Journal articles on the topic 'Polo-India'

AbstractDiaphania indica (Saunders) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is an important phytophagous pest of Trichosanthes anguina L. in India. We studied life table parameters by age-stage, two-sex, amylolytic and proteolytic activities, and food utilization parameters of D. indica on the leaves of three T. anguina cultivars (Baruipur Long, Polo No. 1 and MNSR-1). Further, nutrients (total carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, amino acids and nitrogen) and antinutrients (total phenols, flavonols and tannins) in leaves were determined. The development time (egg to adult emergence) was the shortest on MNSR-1 (19.79 d) and the longest on Polo No. 1 (25.72 d). Fecundity was the highest and lowest on MNSR-1 (259 eggs) and Polo No. 1 (151.22 eggs), respectively. The lowest intrinsic rate of increase (rm) and net reproductive rate (R0) of D. indica on Polo No. 1 were 0.1112 d−1 and 27.22 offspring individual−1, respectively. The mean generation time (T) was the shortest on MNSR-1 (23.99 days) and the longest on Polo No. 1 (29.70 d). The larvae of D. indica fed with MNSR-1 had the highest level of amylolytic and proteolytic activities, and the lowest activities were in the larvae fed with Polo No. 1. The fifth-instar larvae fed with Polo No. 1 had the lowest consumption index and growth rate. The higher larval development time and lower fecundity of D. indica on Polo No. 1 were due to the lower level of nutrients and a higher level of antinutrients than other cultivars. Our results concluded that Polo No. 1 cultivar could be suggested for cultivation.

The year 1998 marks the seven-hundredth anniversary of the initial composition of the book associated with Marco Polo, Le devisament dou monde. As the first European to claim that he had been to China and back (not to mention that he had travelled extensively elsewhere in Asia), Polo has become a household name. He has been credited with the introduction of noodles into Italy and of spaghetti into China. With perhaps greater warrant, he has been cited as an authority onȔinter aliaȔthe capital of the Mongol Great Khan Qubilai, on the Mongol postal relay system, on the trade in horses across the Arabian Sea, and on political conditions on the north-west frontier of India in the mid thirteenth century. The Marco Polo bibliography published in 1986 contained over 2,300 items in European languages alone.

Chilli leaf curl virus (ChiLCV) is a serious problem for chilli production in Pakistan and India. In this study, fourteen different chilli lines / varieties were screened for their resistance/susceptibility towards ChiLCV in open field trials. Data of disease severity and disease incidence was recorded on weekly basis. Out of all varieties screened, Tatapuri Chilli and CH111 showed high susceptibility towards the chilli leaf curl disease. Talhari, CH 99, CH103, CH 106, CH107, CH108, CH109, GSL111 showed susceptible response whereas CBS1292 showed moderately susceptible response towards the disease. Only two cultivars Hybrid-46 and Hot Queen were found as moderately resistant. The screening experiment showed that most of the chilli varieties are susceptible to chilli leaf curl disease and resistance is lacking in local germplasm. Furthermore, three insecticides: Imidacloprid, Polo and Emamectin were tested for their efficacy for the management of disease and whitefly vector in field conditions at weekly intervals. Out of three insecticides, Polo gave best results as compared to Emamectin and Imidacloprid against chilli leaf curl disease and whitefly vector.

Calicut was the most important port in southwest India during the late fourteenth and the fifteenth century. Its rulers, the Zamorins, maintained a vast network of trading relations extending from the coast of East Africa to the Indonesian archipelago and the Far East. This is amply documented in the accounts of foreign travellers, practically all of whom passed through the Malabar ports on the lengthy voyage from west to east and back. Marco Polo, Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, 'Abd al-Razzāq, to name but a few, figure most prominently in a long line of writers whose reports describe various aspects of old Colychachia, as Calicut was then called by Nicolo di Conti, an Italian traveller.

When Christopher Columbus arrived at La Espanola (the large island called in English Hispaniola, now divided between the modern states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in early December 1492, he encountered a society entirely different from the ones described by Marco Polo for Asia and India. Columbus, sailing through the Bahamas and Cuba, had already discovered indios who went about naked, did not know the wheel nor used any metal tools, practised agriculture and fishing, and had a complex social structure and an elaborated system of religious beliefs. These ‘Indians’ called themselves Tainos, to signify that they were peaceful, although they defended themselves well from their neighbouring enemies, the Caribes of the Lesser Antilles islands (Colon 1961; Las Casas 1967)

Este estudio tuvo como objetivo conocer posibles cambios cromosómicos en la lenteja en 13 variedades provenientes de Asia y formas cultivadas en México. Para ello se utilizaron células de ápices radicales coloreados con el método estándar de Feulgen. Los cromosomas meióticos se estudiaron en anteras fijadas en Farmer y coloreadas con aceto-carmín. La fertilidad masculina fue estimada con base en el porcentaje de polen teñido con glicerol-acetocarmín. En las 13 variedades se observó un número cromosómico diploide, 2n = 2X = 14. La longitud total del genomio varió entre colecciones, de 52.14 a 90.78 μm, en la de Irán 32 y de la India 90, respectivamente. También se observó variación entre cromosomas del mismo cariotipo, pues el cromosoma uno mostró una longitud promedio de 5.08 μm y el cromosoma siete de 4.17 μm. El cariotipo de lenteja es bimodal: los cuatro cromosomas de mayor longitud son metacéntricos y los tres cromosomas restantes, submetacéntricos. El cromosoma cuatro presenta una construcción secundaria. Excepcionalmente, el brazo largo del cromosoma tres de la variedad Criolla de Comanja presentó la construcción secundaria y fue la única diferencia entre los trece cariotipos. La meiosis I, en las 13 variedades estudiadas fue normal, presentando 7 bivalentes, y una segregación de siete cromosomas a cada polo en anafase l. La fertilidad masculina fue de 90% en 12variedades y de 48% en la Criolla de Comanja.

La intención es hacer una revisión de ciertos problemas conceptuales y metodológicos que rodean el estudio del opio en Asia entre los siglos xvi y xix, así como su relación con la dominancia de los imperios coloniales europeos en la región en dicha época. Para ello, se analizarán algunas aportaciones provenientesde campos como la antropología o la “historia global” que pueden facilitar la comprensión del papel que esta droga jugó en la penetración de dichos poderes en Asia oriental y suroriental durante la edad moderna, así como en la aparición del imperialismo en el siglo xix. Se presenta la relación entre el opio y el colonialismo desde una perspectiva histórica, conforme la creciente importancia que esta droga tuvo en las actividades comerciales de diversos actores coloniales europeos en Asia durante el periodo. La base de esta evolución radicó en la mercantilización experimentada por el opio a lo largo de los siglos, la cual evolucionó de forma paralela a la intensificación de la presencia colonial europea en el continente asiático. En este sentido, el opio adquirió una creciente importancia para unos actores, los europeos, que tuvieron que adaptarse a las condiciones en las que las relaciones comerciales se daban en ámbitos geográficos como el subcontinente indio, el Sudeste Asiático y el mar de China meridional; donde China actuaba como el polo de más peso de las redes comerciales existentes en estas regiones, y los mercantes chinos eran los más activos e importantes. Antes de que el opio pasase a jugar un papel decisivo en la despolarización de este escenario comercial, los europeos realizaron un largo proceso de observación de esta mercancía en las redes mercantiles. Dicha observación se inició con la llegada de los portugueses a India, en las primeras décadas del siglo xvi, quienes advirtieron, desde su misma llegada, las posibilidades que una mercantilización productiva de la droga podría abrir para sus actividades comerciales en la región; no obstante, sus aspiraciones de mercantilizar el opio estaban aún lejos de su alcance. Por su parte, los holandeses también se percataron de la creciente importancia de la droga en el comercio entre India y el Sudeste Asiático en el siglo xvii, a raíz de las nuevas formas de consumo de la droga aparecidas en la isla de Java, donde comenzó a fumarse junto con tabaco. Los neerlandeses consiguieron establecer un monopolio comercial de la droga en Batavia, que se convirtió en el principal centro de redistribución en Asia suroriental y oriental; desde allí, los mercaderes chinos exportaron el hábito a China, lo que unido a la conquista de la India noroccidental, en 1753, permitió a los ingleses operar una mercantilización completa de este producto basada en el monopolio y la racionalización de su producción. Sólo entonces el opio se convirtió en una mercancía capaz de transformar las relaciones comerciales en Asia durante el siglo xix.

Fish is one of the best sources of animal protein of the food. Fishing and hunting are the oldest profession of all mankind since man began his search of food. Traditional fishing catching devices which were operated in River Siang, Arunachal Pradesh have been studied with respect to its operation, structure and productivity. The small depicted work highlight 13 different types fish catching devices, which have been classified into 5 different types viz., (i) Encircling Gear (Khewali Jal, Angtha Jal and Ber Jal or Jeng Jal) (ii) Entangling Gear (Langi or Current Jal and Phansi Jal) (iii) Scooping Gear (Sip Jal and Thela Jal) (iv) Hooks and Line fishing (Nal Barshi and Doogabanshi) (v) Traps (Chepa, Dingora, Polo, and Kholaha). The present study was carried out from June 2012 to July 2013 in a 58km stretch of River Siang in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Some methods can be considered as traditional as well as non-traditional since they are well known in some other states of North-East as well as also in the country with some different kind of variation. Various fishing techniques depend on various behavioral pattern and microhabitat type of fishes.

Fish is one of the best sources of animal protein of the food. Fishing and hunting are the oldest profession of all mankind since man began his search of food. Traditional fishing catching devices which were operated in River Siang, Arunachal Pradesh have been studied with respect to its operation, structure and productivity. The small depicted work highlight 13 different types fish catching devices, which have been classified into 5 different types viz., (i) Encircling Gear (Khewali Jal, Angtha Jal and Ber Jal or Jeng Jal) (ii) Entangling Gear (Langi or Current Jal and Phansi Jal) (iii) Scooping Gear (Sip Jal and Thela Jal) (iv) Hooks and Line fishing (Nal Barshi and Doogabanshi) (v) Traps (Chepa, Dingora, Polo, and Kholaha). The present study was carried out from June 2012 to July 2013 in a 58km stretch of River Siang in East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh. Some methods can be considered as traditional as well as non-traditional since they are well known in some other states of North-East as well as also in the country with some different kind of variation. Various fishing techniques depend on various behavioral pattern and microhabitat type of fishes.

Located on the disputed border with China, Arunachal Pradesh is the most remote of India’s northeastern states. Christianity is growing there—from 1 percent in 1971 to 30 percent in 2011—but that number may have reached a plateau. Arunachal Pradesh is undergoing rapid sociocultural change. While Hinduism is not well-established in the region, there is tremendous interest in a relatively new religion called Donyi-Polo. Some Hindus argue Donyi-Polo is actually a branch of Hinduism, and they are having some success in making this claim. This article explores the changing religious, political, and cultural dynamics of Arunachal Pradesh.

Fifteenth-century Italian travel narratives on India by Nicolò dei Conti and Gerolamo di Santo Stefano present a detailed account of the India they visited, following the narrative tradition of the Italian Marco Polo. These narratives of the Renaissance were published as descriptive authorial texts of travellers to the East. Their importance was due to the authors’ detailed first-hand experiences of the societies and cultures that they encountered, as well as the various trade centres of the period. These narratives were utilised by merchants, explorers, and Jesuits for a variety of purposes. The narratives of Nicolò dei Conti and Gerolamo di Santo Stefano thus became indispensable tools that were later distorted through numerous translations to suit the politics of Orientalism for the emerging colonial enterprises. In my paper, I have attempted a re-reading of the particular texts to identify how Italy saw India, while illustrating through their history of publication the transformation that these narratives underwent later in order to objectify India in the West through the lens of Orientalism in their manner of representation.

<p>El presente ensayo delinea el escenario de los movimientos de capital en la forma de inversión extranjera directa (IED) en la India entre los años 2000 y 2012 y su posible impacto macroeconómico. El estudio se enmarca en el proceso de globalización que desde finales del siglo pasado ha tomado vigor, caracterizado por crisis recurrentes, disminución del ritmo de acumulación capitalista en el polo desarrollado y ascenso de nuevos actores en este terreno. En el marco de este entorno, las desigualdades económicas continúan vigentes entre países desarrollados y en desarrollo, al mismo tiempo se registra un aumento considerable de los flujos de capital entre estos países.</p>

India is endowed with varying biogeography and physico-environment that encompasses a range of biodiversity with variation and endemism. Indian forests are characterised by human inhabitation from time immemorial.Gujarat situated at the western part of India is characterised by the assemblage of sea, lofty Aravallis, Vindhyas, Satpura range and Thar desert giving a rich diversity of species, habitat and ecosystems. These eosystems despite its semi arid and arid climate encompasses unique and shelter some of the world’s threatened species of plants and animals. They have rich fauna and diverse flora of medicinal herbs that are traditionally used by the healers. Vijaynagar Polo forest of Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha district is one of such area that contains fascinating flora and fauna. It is a dry deciduous forest with teak trees and various medicinal plants that are seasonal. This paper describes the scope of exploration of the forest for medicinal plants biodiversity in addition to the eco tourism that is practiced there for the rich fauna and flora of river side with most ancient historical sites.

La intención es hacer una revisión de ciertos problemas conceptuales y metodológicos que rodean el estudio del opio en Asia entre los siglos xvi y xix, así como su relación con la dominancia de los imperios coloniales europeos en la región en dicha época. Para ello, se analizarán algunas aportaciones provenientesde campos como la antropología o la “historia global” que pueden facilitar la comprensión del papel que esta droga jugó en la penetración de dichos poderes en Asia oriental y suroriental durante la edad moderna, así como en la aparición del imperialismo en el siglo xix. Se presenta la relación entre el opio y el colonialismo desde una perspectiva histórica, conforme la creciente importancia que esta droga tuvo en las actividades comerciales de diversos actores coloniales europeos en Asia durante el periodo. La base de esta evolución radicó en la mercantilización experimentada por el opio a lo largo de los siglos, la cual evolucionó de forma paralela a la intensificación de la presencia colonial europea en el continente asiático. En este sentido, el opio adquirió una creciente importancia para unos actores, los europeos, que tuvieron que adaptarse a las condiciones en las que las relaciones comerciales se daban en ámbitos geográficos como el subcontinente indio, el Sudeste Asiático y el mar de China meridional; donde China actuaba como el polo de más peso de las redes comerciales existentes en estas regiones, y los mercantes chinos eran los más activos e importantes. Antes de que el opio pasase a jugar un papel decisivo en la despolarización de este escenario comercial, los europeos realizaron un largo proceso de observación de esta mercancía en las redes mercantiles. Dicha observación se inició con la llegada de los portugueses a India, en las primeras décadas del siglo xvi, quienes advirtieron, desde su misma llegada, las posibilidades que una mercantilización productiva de la droga podría abrir para sus actividades comerciales en la región; no obstante, sus aspiraciones de mercantilizar el opio estaban aún lejos de su alcance. Por su parte, los holandeses también se percataron de la creciente importancia de la droga en el comercio entre India y el Sudeste Asiático en el siglo xvii, a raíz de las nuevas formas de consumo de la droga aparecidas en la isla de Java, donde comenzó a fumarse junto con tabaco. Los neerlandeses consiguieron establecer un monopolio comercial de la droga en Batavia, que se convirtió en el principal centro de redistribución en Asia suroriental y oriental; desde allí, los mercaderes chinos exportaron el hábito a China, lo que unido a la conquista de la India noroccidental, en 1753, permitió a los ingleses operar una mercantilización completa de este producto basada en el monopolio y la racionalización de su producción. Sólo entonces el opio se convirtió en una mercancía capaz de transformar las relaciones comerciales en Asia durante el siglo xix.

No es novedad que para el estudiante y arquitecto, el viaje trasciende las épicas y románticas travesías de las que alguna vez habremos escuchado en la universidad: Le Corbusier en Atenas, India y Brasil; Aalto en España e Italia, o para los que quieran ir más allá: Marco Polo y sus registros bajo la tutela de Kublai Kahn. Muchos habremos emprendido, con cándido entusiasmo, la aventura de realizar un registro dibujado o fotografiado de cuánto pudiese devenir en materia de estudio, o bien, sana complacencia. Muchos somos, también, los que no hemos podido eludir el momento de registrar los arquetipos iconográficos o postales de grandes ciudades del mundo. Pues bien, pareciera que rara vez en estos dulces testimonios de viajes se evidenciara una inminente y escurridiza situación: los desplazamientos. Y es que, en una ciudad como Santiago, con sus ya conocidos problemas de crecimiento, los tiempos para llegar de un lugar a otro bastarían al silencioso literato para escribir novelas enteras; al joven inquieto para escuchar la discografía de sus ídolos tropicales por altavoz; y a la abuela para tejer su chomba. En esta oportunidad, en un viaje que varía entre el automóvil, metro, micro y buses regionales, es suficiente el tiempo para un voyeur y su registro de una realidad que difícilmente se presta para ser capturada; esquivamente se regala para ser contemplada y habitualmente es menospreciada: está entre las faenas del día, el tráfago de las oficinas y el retorno al hogar. Es un tiempo abierto para sacar cuentas, pero a su vez no elaborado. Son dibujos que no tienen otro afán más que desafiar el hábito, retar el tiempo y plasmar esta realidad efímera; poner en valor imágenes a menudo consideradas anecdóticas en 3 determinadas escalas: paisajes que van alternándose y transformándose, cuerpos de pie o sentados que suben y bajan, curiosos rostros durmientes, pendientes, irritados, enjutos o frescos. El dibujo, como revólver de una sola bala, intenta recoger con precisión y asertividad el perfil, a menudo seductor, de quienes ostentan grandes narices, ceños profundos o abultadas mandíbulas. Asimismo, en este caso (y no único), el dibujo es un conducto de re-creación que recoge lo que se ve, siendo bello o no, pero a la vez regala a lo registrado un nuevo sentido en la línea, en su luz y lenguaje.

The curtain rose. The howling of desert wind filled the performance hall in the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Into the center stage, where a scenic construction of a mountain cliff and a desert landscape was dimly lit, entered the character of the Daoist priest Wang Yuanlu (1849–1931), performed by Chen Yizong. Dressed in a worn and dusty outfit of dark blue cotton, characteristic of Daoist priests, Wang began to sweep the floor. After a few moments, he discovered a hidden chambre sealed inside one of the rock sanctuaries carved into the cliff.Signaled by the quick, crystalline, stirring wave of sound from the chimes, a melodious Chinese ocarina solo joined in slowly from the background. Astonished by thousands of Buddhist sūtra scrolls, wall paintings, and sculptures he had just accidentally discovered in the caves, Priest Wang set his broom aside and began to examine these treasures. Dawn had not yet arrived, and the desert sky was pitch-black. Priest Wang held his oil lamp high, strode rhythmically in excitement, sat crossed-legged in a meditative pose, and unfolded a scroll. The sound of the ocarina became fuller and richer and the texture of the music more complex, as several other instruments joined in.Below is the opening scene of the award-winning, theatrical dance-drama Dunhuang, My Dreamland, created by China’s state-sponsored Lanzhou Song and Dance Theatre in 2000. Figure 1a: Poster Side A of Dunhuang, My Dreamland Figure 1b: Poster Side B of Dunhuang, My DreamlandThe scene locates the dance-drama in the rock sanctuaries that today are known as the Dunhuang Mogao Caves, housing Buddhist art accumulated over a period of a thousand years, one of the best well-known UNESCO heritages on the Silk Road. Historically a frontier metropolis, Dunhuang was a strategic site along the Silk Road in northwestern China, a crossroads of trade, and a locus for religious, cultural, and intellectual influences since the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). Travellers, especially Buddhist monks from India and central Asia, passing through Dunhuang on their way to Chang’an (present day Xi’an), China’s ancient capital, would stop to meditate in the Mogao Caves and consult manuscripts in the monastery's library. At the same time, Chinese pilgrims would travel by foot from China through central Asia to Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, playing a key role in the exchanges between ancient China and the outside world. Travellers from China would stop to acquire provisions at Dunhuang before crossing the Gobi Desert to continue on their long journey abroad. Figure 2: Dunhuang Mogao CavesThis article approaches the idea of “abroad” by examining the present-day imagination of journeys along the Silk Road—specifically, staged performances of the various Silk Road journey-themed dance-dramas sponsored by the Chinese state for enhancing its cultural and foreign policies since the 1970s (Kuang).As ethnomusicologists have demonstrated, musicians, choreographers, and playwrights often utilise historical materials in their performances to construct connections between the past and the present (Bohlman; Herzfeld; Lam; Rees; Shelemay; Tuohy; Wade; Yung: Rawski; Watson). The ancient Silk Road, which linked the Mediterranean coast with central China and beyond, via oasis towns such as Samarkand, has long been associated with the concept of “journeying abroad.” Journeys to distant, foreign lands and encounters of unknown, mysterious cultures along the Silk Road have been documented in historical records, such as A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (Faxian) and The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (Xuanzang), and illustrated in classical literature, such as The Travels of Marco Polo (Polo) and the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West (Wu). These journeys—coming and going from multiple directions and to different destinations—have inspired contemporary staged performance for audiences around the globe.Home and Abroad: Dunhuang and the Silk RoadDunhuang, My Dreamland (2000), the contemporary dance-drama, staged the journey of a young pilgrim painter travelling from Chang’an to a land of the unfamiliar and beyond borders, in search for the arts that have inspired him. Figure 3: A scene from Dunhuang, My Dreamland showing the young pilgrim painter in the Gobi Desert on the ancient Silk RoadFar from his home, he ended his journey in Dunhuang, historically considered the northwestern periphery of China, well beyond Yangguan and Yumenguan, the bordering passes that separate China and foreign lands. Later scenes in Dunhuang, My Dreamland, portrayed through multiethnic music and dances, the dynamic interactions among merchants, cultural and religious envoys, warriors, and politicians that were making their own journey from abroad to China. The theatrical dance-drama presents a historically inspired, re-imagined vision of both “home” and “abroad” to its audiences as they watch the young painter travel along the Silk Road, across the Gobi Desert, arriving at his own ideal, artistic “homeland”, the Dunhuang Mogao Caves. Since his journey is ultimately a spiritual one, the conceptualisation of travelling “abroad” could also be perceived as “a journey home.”Staged more than four hundred times since it premiered in Beijing in April 2000, Dunhuang, My Dreamland is one of the top ten titles in China’s National Stage Project and one of the most successful theatrical dance-dramas ever produced in China. With revenue of more than thirty million renminbi (RMB), it ranks as the most profitable theatrical dance-drama ever produced in China, with a preproduction cost of six million RMB. The production team receives financial support from China’s Ministry of Culture for its “distinctive ethnic features,” and its “aim to promote traditional Chinese culture,” according to Xu Rong, an official in the Cultural Industry Department of the Ministry. Labeled an outstanding dance-drama of the Chinese nation, it aims to present domestic and international audiences with a vision of China as a historically multifaceted and cosmopolitan nation that has been in close contact with the outside world through the ancient Silk Road. Its production company has been on tour in selected cities throughout China and in countries abroad, including Austria, Spain, and France, literarily making the young pilgrim painter’s “journey along the Silk Road” a new journey abroad, off stage and in reality.Dunhuang, My Dreamland was not the first, nor is it the last, staged performances that portrays the Chinese re-imagination of “journeying abroad” along the ancient Silk Road. It was created as one of many versions of Dunhuang bihua yuewu, a genre of music, dance, and dramatic performances created in the early twentieth century and based primarily on artifacts excavated from the Mogao Caves (Kuang). “The Mogao Caves are the greatest repository of early Chinese art,” states Mimi Gates, who works to increase public awareness of the UNESCO site and raise funds toward its conservation. “Located on the Chinese end of the Silk Road, it also is the place where many cultures of the world intersected with one another, so you have Greek and Roman, Persian and Middle Eastern, Indian and Chinese cultures, all interacting. Given the nature of our world today, it is all very relevant” (Pollack). As an expressive art form, this genre has been thriving since the late 1970s contributing to the global imagination of China’s “Silk Road journeys abroad” long before Dunhuang, My Dreamland achieved its domestic and international fame. For instance, in 2004, The Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteśvara—one of the most representative (and well-known) Dunhuang bihua yuewu programs—was staged as a part of the cultural program during the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. This performance, as well as other Dunhuang bihua yuewu dance programs was the perfect embodiment of a foreign religion that arrived in China from abroad and became Sinicized (Kuang). Figure 4: Mural from Dunhuang Mogao Cave No. 45A Brief History of Staging the Silk Road JourneysThe staging of the Silk Road journeys abroad began in the late 1970s. Historically, the Silk Road signifies a multiethnic, cosmopolitan frontier, which underwent incessant conflicts between Chinese sovereigns and nomadic peoples (as well as between other groups), but was strongly imbued with the customs and institutions of central China (Duan, Mair, Shi, Sima). In the twentieth century, when China was no longer an empire, but had become what the early 20th-century reformer Liang Qichao (1873–1929) called “a nation among nations,” the long history of the Silk Road and the colourful, legendary journeys abroad became instrumental in the formation of a modern Chinese nation of unified diversity rooted in an ancient cosmopolitan past. The staged Silk Road theme dance-dramas thus participate in this formation of the Chinese imagination of “nation” and “abroad,” as they aestheticise Chinese history and geography. History and geography—aspects commonly considered constituents of a nation as well as our conceptualisations of “abroad”—are “invariably aestheticized to a certain degree” (Bakhtin 208). Diverse historical and cultural elements from along the Silk Road come together in this performance genre, which can be considered the most representative of various possible stagings of the history and culture of the Silk Road journeys.In 1979, the Chinese state officials in Gansu Province commissioned the benchmark dance-drama Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road, a spectacular theatrical dance-drama praising the pure and noble friendship which existed between the peoples of China and other countries in the Tang dynasty (618-907 C.E.). While its plot also revolves around the Dunhuang Caves and the life of a painter, staged at one of the most critical turning points in modern Chinese history, the work as a whole aims to present the state’s intention of re-establishing diplomatic ties with the outside world after the Cultural Revolution. Unlike Dunhuang, My Dreamland, it presents a nation’s journey abroad and home. To accomplish this goal, Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road introduces the fictional character Yunus, a wealthy Persian merchant who provides the audiences a vision of the historical figure of Peroz III, the last Sassanian prince, who after the Arab conquest of Iran in 651 C.E., found refuge in China. By incorporating scenes of ethnic and folk dances, the drama then stages the journey of painter Zhang’s daughter Yingniang to Persia (present-day Iran) and later, Yunus’s journey abroad to the Tang dynasty imperial court as the Persian Empire’s envoy.Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road, since its debut at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the first of October 1979 and shortly after at the Theatre La Scala in Milan, has been staged in more than twenty countries and districts, including France, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Russia, Latvia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and recently, in 2013, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.“The Road”: Staging the Journey TodayWithin the contemporary context of global interdependencies, performing arts have been used as strategic devices for social mobilisation and as a means to represent and perform modern national histories and foreign policies (Davis, Rees, Tian, Tuohy, Wong, David Y. H. Wu). The Silk Road has been chosen as the basis for these state-sponsored, extravagantly produced, and internationally staged contemporary dance programs. In 2008, the welcoming ceremony and artistic presentation at the Olympic Games in Beijing featured twenty apsara dancers and a Dunhuang bihua yuewu dancer with long ribbons, whose body was suspended in mid-air on a rectangular LED extension held by hundreds of performers; on the giant LED screen was a depiction of the ancient Silk Road.In March 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping introduced the initiatives “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” during his journeys abroad in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. These initiatives are now referred to as “One Belt, One Road.” The State Council lists in details the policies and implementation plans for this initiative on its official web page, www.gov.cn. In April 2013, the China Institute in New York launched a yearlong celebration, starting with "Dunhuang: Buddhist Art and the Gateway of the Silk Road" with a re-creation of one of the caves and a selection of artifacts from the site. In March 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency, released a new action plan outlining key details of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. Xi Jinping has made the program a centrepiece of both his foreign and domestic economic policies. One of the central economic strategies is to promote cultural industry that could enhance trades along the Silk Road.Encouraged by the “One Belt, One Road” policies, in March 2016, The Silk Princess premiered in Xi’an and was staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing the following July. While Dunhuang, My Dreamland and Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road were inspired by the Buddhist art found in Dunhuang, The Silk Princess, based on a story about a princess bringing silk and silkworm-breeding skills to the western regions of China in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) has a different historical origin. The princess's story was portrayed in a woodblock from the Tang Dynasty discovered by Sir Marc Aurel Stein, a British archaeologist during his expedition to Xinjiang (now Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region) in the early 19th century, and in a temple mural discovered during a 2002 Chinese-Japanese expedition in the Dandanwulike region. Figure 5: Poster of The Silk PrincessIn January 2016, the Shannxi Provincial Song and Dance Troupe staged The Silk Road, a new theatrical dance-drama. Unlike Dunhuang, My Dreamland, the newly staged dance-drama “centers around the ‘road’ and the deepening relationship merchants and travellers developed with it as they traveled along its course,” said Director Yang Wei during an interview with the author. According to her, the show uses seven archetypes—a traveler, a guard, a messenger, and so on—to present the stories that took place along this historic route. Unbounded by specific space or time, each of these archetypes embodies the foreign-travel experience of a different group of individuals, in a manner that may well be related to the social actors of globalised culture and of transnationalism today. Figure 6: Poster of The Silk RoadConclusionAs seen in Rain of Flowers along the Silk Road and Dunhuang, My Dreamland, staging the processes of Silk Road journeys has become a way of connecting the Chinese imagination of “home” with the Chinese imagination of “abroad.” Staging a nation’s heritage abroad on contemporary stages invites a new imagination of homeland, borders, and transnationalism. Once aestheticised through staged performances, such as that of the Dunhuang bihua yuewu, the historical and topological landscape of Dunhuang becomes a performed narrative, embodying the national heritage.The staging of Silk Road journeys continues, and is being developed into various forms, from theatrical dance-drama to digital exhibitions such as the Smithsonian’s Pure Land: Inside the Mogao Grottes at Dunhuang (Stromberg) and the Getty’s Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China's Silk Road (Sivak and Hood). 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Based on the fact that most of factories/manufacturers failed to comply with foreign customers’ requirements for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices from the first audits, the present study aims to explore SME exporters’ understanding of CSR requirements from foreign clients, motivations and obstacles for them to practice and implement CSR. In order to tackle the research objectives, qualitative approach is chosen and in-depth interview with owners, HR/CSR managers and production managers is employed to collect data. The research scope is firms/suppliers in hardlines (non-furniture and non-apparel) section. Thematic analysis is used to analyse and categorise data from interviews. The research findings show some crucial points. Firstly, CSR requirements from clients are not correctly understood. Secondly, there are seven drivers for CSR practices which match with previous studies. 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