporary world, explains what is “Useless beauty”, how to “be independent” in this fast-changing world, and seeks to discover ways to integrate traditional aesthetics into our modern life. 林曦以手艺人之道，解析艺术美育的本质内涵，分享写字的乐趣、专注的法门、心力的修炼及艺术的学习途径等；从中式文人的视角，观照当代生活的审美情趣，阐释何为“无用之美”、如何“独善其身”，探索让传统美学回归现代生活的践行方式等。
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Humanities & Social SciencesJanuary 2020The life–cycle in Western Europe, c.1300–c.1500
by S. H. Rigby, Deborah Youngs
This is the first study to examine the entire life cycle in the Middle Ages. Drawing on a wide range of secondary and primary material, the book explores the timing and experiences of infancy, childhood, adolescence and youth, adulthood, old age and, finally, death. It discusses attitudes towards ageing, rites of passage, age stereotypes in operation, and the means by which age was used as a form of social control, compelling individuals to work, govern, marry and pay taxes. The wide scope of the study allows contrasts and comparisons to be made across gender, social status and geographical location. It considers whether men and women experienced the ageing process in the same way, and examines the differences that can be discerned between northern and southern Europe. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries suffered famine, warfare, plague and population collapse. This fascinating consideration of the life cycle adds a new dimension to the debate over continuity and change in a period of social and demographic upheaval.
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January 2022The Fruit Fly Fauna (Diptera : Tephritidae : Dacinae) of Papua New Guinea, Indonesian Papua, Associated Islands and Bougainville
by Richard A I Drew, Meredith C Romig
The book is a taxonomic treatise of the tropical fruit flies of Papua New Guinea, Indonesian Papua, associated islands and Bougainville, the region of the world where speciation in the sub-family Dacinae has been most prolific. The book aims to provide readers with an updated record of all known species of Dacinae that occur in this geographic area including descriptions of 65 new species out of an entire list of 296 known species covered. It provides a discussion on the evolutionary origins of the Dacinae and a key to the genera and sub-genera recorded in the Australian-Pacific Region. Further, the major pest species and their biosecurity risks to other countries are discussed. Extensive field research by the authors and colleagues over many years has resulted in the accumulation of advanced knowledge of the tropical fruit flies in this region. - Records 296 known species - Descriptions and artwork of 65 new species - Discusses the evolutionary origins of the Dacinae - Provides a key to the genera and sub-genera in the Australian-Pacific A key reference for researchers of taxonomy, ecology and pest management in the family Tephritidae worldwide. Useful for biosecurity and horticulture workers in Agriculture Departments within government administration and universities around the world.
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Guess who will come to love me
by Chang Li
The Picture Book of Philosophical Stories for Children inspired by four Chinese and foreign literary classics (Tales from a Carefree Studio, Moby Dick, Don Quixote, and A Midsummer Night's Dream), this book carefully retells the works of four famous writers - Pu Songling, Herman Melville, Cervantes, and Shakespeare - all set in the context of modern children's lives, containing profound philosophical ideas, and skillfully incorporating the true meaning of wisdom and discernment. The form of this book is children's favorite picture books style, so that children can talk to literary classics and understand the philosophy in the stories. Against Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", retaining the magic plot, taken from the prankster elf Puck, the "comedy of errors touching", to present a sense of intricate comedy in the form of a play within a play. A brother who feels neglected by his family because of the birth of his sister, with the help of a poker elf, manages to make life even more chaotic ... Of course, everything is eventually resolved successfully.
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Food & DrinkTea Book
by Studio of Fashion and Life
This book is a tea encyclopedia for those who are new to tea. It includes detailed explanations of 67 kinds of famous teas, 37 practical tea brewing exercises, and 33 tea therapeutic methods and prescriptions. Adopting a large number of exquisite pictures and easy-to-understand words, Tea Book allows readers to receive a complete and clear knowledge of tea from the growing environment, quality characteristics to purchasing criteria, and obtain a profound understanding and appreciation of Chinese tea culture.
