Journal articles on the topic 'Li, Yu, Chinese drama'

Traditional Chinese theatre seems to appeal to audiences across the world more for its exquisite acting than for its literary qualities. Yet Mei Lanfang, Tang Xianzu and Li Yu all assert that good acting must be firmly rooted in its literary base. What compelled these masters to go out of their way to emphasize the importance of the written text, argues William H. Sun, was precisely the failure of many traditional actors to take it seriously, preferring to rely on superficial virtuosities. From this constant struggle in traditional Chinese theatre between a theoretical respect for textual quality and practical emphasis on performance has emerged the peculiar paradox of acting here explored. The author, William H. Sun, is a Shanghai-born playwright, author, and associate professor of drama at Macalester College. A contributing editor of TDR, he has taught at Tufts University, California State University, Northridge, and the Shanghai Theatre

Among the TV series that emerged in the summer of 2018, Yu Zheng’s “Story of Yanxi Palace” was the most popular, and it continued to surpass “Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace” (a court drama of the same type), with a wide range of influence and a high degree of discussion. This article attempts to explore the spiritual beauty of the plot, the exquisite beauty of costumes and the quaint beauty of the pictures through analyzing the plot, costumes, props, shots and other visual content of the drama from an aesthetic perspective.

The Japanese Twenty-one Demands toward the Chinese government headed by Yuan Shih-k'ai in 1915 marked a milestone in Sino-Japanese relations as well as in the Chinese response to imperialism. Yet studies on the event, particularly on its consequence and influence in China, are still insufficient. Studies by Chinese scholars have not gone far beyond Wang Yun-sheng's publication of collected materials more than fifty years ago. The only book-length study on the event is the first volume of Li Yu-shu's study, published in Taiwan. This last does not even cover the whole period of Sino-Japanese negotiations. His second volume has not yet appeared. Li's contribution is that he has made use of more Japanese documents than Wang. In mainland China, the most current study on the event is a chapter on the Demands in the first volume of the work by Li Hsin and Li Tsung-i. This chapter is based primarily on the works of Wang and Li Yu-shu. Compared with Japanese studies on other landmarks of Sino-Japanese relations, the coverage of this episode is rather thin. There is only one book-length study, published in 1958. As for works in English, Madeleine Chi's book has a chapter dealing with the Sino-Japanese negotiations. Two general works examine the event from a broader perspective.

The paper presents an attempt to explore the problem of mediality in Chinese poetry of the last thirty years. New Chinese poetry is particularly susceptible to the influence of the latest concepts of modern art and now more than ever needs a clear contextualization in relation to other forms of culture and avant-garde practice. This can be achieved through applying an analysis paradigm for performative word art developed by Dr. Tomáš Glanc in the context of Czech and Russian neo-avant-garde. It perceives experimental poetry as a form that fulfills a shift of the word thus making it labile. Examples of this phenomena can be found in Chinese poetry in the works of Ouyang Jianghe, Yang Xiaobin, Ouyang Yu, Xia Yu, Chen Li, Xu Bing, Wuqing and many more experimental artists. Their creative use of word shift principles shows how performative strategies are adapted in contemporary Chinese poetry keeping in mind the specific hanzi (character) medium that it is based upon. It seems both a continuation of a long-existing tradition and a radical exploration of the ‘iconic turn’ in the field of language.

Clubiona Latreille, 1804 comprises 503 species across the world, of which 122 species were reported from China. Nearly one-third of Chinese species have been described with single-sex (World Spider Catalog, 2018). Twenty-eight species have been reported from Guizhou Province (Wang et al. 2015; Wu et al. 2015; Li & Lin 2016; Yu et al. 2017; Wang et al. 2018; Zhang et al. 2018).

In this paper, we study the local exact boundary controllability of entropy solutions to linearly degenerate quasilinear hyperbolic systems of conservation laws with characteristics of constant multiplicity. We prove the two-sided boundary controllability, the one-sided boundary controllability and the two-sided boundary controllability with fewer controls, by applying the strategy used in [T. Li and L. Yu, J. Math. Pures et Appl. 107 (2017) 1–40; L. Yu, Chinese Ann. Math., Ser. B (To appear)]. Our constructive method is based on the well-posedness of semi-global solutions constructed by the limit of ε-approximate front tracking solutions to the mixed initial-boundary value problem with general nonlinear boundary conditions, and on some further properties of both ε-approximate front tracking solutions and limit solutions.

An unknown species of Aspidistra Ker-Gawler (1822: 628) with freshly opened flowers and full ripe fruits was found when the writer was doing field study at Guiding country, Guizhou province in October, 2008. This species bloomed again in October, 2011 after being introduced to Guiyang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, then was identified as a new species after studying relevant literature (Fang & Yu 2002, He 2002, Li & Tang 2002, Li & Wei 2003, Li 2004, Tillich 2005, 2006, Tillich et al. 2007, Tillich & Averyanov 2008, Lin et al. 2009, 2011, 2014, Hou et al. 2009, Xu et al. 2010a, 2010b, He et al. 2011a, 2011b, 2013, Gao et al. 2011, Hu et al. 2014, Vislobokov et al. 2014a, 2014b, Meng et al. 2014).

In the late Ming dynasty, a new genre of drama arose, which presented on stage recent political events, featuring real historical persons; this genre continued across the Ming-Qing transition. The earliest and one of the best known examples is The Cry of the Phoenix (Ming feng ji), dramatising the conflict between corrupt minister Yan Song (1481-1568) and upright official Yang Jisheng (1516-1555), and probably written by someone in the literary circle of Wang Shizhen (1526-1590). The genre reached its apogee in Kong Shangren’s (1648-1718) The Peach Blossom Fan (Taohua shan). Around the Ming-Qing transition, in the Chongzhen and Shunzhi reigns, a considerable number of plays focused on the conflict during the preceding Tianqi reign between the Eastern Grove (Donglin) faction and the chief eunuch Wei Zhongxian (1568-1627). Eleven plays on this subject are known, of which three survive: Fan Shiyan’s Eunuch Wei Grinds Down the Loyal (Wei jian mo zhong ji), the Clear-Whistling Scholar’s (Qingxiaosheng) A Happy Encounter with Spring (Xi feng chun), and Li Yu’s 李玉 A Roster of the Pure and Loyal (Qing zhong pu). Basing my argument on an examination of these plays and of another play by Li Yu, Reunion across Ten Thousand Miles (Wan li yuan), also based on contemporary events, I suggest that the lively version of events given by these political dramas both reflected and helped to develop and spread the popularly accepted view of late-Ming and Southern Ming factional conflict leading to the fall of the Ming dynasty. According to this view, broadly following the Eastern Grove and Revival Society (Fushe) narrative, the decline and fall of the Ming dynasty was the fault of corrupt officials and evil palace eunuchs who misled the Emperor and were bravely resisted by righteous and incorruptible officials who fell as martyrs to their unprincipled opponents. This simplistic view, endorsed to a great extent in the official Ming History (Ming shi), which was mostly written by former Eastern Grove and Revival Society adherents, has persisted in the popular mind to the present day. I also argue that, after the establishment of the Qing, political drama could serve as a vehicle for the covert expression of Ming loyalism.

Face for Mr. Chiang Kai-shek, one of the most influential Chinese plays to have garnered attention in recent years, serves as a reminder of the importance of campus theatre in the formation and development of modern Chinese spoken drama from the early twentieth century onwards. As an old-fashioned high comedy that features witty dialogues and conveys philosophical and political ideas, it stands in opposition to such other forms of theatre in China today as the extravagant, propagandistic ‘main melody’ plays, as well as the experimental theatre of images. This article argues that the play’s focus on Chinese intellectuals of the Republican era and their ideas encodes nostalgia both in its dramatic content and theatrical form: the former encodes nostalgia for the Republican era through a nuanced representation of Chinese intellectuals of that period, while the latter encodes nostalgia for orthodox spoken drama (huaju) in the form of a comedy of ideas. Yuan Li (first author) is Professor of English in the Faculty of English Language and Culture, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. She has published extensively on contemporary Chinese and Anglo-Irish drama, theatre, and cinema. Tim Beaumont (corresponding author) is Assistant Professor at the School of Foreign Languages at Shenzhen University. His research is primarily philosophical, and it is currently focused on the relationship between nineteenth-century liberal nationalism and contemporary multiculturalism.

Shakespeare studies in Mainland China and Taiwan evolved from the same origin during the two centuries after Shakespeare being introduced into China in the early nineteenth century. Although Shakespeare was first seen on the Taiwan stage in the Japanese language during the colonial period, it was after Kuomintang moved to Taiwan in 1949 that Shakespeare studies began to flourish when scholars and theatrical experts from mainland China, such as Liang Shih-Chiu, Yu Er-Chang, Wang Sheng-shan and others brought Chinese Shakespeare to Taiwan. Since the 1980s, mainland Shakespeareans began to communicate actively with their colleagues in Taiwan. With the continuous efforts of Cao Yu, Fang Ping, Meng Xianqiang, Gu Zhengkun, Yang Lingui and many other scholars in mainland China and Chu Li-Min, Yen Yuan-shu, Perng Ching-Hsi and other scholars in Taiwan, communications and conversations on Shakespeare studies across the Taiwan Strait were gradually enhanced in recent years. Meanwhile, innovations in Chinese adaptations of Shakespeare have resulted in a new performing medium, Shake-xiqu, through which theatrical practitioners on both sides explore possibilities of a union of Shakespeare and traditional Chinese theatre. This paper studies some intricate relationship in the history of Shakespeare studies in mainland China and Taiwan from a developmental perspective and suggests opportunities for positive and effective co-operations and interactions in the future.

This article addressed identity reconstruction through an analysis of two of the most prominent fictional works by one of the Chinese Indonesian young writers, Audrey Yu Jia Hui. In encompassing the idea of identity rewriting, I addressed Hui’s second and third novels respectively, Mellow Yellow Drama (2014) and Mencari Sila Kelima (Searching for the Fifth Principle, 2015), through the post-structural concepts of Derrida’s deconstruction, and also in relation to cultural studies views on identity. The works were analyzed through close-reading technique. The novels were published during the Reformation (Reformasi) era, where politics had served to be a profound aspect that directed the cultural identity and social attitude of the society. In a range of aspects, from narrative structure to their deeper themes, Hui’s literary works were found to draw on a distinguishable set of strategies which enabled Hui to establish her own identity as someone who was liberated, culturally accepted and free to embrace local colors. This article also showed that Audrey Yu Jia Hui’s narratives have served as an acceptance of an individual’s multiple identities, which often depends on the problem at hand as well as the context of choices.

In Chinese culture, hedgehog spirits refer to several types of spirits. These can be animal-demons that can transform into humans and interact with humans. Unlike other animals, for example, foxes, hedgehogs were not very popular characters. Several stories about them can be found in ‘Taiping guang ji’, ‘Taiping yu lan’ (10th century), as well as in a collection of tales about the weird, “Kui che zhi” (12th century). In most cases, hedgehogs, in the form of elderly people retaining some zoomorphic features, encounter humans in the yard or in the house and do not harm them. Another type of were-hedgehogs are sacred animals, the cult of whom spread during the Qing era and remains popular to this day. Those spirits, having settled in the family, ensure its prosperity and acquire the ability to shapeshift into humans only upon achieving immortality. Stories about various hedgehog spirits are presented in the collection by Li Qingcheng, “Zuicha’s Tales of the Weird” (“Zuicha zhiguai”), published in 1892. Those stories take place in Tianjin, where the cult of the white hedgehog was very popular. In some of those, the character displays features of different types of spirits.

Hong Kong Theatre director Edward Lam has established close association with an ensemble of Taiwanese actors, collaborating on almost every production since Madame Bovary is Me (Baofali furen men, 2006) and touring to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. This article examines Lam’s unique working pattern through the analysis of Art School Musical (Successors to Liang and Zhu, Liang Zhu de jichengzhe men, 2014), the 54th production by the Edward Lam Dance Theatre (ELDT). Inspired by the famous Chinese legend The Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai), Lam created a postdramatic musical as a Bildungsroman in a format of classroom drama. The love story underwent a poetic transformation through the lyrics and music. The ELDT version of the Liang-Zhu legend carries Lam’s criticism of the stereotypes assigned to young people in patriarchal societies and allows him to elevate the love story into an allegory of one’s quest for the meaning of life.

This article is a preliminary study of the silk diagram of the mourning system excavated from Mawangdui tomb three (dated to 168 b.c.e.) in 1973. Although it is the earliest precisely dated document of one of the most enduring social institutions in Chinese history, this mourning diagram has received little scholarly attention. Through analyzing its structure, inscriptions, kinship terms, and cosmological symbolism, and comparing it with relevant Warring States and contemporary Han sources, the author has reconstructed the diagram based strictly on evidence internal to the diagram itself. The author then explains the cosmological and numerological significance of the Mawangdui mourning system, and, through rereading passages in Lun yu 17/21, the “Sannian wen” chapter in the Li ji, the “Li lun” in the Xunzi, and the testamentary decree of Emperor Wen (d. 157 b.c.e.), he discusses the multiple ways of justifying mourning practices during the Warring States and early Han periods and the changing interpretations of the cosmological/numerological basis of the mourning system by later text-based scholars, such as Zheng Xuan and Wang Su. Finally, the author discusses the nature and function of the diagram as the source of ritual diagrams illustrating a text in the Chinese classical exegetical tradition. This Mawangdui diagram is a schematic representation of the mourning system with its basic numerological principles and cosmological significance. As a kinship chart, it illustrates the five degrees of mourning, which characterize the scope of close kinship in early Han China. It depicts a mourning tradition similar to those recorded in the Yi li and the Li ji, but represents differently in degrees of mourning that people, especially married-out daughters and their children, were obligated to observe for the death of a relative. It is thus invaluable for us to understand the historical formation of the Chinese mourning tradition and subsequent ritual manuals and legal codes, and it provides new materials for the sociological study of issues concerning Han family structure, the nature of descent groups, women's position, and patrilinealism.

Tang epoch trains (618–907) – an important source of judgments about expressive possibilities and sound archetypes of the Chinese flute, preserved in the music of the Celestial Empire composers of the XX – XXI centuries. The purpose of this investigation is to establish sound archetypes of the flute in the Chinese poetry of the Tang epoch. The methods of investigation are historical, semantic, genre and comparative approaches. The scientific novelty of the study is to introduce the concept of «flute poetry» of the Tang era into the musicology context, to establish its characteristic properties (spiritualization of the desolate time space with a magic melody, the reflection of the state of the soul of a lonely hero, the presence of the image of the listener-poet, connection with the elements of the wind, the nocturonal semantics of the natural landscape, signs of the palace style, the embodiment in the sounds of the flute - the mediator between the earthly and celestial worlds – philosophical ideas), the formation of the thesaurus of flute affects (moaning, sadness, sadness, state of waiting, experiencing loneliness). The samples of «flute poetry» by Li Bo, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Zhao Gu are considered. The image of the jade flute from Li Bo's poem symbolizes the priceless in human life. In Li Bo's poem about the Qiang Maiden, the flute music takes on the meaning of a leitmotif that accompanies the drama of love and separation. In Du Fu's work, the limits of earthly time and space contrast with the boundless celestial chronotope associated with the flute's sound image. In Wang Wei's poetry, the flute's crying accompanies the suffering of an abandoned woman and finds a response in the soul of a lonely traveler. Zhao Gu's poem includes the names of mythical flute artists Huan Tzu and Ma Rong, contributing to the sacralization of time and space in the work. Conclusions. In «flute poetry» of the Tang era, there are typical features of a common creative method inherent to the masters of the word «golden age»: the sound image of the flute is inscribed in a common artistic continuum based on the reflection of the poet's surrounding nature in a lyrical-philosophical landscape.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the symbolic potential of the eternal image of the tiger in Chinese and Russian poetry. On the example of the works of Chinese and Russian poets of different eras, the peculiarity of the artistic representation of the image of the tiger in lyrical texts is considered and a wide range of its symbolic meanings is revealed: tiger as a symbol of cruelty, power love and at the same time courage and honor, desire for the truth, freedom and justice (Guo Moruo), a symbol of destruction and danger (Yu Zhi), a symbol of impending chaos and a harbinger of the upcoming apocalypse, spiritual and physical death (Xu Zhi-Mo), a symbol of bourgeois culture, the personification of the greed and depravity of monarchist society and its rulers, the “dark” past of Russia (Jiang Guamtsi), a symbol of the will to freedom and independence, protest and perseverance (Nu Han), a symbol of experienced fierce tragedies of the past (Du Fu), a symbol of an ancient deity (P Kogan), a symbol of the desire for cold and dangerous freedom and the rejection of a well-fed and safe life in a zoo cage (E. Sadov), an analogue of the ancient Chinese deity, a great fire-breathing commander, a symbol of freedom and the triumph of life and beauty, as well as wisdom and calm (I. Selvinsky). In the process of analysis, attention is drawn to the change in the symbolic connotations of the image depending on the lyrical situation, from the zoomorphic realities accompanying the key symbol (wolf, snake, fox, rat) and historical and mythological characters (cruel and merciless Han ruler Wu-di, honest and noble knight Li Yu, etc.). The image of the tiger is considered as an ambivalent entity, combining opposite qualities and symbolic meanings: cruelty, natural destructive power and wisdom, caution, courage, passion, freedom love.

Clubiona Latreille, 1804, the largest genus in family Clubionidae, currently includes 495 species worldwide with 126 species from China (Li & Lin 2016; World Spider Catalog 2018). Due to the high diversity in Clubiona, several subgenera and species-groups have been proposed (Wang et al. 2015). While there is no agreement on the limits of most species-groups of Clubiona (Deeleman-Reinhold 2001), the corticalis-group has been widely considered as putatively monophyletic. The group presents a distinct set of characters (Mikhailov 1995; Deeleman-Reinhold 2001; Liu et al. 2016) and the species composition of the core-group is relatively stable (Mikhailov 1995; Deeleman-Reinhold 2001; Dankittipakul & Singtripop 2008; Wu et al. 2015). At least two generic names are available for the corticalis-group, Atalia Thorell, 1887 and Paraclubiona Lohmander, 1944 (Mikhailov 2012). Spiders of the corticalis-group are well studied in China and several new species have been described in recent years (Yu et al. 2012; Zhu et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2015; Wu et al. 2015; Liu et al. 2016; He et al. 2016). Up to now, the Clubiona corticalis-group has more than 28 Chinese species (Wang et al. 2015; Wu et al. 2015; Liu et al. 2016; He et al. 2016; Yu et al. 2017), making it one of the most well known clubionid groups in China. While examining spiders collected from Guizhou Province, China, we came across some specimens from the Clubiona corticalis-group, which are described here as belonging to two new species.

Introduction. Based on the analysis of Chinese scholars’ works in the field of area studies, such problem as the uneven development of the territory of China has been identified. Intense social and economic transformations in China at the end of the 20th century influenced the emergence of regional problems, the solution of which was possible only through the competent regional policy of the Chinese leadership. As part of the study of regional disproportionality, Chinese researchers highlight the characteristic features inherent in each of the provinces and autonomous regions of the Northeast, North, East, Central South, South West and North West regions of China. These research are based on the study of economic agglomeration, regional division and features of regional management. Methods. On the basis of the method of logical analysis, the features of the formation of regional knowledge in China within the framework of borrowing the theoretical and methodological base of Western European and American science of the region have been determined. The use of a systematic approach in the analysis of Chinese-language scientific literature revealed one of the key problems in the field of national regional studies of China, namely the problem of uneven regional development of China. Analysis. Analysis of Chinese-language scientific literature allows the author to identify four main groups of reasons: geographical, historical, cultural, economic, underlying the disproportionate regional development of China. The author analyzes scientific articles and monographs of leading Chinese scholars published not only in China, but also in the United States. The works of Chinese authors Bao Yuan, Wang Xuanxuan, Wei Yehua, Li Zhuni, Luo Yu, Lu Zunhua, Wu Peng, Hu Zhaoliang, Zhang Wei, Chiang Lexiang contain a comprehensive analysis of the imbalance of the socioeconomic development of China’s regions. Results. Results of this paper can be summarized in the following points: the study of the causes of uneven development of the territory of China will allow to more objectively perceive the origins of modern domestic regional problems in China and identify the features of the use of the results of scientific work of Chinese scientists in the formation of regional policy to eliminate socio-economic disproportion in the development of China.

Abstract Numeral classifiers have consistently been treated as lexical words (实词shici or 体词 tici) by traditional Chinese grammarians but considered functional elements in most theoretical linguistic literature and treated as functionally equivalent to the definite article in English. In this paper, I point out that (i) unlike the definite article the in English that denotes “definiteness” regardless of context, bare nouns and numeral classifiers in Sinitic languages indicate neither “definiteness” nor “indefiniteness” out of context; (ii) the analysis of equating Chinese numeral classifiers with English definite article is the consequence of mistaking an essentially pragmatic phenomenon for a grammatical one (Wu 2016. 语法性与语用性 Yufaxing yu yuyongxing [Grammaticality versus pragmaticality]. Shougao 手稿). Based on various sources of evidence, I demonstrate that the primary function of classifiers has remained unchanged, namely that of classification and individualization (cf. Bisang 1999. Classifiers in East and Southeast Asian languages: Counting and beyond. In Jadranka Gvozdanović (ed.), Numeral types and changes worldwide, 113–185. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter). Although bare [Cl+N] phrases and even bare classifiers in some Sinitic languages can sometimes be interpreted definitely, it is strictly subject to context and the pragmatic restriction of familiarity (Li and Bisang 2012. Classifiers in Sinitic languages: From individuation to definiteness-marking. Lingua 122. 335–355). This is confirmed by our questionnaire survey that reveals that the grammatical feature of “definiteness” in these languages is invariably indicated by demonstratives. I thus conclude that numeral classifiers in Sinitic languages can be treated as belonging to the semi-lexical category in the sense of Corver and van Riemsdijk (2001. Semi-lexical categories: The function of content words and the content of function words. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter), which is in agreement with analyses of classifiers as fu mingci “quasi-nominals” (Lü 1953. Hanyu xuexi [Chinese learning]. Beijing: Chinese Youth Press) or “nominal auxiliaries” (Chao 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).

Fragrant pear, Pyrus sinkiangensis Yu, is widely cultured in northern China, and is typically sweeter and of higher economic value than other pears. (2,3). In early October 2012, a fruit rot affecting approximately 30% of 300 kg of P. sinkiangersis produced in Korla orchards of Xinjiang was observed in a market of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China. Early symptoms appeared as small, round, pale yellow-brown lesions on the fruit, which expanded from 10 to 20 mm diameter in 7 days. Later, affected fruit completely rotted and were covered with grey-white mycelium after 20 days. On the surface of mycelium, branched, septate conidiophores (2.0 mm tall and 13 to 15 μm thick) were produced. These were melanized at the base and hyaline near the apex. Conidia were hyaline, aseptate, ellipsoidal to obovoid, with a slightly protuberant hilum and ranged from 7 to 13.5 × 5.5 to 8.5 μm. One isolate of the pathogen (zm120286) was made by dispersing conidia on the potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, directly removed from the sporulating tissue with thin needle. The colony was gray to white and produced blackish sclerotia at the edge of the colonies, which was 3.0 to 4.0 × 2.0 to 3.0 mm after 2 weeks of incubation at 22°C. The pathogen was identified as Botrytis cinerea Pers.:Fr on the basis of the morphology and ITS sequencing of rDNA (1,4). The sequence (GenBank Accession No. KF010847) was 100% identical to the sequences of two Botryotinia fuckeliana (anamorph: Botrytis cinerea) (e.g., GenBank Accession Nos. KC683713, HM849615). Koch's postulates were performed by placing a 5 mm diameter mycelia plug removed from the periphery of a 7-day-old colony of zm120286 on 10 surface-sterilized fresh fragrant pears collected from Korla orchards. An equal number of fresh fragrant pears were inoculated with 5 mm diameter plugs of PDA medium to serve as controls. All fragrant pears were incubated in clear plastic boxes with a dish of sterile distilled water at 25°C under ambient light. Symptoms identical to those described in the outbreak above were observed after 3 days. From each of the symptomatic pears, B. cinerea was recovered, whereas controls remained symptom-free. To our knowledge, this is the first outbreak of B. cinerea on P. sinkiangersis in China, which may necessitate the development of pre-harvest management practices. References: (1) M. B. Ellis. Dematiaceous Hyphomycetes. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, England, 1971. (2) X.W. Li et al. Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin, 26(15):100-102, 2010. (3) T. Yu and K. Kuan. Acta Phytotaxon. Sin. 8: 202, 1963. (4) Z. Y. Zhang. Flora Fungorum Sinicorum. Vol. 26. Botrytis, Ramularia. Science Press, Beijing, 2006.

王弼是魏晉玄學最重要的思想家，也是中國哲學史上不世出的天才，他以二十四 歲英年早逝，卻無礙於他的哲學成就：《周易注》被收入十三經注疏，《老子注》 則成為通行本，影響後世深遠。歷來詮釋王弼思想的成果豐碩，精彩論點令人目 不暇給，對於王弼思想的關注不限於華人社會，近期在中國出版，德國當代著名 漢學家瓦格納 (Rudolf G. Wagner) 《王弼《老子注》研究》就是海外漢學家長期關 注王弼哲學的成果。本文針對海峽兩岸研究王弼卓然有成的林麗真、余敦康，以 及歐陸的瓦格納等三人的王弼《老子注》的研究成果，歸納其進路、觀點，以及 重大創穫。林麗真聚焦於王弼玄理的闡發，余敦康則提出通貫哲學與政治整體觀， 著重王弼玄學的現實關懷，瓦格納則從語言哲學入手，提出「鍊體風格」的詮釋 策略，豐富文本的內涵。台灣、大陸與歐洲學者對王弼的詮釋有共識，也有殊異， 這樣的參照比較，不僅可以相互攻錯，擴大學術視野，也能進一步深化王弼思想、 魏晉玄學的研究，極富學術意義。Wang Bi, the most prominent scholar of metaphysics of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, was an unprecedented genius throughout the history of Chinese philosophy. In this article, the author examines the brilliant contributions made by Lin Li Zhen, Yu Dun Kang and Rudolf G. Wagner, who are noticed for their research of Exegesis of Lao-Tzu. It is a synthesis of the directions of investigation, approaches, and significant findings they have come up with. Among the three interpretations, Lin focuses on the explanation of Wang’s metaphysic thinking while Yu emphasizes Wang’s secular concerns by proposing the “philosophy of thoroughness” and political holism. As for Wagner, he approaches this work with the views of linguistic philosophy and suggests refined stylistics as interpretative strategy, which functions to enrich the textual contents.

Background. The article is devoted to the piano work of the famous Chinese composer Zhang Zhao. The focus is on the “Pihuang” Fantasy, which embodies the national characteristics of Peking opera. This work won an honorary award at the 2007 Chinese composition competition for high artistic qualities and deep content. The article examines, how the composer uses the musical elements of the Chinese opera tradition to create a certain drama of the work, how the sound specificity of the timbre colors of the voice, the techniques of vocal sound production and recitation, the image of Chinese instruments is embodied on the piano. The role of the first performer of the work – the famous pianist Li Yundi – is revealed to popularize the works of Zhang Zhao in China and around the world. The importance of considering the performing aspect of the realization of this music is proved. It is emphasized, that such an analysis creates a wide field for creative research in the interpretation of the music by Chinese authors, takes into account modern requirements that contribute to the development of independence and initiative among young pianists. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to identify the universal mechanism for interpreting the piano compositions of ZhangZhao by the example of his Fantasy “Pihuang”. For the disclosing of the research theme the complex methodological approach, combining the principle of musical-theoretical, musical-historical and performing analysis is taken. Results. The composer also embodied the centuries-old traditions of Chinese instrumental folk art, its timbre specificity and unique rhythm in the piano sound of the Fantasy “Pihuang”. An important point is the formal and dramaturgical organization of this composition. Zhang Zhao organically combines the traditional mosaic structure of the Beijing opera with the Western genre of opera transcription, which allowed to give the whole musical composition “elasticity” within the framework of a fixed large form. This work attracts not only with the beauty of its melodies, the richness and originality of a harmonic language, the perfection of a form, various requirements for a performer, but also because all these features of his music are inextricably linked with the disclosure of the philosophical depth of content and eternal vital themes in it. A performer should be ready for frequent changes in images and moods, since the work of Zhang Zhao is romantic, rich in figurative and emotional content. From this point of view, one need to imagine different plot scenes and relate them to the sections of the music. The various characteristics of the sections will help a pianist to some extent decide, which timbres, tempo and mood are most appropriate. Throughout the performance, a pianist must be in the determined “role”. The piece opens by the loose improvisatory introduction, Rubato. The pianist must listen in advance to the Beijing opera in order to imagine how this music should sound, to understand and feel the free movement of its rhythmic organization (sang-bang). To achieve expressiveness in melodies, preeminently, one needs to have a flowing, singing sound. Sound quality is determined by the style and nature of the work, where each of the episodes and even a separate voice in polyphony require special coloring and special sound production. The task of the performer is to show as more clearly the features that are essential for various types of the texture presentation: in the same material one can emphasize the melodic beginning or the character of the chord movement, give preference to the bass part or soprano echo; finally, highlighting a certain chord sound, one can strengthen the latter’s attraction to a particular functional sphere. It is well known, that a performer can, without deviating from the pitch line given by a composer, but actively using the means of dynamics, articulation, agogy, create an individual version of the melodic pattern with its own logical emphasizes, its own types of breath and plasticity. It is obvious, that the study of the laws expressing the substantial characteristics of the texture is of practical importance for the performer, since the texture is directly related to the problem of figurative-sound versatility of performance – one of the most acute for musical interpretation. Therefore, a performer’s attention to a significant extent should be focused on which figurative-semantic characteristics are concentrated in each texture layer, what of these characteristics are dominant and what constitute the psychological complement of the image or act as an opposing force. Conclusions. “Pihuang” attracts the attention of performers with the uplifting and joy of vitality, original, artistic language, specificity of rhythm, and improvisation. This work reflects the highest achievements of the Chinese pianistic school, the importance of which has long crossed national boundaries, occupying one of the honorable places in the education of young pianistsperformers. The study of the performing interpretation of the piano works by Zhang Zhao, the identification of the relationship between expressive techniques and the peculiarities of the author’s style has many-sided significance. Based on the analysis of the interpretation of the Piano Fantasy “Pihuang” by the outstanding Chinese pianist Yundi Li, as well as checking the conclusions of theoretical analysis with the practice of concert performances, we establish certain connections in Zhang Zhao’s piano work, which can be traced as stable signs of his style. It should be noted that different performers can reveal a significantly different understanding of the same work and sometimes we have to talk about the difference in the very content of the sounding work. Auditory impressions from listening to Beijing opera, the sound of Chinese folk instruments should be the basis for the realization of the objective properties of the piano texture, reproduction on the piano laid in the musical notation features of rhythm, dynamics, agogics, timbres etc. This not only clarifies the understanding of the composer’s style, but also the specifics of all Chinese performing arts.

Barbary wolfberry (Lycium barbarum, Solanaceae) is an important Chinese traditional medicine that is widely planted in northwestern China (6.7 × 104 ha under cultivation, including Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region). After a recent, large increase in the planting area and density, anthracnose has become more damaging. In China, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides was assumed to be the sole causal agent of anthracnose on L. chinense (wolfberry) (3), whereas in Korea, C. dematium was reported to cause anthracnose on wolfberry (4). During the summer and autumn of 2007, 29 barbary wolfberry fruit samples were collected from three orchards in Zhongning County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Conidia were 8.5 to 16.5 × 2.5 to 4 μm and fusiform or pointed at one or both ends. Slow-growing colonies on potato dextrose agar were white to orange or pink; sclerotia and setae were absent. The morphological traits were identical to those of C. acutatum and clearly distinct from those of C. gloeosporioides (conidia cylindrical with both ends rounded, gray colony color) or C. dematium (conidia falcate, sclerotia and setae abundant) (2–4). Koch's postulates were performed to verify that the isolates were capable of causing anthracnose on wolfberry. Six wolfberry fruits were surface sterilized with 70% alcohol, allowed to dry 1 min, then wounded with a sterile needle, and dipped in 6 ml of spore suspension (1 × 105 conidia/ml). Anthracnose symptoms were observed on inoculated fruit after 3 days, whereas control fruits inoculated with sterile water did not develop symptoms. The pathogenicity test was performed three times; in each trial, fungi reisolated from symptomatic tissue were morphologically identical to those that had been used as inoculum. Amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA with primers ITS1 and ITS4 resulted in bands of approximately 600 bp. The sequences of both isolates were compared with sequences deposited in the GenBank database and demonstrated 99% similarity to C. acutatum isolate DQ286123. PCR amplification of the ITS region was also carried out using species-specific primer CaInt2 in conjunction with the universal primer ITS4 (1). A DNA fragment of approximately 500 bp was amplified from all isolates, whereas no amplification products were obtained from reference cultures of C. gloeosporioides and C. dematium. To our knowledge, this is the first report of C. acutatum causing anthracnose on L. barbarum. References: (1) S. Sreenivasaprasad et al. Plant Pathol. 45:650, 1996. (2) B. C. Sutton. Page 523 in: The Coelomycetes. Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, Surrey, England, 1980. (3) X. M. Wang and J. Y. Li. Acta Mycol. Sinica 6:211, 1987. (4) S. H. Yu. Korean J. Plant Pathol. 2:31, 1986.

Интерес к изучению систем, содержащих сульфиды формулой АIВIIIСVI2, обусловлен, прежде всего, открывающимися возможностями их практического использования в изготовлении нелинейных оптических приборов, детекторов, солнечных батарей, фотодиодов, люминофоров и др. Поэтому в связи с поиском новых перспективных материаловна основе тиогаллата серебра и железа целью этой работы является исследование квазибинарного разреза FeGa2S4–AgGaS2 четырехкомпонентной системы Fe–Ag–Ga–S.Синтез сплавов системы AgGaS2–FeGa2S4 проводили из лигатур с использованием высокой чистоты: железа – 99.995 %, галлия – 99.999 %, серебра – 99.99 % и серы – 99.99 %. Исследование сплавов проводили методами дифференциально-термического, рентгенофазового, микроструктурного анализов, а также измерением микротвердости и определениемплотности.Методами физико-химического анализа впервые изучена и построена Т-x фазовая диаграмма разреза AgGaS2–FeGa2S4, который является внутренним сечением квазитройной системы FeS–Ga2S3–Ag2S. Установлено, что система относится к простому эвтектическому типу. Состав эвтектической точки: 56 мол. % FeGa2S4 и Т = 1100 К. На основе исходных компонентов были определены области твердых растворов. Растворимость на основе FeGa2S4 и AgGaS2 при эвтектической температуре достигает до 10 и 16 мол. % соответственно. С уменьшением температуры твердые растворы сужаются и при комнатной температуре составляют на основе тиогаллата железа (FeGa2S4) 4 мол. % AgGaS2,а на основе тиогаллата серебра (AgGaS2) 11 мол. % FeGa2S4.
 
 
 
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This paper presents some results of rainfall forecast in the monsoon onset period in South Vietnam, with the use of ensemble Kalman filter to assimilate observation data into the initial field of the model. The study of rainfall forecasts are experimented at the time of Southern monsoon outbreaks for 3 years (2005, 2008 and 2009), corresponding to 18 cases. In each case, there are five trials, including satellite wind data assimilation, upper-air sounding data assimilation, mixed data (satellite wind+upper-air sounding data) assimilation and two controlled trials (one single predictive test and one multi-physical ensemble prediction), which is equivalent to 85 forecasts for one trial. Based on the statistical evaluation of 36 samples (18 meteorological stations and 18 trials), the results show that Kalman filter assimilates satellite wind data to forecast well rainfall at 48 hours and 72 hours ranges. With 24 hour forecasting period, upper-air sounding data assimilation and mixed data assimilation experiments predicted better rainfall than non-assimilation tests. The results of the assessment based on the phase prediction indicators also show that the ensemble Kalman filter assimilating satellite wind data and mixed data sets improve the rain forecasting capability of the model at 48 hours and 72 hour ranges, while the upper-air sounding data assimilation test produces satisfactory results at the 72 hour forecast range, and the multi-physical ensemble test predicted good rainfall at 24 hour and 48 hour forecasts. The results of this research initially lead to a new research approach, Kalman Filter Application that assimilates the existing observation data into input data of the model that can improve the quality of rainfall forecast in Southern Vietnam and overall country in general.References Bui Minh Tuan, Nguyen Minh Truong, 2013. 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In post-socialist China, gender norms are marked by rising divorce rates (Kleinman et al.), shifting attitudes towards sex (Farrer; Yan), and a growing commercialisation of sex (Zheng). These phenomena have been understood as indicative of market reforms unhinging past gender norms. In the socialist period, the radical politics of the time moulded women as gender neutral even as state policies emphasised their feminine roles in maintaining marital harmony and stability (Evans). These ideas around domesticity bear strong resemblance to pre-socialist understandings of womanhood and family that anchored Chinese society before the Communists took power in 1949. In this pre-socialist understanding, women were categorised into a hierarchy that defined their rights as wives, mothers, concubines, and servants (Ebrey and Watson; Wolf and Witke). Women who transgressed these categories were regarded as potentially dangerous and powerful enough to break up families and shake the foundations of Chinese society (Ahern). This paper explores the extent to which understandings of Chinese femininity have been reconfigured in the context of China’s post-1979 development, particularly after the 2000s.The popular television dramas Chinese Style Divorce (2004, Divorce), Dwelling Narrowness (2009, Dwelling), and Divorce Lawyers (2014, Lawyers) are set against this socio-cultural backdrop. The production of these shows is regulated by the China State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), who has the power to grant or deny production and distribution permits. Post-production, the dramas are sold to state-owned television stations for distribution (Yu 36). Haiqing Yu summarises succinctly the state of Chinese media: “Chinese state manipulation and interference in the media market has seen the party-state media marketized but not weakened, media control decentralized but not reduced, and the media industry commercialized but not privatized” (42). Shot in one of the biggest cities in Shandong, Qingdao, Divorce focuses on Doctor Song Jianping and his schoolteacher wife Lin Xiaofeng and the conflicts between Song and Lin, who quits her job to become a stay-at-home mom after her husband secures a high-paying job in a foreign-invested hospital. Lin becomes paranoid and volatile, convinced that their divorced neighbour Xiao Li is having an affair with Song. Refusing to explain the situation, Song is willing to give her a divorce but fights over guardianship of their son. In the end, it is unconfirmed whether they reconcile or divorce. Divorce was recognised as TV Drama of the Year in 2004 and the two leads also won awards for their acting. Reruns of the show continue to air. According to Hui Faye Xiao, “It is reported that many college students viewed this TV show as a textbook on married life in urban settings” (118). Dwelling examines the issue of skyrocketing housing prices and the fates of the Guo sisters, Haizao and Haiping, who moved from rural China to the competitive economically advanced metropolis. Haiping is obsessed with buying an apartment while her younger sister becomes the mistress of a corrupt official, Song Siming. Both sisters receive favours from Song, which leads to Haiping’s success in purchasing a home. However, Haizao is less fortunate. She has a miscarriage and her uterus removed while Song dies in a car accident. Online responses from the audience praise Dwelling for its penetrating and realistic insights into the complex web of familial relationships navigated by Chinese people living in a China under transformation (Xiao, “Woju”). Dwelling was taken off the air when a SARFT official criticised the drama for violating state-endorsed “cultural standards” in its explicit discussions of sex and negative portrayals of government officials (Hung, “State” 156). However, the show continued to be streamed online and it has been viewed and downloaded more than 100 million times (Yu 34). In Lawyers, Luo Li and Chi Haidong are two competing divorce lawyers in Beijing who finally tie the knot. Chi was a happily married man before catching his wife with her lover. Newly divorced, he moves into the same apartment building as Luo and the drama focuses on a series of cases they handle, most of which involve extramarital affairs. Lawyers has been viewed more than 1.6 billion times online (v.qq.com) and received the China Huading award for “favourite television drama” in 2015. Although these dramas contain some conventional elements of domestic melodramas, such as extramarital affairs and domestic disputes, they differ from traditional Chinese television dramas because they do not focus on the common trope of fraught mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships.Centred on the politics of family ethics, these hugely popular dramas present the transformation in gender norms as a struggle between post-socialist and pre-socialist understandings of femininity. On the one hand, these dramas celebrate the emergence of a post-socialist femininity that is independent, economically successful, and sexually liberated, epitomising this new understanding of womanhood in the figures of single women and mistresses. On the other hand, the dramas portray these post-socialist women in perpetual conflict with wives and mothers who propound a pre-socialist form of femininity that is sexually conservative and defined by familial relationships, and is economically less viable in the market economy. Focusing on depictions of femininity in these dramas, this paper offers a comparative analysis into the extent to which gender norms have been reconfigured in post-socialist China. It approaches these television dramas as a pedagogical device (Brady) and pays particular attention to the ways through which different categories of women interrogated their rights as single women, mistresses, wives, and mothers. In doing so, it illuminates the politics through which a liberal post-socialist femininity unleashed by market transformation is controlled in order to protect the integrity of the family and maintain social order. Post-Socialist Femininity Unleashed: Single Women and Mistresses A woman’s identity is inextricably linked to her marital status in Chinese society. In pre-socialist China, women relied on men as providers and were expected to focus on contributing to her husband’s family (Ebrey and Watson; Wolf and Witke). This pre-socialist positioning of women within the private realm of the family, though reinterpreted, continued to resonate in the socialist period when women were expected to fulfil marital obligations as wives and participate in the public domain as revolutionaries (Evans). While the pressure to marry has not disappeared in post-socialist China, as the derogatory term “leftover women” (single women over the age of 27) indicates, there are now more choices for single women living in metropolitan cities who are highly educated and financially independent. They can choose to remain single, get married, or become mistresses. Single women can be regarded as a threat to wives because the only thing holding them back from becoming mistresses is their morals. The 28-year-old “leftover woman” Luo Li (Lawyers) is presented as morally superior to single women who choose to become mistresses (Luo Meiyuan and Shi Jiang) and therefore deserving of a happy ending because she breaks up with her boss as soon as she discovers he is married. Luo Li quits to set up a law firm with her friend Tang Meiyu. Both women are beautiful, articulate, intelligent, and sexually liberated, symbolising unleashed post-socialist femininity. Part of the comic relief in Lawyers is the subplot of Luo’s mother trying to introduce her to “eligible” bachelors such as the “PhD man” (Episodes 20–21). Luo is unwilling to lower her standards to escape the stigma of being a “leftover woman” and she is rewarded for adhering to her ideals in the end when she convinces the marriage-phobic Chi Haidong to marry her after she rejects a marriage proposal from her newly divorced ex-lover. While Luo Li refuses to remain a mistress, many women do not subscribe to her worldview. Mistresses have existed throughout Chinese history in the form of concubines and courtesans. A wealthy and powerful man was expected to have concubines, who were usually from lower socio-economic backgrounds (Ebrey and Watson; Liu). Mistresses, now referred to as xiaosan, have become a heated topic in post-socialist China where they are regarded as having the power to destroy families by transgressing moral boundaries. Some argue that the phenomenon is a result of the market-driven economy where women who desire a financially stable life use their sexuality to seek rich married men who lust for younger mistresses as symbols of power. Ruth Y.Y. Hung characterises the xiaosan phenomenon as a “horrendous sex trade [that is] a marker of neoliberal market economies in the new PRC” (“Imagination” 100). A comparison of the three dramas reveals a transformation in the depiction of mistresses over the last decade. While Xiao Li (Divorce) is never “confirmed” as Song Jianping’s mistress, she flirts with him and crosses the boundaries of a professional relationship, posing a threat to the stability of Song’s family life. Although Haizao (Dwelling) is university-educated and has a stable, if low-paying job, she chooses to break up with her earnest caring fiancé to be the mistress of the middle-aged Song Siming who offers her material benefits in the form of “loans” she knows she will never be able to repay, a fancy apartment to live in, and other “gifts” such as dining at expensive restaurants and shopping at big malls. While the fresh-faced Haizao exhibits a physical transformation after becoming Song’s mistress, demonstrated through her newly permed hair coupled with an expensive red coat, mistresses in Lawyers do not change in this way. Dong Dahai’s mistress, the voluptuous Luo Meiyuan is already a successful career woman who flaunts her perfect makeup, long wavy hair, and body-hugging dresses (Episodes 12–26). She exudes sexual confidence but her relationship is not predicated on receiving financial favours in return for sexual ones. She tells Dong’s wife that the only “third person” in a relationship is the “unloved” one (Episode 15). Another mistress who challenges old ideas of the power dynamic of the rich man and financially reliant young woman is the divorced Shi Jiang, Tang Meiyu’s former classmate, who becomes the mistress of Tang’s husband (Cao Qiankun) without any moral qualms, even though she knows that her friend is pregnant with his child. A powerful businesswoman, Shi is the owner of a high-end bar that Cao frequents after losing his job. Unable to tell his wife the truth, he spends most days wandering around and is unable to resist Shi’s advances because she claims to have loved him since their university days and that she understands him. In this relationship, Shi has taken on the role traditionally assigned to men: she is the affluent powerful one who is able to manipulate the downtrodden unemployed man by “lending” him money in his time of need, offering him a job at her bar (Episode 17), and eventually finding him a new job through her connections (Episodes 23–24). When Cao leaves home after Tang finds out about the affair, Shi provides him with a place to stay (Episode 34). Because the viewers are positioned to root for Tang due to her role as the female lead’s best friend, Shi is immediately set up as one of the villains, although she is portrayed in a more sympathetic light after she reveals to Cao that she was forced to give up her son to her ex-husband in America (who cheated on her) in order to finalise her divorce (Episode 29).The portrayal of different mistresses in Lawyers signals a transformation in the representation of gender compared to Divorce and Dwelling, because the women are less naïve than Haizao, financially well-off because of their business acumen, and much more outspoken and determined to fight for what they want. On the surface these women are depicted as more liberated and free from gender hierarchies and sexual oppression. Hung describes xiaosan as “an active if constrained agent . . . whose new mode of life has become revealingly defensible and publicly acceptable in socioeconomic terms that reflect the moral changes that follow economic reforms” (“State” 166). However, the closure of these storylines suggest that although more complex reasons for becoming a mistress have been explored in the new drama, mistresses are still regarded as a threat to social stability and therefore punished, challenging Hung’s argument about the “acceptability” of mistresses in post-socialist China. Post-Socialist Femininity Restrained: Wives and MothersCountering these liberal forms of post-socialist femininity are portrayals of righteous wives and exemplary mothers. These depictions articulate a moral positioning grounded in pre-socialist and socialist understandings of a woman’s place in Chinese society. These portrayals of moral women check the transgressive powers of single women and mistresses with the potential to break families up. More importantly, they remind the audience of desired gender norms that retain the integrity of the family and anchor a society undergoing rapid transformation.The three dramas portray wives who are stridently righteous in their confrontations with women they perceive as a threat to their families. These women find moral justification for the violence they inflict on transgressors from cultural understandings of their rights as wives. Lin Xiaofeng (Divorce) repeatedly challenges Xiao Li to explain the “logic” underlying her actions when she discovers that Xiao accompanied Song Jianping to a wedding (Episode 14). The “logic” Lin refers to is a cultural understanding that it is her right as wife to accompany Song to public events and not Xiao’s. By transgressing this moral boundary, Xiao accords Lin the moral authority to cast doubt on her abilities as a doctor in a public confrontation. It also provides moral justification for Lin to slap Xiao when she suggests that Lin is an embarrassment to her husband, an argument that underscores Lin’s failure and challenges her moral authority as wife. Jiang Miaomiao (Dwelling) draws on similar cultural understandings when she appears at the apartment Haizao shares with Song Siming (Episode 33). Jiang positions herself in the traditional role of a wife as a household manager (Ebrey) whose responsibilities include paying Song’s mistresses. She puts Haizao into a subordinate position by arguing that since Haizao is less than a mistress and slightly better than a prostitute, she is not worth the money Song has given her. When Haizao refuses to return the money a tussle ensues, causing Haizao to have a miscarriage. Likewise, Miao Jinxiu (Lawyers) draws on similar cultural understandings of a wife’s position when she laments popular arguments that depict mistresses such as Luo Meiyuan as usurping the superior position of wives like herself who are less attractive and able to navigate the market economy. Miao describes these arguments as “inverting black into white” (Episode 19). She publicly humiliates Luo by throwing paint on her at a charity event (Episode 17) and covers Luo’s car with posters labelling Luo a “slut,” “prostitute,” and “shameless” (Episode 18). Miao succeeds in “winning” her husband back. The public violence Miao inflicts on Luo and her success in protecting her marriage are struggles to reinforce the boundaries defining the categories of wife and mistress as these limits become increasingly challenged in China. In contrast to the violent strategies that Lin, Jiang, and Miao adopt, Tang Meiyu resists Shi Jiang’s destructive powers by reminding her errant husband of the emotional warmth of their family. She asks him, “Do you still remember telling me what the nicest sound is at home?” For Cao, the best sounds are Tang’s laughter, their baby’s cries, the sound of the washing machine, and the flushing of their leaky toilet (Episode 43). The couple reconciles and even wins a lottery that cements their “happy ending.” By highlighting the warmth of their family, Tang reminds Cao of her rightful place as wife, restrains Shi from breaking up the couple, and protects the integrity of the family. It is by drawing on deeply entrenched cultural understandings of the rights of wives that these women find the moral authority to challenge, restrain, and control the transgressive powers of mistresses and single women. The dramas’ portrayals of mothers further reinforce the sense that there is a need to restrain liberal forms of post-socialist femininity embodied by errant daughters who transgress the moral boundaries of the family. Lin Xiaofeng’s mother (Divorce) assumes the role of the forgiving wife and mother. She not only forgives Lin’s father for having an affair but raises Lin, her husband’s love child, as her own (Episode 23). On her deathbed, she articulates the values underlying her acceptance of this transgression, namely that one needs to be “a little kinder, more tolerant, and a little muddleheaded” when dealing with matters of the family. Her forgiveness bears fruit in the form of the warm companionship and support she enjoys with Lin’s father. This sends a strong pedagogical message to the audience that it is possible for a marriage to remain intact if one is willing to forgive. In contrast, Haizao’s mother (Dwelling) adopts the role of the disciplinary mother. She attempts to beat Haizao with a coat hanger when she finds out that her daughter is pregnant with Song Siming’s child (Episode 31). She describes Haizao’s decision as “the wrong path” and is emphatic that abortion is the only way to right this wrong. She argues that abortion will allow her daughter to start life anew in a relationship she describes as “open and aboveboard,” which will culminate in marriage. When Haizao rejects her mother’s disciplining, her lover dies in a car accident and she has a miscarriage. She loses her ability to speak for two months after these double tragedies and pays the ultimate price, losing her reproductive abilities. Luo Li’s mother (Lawyers), Li Chunhua, extends this pedagogical approach by adopting the role of public counsellor as a talk show host. Li describes Luo’s profession as “wicked” because it focuses on separating the family (Episode 9). Instead, she promotes reconciliation as an alternative. She counsels couples to remain together by propounding traditional family values, such as the need for daughters-in-law to consider the filial obligations of sons when managing their relationship with their mothers-in-law (Episode 25). Her rising ratings and the effectiveness of her strategy in bringing estranged couples like Miao Jinxiu and Dong Dahai back together (Episode 26) challenges the transgressive powers of mistresses by preventing the separation of families. More importantly, as with Haizao’s and Lin’s mothers, the moral force of Li’s position and the alternatives to divorce that she suggests draw on pre-socialist and socialist understandings of family values that underscore the sanctity of marriage to the audience. By reminding errant daughters of deeply embedded cultural standards of what it means to be a woman in Chinese society, these mothers are moral exemplars who restrain the potentiality of daughters becoming mistresses. ConclusionMarket reforms have led to a transformation in understandings of womanhood in post-socialist China. Depictions of mistresses and single women as independent, economically successful, and sexually liberated underscores the emergence of liberal forms of post-socialist femininity. Although adept at navigating the new market economy, these types of post-socialist women threaten the integrity of the family and need to be controlled. Moral arguments articulated by wives and mothers restrain the potentially destructive powers of post-socialist womanhood by drawing on deeply embedded understandings of the rights of women shaped in pre-socialist China. It is by disciplining liberal forms of post-socialist femininity such that they fit back into deeply embedded gender hierarchies that social order is restored. By illuminating the moral politics undergirding relationships between women in post-socialist China, the dramas discussed underscore the continued significance of television as a pedagogical device through which desired gender norms are popularised. These portrayals of the struggles between liberal forms of post-socialist femininity and conservative pre-socialist understandings of womanhood as lived in everyday life serve to communicate the importance of protecting the integrity of the family and maintaining social stability in order for China to continue to pursue development. ReferencesAhern, Emily. “The Power and Pollution of Chinese Women.” Women in Chinese Society. Eds. Margery Wolf et al. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1975. 193–214. Brady, Anne-Marie. Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. China Huading Award. “Top 100 TV Series Satisfaction Survey.” 9 Aug. 2015. Chinese Style Divorce. Writ. Wang Hailing. Dir. 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A great number of outstanding women’s films have been produced in today’s China in which gender ethics is one of the most important themes, such as Lost in Beijing, a representative work of Yu Li, Lost, Found directed by Yue Lü, The Bold, the Corrupt, and the Beautiful, directed by Ya-che Yang and the Best Feature Film at the 54th Tapei Golden Horse Film Festival, and Send Me to the Clouds directed by Congcong Teng. Among them, Send Me to the Clouds released in 2019, which focuses on a “leftover woman” suffering from cancer, expresses the director’s profound thoughts on gender ethics with its picturesque scenes like Chinese ink paintings.

The main positions of scientific studies of Chinese musicologists in Ukraine through the prism of understanding the intercultural dialogue as a communication process are covered in the article. Communicative processes between European and Chinese cultures in socio-cultural, aesthetic-stylistic planes, in musical-theatrical, vocal, instrumental arts are considered. The purpose of the article was to identify the positions of contemporary musicological thought that addresses the idea of intercultural dialogue and its related processes in general and in the context of the «Europe-China» relationship. The main scientific positions were outlined regarding the idea of intercultural dialogue in its relation with the phenomena of communication, inculturation and acculturation tendencies, etc.; the contemporary (from the 1990s) musicology studies carried out in Ukraine about the musical culture of China were considered; the existence and specificity of the implementation of intercultural communication were discovered; the main lines for further study of the European-Chinese intercultural dialogue were identified in the research process. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is based, first of all, on the Bakhtin’s dialogue concept and also the concepts by O. Berehova, Yu. Lotman, O. Samoilenko, M. Shved and others. In the process of studying this topic, the work of such Chinese researchers as Vu Huolinh, Li Siabin, Lo Kun, Liu Bintsian, Sun Zhuilun, Tu Dunia, Khou Tszian, Khu Pin, Chzhan Siaokhao, Chzhu Chanlei. Conclusions are made on the active development of comparative studies in contemporary musicology, based on comparing European and Chinese artistic traditions. Research can be of practical importance to future researchers in intercultural communication processes. The main task in the intercultural dialogue Europe-China is to achieve the creative understanding, which, according to M. Bakhtin, arises at the level of a consistent interpretation of the essence.