Is Seeing Believing？A Critical Analysis of Japanese Colonial Photographs of Korea

In order to assess Roland Barthes＇ argument that interpretation of photography depends on cultural codes embeddedtherein, a collection of photos from the Japanese Government-General of Ch6sen （GGC）, which controlled Korea1910-1945, were examined. These colonial images and associated text, commonly in English, were aimed primarilyat the West, with which the Japanese sought alignment. Of the three common categories of GGC photos, ＂scientific＂or ＂anthropological＂ images corresponded with portrayals by Western colonial powers of the supposed inferiornature of subjugated peoples and cultures. Individuals in such pictures tend to lose their identities and are reducedto a stereotype, less human than the observer. ＂Before and after＂ photos depicted alleged GGC progress in suchareas as education and infrastructure. Pictures of ＂happy colonial subjects＂ conveyed an impression of Koreansenjoying the benevolence of the new administration. While this photojournalism favorably impressed someWesterners, others employed images of the 1919 Korean uprising, and its suppression, to discredit the Japanese.The overall assessment demonstrates the polemical manipulation of photography.

Identity Strategies of Muslim Meskhetians （Meskhetian turks） in Cultural Context

This study examines how the process of relocating has influenced on the strategy of identity of Muslim Meskhetians, the unique group from Georgia whit experiences of multiple forced migrations and displacements in the 20th and 21st century. In the 40s of 20th century, as a result of Stalin＇s policy to clean the southern border of the Soviet Union from the ＂undesirable peoples＂, the Muslim population, primordially comprised of the Turkish-speaking Meskhetians, was deported from the Caucasus to the Central Asian republic of Soviet Union. The violent clashes in the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan in 1989, Muslim Meskhetians have fled to Russia. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, they lived in Russian Federation during 20 years without citizenship and any right. In 2005, the United States government granted refugee status to Muslim Meskhetians, and they moved to the USA. We combined the in-depth interviews with the immigrants, who live in the states of Pennsylvania and Illinois State of the USA, to illustrate the changes and effects of the relocation on the Muslim Meskhetian strategies of identity. Drawing upon theoretical conceptualizations of socialization and identity strategies of C. Camilleri, this study finds that Muslim Meskhetian immigrants are carefully negotiating strategy of identity in the face of displacement.

Tianxia Qingshi(World Circumstances)in the Political World of Traditional Chinese Scholar Officials:A Case Study of the“Green Sprouts Policy Polemic”in the Early Xining Period of the Northern Song

How to deal with differences is a question that any political body must respond to.The individualist perspective emphasizes that actors will adopt measures to exclude or even eliminate divergent claims in order to gain control over interests power or statutory policy,but the rich experience of traditional Chinese scholar officials offers the possibility of going beyond the limitations of this perspective.The perspective of“tianxia qingshi(world circumstances)”as a new narrative reveals a unique practical logic and dynamic mechanism in Chinese political civilization that have been overlooked by the individualist perspective.The“Green Sprouts policy(qing miao fa)polemic”in the early years of the New Policies era of the Northern Song dynasty(960-1127)presents a historical situation that has not been given full attention by existing research.