scholarly journals Live Streaming and Digital Stages for the Hungry Ghosts and Deities

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 367
Author(s):  
Alvin Eng Hui Lim
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Digital Camera ◽  
Live Streaming ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Apple Ios ◽  
Religious Festivals ◽  
Virtual Presence ◽  
Facebook Pages ◽  
The Temple

Many Chinese temples in Singapore provide live streaming of getai (English: a stage for songs) during the Hungry Ghost Month as well as deities’ birthday celebrations and spirit possessions—a recent phenomenon. For instance, Sheng Hong Temple launched its own app in 2018, as part of a digital turn that culminated in a series of live streaming events during the temple’s 100-year anniversary celebrations. Deities’ visits to the temple from mainland China and Taiwan were also live-streamed, a feature that was already a part of the Taichung Mazu Festival in Taiwan. Initially streamed on RINGS.TV, an app available on Android and Apple iOS, live videos of getai performances can now be found on the more sustainable platform of Facebook Live. These videos are hosted on Facebook Pages, such as “Singapore Getai Supporter” (which is listed as a “secret” group), “Singapore Getai Fans Page”, “Lixin Fan Page”, and “LEX-S Watch Live Channel”. These pages are mainly initiated and supported by LEX(S) Entertainment Productions, one of the largest entertainment companies running and organising getai performances in Singapore. This paper critically examines this digital turn and the use of digital technology, where both deities and spirits are made available to digital transmissions, performing to the digital camera in ways that alter the performative aspects of religious festivals and processions. In direct ways, the performance stage extends to the digital platform, where getai hosts, singers, and spirit mediums have become increasingly conscious that they now have a virtual presence that exceeds the live event.

scholarly journals Transnational Religious Tourism in Modern China and the Transformation of the Cult of Mazu

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 221
Author(s):  
Yanchao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Tourist Attraction ◽  
Religious Tourism ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Temple

This article explores transformations in the worship of popular goddess Mazu as a result of (religious) tourism. In particular, it focuses on the role of transnational tourism in the invention of tradition, folklorization, and commodification of the Mazu cult. Support from the central and local governments and the impact of economic globalization have transformed a traditional pilgrimage site that initially had a local and then national scope into a transnational tourist attraction. More specifically, the ancestral temple of Mazu at Meizhou Island, which was established as the uncontested origin of Mazu’s cult during the Song dynasty (960 to 1276), has been reconfigured architecturally and liturgically to function as both a sacred site and a tourist attraction. This reconfiguration has involved the reconstruction of traditional rituals and religious performances for religious tourism to promote the temple as the unadulterated expression of an intangible cultural heritage. The strategic combination of traditional rituals such as “dividing incense” and an innovative ceremony enjoining all devotees of “Mazu all over the world [to] return to mother’s home” to worship her have not only consolidated the goddess as a symbol of common cultural identity in mainland China, but also for the preservation of Chinese identity in diaspora. Indeed, Chinese migrants and their descendants are among the increasing numbers of pilgrims/tourists who come to Mazu’s ancestral temple seeking to reconnect with their heritage by partaking in authentic traditions. This article examines the spatial and ritual transformations that have re-signified this temple, and by extension, the cult of Mazu, as well as the media through which these transformations have spread transnationally. We will see that (transnational) religious tourism is a key medium.

Forest Fire Scenarios in Digital Platforms

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-176
Author(s):  
Liliana Gonçalves ◽  
Lídia Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Forest Fire ◽  
Forest Fires ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Fire Scenarios ◽  
Facebook Pages

Forest fires are widespread in Portugal, particularly in the summer. Recently, in 2017, Portugal had two great fires. As a result, more than 120 people died, hundreds suffered injuries and registered significant economic and environmental losses. Since then, and due to the evolution and democratization of the internet and technology devices, forest fire content is much more common in cyberspace. Thus, to understand this issue, the authors propose to outline a profile of the digital platforms used in forest fire situations. The goal is to understand the uses and commitment arising from forest fires' issues in digital platforms by presenting a conceptual framework in Portugal's specific case. The authors analyzed webpages, mobile apps, Facebook pages and groups, and YouTube channels, focusing on forest fires contents. By understanding the kind of digital platform, its contents, uses, and interaction, this chapter contributes to understanding digital platforms' role in crisis and disaster scenarios such as wildfires.

Gendered Paths to Enlightenment: The Intersection of Gender and Religion in Buddhist Temples in Mainland China and the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 232949652096818
Author(s):  
Di Di
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Temple

This study explores how religious adherents construct their ideas regarding gender in Buddhist faith communities. Two temples, one in China and the other in the United States, both affiliated with the same international Buddhist headquarters, are situated in national contexts that endorse different macro-level gender norms. While leaders of both temples teach similar religious gender norms—specifically, that gender is unimportant for spiritual advancement—adherents do articulate gender differences in other respects. Buddhists at the temple in China believe that men and women differ but should be treated equally, with neither holding dominance over the other; meanwhile, U.S. practitioners also believe that everyone should be treated equally irrespective of gender, but they view men and women as essentially the same. A close analysis reveals that Buddhists at both temples recognize the distinctions between their religious and societal macro-level gender norms and navigate between these norms when constructing their own understandings of gender. This study highlights the influence of national context on the relationship between gender and religion, thereby contributing to and deepening our understanding of the subject.

民族国家、承包制与香火经济:景区化圣山庙会的政治-经济学

Rural China ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-287
Keyword(s):  
Mainland China ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Tourist Attraction ◽  
Local Society ◽  
Investigative Reporting ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Media ◽  
Responsibility System ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Practical Level

Belief practices in mainland China have been subject to contracts as a result of a combination of factors: politics, economic growth, cultural development, and historic preservation. Thanks to the investigative reporting of the media, “contracting out belief” has lost all legitimacy on the level of politics, culture, religion, administration, and morality. The economy of temple incense has been relentlessly criticized for the same reason. In recent decades, Mount Cangyan, in Hebei, has changed from being a sacred site of pilgrimage to a landscaped tourist attraction. At the same time, the Mount Cangyan temple festival, which centers on the worship of the Third Princess, has gained legitimacy on a practical level. Conventional and newly emerged agents, such as beggars, charlatans, spirit mediums, do-gooders, and contractors of the temple, are actively involved in the thriving temple festival, competing, and sometimes cooperating, with each other. However, it is for the sake of maximizing profit that landscaped Mount Cangyan under the contract responsibility system has been re-sanctified around the worship of the Third Princess along with other, new gods and attractions. The iconic temple festival on this holy mountain has influenced other temple festivals in various nearby communities. The leading temple festival on Mount Cangyan entails a complicated social morphology and human geography. The economy of temple incense centering on belief in the Third Princess, i.e., the contracted out belief, has become a major part of local tourism and is intertwined with grand narratives such as pursuing national prosperity. The dialectics of the contracting and the contracted involve multidirectional interaction between individuals, local society, the state, and the temple and its deity. This article investigates the contracted and landscaped temple festival on the holy mountain of Cangyan in the context of everyday life and changing society.在政治建构、经济发展、文化建设、文物保护的合力下，“被承包的信仰”早已成为普遍的社会事实。受从果到因的逻辑推理的规训，媒介写作中的“被承包的信仰”完全丧失了在政治、文化、宗教、行政管理以及道义等层面的合理性、正当性，香火经济也成为口诛笔伐的对象。近三十年来，圣山的景区化建设与管理使得原本作为信仰中心地的苍岩山旅游风景区的景观色彩日渐浓厚。与此同时，以三皇姑信仰为核心的苍岩山庙会也具有了事实上的合理性、合法性。乞丐、江湖术士、香头、行好的和庙主等新、老行动主体纷纷掺乎其中，竞争也妥协，庙会热闹而红火。为求利益最大化，承包制经营管理的模式使得景区化的圣山苍岩山更加倚重三皇姑信仰,从而使得景区化的圣山被再圣化，并滋生出新的神祇、景观。图像化的圣山庙会历时性地呈现出复杂的社会形态学和人文地理学特征，统括着圣山上下形态各异、或生或灭的大小社区型庙会。最终，围绕三皇姑信仰的香火经济——被承包的信仰——事实上成为地方旅游经济的龙头，并与兴国兴邦的民族国家发展的宏大叙事一道携手前行。呈现出承包与被承包多重辩证法的景区化圣山庙会也就有了在生活之流，尤其是社会之流中研究的应然与必然。 (This article is in English.)

The Use of Digital Images Recording Historical Sites and ‘Spirit of Place’: A Case Study of Xuejia Tzu-chi Temple

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (supplement) ◽  
pp. 156-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung-Kuan Tseng ◽  
Hong-Kun Chen ◽  
Pi-Yen Hsu
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Digital Recording ◽  
Panoramic Imaging ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Spirit Of Place ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
Traditional Arts ◽  
The Temple

ICOMOS emphasised in the 2008 Québec Declaration that the ‘Spirit of Place,’ possessed by monuments and sites, must be preserved, the idea spread and promoted, and that digital technology should be extensively utilised. Xuejia Tzu-chi Temple in Taiwan, an ancestral temple that inherited the traditional belief of Bao Sheng Da Di ([Formula: see text], God of medicine) from Baijiao ([Formula: see text]), holds much religious significance and is crucial to the residents' spiritual sustenance and community. Among those objects preserved in this temple are the intricate Ye Wang's Koji potteries as well as various other precious cultural relics, making the palace an important research base for Taiwan's traditional arts. As such, religion, society, art and other elements coalesce to form the unique spirit of place of the Tzu-chi Temple. This study, under the principle of continuity in space, focuses on the temple square, corridors spanning different areas, the pantheon, and uses ‘image-based interactive panoramic imaging technology’ to capture a total of 45 spatial scenes, recording the overall spatial construct and the paths within which the space could move, completing the spirit of space of the object, and recording the track of space. Then setting this as the basis for establishing a recording of various activities of the humanities and for preserving the spirit of place of the Xuejia Tzu-chi Temple for future generations, we hope that the results of this study will provide various relevant types of digital recording for research on spatial construct in monuments.

scholarly journals PLANNING BY USING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE RECONSTRUCTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES – A CASE STUDY OF QIONG-LIN SETTLEMENT IN KINMEN AREA

2017 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W5 ◽  
pp. 719-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. B. Yang ◽  
Y. N. Ye
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Laser Scanning ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Geographic Information ◽  
Intangible Cultural Heritage ◽  
Heritage Preservation ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Cultural Heritage Preservation

ICOMOS Florence Declaration in 2014, encourages an in-depth reflection on human values through cultural heritage and landscapes, which emphasizes the importance of historical heritage sites, in order to achieve the application of cultural heritage records through the public participation, sharing new technology platform and facilitation tools for knowledge diffusion, for instance. Nikos adopted digitized intangible cultural heritage within i-Treasures project to create a novel digital platform in 2016. Nowadays, the display platform developed based on geographic information system has been gradually accepted and widely used to distribute cultural heritage information, aiming to combine geography, time, events, issues, trends with the interactive maps to show the context of data changes from the consideration of planarity; for example, Burnaby City in Canada has cooperated with the Columbia University to create a navigation platform for guidance of tangible cultural heritage based on story maps in order to provide public recognition function.<br><br> In this study, Qiong-Lin Settlement in Kinmen Area was taken as an example to illustrate the developing process of an overall planning framework for reappearing the glory of historic settlements of cultural heritage sites with digital technology, which included tangible and intangible cultural heritage preservation and transmission planning, community participation and digital navigation programs. The digital technology with the GIS-based digital platform can provide more diverse and interesting information while using an intuitive, graphical user story mapping interface. So that tangible cultural heritage can be effectively understood, interpreted and preserved with the value-added methods, and also intangible cultural heritage can be continuously transmitted to establish a complete system of cultural heritage preservation. The main contents include several navigation technologies, such as 3D laser scanning, UAV images, photogrammetry, panorama, audio/video, geographic information systems etc.

Learning by revisiting assumptions: an adaptive decision process

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Vincent Barabba
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Decision Process ◽  
Digital Camera ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Future Market ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learning And Adaptation ◽  
Adaptation Decision ◽  
Fresh Insight ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose This article demonstrates the value of adding a learning and adaptation component into the decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach By reviewing the case of Kodak’s decision not to focus its investments in digital technology in the 1980s the article introduces The Learning and Adaptation Decision Process, a model enables a firm to reassess analysis about future market disruptions and opportunities Findings Organizations need decision processes that are designed to be reviewed and rethought so they continue to provide fresh insight into how to prepare for disruptions and opportunities. This example shows how Kodak could have used its considerable resources to expedite its own digital camera technology, purchased companies with leading edge digital technology, put a digital technology-minded management team in place and lead the industry into the realm of mass market digital photography.” Practical implications A learning and adaptation approach might have helped Kodak take advantage of an opportunity to survive the disruption of its market and to avoid the eventual bankruptcy of the firm.” Originality/value The model introduced in this article can help leaders in a wide variety of industries review critical decisions, identify problematic outcomes, anticipate disruptions and prepare sooner for opportunities.

Accelerating semogenesis: an ecosocial approach to photography

2019 ◽  
pp. 147035721988776
Author(s):  
Christian Mosbæk Johannessen ◽  
Morten Boeriis
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Digital Camera ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Digital Cameras ◽  
History Of Photography ◽  
Time Frames

Michael Halliday and Christian Matthiessen’s term ‘semogenesis’ refers to how meaning potentials are created through processes on many co-occurring time frames, most prominently those referred to as ‘phylogenesis’, ‘ontogenesis’ and ‘logogenesis’. The concept was originally infused with linguistic concern in an attempt to link a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) account of the lexico-grammatical and semantic strata with lived experience. In this article, the authors rethink the concept in order to (1) broaden its scope to the concerns of multimodal studies, and (2) accommodate how digital technology impacts on our communication practices. They do so by discussing semogenesis from a vantage point of ‘ecosocial semiotics’, a perspective that asks us to blend both sociological, technological, material and biological understandings of human activity. Taking digital photography as an example, the authors argue that digital media afford an acceleration of processes of multimodal semogenesis on all semogenetic time frames. Picking up the notion of ‘microgenesis’, a fourth, faster-than-logogenesis time frame that serves as a placeholder for any process enabling logogenesis, they suggest that this acceleration is driven by the global-scale introduction of digital technology. Through a discussion of select examples from the history of photography, specifically contrasting nascent photographic practice with contemporary photography, they propose that the development from camera to digital camera and the subsequent consolidation in recent decades of digital cameras into smartphones has had a profound impact, not only on practices of photography, but also on the processes of meaning making with photographic material.

scholarly journals What Motives Users to Participate in Danmu on Live Streaming Platforms? The Impact of Technical Environment and Effectance

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-134
Author(s):  
Kun Wang ◽  
Zhao Pan ◽  
Yaobin Lu ◽  
Sumeet Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Technical Characteristic ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Live Streaming ◽  
Technical Feature ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Danmu function as an augmented comment feature has been adopted by almost all live streaming platforms to foster interaction between viewers and the streamer in China. However, few studies have been conducted to understand the determinants of users’ Danmu sending behavior on live streaming platforms. This study examines this phenomenon from the lens of effectance theory and the S-O-R framework. We propose that two effectances – Danmu effectance and live streaming effectance – play an essential role in active Danmu participation. In addition, we explore the effects of time-enhanced (synchronicity) and space-enhanced technical characteristic (visibility) of Danmu on live streaming platforms on two effectances. Data analysis of 877 participations from Douyu platform in mainland China indicates that active Danmu participation is positively associated with Danmu effectance and live streaming effectance which are influenced by both time-enhanced technical feature (synchronicity) and space-enhanced technical feature (visibility). In addition, the study finds that demographic characteristics, namely education and income, also affect active Danmu participation.

scholarly journals REDRESSING DIGITAL ORIENTALISM: VIETNAMESE CULTURAL PROFESSIONALS’ DIGITAL WORK DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (43) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Duester ◽  
Michal Teague
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Art World ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Digital Ethnography ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Facebook Pages ◽  
Global Art

The current study investigates how digital technologies can potentially be used to re-orientate the global narrative on Vietnam, overcome an imbalance in representation and help redress digital orientalism. Global digital technologies allow Vietnamese cultural professionals to reach beyond the borders of their nation and to become part of the global art world. With this,they can participate in the production, dissemination, and circulation of discourses on art and culture globally. In doing so, they can redress digital orientalism by contemporizing narratives on Vietnam. However, there is an underlying tension, as the very means by which their voicesare heard is achieved by using global (western) technologies, tools and platforms. The research uses a digital ethnography of the Facebook pages of 7 contemporary art spaces in Hanoi and 20 semi-structured interviews with art and cultural professionals in Hanoi. The interviews were carried out during the Covid-19 Pandemic and addressed its impact and use of digital technology in their work during this time.

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