Why Curate a Festival Without an Audience?

Why curate live arts without the bodily presence of external live audiences? After all, are the latter not the omphalos of live arts? This article responds to the above questions through a case study of the 2018 GAN and GAN International Performance Art Festival that took place on May 1, 2, and 3—an annual off-the-grid festival in the village of Meibei in the Southern Chinese province of Jiangxi. As a festival without an external live audience, GAN and GAN challenges both the central position of the audience in the conceptual framework of live arts curating and established concepts of audiences. I examine the curatorial practice and philosophy of the festival’s two curators, Xiong Yunhao and Xiao Shang and demonstrate how their live arts festival—curated for its artists—not only preserves the endangered genre of Xingwei Yishu (performance/behavioral art from China) but widens the scope of contemporary curatorial practice.

Evaluation of English Teaching Effect Based on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

The new curriculum reform defines the all-round development of students as the main goal of English teaching. This paper applied the theory of multiple intelligences to English teaching, and evaluated the effect of English teaching based on this theory. Firstly, a survey was conducted in the colleges of a Chinese province, the current state of college English teaching was analyzed, and the results revealed a few problems in college English teaching, such as the lack of diversity in teaching modes and effects, and the weak interest of students in English learning. Based on the survey results, the authors specified the flow of English teaching design and the evaluation system of teaching effect, drawing on the theory of multiple intelligences. Then, an empirical analysis was carried out to comparatively examine our evaluation method for English teaching effect. The results indicated that our method can practically and effectively enhance students’ interest and motivation for English learning, and improve the quality of English teaching. The research results provided a reference for the reform of college English teaching and the all-round development of students.

An Empirical Study on the Effect and Quality of Situational English Teaching

This paper explores the quality and effect of Situational English Teaching (SET). The subjects are a few non-English majors from five colleges in a Chinese province. Taking college English course for example, a questionnaire survey was carried out to investigate the application state of SET in college English teaching. The survey shows that most college students are poor in English, and the traditional teaching mode cannot effectively improve students’ English level. Hence, it is feasible to apply SET in college English class. Based on the survey results, a new English teaching mode was designed based on SET, and its application effect was investigated empirically. The empirical analysis shows that the SET-based new mode can boost students’ learning interest and comprehensive use of English, and significantly improve the quality of English teaching. The research results enrich the evidence of SET, and promote the application of SET in college English class.

HUMAN MOBILITY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES

At the end of 2019, a new coronavirus appeared in the Chinese province of Wuhan, causing the appearance of the disease COVID-19. The disease spread very quickly to other countries in the world, including the Balkans. The governments of many countries have decided to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the community through social distancing measures. Decisions to ban the movement of people were easy to make, but they were very difficult to implement and enforce in practice. Some of the countries monitored their citizens through various applications installed on smartphones. This led to criticism by many NGOs, as they felt that this violated basic human rights of freedom of movement and privacy. Some lawsuits were even filed in the courts because the citizens felt that they were denied rights guaranteed by the respective constitution. Google uses the ability to monitor all those citizens around the world on a daily basis who use smartphones or handheld devices, which provide the option to record the "location history" of the users. This is possible for them, since most people have voluntarily agreed to this option on their devices. In early 2020, Google began publishing global mobility data on a daily basis through a report called “Community Mobility Reports”. The report shows the percentage change in human activity at six grouped locations. Data obtained in the reference days before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic are used as a basis for comparison. In this paper, we studied the dynamics of human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic in 7 countries of the Balkans: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania. For Montenegro and Albania Google did not provide data on human mobility. We present the processed data graphically. For all examined countries, we statistically analyzed the obtained data and presented them in a table.

Prospects for bringing countries to international responsibility for the spread of mass diseases (on the example of the People’s Republic of China and COVID-19 pandemic)

The COVID-19 pandemic, which commenced in 2020 and continues into 2021, called on the world re-evaluate many ordinary phenomena, including the impact on the international law, and namely international responsibility. The unprecedented scale of the problem, worldwide lockdown, as well as global deceleration of virtually all processes have led the experts, politicians and regular persons to seek the answer the question of whether anyone should be held responsible for what has happened. This article dwells on whether it is possible to bring the country to international responsibility for the spread of a mass disease relying on the theoretical and practical aspects of the branch of international responsibility. Unlike the foreign expert community with a dynamic discussion of implementation of responsibility for the pandemic, the Russian doctrine has not conducted similar analysis. Certain public political figures openly blamed China for the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, referring to the fact that it originated in the Chinese province Wuhan. The United States have initiated lawsuits against China and Chinese government over the pandemic. It is of utmost importance to analyze the legitimacy of such articulation of the question is, and what the evidence base should be in such cases. In this regard, the analysis of the theoretical prerequisites and feasibility for bringing the countries to international responsibility for the spread of mass diseases have a crucial scientific and practical significance.

Modern Intimacies and Modernist Landscapes: Chinese Photographs in Late-Colonial Mozambique

This paper addresses a specific aspect of the social and cultural life of the Luso-Chinese in Mozambique, whose first contingents came from the Chinese province of Guangdong in the second half of the 19th century. Most settled in the city of Beira. By the 1950s, the Chinese community was already well integrated into modern life in colonial Beira. The city was going through an unprecedented urban and architectural boom. At that time, the Luso-Chinese, who were essentially merchants, also began to stand out in the field of photography. Based on a multi-sited ethnography among the Portuguese-Chinese diaspora – and their family photo albums – this paper reflects on two inseparable aspects of late-colonial modernity: architecture and photography.

Advancing open government data portals: a comparative usability evaluation study

PurposeTo address the key problem of lack of use in the advancement of open government data (OGD) portals from the aspect of good usability, which is an essential prerequisite to the acceptance and usage of a portal, this paper aims to develop a usability framework including design principles and criteria for OGD portals and to discover problems in the present usability design.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds the usability framework by extending usability principles for general websites to address the specific needs of OGD portals. Criteria for each principle are developed accordingly based on the literature. A comparative heuristic evaluation involving five expert evaluators and 13 Chinese province-level OGD portals has been carried out to test the capability of the usability framework.FindingsA usability framework with 24 principles and 63 criteria has been built. The heuristic evaluation shows OGD portals performed better in meeting general principles than the OGD portals specific ones. Insufficient help functions weakened OGD portals' usability. Similarities and differences were found of Chinese OGD portals compared with similar studies in the United States.Originality/valueThis paper proposed a usability framework for OGD portals and proved its capability in recognizing usability problems and its causes by carrying out a comparative heuristic evaluation in China. By comparing the evaluation results with other studies in the United States, the findings and lessons learnt in this study can thus be shared across international borders.

ACE2 Is an Adjacent Element of Atherosclerosis and COVID-19 Pathogenesis

COVID-19 is a highly contagious new infection caused by the single-stranded RNA Sars-CoV-2 virus. For the first time, this infection was recorded in December 2019 in the Chinese province of Wuhan. The virus presumably crossed the interspecies barrier and passed to humans from a bat. Initially, the disease was considered exclusively in the context of damage to the respiratory system, but it quickly became clear that the disease also entails serious consequences from various systems, including the cardiovascular system. Among these consequences are myocarditis, myocardial damage, subsequent heart failure, myocardial infarction, and Takotsubo syndrome. On the other hand, clinical data indicate that the presence of chronic diseases in a patient aggravates the course and outcome of coronavirus infection. In this context, the relationship between COVID-19 and atherosclerosis, a condition preceding cardiovascular disease and other disorders of the heart and blood vessels, is particularly interesting. The renin-angiotensin system is essential for the pathogenesis of both coronavirus disease and atherosclerosis. In particular, it has been shown that ACE2, an angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, plays a key role in Sars-CoV-2 infection due to its receptor activity. It is noteworthy that this enzyme is important for the normal functioning of the cardiovascular system. Disruptions in its production and functioning can lead to various disorders, including atherosclerosis.

China's Legalization of Domestic Rhino Horn Trade: Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner Perspectives and the Likelihood of Prescription

Despite the international ban on the trade of rhino horn that has been in place since 1977, persistent demand for horn in Asia has driven a spike in poaching over the past decade. This has embroiled the conservation community in a debate over the efficacy of banning trade relative to other solutions. Proposals for trade to be legalized and supplied through the dehorning of live rhinos or the production of synthetic horn are contentious. The need for empirical research into the potential impacts of legalization on demand was made more urgent in 2018 when China publicized its intentions to reopen its domestic trade and permit the use of rhino horn in medical treatment. In this study, we interviewed 84 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners in the Chinese province of Guangdong. While 58 (69.05%, n = 84) of our interviewees were in favor of trade legalization, only 32 (38.10%, n = 84) thought it likely that trade legalization would cause them to increase their prescription of rhino horn over current levels. This is probably because clinical cases in which rhino horn is medically appropriate are uncommon. We also found that 33 (39.29%, n = 84) practitioners were open to using synthetic horn for patient treatment, which has implications for the viability of synthetic horn as a conservation tool. This research contributes empirical insight to advance the discourse on rhino horn trade policy.

In what ways to Confucianism and Daoism complement each other? In what ways do they oppose each other?

Confucianism one of the most prominent religious philosophies in China's history. It has existed for over 2,500 years. Inner virtue, morals, and regard for the world and its ideals are concerned. Daoism is a philosophy, a religion, and a way of life which originated in what is now the eastern Chinese province of Henan in the 6th century BCE.