Religion, Gender, and Bodies: Women’s Polyvalent Roles and Experiences in the Biopolitics of Taiwan’s Presbyterian Missions

The Presbyterian missions and medical missions in 19th-century Taiwan were successful enterprises that over time developed into the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, which stands today as the largest Christian minority church in this country. Through a Foucauldian biopolitical perspective, this paper analyzes the roles of female missionaries in the management of bodies and the subjective experiences of both foreign and Native women in the missions. Going beyond descriptive narratives and control-versus-agency reductionist frames, the paper points the polyvalent semantics of such roles and experiences. It also explores the complex relations between the women’s biopolitical functions, the PCT’s industrial type of biopolitical apparatus, and the biopolitical regimes of the late Qing dynasty and the Japanese colonial government in the early 20th century. The conclusions remark on the analytical relevance of biopolitical perspectives in the study of gender and body-related phenomena in Christian missions and Christian religions beyond Western societies.

龔自珍戒詩歷程考論

<p>龔自珍為清代著名的詩人及思想家，而這樣一位「但開風氣不為師」的詩人，一生有過幾次自覺戒詩的經驗，而「戒詩」的現象在中國詩歌史上相當特殊的，詩人為何要戒詩，而又破戒？龔自珍內心「寫作的焦慮」之根源是什麼？本文試圖從兩個方面切入，其一、爬梳相關文獻，先行探求龔自珍的詩學觀，唯有如此，我們才能從中得知為何是戒「詩」。其二、切入相關詩歌文本，觀看龔自珍自己如何看待自己的「戒詩」與「破戒」的說法。最後，分析兩者之間的關係，以及變化。期能為龔自珍之相關研究做出一點貢獻。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>Gong Zizhen was a famous poet and thinker in the Qing dynasty. The era he lived was a turning point from flourish to the decadence, from tradition to modern. This phenomenon can be read in the works from Gong Zizhen and it’s also the key point for emancipation of the ideas in late Qing dynasty. Gong Zizhen who leaded the fashion but not stood under the spotlight, he had many experiences of quitting writing poetry. Quitting writing poetry is a special phenomenon in the history of the Chinese poetry, why did poet want to quit? The thesis studied these from two aspects. The first is to explore the poetry concept of Gong Zizhen through article review so that it may be understood why he choose to quit writing poetry? Second, it could be discovered how did Gong Zizhen treat his explain about quitting writing poetry and breaking it repeatedly by reviewing related poetries. Last, analyzing the relationship and transformation between the two. Expecting to offer some contributions for the study of Gong Zizhen.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

The Use of Lace and Passementerie in China in the Qing Dynasty

With the increasing normalization of social exchanges between China and the west in the late Qing Dynasty, a large number of Western skills and products brought by missionaries were introduced into China, including a large number of lace and passemeterie. The description and analysis of such trimmings are not sufficient now. This paper takes the court dress at that time as the physical reference, analyzes it according to historical documents and western techniques. It shows that the earlier lace used is metal lace; During the Guangxu period, a large number of net lace appeared; At the same time, passemeterie was also widely used in China. Chinese society has no clear conceptual difference between lace and passemeterie, and they both are used as an edge decoration product from other culture.

Innovation Elements in Traditional Chinese Culture

The conflict between traditional Chinese culture and Western cultures has long been one between an archaic, outdated culture and a modern, new culture. Traditional Chinese culture is deemed synonymous with backwardness, decrepitude, and decadence and doomed with the passage of time, particularly since social Darwinism swept across the late Qing Dynasty and captured the spiritual world of Chinese intellectuals. Despite differences in culture types, both traditional Chinese culture and Western culture contribute to innovative buildup. It is of great significance to deeply explore the innovative factors in traditional Chinese culture and to explore both the modernization road and innovation modes with Chinese characteristics. This chapter analyzes and explores the innovative factors and values in Chinese traditional culture from the aspects of traditional modes of thinking, traditional ideas and beliefs, traditional organizations and institutions, and traditional implementations and technologies.