Articoli di riviste sul tema "Xuan ji"

Maidens painting is an art genre that became prevalent during the Han-Wei dynasties. However, it was not until later in Tang that the genre prospered. This paper examines the much-recognized artwork, Mrs. Guoguo’s Outing in Spring, painted by Zhang Xuan, and lists out analysis from multiple perspectives, including the usage of colors, the visual balance of the artwork, and the choices of attires of the figures. To list a few characteristics of the painting, viewers can see that the arrangement of figures in the artwork is not balanced when viewed from both sides. However, the painting still displays excellent symmetry. The accumulation of colors, known as “ji se ti” and women’s choice of wearing men’s clothing are other features of the artwork. In this paper, multiple theoretical sources have been adopted to assist parts of the analysis. To sum up, the painting was inherited from its pre-descendants and influenced other artists in the same era as Zhang Xuan and the later generations. Most importantly, the art genre was not limited only to the border of China but has also passed on its traditions towards arts overseas.

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.

Abstract To depict the genomic and immune landscapes of lung adenocarcinomas (ADCs) in ever and never-smokers and guide the design of immunotherapy strategies, we applied multiple deconvolution methods that allow the identification of immune cell infiltration and immune pathway enrichment using a whole exome and transcriptome sequencing-based approach in 145 patient-matched lung ADC and non-malignant lung parenchymal tissue pairs from ever and never smokers in our in-house cohort. Results were subsequently validated by an external lung ADC cohort, including 108 never-smokers and 61 ever-smokers. Firstly, we showed that ever-smokers had an increased abundance of neutrophils and macrophage infiltration, an elevated antigen processing and presentation capacity, and activated T-cell-mediated immunity. Secondly, ever-smokers revealed elevated macrophages in acinar ADCs, decreased mast cells in lepidic ADCs, and increased neutrophils in papillary ADCs, suggesting the tumor-driven immune characteristic discrepancies among various pathologic subtypes of ADC. Thirdly, we identified mutational disparities in tumor mutation burdens, subclonal single nucleotide variants, and the predicted and expressed neoantigens between ever and never-smokers. The mutant gene KRAS preferably occurred in ever-smokers, further contributing to the infiltration of macrophages and expression of cytokines. The copy number variations of immune-related genes (NFIB, TNFAIP3) were identified as conferring to the dysregulated immune environment in ever-smokers. Moreover, a higher genomic instability index was observed in ever-smokers (p = 0.008). Fourthly, the neoantigen was significantly increased in ever-smoker lung ADCs without nodal disease. While DNA immunoediting preferably occurred in never-smokers. Notably, in lung ADC patients with nodal disease, ever-smokers exhibited slightly more homogenous mutations (p = 0.094), consistent with the evolutionary bottleneck during cancer progression. Finally, the lower immunoediting and higher microenvironment scores significantly determined the more prolonged progression-free survival in never-smokers (p < 0.050). Our multiscale genomic and immune profiling analyses thus offer valuable knowledge of tumor-driven immune disparity arising from smoking and provide a robust solution to the rational design of immune therapies. Citation Format: Xiaozheng Kang, Xin Wang, Liyan Ji, Bingfa Yan, Xuan Gao, Xuefeng Xia, Xingsheng Hu. Heterogeneous tumor-driven immune landscapes between lung adenocarcinomas in ever and never-smokers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 2494.

The Kong-zi jia-yu (“School Sayings of Confucius”) is an important historical source for the study of Confucius’ teachings. The text comprises Confucius’ sayings, records of his conversations with his students and other people, and also information regarding his life and deeds. Regardless of the factual cornucopia, the text remains almost completely unknown to Russian scholars. Equally, it has never been translated into Russian. The necessity to translate this historical source into Russian is obvious, at least because of the information regarding the life of Confucius (551–479 BC) and also the theory of his philosophy and belief system. The article offers the initial stage of the study of the Kong-zi jia-yu and comprises the Russian translation of the first two chapters. One of the tasks of the article is the identification of the sources the Kong-zi jia-yu is based upon. The translation is accompanied by the synopsis of the contents of the first five chapters, their composition and a source critical study about the information found in the Kong-zi jia-yu and the ancient Chinese works, such as Chun-qiu Zuo-zhuan, Xun-zi, Li-ji, Da Dai li-ji, Yi-wen-zi, Shuo-yuan. The study has proven that these texts should not be considered as sources of information for the first and second chapters of the Kong-zi jia-yu due to significant differences in detail description. It has been also established that the texts of the third, fourth and fifth chapters, which are philosophical dialogues to a large extent coincide with the chapters of Li-ji (chapters Ai-gong wen, Ru xing) and Da Dai li-ji (chapters Zhu yan, Ai-gong wen yu Kong-zi). However, regardless of these coincidences these texts still should not be considered as direct sources for the relevant chapters from the Kong-zi jia-yu. Most likely, the authors of all three chapters had recourse to the same source.

The article deals with the set of grammatical notions used by the author of 《语助》 “Yuzhu”, that is the first special monograph in Chinese linguistics dedicated to the description of function words. The study of works significant for the development of the linguistic knowledge is very important for historiographical and epistemological description of the formation of a certain tradition (in this case the Chinese one), since such works mark the stages of qualitative shifts in the structure of knowledge. In the course of the research three types of function words were singled out: 辞 ci, 声 sheng and 语助 yuzhu. The description of how these terminological units are used in the works preceding 《语助》 “Yuzhu” (such as 《礼记正义》 “Li ji zheng yi”, 《毛诗故训传》 “Mao Shi gu xun zhuan”, etc.) is given. Diachronic analysis shows a certain continuity of Lu Yiwei’s 卢以纬 interpretations: he does not offer his own variants of naming function words, but uses terms that were coined by the literary people and commentators in previous epochs. To illustrate different types of function words, excerpts from dictionary entries are given, they are translated into Russian by the author. It is emphasized that these units do not have such properties inherent for terms as definition, accuracy of meaning, single meaning and form stability, so it is impossible to consider such units as proper terms. It is concluded that the traditional stage of linguistic knowledge development in China is characterized by the formation of the system of grammatical notions, there was no consistently developed terminological apparatus in this period, the structure of the language was not viewed systematically.

Abstract The overexpression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters has known to be one of the most important mechanisms responsible for the development of multidrug resistance (MDR). OTS964 is a potent T-LAK cell-originated protein kinase (TOPK) inhibitor. Herein, we investigated the interaction of OTS964 and MDR-associated ATP-binding cassette sub-family G member 2 (ABCG2, breast cancer resistance protein/BCRP). The cell viability assay indicated that the effectiveness of OTS964 is limited in drug-resistant and gene-transfected cells overexpressing ABCG2. We found that the known ABCG2 inhibitor is able to sensitize ABCG2-overexpressing cells to OTS964. In mechanism-based studies, OTS964 shows inhibitory effect on the efflux function mediated by ABCG2, and in turn, affects the pharmacokinetic profile of other ABCG2 substrate-drugs. Furthermore, OTS964 upregulates ABCG2 protein and mRNA expression levels, resulting in enhanced resistance to ABCG2 substrate-drugs. The ATPase assay demonstrated that OTS964 stimulates ATPase activity of ABCG2 in a concentration-dependent manner, and that this stimulation can be antagonized by a verified ABCG2 ATPase inhibitor. Additionally, the computational molecular docking analysis combined with results from ATPase assay suggested that OTS964 interacts with drug-binding pocket of ABCG2 protein and has substrate-like behaviors. Thus, OTS964 is an MDR-susceptible agent due to its interactions with ABCG2, and overexpression of ABCG2 transporter may attenuate its therapeutic effect in cancer cells. Citation Format: Yuqi Yang, Zhuo-Xun Wu, Jing-Quan Wang, Qiu-Xu Teng, Zi-Ning Lei, Sabrina Lusvarghi, Suresh V. Ambudkar, Ning Ji, Zhe-Sheng Chen. OTS964, a TOPK inhibitor, is susceptible to ABCG2-mediated drug resistance [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 407.

<p>本文以《春秋經》與《左傳》為範圍，提出「帥師以納周天子、他國之君、他國之公子者為卿」、「行弔災與唁之事者為卿」、「『逆』公子而立為國君或大子者為卿」三項判斷卿身分之標準。二者記第一項之事計十則、十三位人物，經本文分析知齊之隰朋、楚之成得臣、楚之鬬勃、晉之趙盾、楚之屈建、齊之高偃、晉之籍談、晉之荀躒、晉之趙鞅、魯之叔孫舒、越之臯如、越之舌庸、宋之樂茷等十三人身分皆為卿。二者記第二項之事計五則、四位人物，記行唁之事有五則、五位人物。除國君外，二者計有魯之厚成叔、魯之叔弓、陳之公孫貞子、魯之臧紇、齊之高張、晉之荀躒等六位大夫，身分皆為卿。二者計第三項之事計八則，除一則對象不明，另有鄭之祭仲、石甲父、侯宣多、晉之趙穿、荀罃、齊之崔杼、莒之公子鐸、楚之子西等八位。祭仲、趙穿、荀罃、崔杼、子西確定為卿，又旁證石甲父與侯宣多亦是卿，整體比例已逾八成，推測莒之公子鐸身分亦是卿。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>This article takes &quot;Chūn Qiū Jīng&quot; & &quot;Zuǒ Zhu&aacute;n&quot; as the text scope, and proposes three criteria for judging the identity of Qīng. The first is &quot;those Generals who escorted the Emperor Zhōu, Monarchs or Princes from other States to their own States with armies are Qīng.&quot; The second is &quot;those who expressed their condolences to States or extended condolences to Monarchs are Qīng.&quot; The third is &quot;those who welcomed Princes from other States to their own States and let them become Monarchs or the first Prince in succession to the throne are Qīng.&quot; Refer to &quot;Chūn Qiū Jīng&quot; & &quot;Zuǒ Zhu&aacute;n&quot;, there are ten stories and thirteen characters belong to the first criterion. According to the analysis of this article, they are X&iacute; P&eacute;ng (Q&iacute; State), Ch&eacute;ng D&eacute;-ch&eacute;n (Chǔ State), D&ograve;u B&oacute; (Chǔ State), Zh&agrave;o D&ugrave;n (J&igrave;n State), Qū Ji&agrave;n (Chǔ State), Gāo Yǎn (Q&iacute; State), J&iacute; T&aacute;n (J&igrave;n State), X&uacute;n L&igrave; (J&igrave;n State), Zh&agrave;o Yang (J&igrave;n State), Shū-sūn Shū (Lǔ State), Gāo R&uacute; (Yu&egrave; State), Sh&eacute; Yōng (Yu&egrave; State) and Yu&egrave; F&aacute; (S&ograve;ng State). All these thirteen above are Qīng. Besides, there are five stories and four characters belong to the second criterion and they were record by expressing their condolences to States. Another five stories and five characters were record for extending their condolences to Monarchs. Except those Monarchs, there are six persons who belong to the second criterion. They are H&ograve;u Ch&eacute;ng-shū (Lǔ State), Shū Gōng (Lǔ State), Gōng-sūn Zhēn-zi (Ch&eacute;n State), Zāng H&eacute; (Lǔ State), Gāo Zh&agrave;ng (Q&iacute; State) and X&uacute;n L&igrave; (J&igrave;n State). All these six D&agrave;-fū above are Qīng. In conclusion, there are eight stories and eight characters belong to the third criterion, except for an unknown character. The rest of them are J&igrave; Zh&ograve;ng (Zh&egrave;ng State), Sh&iacute; Jiǎ-f&ugrave; (Zh&egrave;ng State), H&oacute;u Xuān-duō (Zh&egrave;ng State), Zh&agrave;o Chuān (J&igrave;n State), X&uacute;n Yīng (J&igrave;n State), Cuī Zh&ugrave; (Q&iacute; State), Gōng-zǐ Du&oacute; (Jǔ State) and Zǐ Xī (Chǔ State). J&igrave; Zh&ograve;ng, Zh&agrave;o Chuān, X&uacute;n Yīng, Cuī Zh&ugrave; and Zǐ Xī are identified as Qīng. Sh&iacute; Jiǎ-f&ugrave; and H&oacute;u Xuān-duō are also confirmed to be Qīng by some evidence. The overall ratio is more than 80%, and it is speculated that Gōng-zǐ Du&oacute; is also Qing.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. 本文對胡盈瑩、范季融首陽齋所藏西周青銅器應侯簋上的銘文進行了考釋，認爲該簋屬周厲王早期應侯視工之器，與上海博物館所藏應侯視工鼎同時。本文認爲銘文中的淮南夷屰並非宣王時期的楚公逆。並對銘文中的■、加、戎及■等字作了釋讀。 由於系統所限，部分特殊文字未能顯示，在此僅以■代替，相關原整文字煩請查看PDF檔案。不便之處，敬請見諒。 The present paper examines the rubbings of the Marquis of Ying gui, collected in Shouyang Zhai by Hu Yingying and Fan Ji-rong, and attributes this bronze gui to Shigong, Marquis of Ying, likely late in the reign of King Li of Western Zhou. The author believes that it belongs to the same donar of the tripod of Shigong, Marguis of Ying, which is preserved in Shanghai Museum. The author of this paper believes that Huainanyi Ni in the inscriptions does not refer to Ni, the duke of Chu, who can be dated to the period of the reign of King Xuan of Zhou, and also provides new decipherment of a few characters, such as lu, jia, rong and shou. Limited by the system, we cannot display certain special Chinese characters here. Please refer to the PDF file to view those characters. Thank you for your understanding.

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English. 據史實所可考知，中國古代自殷商時代已傳衍一種存祀的國際關係思想。可以命之為存祀主義。相傳殷商高宗武丁時代已有這種思想。 惟在後世聖賢學者與君后諸侯普遍信持的歷史記載，則多以周武王克商故事為根據。成為歷代傳承的丈事典範。故事內容十分具體而顯明。就是在武王克商之後除了殺掉妲己，並把纣王懸首在白旗上。同時散發鹿台（地名）之財，分發鉅橋（地名）之粟，分给黎民百姓。並派人釋放被囚的箕子（人名）和眾百姓，派人封比干（人名）之墓，表彰商容（人名）的門閭。更封紂的兒子武庚旅父（人名）保存原有的殷商政權。此外更分神農、黃帝、唐堯、虞舜、夏禹等帝王的後人立為封國。因是古代聖賢俱頌稱為王道。 在古代的學術思想名家，先後普遍頌揚武王的存祀主義的王道。有孔子、子思、荀子、以及儒家後學，一致宏揚孔子所説：「興滅國，繼絕世，舉逸民，天下之民歸心焉。」而法家的管子，更是幫助齊桓公實質履行存祀主義，儒家經典盛讚齊桓公的三存亡國，一繼絕世。因是使春秋時代的霸業，有一個存祀主義 王道思想。我人尚可以在《左傳》、《國語》書中發現此一實殘的例子。 存祀主義進入秦漢大一統之世，已在政治運行上消褪。然至明清兩代，更成為封貢體制(Tributary System)中一個政治信念。明清帝君對於朝貢國多有履踐。仍不廢王道。中國最後一次履行存祀主義，是在光緒五年(1879)在日本呑併琉球的交涉中，主張為琉球保存其所據大島，以延績琉球宗廟血祀。此為帝國主義者暗笑中國的迂闊愚昧。然而今世爭殺是尚，弱小民族如何避免征服，逃脱被奴役命運。此是世界人 類共同思考之大問題。According to historical records, since the Shang era, a nationally related ideology regarding the worship of royal ancestors had existed in ancient China. It was believed that such kind of thoughts existed in as early as the Gao-zhong Wu Ding period in the ancient Shang Dynasty. However scholars, kings, queens and the noblemen in later years generally tended to believe in records about inheritance that were based on the story of King Zhou Wu who conquered Shang. This had become the paradigm of historical inheritance. The story was very concrete and its message obvious. After King Wu conquered Shang, apart from killing the Shang King’s concubine Tan Ji and hanging up the head of the infamous King Zhou on a white flag, he also distributed the wealth in Lu-tai and the food in Ju Qiao to civilians; moreover he sent people to release the imprisoned Qi Zi and other civilians; he sent someone to honor the tomb of Bi Gan and decorate the door of Shang Rong; King Zhou s son Wu Gang Lu Fu was allowed to maintain Shang’s political power. In addition, the descendants of Shen Nong, Huang Di, Tang Yao, Yu Shun and Xia Yu were awarded territories. Many ancient scholars lauded such generosity as regal benevolence. Renowned thinkers and philosophers in ancient China had been praising King Wu's regal benevolence ideology. Confucius, Zi Si, Xun Zi and other confucius followers unanimously upheld what Confucius proclaimed, “Assist defeated states to recover, let political regimes of the ousted rulers continue, give glory to hermits of the previous dynasty, then all the people would whole-heartedly render support to the ruling power.” Guan Zi of the Legalistic School helped Qi Wun Gong (Duke of Qi) implement ancestral inheritance. In the Confucius classics, Qi Wun Gong was much acclaimed for rendering help to defeated states three times, and helping to perpetuate ancestral worship of ousted states. Thus we can tell that during the hegemony of the war-tom Spring-autumn era, such royal inheritance thoughts existed. Concrete examples can be found in classics such as “Zou Zhuan" and "Guoyu". The regal benevolence tenet faded out politically in the unified Qin and Han era. Nevertheless, in the Ming and Qing dynasty, it had evolved into a political ideology in the Tributary System The kings of Ming and Qing Dynasty upheld regal benevolence through pledging to protect their protege states. The last ancestral worship tenet was seen in the fifth year of Guang Xu's rule (1879) when Japan had taken Ryukyu Island. The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty insisted that Ryukyu Island should keep Da Dao (Big Island) so as to allow it to maintain its ancestral worship practice and blood-line. The imperialists sneered at China as ignorant and stupid. However, in contemporary time, amidst fighting and killings, how vulnerable tribes could avoid being conquered and enslaved is actually an important issue for all people to ruminate.

IntroductionIn this article, I set out to accomplish two tasks. The first is to map coffee and cafés in Mainland China in different historical periods. The second is to focus on coffee and cafés in the socio-cultural milieu of contemporary China in order to understand the symbolic value of the emerging coffee/café-scape. Cafés, rather than coffee, are at the centre of this current trend in contemporary Chinese cities. With instant coffee dominating as a drink, the Chinese have developed a cultural and social demand for cafés, but have not yet developed coffee palates. Historical Coffee Map In 1901, coffee was served in a restaurant in the city of Tianjin. This restaurant, named Kiessling, was run by a German chef, a former solider who came to China with the eight-nation alliance. At that time, coffee was reserved mostly for foreign politicians and military officials as well as wealthy businessmen—very few ordinary Chinese drank it. (For more history of Kiessling, including pictures and videos, see Kiessling). Another group of coffee consumers were from the cultural elites—the young revolutionary intellectuals and writers with overseas experience. It was almost a fashion among the literary elite to spend time in cafés. However, this was negatively judged as “Western” and “bourgeois.” For example, in 1932, Lu Xun, one of the most important twentieth century Chinese writers, commented on the café fashion during 1920s (133-36), and listed the reasons why he would not visit one. He did not drink coffee because it was “foreigners’ food”, and he was too busy writing for the kind of leisure enjoyed in cafés. Moreover, he did not, he wrote, have the nerve to go to a café, and particularly not the Revolutionary Café that was popular among cultural celebrities at that time. He claimed that the “paradise” of the café was for genius, and for handsome revolutionary writers (who he described as having red lips and white teeth, whereas his teeth were yellow). His final complaint was that even if he went to the Revolutionary Café, he would hesitate going in (Lu Xun 133-36). From Lu Xun’s list, we can recognise his nationalism and resistance to what were identified as Western foods and lifestyles. It is easy to also feel his dissatisfaction with those dilettante revolutionary intellectuals who spent time in cafés, talking and enjoying Western food, rather than working. In contrast to Lu Xun’s resistance to coffee and café culture, another well-known writer, Zhang Ailing, frequented cafés when she lived in Shanghai from the 1920s to 1950s. She wrote about the smell of cakes and bread sold in Kiessling’s branch store located right next to her parents’ house (Yuyue). Born into a wealthy family, exposed to Western culture and food at a very young age, Zhang Ailing liked to spend her social and writing time in cafés, ordering her favourite cakes, hot chocolate, and coffee. When she left Shanghai and immigrated to the USA, coffee was an important part of her writing life: the smell and taste reminding her of old friends and Shanghai (Chunzi). However, during Zhang’s time, it was still a privileged and elite practice to patronise a café when these were located in foreign settlements with foreign chefs, and served mainly foreigners, wealthy businessmen, and cultural celebrities. After 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China, until the late 1970s, there were no coffee shops in Mainland China. It was only when Deng Xiaoping suggested neo-liberalism as a so-called “reform-and-open-up” economic policy that foreign commerce and products were again seen in China. In 1988, ten years after the implementation of Deng Xiaoping’s policy, the Nestlé coffee company made the first inroads into the mainland market, featuring homegrown coffee beans in Yunnan province (China Beverage News; Dong; ITC). Nestlé’s bottled instant coffee found its way into the Chinese market, avoiding a direct challenge to the tea culture. Nestlé packaged its coffee to resemble health food products and marketed it as a holiday gift suitable for friends and relatives. As a symbol of modernity and “the West”, coffee-as-gift meshed with the traditional Chinese cultural custom that values gift giving. It also satisfied a collective desire for foreign products (and contact with foreign cultures) during the economic reform era. Even today, with its competitively low price, instant coffee dominates coffee consumption at home, in the workplace, and on Chinese airlines. While Nestlé aimed their product at native Chinese consumers, the multinational companies who later entered China’s coffee market, such as Sara Lee, mainly targeted international hotels such as IHG, Marriott, and Hyatt. The multinationals also favoured coffee shops like Kommune in Shanghai that offered more sophisticated kinds of coffee to foreign consumers and China’s upper class (Byers). If Nestlé introduced coffee to ordinary Chinese families, it was Starbucks who introduced the coffee-based “third space” to urban life in contemporary China on a signficant scale. Differing from the cafés before 1949, Starbucks stores are accessible to ordinary Chinese citizens. The first in Mainland China opened in Beijing’s China World Trade Center in January 1999, targeting mainly white-collar workers and foreigners. Starbucks coffee shops provide a space for informal business meetings, chatting with friends, and relaxing and, with its 500th store opened in 2011, dominate the field in China. Starbucks are located mainly in the central business districts and airports, and the company plans to have 1,500 sites by 2015 (Starbucks). Despite this massive presence, Starbucks constitutes only part of the café-scape in contemporary Chinese cities. There are two other kinds of cafés. One type is usually located in universities or residential areas and is frequented mainly by students or locals working in cultural professions. A representative of this kind is Sculpting in Time Café. In November 1997, two years before the opening of the first Starbucks in Beijing, two newlywed college graduates opened the first small Sculpting in Time Café near Beijing University’s East Gate. This has been expanded into a chain, and boasts 18 branches on the Mainland. (For more about its history, see Sculpting in Time Café). Interestingly, both Starbucks and Sculpting in Time Café acquired their names from literature, Starbucks from Moby Dick, and Sculpting in Time from the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky’s film diary of the same name. For Chinese students of literature and the arts, drinking coffee is less about acquiring more energy to accomplish their work, and more about entering a sensual world, where the aroma of coffee mixes with the sounds from the coffee machine and music, as well as the lighting of the space. More importantly, cafés with this ambience become, in themselves, cultural sites associated with literature, films, and music. Owners of this kind of café are often lovers of foreign literatures, films, and cultures, and their cafés host various cultural events, including forums, book clubs, movie screenings, and music clubs. Generally speaking, coffee served in this kind of café is simpler than in the kind discussed below. This third type of café includes those located in tourist and entertainment sites such as art districts, bar areas, and historical sites, and which are frequented by foreign and native tourists, artists and other cultural workers. If Starbucks cultivates a fast-paced business/professional atmosphere, and Sculpting in Time Cafés an artsy and literary atmosphere, this third kind of café is more like an upscale “bar” with trained baristas serving complicated coffees and emphasising their flavour. These coffee shops are more expensive than the other kinds, with an average price three times that of Starbucks. Currently, cafés of this type are found only in “first-tier” cities and usually located in art districts and tourist areas—such as Beijing’s 798 Art District and Nanluo Guxiang, Shanghai’s Tai Kang Road (a.k.a. “the art street”), and Hangzhou’s Westlake area. While Nestlé and Starbucks use coffee beans grown in Yunnan provinces, these “art cafés” are more inclined to use imported coffee beans from suppliers like Sara Lee. Coffee and Cafés in Contemporary China After just ten years, there are hundreds of cafés in Chinese cities. Why has there been such a demand for coffee or, more accurately, cafés, in such a short period of time? The first reason is the lack of “third space” environments in Mainland China. Before cafés appeared in the late 1990s, stores like KFC (which opened its first store in 1987) and McDonald’s (with its first store opened in 1990) filled this role for urban residents, providing locations where customers could experience Western food, meet friends, work, or read. In fact, KFC and McDonald’s were once very popular with college students looking for a place to study. Both stores had relatively clean food environments and good lighting. They also had air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter, which are not provided in most Chinese university dormitories. However, since neither chain was set up to be a café and customers occupying seats for long periods while ordering minimal amounts of food or drink affected profits, staff members began to indirectly ask customers to leave after dining. At the same time, as more people were able to afford to eat at KFC and McDonald’s, their fast foods were also becoming more and more popular, especially among young people. As a consequence, both types of chain restaurant were becoming noisy and crowded and, thus, no longer ideal for reading, studying, or meeting with friends. Although tea has been a traditional drink in Chinese culture, traditional teahouses were expensive places more suitable for business meetings or for the cultural or intellectual elite. Since almost every family owns a tea set and can readily purchase tea, friends and family would usually make and consume tea at home. In recent years, however, new kinds of teahouses have emerged, similar in style to cafés, targeting the younger generation with more affordable prices and a wider range of choices, so the lack of a “third space” does not fully explain the café boom. Another factor affecting the popularity of cafés has been the development and uptake of Internet technology, including the increasing use of laptops and wireless Internet in recent years. The Internet has been available in China since the late 1990s, while computers and then laptops entered ordinary Chinese homes in the early twenty-first century. The IT industry has created not only a new field of research and production, but has also fostered new professions and demands. Particularly, in recent years in Mainland China, a new socially acceptable profession—freelancing in such areas as graphic design, photography, writing, film, music, and the fashion industry—has emerged. Most freelancers’ work is computer- and Internet-based. Cafés provide suitable working space, with wireless service, and the bonus of coffee that is, first of all, somatically stimulating. In addition, the emergence of the creative and cultural industries (which are supported by the Chinese government) has created work for these freelancers and, arguably, an increasing demand for café-based third spaces where such people can meet, talk and work. Furthermore, the flourishing of cafés in first-tier cities is part of the “aesthetic economy” (Lloyd 24) that caters to the making and selling of lifestyle experience. Alongside foreign restaurants, bars, galleries, and design firms, cafés contribute to city branding, and link a city to the global urban network. Cafés, like restaurants, galleries and bars, provide a space for the flow of global commodities, as well as for the human flow of tourists, travelling artists, freelancers, and cultural specialists. Finally, cafés provide a type of service that contributes to friendly owner/waiter-customer relations. During the planned-economy era, most stores and hotels in China were State-owned, staff salaries were not related to individual performance, and indifferent (and even unfriendly) service was common. During the economic reform era, privately owned stores and shops began to replace State-owned ones. At the same time, a large number of people from the countryside flowed into the cities seeking opportunities. Most had little if any professional training and so could only find work in factories or in the service industry. However, most café employees are urban, with better educational backgrounds, and many were already familiar with coffee culture. In addition, café owners, particularly those of places like Sculpting in Time Cafe, often invest in creating a positive, community atmosphere, learning about their customers and sharing personal experiences with their regular clients. This leads to my next point—the generation of the 1980s’ need for a social community. Cafés’ Symbolic Value—Community A demand for a sense of community among the generation of the 1980s is a unique socio-cultural phenomenon in China, which paradoxically co-exists with their desire for individualism. Mao Zedong started the “One Child Policy” in 1979 to slow the rapid population growth in China, and the generations born under this policy are often called “the lonely generations,” with both parents working full-time. At the same time, they are “the generation of me,” labelled as spoiled, self-centred, and obsessed with consumption (de Kloet; Liu; Rofel; Wang). The individuals of this generation, now aged in their 20s and 30s, constitute the primary consumers of coffee in China. Whereas individualism is an important value to them, a sense of community is also desirable in order to compensate for their lack of siblings. Furthermore, the 1980s’ generation has also benefitted from the university expansion policy implemented in 1999. Since then, China has witnessed a surge of university students and graduates who not only received scientific and other course-based knowledge, but also had a better chance to be exposed to foreign cultures through their books, music, and movies. With this interesting tension between individualism and collectivism, the atmosphere provided by cafés has fostered a series of curious temporary communities built on cultural and culinary taste. Interestingly, it has become an aspiration of many young college students and graduates to open a community-space style café in a city. One of the best examples is the new Henduoren’s (Many People’s) Café. This was a project initiated by Wen Erniu, a recent college graduate who wanted to open a café in Beijing but did not have sufficient funds to do so. She posted a message on the Internet, asking people to invest a minimum of US$316 to open a café with her. With 78 investors, the café opened in September 2011 in Beijing (see pictures of Henduoren’s Café). In an interview with the China Daily, Wen Erniu stated that, “To open a cafe was a dream of mine, but I could not afford it […] We thought opening a cafe might be many people’s dream […] and we could get together via the Internet to make it come true” (quoted in Liu 2011). Conclusion: Café Culture and (Instant) Coffee in China There is a Chinese saying that, if you hate someone—just persuade him or her to open a coffee shop. Since cafés provide spaces where one can spend a relatively long time for little financial outlay, owners have to increase prices to cover their expenses. This can result in fewer customers. In retaliation, cafés—particularly those with cultural and literary ambience—host cultural events to attract people, and/or they offer food and wine along with coffee. The high prices, however, remain. In fact, the average price of coffee in China is often higher than in Europe and North America. For example, a medium Starbucks’ caffè latte in China averaged around US$4.40 in 2010, according to the price list of a Starbucks outlet in Shanghai—and the prices has recently increased again (Xinhua 2012). This partially explains why instant coffee is still so popular in China. A bag of instant Nestlé coffee cost only some US$0.25 in a Beijing supermarket in 2010, and requires only hot water, which is accessible free almost everywhere in China, in any restaurant, office building, or household. As an habitual, addictive treat, however, coffee has not yet become a customary, let alone necessary, drink for most Chinese. Moreover, while many, especially those of the older generations, could discern the quality and varieties of tea, very few can judge the quality of the coffee served in cafés. As a result, few Mainland Chinese coffee consumers have a purely somatic demand for coffee—craving its smell or taste—and the highly sweetened and creamed instant coffee offered by companies like Nestlé or Maxwell has largely shaped the current Chinese palate for coffee. Ben Highmore has proposed that “food spaces (shops, restaurants and so on) can be seen, for some social agents, as a potential space where new ‘not-me’ worlds are encountered” (396) He continues to expand that “how these potential spaces are negotiated—the various affective registers of experience (joy, aggression, fear)—reflect the multicultural shapes of a culture (its racism, its openness, its acceptance of difference)” (396). Cafés in contemporary China provide spaces where one encounters and constructs new “not-me” worlds, and more importantly, new “with-me” worlds. While café-going communicates an appreciation and desire for new lifestyles and new selves, it can be hoped that in the near future, coffee will also be appreciated for its smell, taste, and other benefits. Of course, it is also necessary that future Chinese coffee consumers also recognise the rich and complex cultural, political, and social issues behind the coffee economy in the era of globalisation. References Byers, Paul [former Managing Director, Sara Lee’s Asia Pacific]. Pers. comm. Apr. 2012. China Beverage News. “Nestlé Acquires 70% Stake in Chinese Mineral Water Producer.” (2010). 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://chinabevnews.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/nestle-acquires-70-stake-in-chinese-mineral-water-producer›. Chunzi. 张爱玲地图[The Map of Eileen Chang]. 汉语大词典出版 [Hanyu Dacidian Chubanshe], 2003. de Kloet, Jeroen. China with a Cut: Globalization, Urban Youth and Popular Music. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2010. Dong, Jonathan. “A Caffeinated Timeline: Developing Yunnan’s Coffee Cultivation.” China Brief (2011): 24-26. Highmore, Ben. “Alimentary Agents: Food, Cultural Theory and Multiculturalism.” Journal of Intercultural Studies, 29.4 (2008): 381-98. ITC (International Trade Center). The Coffee Sector in China: An Overview of Production, Trade And Consumption, 2010. Liu, Kang. Globalization and Cultural Trends in China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004. Liu, Zhihu. “From Virtual to Reality.” China Daily (Dec. 2011) 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2011-12/26/content_14326490.htm›. Lloyd, Richard. Neobohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City. London: Routledge, 2006. Lu, Xun. “Geming Kafei Guan [Revolutionary Café]”. San Xian Ji. Taibei Shi: Feng Yun Shi Dai Chu Ban Gong Si: Fa Xing Suo Xue Wen Hua Gong Si, Mingguo 78 (1989): 133-36. Rofel, Lisa. Desiring China: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture. Durham and London: Duke UP, 2007: 1-30. “Starbucks Celebrates Its 500th Store Opening in Mainland China.” Starbucks Newsroom (Oct. 2011) 31 Mar. 2012. ‹http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=580›. Wang, Jing. High Culture Fever: Politics, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Deng’s China. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: U of California P, 1996. Xinhua. “Starbucks Raises Coffee Prices in China Stores.” Xinhua News (Jan. 2012). 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-01/31/c_131384671.htm›. Yuyue. Ed. “On the History of the Western-Style Restaurants: Aileen Chang A Frequent Customer of Kiessling.” China.com.cn (2010). 31 Mar. 2012 ‹http://www.china.com.cn/culture/txt/2010-01/30/content_19334964.htm›.