Suixuan

标签：culture

  • [U.S.] Stephen J. Pyne: “A Brief History of Fire”

    History of Science & Scholarship

    [U.S.] Stephen J. Pyne: “A Brief History of Fire”

    [Mei] Stephen J. Pyne: A Brief History of Fire, translated by Mei Xueqin, Niu Ruihua, Jia Jun, et al., reviewed and edited by Chen Rongxia, Sanlian Bookstore, April 2006 This is a distinctive work of environmental history. Taking “fire” as its theme, the author narrates the history of interactions among fire, nature, and human beings. This book prompts people to rethink the relationship between ecology and humanity. How should human beings treat the environment in order to be “natural”? Whether in the eyes of technocrats or environmentalists, allowing a great fire to rage unchecked through forests and wilderness is by no means a good thing. To the former, it is…

    book readingculturetechnologynotes
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  • [English] John Barrow: “Art and the Universe”

    History of Science & Scholarship

    [English] John Barrow: “Art and the Universe”

    [English] John Barrow: *Art and the Universe*, translated by Shu Yunxiang, Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers, October 2001 I had read half of this book earlier, and today I finished the other half as well. Barrow’s range is quite broad; the subjects covered in this book include astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics, history, culture, religion, language, fine arts, music, and so on, so it is hard to give a concise overview. On the Peking University website for the history and philosophy of science, there is an introduction: http://hps.phil.pku.edu.cn/viewarticle.php?sid=666 But even there, it seems, the book’s distinctive qualities are not really pointed out. In fact, cosmology is by no means the theme…

    book readingculturenoteshistory of science
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  • [U.S.] George Marsden: “Understanding American Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism”

    Culture & Public Commentary

    [U.S.] George Marsden: “Understanding American Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism”

    [U.S.] George Marsden: *Understanding American Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism* Xing Ding posted on 2007-01-26 00:20:35 [U.S.] George Marsden: *Understanding American Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism*, translated by Song Jijie, proofread by Chen Zuoren, Central Compilation & Translation Press, May 2004 Introduction, p. 1 Fundamentalists are evangelical believers who are furious about certain things. That sounds simple, yet it is extremely precise. Jerry Falwell even took it as a vivid definition of fundamentalism. Introduction, p. 4 The basic beliefs of evangelicalism include (1) the Reformation doctrine of the Bible’s ultimate authority; (2) the Bible’s record of God’s real, historical acts of salvation; (3) the salvation of eternal life on the basis of Christ’s atonement;…

    book readingculturesciencenotes
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  • Tension Is Harmony

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Tension Is Harmony

    The term “tension” often appears in academic discussions, but as a concept it is by no means abstruse; it can be understood directly in its literal sense: “Zhang” refers to a state of “tension.” Imagine a rubber band, or better yet a taut violin string—that is “tension.” “Harmony” is the word best suited to describe music. Thus a very simple fact is this: only when a string is under an appropriate degree of tension can it produce harmonious tones. If the tension is too great and the string snaps, or if the tension is too slight and the string slackens, then it cannot be played. Many paired categories, such as…

    culturesciencefaith
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  • [U.S.] Neil Postman: “The Disappearance of Childhood” —☆

    AI & the Future of Technology

    [U.S.] Neil Postman: “The Disappearance of Childhood” —☆

    [American] Neil Postman: *The Disappearance of Childhood*, translated by Wu Yanlian, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2004 This is also one of those books from which I can hardly bear not to excerpt everything; I strongly recommend it! However, since I already made Postman’s *Amusing Ourselves to Death* one of the “Little Ancient Quarterly Recommendations,” I won’t designate this one as a “quarterly recommendation” as well. Like *Amusing Ourselves to Death*, *The Disappearance of Childhood* also takes media criticism as its theme, but its perspective is quite different—*Amusing Ourselves to Death* is concerned with the passing of reason and thought, whereas *The Disappearance of Childhood* is concerned with the passing of…

    book readingculturenotesmedia
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  • The Lamb Stew Dwelling

    The Lamb Stew Dwelling
    Life & Notes

    The Lamb Stew Dwelling

    Mutton Soup Dwelling Xing Ding 发表于 2007-01-18 20:14:07 Mutton Soup Dwelling At last I’m connected to the internet; broadband in Beijing isn’t as good as Shanghai’s, and it’s so slow and yet so expensive…… But getting online means I’ve completed the entire grand relocation project! (Of course, the hauling of books is still under way……) I was bound to rent a place for a while sooner or later anyway, especially during that stretch between finishing my undergraduate degree and starting graduate school; my more than two thousand books had to have somewhere to go. And judging by my book-buying trend, the dorm’s capacity is about to be full to bursting,…

    everyday lifeculturePeking UniversityChinese
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  • Run Lola Run and the Age of Games

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Run Lola Run and the Age of Games

    The teacher and teaching assistant for the film appreciation course have hinted several times that there will be an essay question on the exam. Considering that the teacher has also said more than once that the questions will be fairly open-ended, it probably won’t come to a point where they specify a particular film for us to write about. Still, the teaching assistant also hinted that we should prepare from among the films we watched in class this semester. After much choosing, I still decided to prepare this one; if the exam question turns out to be maliciously tricky (for instance, if it only allows us to write a critique…

    philosophyculturegame
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  • The Globalization of Media Culture

    AI & the Future of Technology

    The Globalization of Media Culture

    Abstract: In this article, the author attempts to argue that in the contemporary world, economy, politics, and culture alike have all become inseparable from (mass) media—that discussions of globalization cannot possibly proceed in depth while ignoring media technology; furthermore, the process of globalization and the expansion of media culture can almost be regarded as one and the same thing. The author holds that the significance of media culture lies in media itself as a kind of culture, rather than in the information that media disseminates. In the main text, the author lists eleven constituent elements or manifestations of culture: modes of communication and exchange; material entities/products; political/social order; entertainment; values;…

    culturetechnologymediamodernity
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  • A Very Comprehensive Analysis of Scorpio

    Life & Notes

    A Very Comprehensive Analysis of Scorpio

    I have absolutely no belief in horoscopes: I neither accept them, nor need them, and they’re not even all that fun. But I admit they are very “effective,” with many things said quite accurately, and the various suggestions they give are for the most part harmless; reading them is not a bad thing. Of course, I’m not interested in reading them, unless someone else mentions one and I suddenly feel like taking a look. Horoscopes are very good at exploiting human psychology. When we see a long analysis, if there are a few passages in it that “hit the nail on the head,” so accurate as to be astonishing, then…

    everyday lifeculturefaithpsychology
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  • Why Should We Have “Cultural Self-Awareness”?

    Culture & Public Commentary

    Why Should We Have “Cultural Self-Awareness”?

    The course on globalization has finally reached ZW’s report; it looks as though next week it will be my turn…… Today’s topic feels as though it can be linked both to my last talk on “preserving commonality while seeking difference” and to the issue of media culture that I will be discussing next time. One of the most basic questions that ZW did not develop is: why cultural self-consciousness? Why should we identify with our own culture? In the eyes of people like us, “stubbornly attached to the old,” what we urgently need is to revive a cultural identity that is steadily fading. But to those fashionable new-century new human…

    culturepluralismselfFromm
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