Artykuły w czasopismach na temat „Indian Iron Company”

The most celebrated case of paternalism in India is that of the Tata Iron and Steel Company (Tisco) and its company town, Jamshedpur. In the context of India, Jamshedpur is a marvel: a relatively clean, spacious, and prosperous city where more people live in middle-class neighborhoods than in slums. With a population of 650,000, Jamshedpur is certainly the largest company town in the world, and, because it is still controlled and administered by the private company that founded it in 1909, it is probably the oldest extant company town. Aside from the town, the steel company itself holds a special place in Indian industrial history. It was founded and capitalized in the colonial period by the Indian business community of Bombay in 1907, began production in 1911, and thereafter took its place as the largest private company in India and the largest integrated steel mill in the British Empire. It has survived revolutionary political changes, near-bankruptcy, and nationalization attempts, largely because its directors convinced the British that it was an essential defense industry and the Indian nationalists that it was a national treasure run by men of integrity for the benefit of the nation.

Vedanta Limited (also known as Sterlite Ltd) is India's solely Natural Resources Company. The company's main businesses concentrate on metallic element, lead, silver, Aluminum, copper, iron ore, oil and gas, and industrial power, whereas its operations span across India, Republic of South Africa, Namibia, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, and African country.

AbstractWhile various scholars of Indian economic history have focused on the progress of import substitution in India after the 1920s, few have studied why this led to hardly any export of industrial products during the colonial period. One of the most probable reasons for the lesser popularity of this issue could be attributed to a commonly shared view that there was less hope for the export of industrial products in colonial India since import substitution had progressed only so far. Although it is accepted that the industrial development of colonial India was generally stagnant, this does not necessarily apply to specific products in specific industries. For instance, the iron and steel industry achieved almost a full self-sufficiency rate for some of its steel products during the 1920s, although the industry hardly exported the products afterward. This paper aims to clarify why hardly any steel of the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), the only steel producing company with modern technology until the mid-1930s, was exported. A detailed study of the company's archives will show that the steel export of the company was fundamentally hindered by a fact which had its origin in British imperial policy: the strict quality specifications in the production of steel.

Iron deficiency is a global health concern, particularly in developing countries like India. While overt iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is well-documented, Latent Iron Deficiency (LID), a precursor to IDA, remains under-recognized. This study aims to elucidate the proportion of the Indian population with latent iron deficiency and underscore the importance of early detection of this condition.: 344624 anonymized medical records available through a personal health record (PHR) application developed by Eka Care, a health information technology company, were analysed. The ethical handling of data ensured that no personally identifiable information (PII) was accessible or utilized during the research process.: Children aged 5-15 years had a LID prevalence of 32.7% (95% CI:27.4%,37.9%) while women aged 15-49 years had a prevalence of 31.5% (95% CI:30.3%,32.6%). 9% (95% CI: 8.5%,9.5%) of men in the same age group had LID.This study revealed a significant burden of latent iron deficiency among Indian women and children. By implementing targeted screening and intervention strategies, one can improve health outcomes and break the cycle of iron deficiency in these vulnerable populations.LID poses a serious risk for developing iron deficiency anemia (IDA) during and after pregnancy. Iron deficiency can adversely affect maternal and fetal health.This burden of LID highlights the critical need for routine screening and early intervention to prevent these adverse outcomes.

AbstractThis article examines the emergence of Jamshedpur, site of India's first steel plant and privately governed company town, as part of an unprecedented large-scale extraction of mineral resources at the turn of the twentieth century for the purpose of industrial development. It traces the protracted acquisition of land and dispossession of mainlyadivasi(tribal) cultivators by the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) from ca. 1900 to 1930. The company pursued a distinct strategy of obtaining short-term leases from princely states andzamindars(landowners), while simultaneously appealing to the legal apparatus of the colonial state to secure absolute tenurial rights. The uneven application of laws such as the Land Acquisition Act (1894) and the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act (1908) allowed TISCO to become a quasi-sovereign power in eastern India, simultaneously acting as employer, landlord, and municipal government. Jamshedpur's continually anomalous legal status underlies the persistence of multiple, fragmented, and competing sovereignties in India, even as an ostensibly unified national economic state space emerged by the time of independence in 1947. More broadly, it suggests that the contours of the relationship between states and corporations, particularly in a postcolonial context, are determined both by preexisting political geographies and contingent legal struggles.

The Indian Foundry cluster is a key player in the production of metal castings used across various industries, including automobiles, railways, machinery, sanitary appliances, pipes, gears, earth-moving equipment, cement, electric circuits, pumps, valves, and wind turbines. Grey iron is the predominant material, constituting around 68% of all cast parts. In this context, Kolhapur plays a pivotal role in the production of diverse castings in India, primarily focusing on grey iron and SG iron castings, both of which are ferrous materials. The Kolhapur Cluster of Foundries is expected to produce approximately 650,000 tonnes annually, contributing about 7% of India's total cast iron production. However, this cluster encountered challenges related to higher rejection rates for castings due to a variety of defects. One established foundry in Kolhapur faced stricter rejection standards for specific castings. To address these issues, a comprehensive case study was conducted to reduce rejection rates in this foundry. The primary focus of the study was on a specific casting, the Gearbox Housing, which had an initial average rejection rate of 13%. In some instances, this rejection rate spiked to as high as 18% in a single month, resulting in significant revenue losses for the company. The defects observed in Gearbox Housing castings were categorized into two main types: Methoding, Filling, and Solidification-related defects, which included issues like shrinkage porosity and hot tears. Sand and mold-related defects, such as sand inclusion, sand drop, and mold quality issues. The initial step in addressing these defects involved utilizing casting simulation techniques to analyze and tackle shrinkage and porosity issues. A new gating system was designed to enhance the casting process. In the subsequent stage of defect reduction, the Design of Experiment (DoE) tool was employed. This data-driven approach helped refine and optimize the manufacturing process to minimize defects and enhance the overall quality of Gearbox Housing castings. By implementing these strategies, the foundry in Kolhapur successfully reduced rejection rates, thereby safeguarding company revenue and ensuring the production of high-quality castings for various industrial applications.

In 1900, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company began production in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Active recruitment of West Indian immigrants created, by 1923, Sydney's most segregated community. In 1928, St. Philip's African Orthodox Church was erected, and it became the fulcrum of the community. Explanations for this success have stressed social or economic factors. This article suggests that although such factors are significant, the explanation is nonetheless religious. Employing the work of the historian of religion Joachim Wach, it argues that the church's success was due to its ability to reflect at once human religious nature, and the temporal and spatial contexts in which this nature is expressed. Examining St. Philip's Church advances what Wach regarded as the goal of the study of religion : to understand both the historical particular and the more general phenomenon of human religiosity.

The process of population growth in the urban area along with the article deals with the study of changes of land use pattern Socio-economic activities of tribes as a result of rapid urbanization. It encompasses an extensive survey of the tribes’ dwelling places in urban, fringe and the rural settlements. The salient features include exploration of the physical and cultural background in the case study area. Composition of tribe families in 1931, Tribal population growth rate during 1931 to 2011, Urban to Rural Tribal population ratio, the proportion of Tribal people affected by urbanization and rapid populating in the study area i.e. change of their tradition and culture after the urbanization etc. Major findings include: Perceptible changes occurred in Socio cultural system of tribes like birth, funeral, religion etc. Land use pattern, Majhi- Pargana system, tendency to change surnames, erosion of mother tongue, advent of dowry system, hunting system in forests, vanishing forefather’s name. Use of modern costume, musical instruments, dances in place of their traditional ones, etc. Pull factors i.e. Urbanization and urban development is started in the East Singhbhum the commercial, industrial and transport preferment has favored the recent urban development throughout the areas. These have been accelerated with the overwhelming growth of population in urban areas through migration at acceleration and natural growth. These have given rise to systems of central places, problems of slums and squatter settlements besides enhancing the linkages of industrial centers thereby increasing the entropy of urban places. All these have forced the Governments to think about change in the urban policies, population policies and planning prospects. In the East Singhbhum District process of rapid population growth started from the establishment of Tata Iron and Steel Company in 1907 as well as copper mines at Mosaboni and Ghatshila in 1927. This development changed the socio cultural life style of tribes. Though their Living standard, Educational and Economic condition had changed, they stand developed in all aspects but as a trade-off lost their socio-cultural composition a great deal. They must continue their positive traditional cultures and social traits and may do away with the negative sides like excessive drinking habits of the traditional brew etc. to avoid the extinction in the long run from the memory of the future generations. It is possible only by the awareness to them. Aboriginal culture has many important things, which need to be preserved and have to continue as Indian culture in the context of sustaining beautiful diversity of Indian culture landscape.

Dr. Jamshed Jiji Irani passed away on 31.10.2022 at the Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur. He was 86 and was ailing for some time. In fact, Dr. Irani had received severe internal injuries as he slipped in February, 2021, in the bathroom at his house near Beldih Golf Course in Jamshedpur. He was rushed to the Tata Main Hospital, where he was treated and discharged, but did not fully recover thereafter. Dr. Irani is survived by wife Daisy Irani and three children Zubin, Niloufer, and Tanaaz. Dr. Irani had a close Nagpur connect, as he was born here and had his education upto the post graduation level in the Orange City. Starting his school education in SFS School, he did B.Sc. from College of Science (now Institute of Science) in 1956 and post graduation in geology from the Nagpur University, P. G. Department of Geology in 1958. He decided to switch over to metallurgy and was awarded the J. N. Tata fellowship to study abroad. Dr. Irani earned his master's in 1960 and doctorate in 1963 in metallurgy from the University of Sheffield, U.K.. After a stint with British Iron and Steel Research Association, U. K., he returned to India in 1968 and started his innings with Tata Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. (TISCO), now Tata Steel. He soon rose to higher ranks, getting promoted to the post of Managing Director in 1992. Dr. Irani took over as MD from the high profile Mr. Russi Mody. Soon after, Dr. Irani took steps to make his company's steel prices competitive for the world market and bagged export orders. At this time Tata's steel prices were the lowest in the world. His position as the Head of Tata Steel and his apt handling of the company earned him the title "Steel Man of India" who reinvented Tata Steel. He took giant steps to enable local entrepreneurs around Jamshedpur develop their skills and become suppliers to the Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Jamshedpur. With his initiative, Jamshedpur soon became a hub for ancillary suppliers. With Dr. Irani at the helm of affairs, a new work culture of 8-hour shifts began at Tata Steel. He was elevated as Director, Tata Sons, a post that he held till 2011, along with boardroom posts in other Tata companies including Tata Motors and Tata Tele Services. Dr. Irani continued to remain on the Tata Steel board as Director till 2011. Dr. Irani was conferred an honorary knighthood (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2007 from Government of India. In 2004, the government appointed him as the Chairman of the Expert Committee for formulation of the new Indian Companies Act. He also held the post of National President of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) during 1992-93. Dr. Irani was always a cricketer till his last years and also an avid stamp and coin collector. The leader and great visionary retired from all the posts of Tata companies in 2011, settling down at Jamshedpur to lead a peaceful life. Dr. Irani maintained a deep connect with the Gondwana Geological Society and his moral and philanthropic support always came by, whenever requested for. Our Society is extremely grateful to Dr. Irani for his encouragement and support and has sadly lost one of its most esteemed members. We deeply condole the passing away of Dr. Irani.

The Ircon is one of the key players in the market of transportation infrastructure development backed by Indian government and Indian railways. It has successful presence in various locations such as Malaysia, Algeria, Mozambique, Srilanka and India. The objective of the company is to expand globally to get lucrative projects simultaneously sustain competition locally and overseas. The idea is to devise a strategic marketing plan based on infrastructure spending data, location accessibility and market friendliness of the target market countries. The research design carried out was of comprehensive study of data collected from email survey, archive survey and depth interview analysis on various stages of business. The survey outcomes from exclusively selected respondents having international experience in construction business have indicated that infrastructure spending of a country is of utmost importance with 56% of survey response agreeing to it, similarly majority of respondents agreed that deciding factors like market entry plan, entry strategies and other attributes in markets.

India is the second largest crude steel producer in the world. The demand of the steel industry is depending on the consumer durables, automobiles and infrastructure sectors in India. Steel sector growth in India was depending on the locally available materials like iron ore and cost-effective labour. It is the major manufacturing output contributing sector and also vertebrae of Indian economy. The level of living standard and socioeconomic growth of the human being living in the country is the indicator of the per capita consumption of products and services in that country. Imports plays a significant role in the domestic market of the country. Technology, government policy, high capital cost and economies of scale are the major hurdles to this sector. To understand the risk and return style in steel company stocks is the objective of this paper. Uncertainty of generating a return on any investment is called risk. Capital appreciation or more than investment value receiving of entity is called return. KEYWORDS: steel, manufacturing, Technology, emerging markets, volatility stocks

Doğu Hindistan Kumpanyası (East Indian Company)’nın yürüttüğü etkili faaliyetler neticesinde Hindistan’da büyük bir iktisadi güce ve nüfuza ulaşan İngiltere, burada ulaştığı nüfuzu İran’da ve Kafkaslarda da devam ettirmek adına Rusya ile 19. yüzyıl başında yoğun bir mücadele içerisine girmiştir. Bu mücadelesini yürütürken iktisadi nüfuzunu diplomasi ile kullanması kendisine geniş bir hareket alanı açmış ve bilhassa İran’da, Doğu Hindistan Kumpanyası bünyesinde görevli askeri uzmanlar önemli başarılar elde etmiştir. İranlı üst düzey yetkililer üzerinde büyük bir etkiye ve nüfuza ulaşmayı başaran askeri uzmanlar ve diplomatlar içerisinde, bu çalışmada konu edindiğimiz John Mac Donald Kinneir de bulunmuştur. Kinneir, Doğu Hindistan Kumpanyası bünyesinde Birmanya’da ve Hindistan’da teğmenlik, yüzbaşılık gibi alt düzeydeki askeri görevlerde bulunduktan sonra Sir John Malcolm’un başkanlığında İran’da faaliyet yürüten bir heyet içerisinde yer almıştır. Bu görevi sırasında İran coğrafyasının geniş bir kısmına seyahatler gerçekleştirmiş ve bu seyahatler esnasında aldığı notları 1813 senesinde kitaplaşmıştır. Hayatının geri kalan senelerinde diplomat kimliğiyle bu ülkede çalışmalar yürütecek olan Kinneir, istirahat etmek için gittiği memleketi İngiltere’den İran’daki vazifesine tekrar dönerken Osmanlı Devleti egemenliğindeki yerlere de uğramıştır. Anadolu’da ve Kıbrıs’ta 1813 ve 1814 senelerinde uzun seyahatler gerçekleştirmiş ve bu esnada tuttuğu notlar 1818’de yayınlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada Kinneir’in 1814 senesi ilkbaharında Anadolu’nun kuzeybatı ve kuzey kesimlerine doğru gerçekleştirdiği seyahatinde aldığı notlar, Osmanlı Devleti’nin bu dönemde siyasi-iktisadi ve idari açılardan içerisinde bulunduğu vaziyet perspektifinde değerlendirilmiştir.

Ready supplementary food has been the best choice to arrest hunger and malnutrition in developing countries. To develop low-cost with high nutritious supplementary food with locally available ingredients those fill up the requirements of nutrients of Indians per day at different age groups according to recommended dietary allowance. To prevent malnutrition and keep children healthy, the ICDS center provides several foods, one of which is poushtic laddu, which is made with rice, wheat, groundnut, gram flour, and sugar. The women of the self-help group mainly make these nutritious laddu ingredients and provide them to the ICDS center. There are currently several ICDS centers offering poushtic powders made by CINI known as Nutrimix, which is advised to feed the children as laddu at home. This laddu powder lags far behind in terms of nutrition and phytochemicals, this is the reason for submitting the report to improve the quality of this laddu in terms of nutrition. Three different poushtic powders were prepared, marked as P, PC, and PI by healthy and nutritious food ingredients which are locally available in the market and environment. After experiments, it was found that P, PI, and PC are best for protein (28.315g), iron (23.77mg), and calcium (325.502mg) content respectively. A sufficient amount of macro and micronutrients is present in all types of poushtic powders. Phytochemicals like ascorbic acid, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, valinic acid, routine, trans-cinnamic acid, ferulic acid, quercetin, apigenin, and kaempferol are found to be present. Antioxidant activity like FRAP (12.854µmol/gm), ABTS (19.217µmol/gm) and DPPH (19.167µmol/gm) high in PC sample. Every poushtic powder is good in one way or another. SEM determines morphology and particle size with a correlation with hardness and fineness. The shelf life of the products is determined by different types of storage containers. In this study cost of the three products is analyzed for product marketing. Locally available ingredients help to prepare the low cost with high healthy and nutritious ready to supplementary food products that improve human health and nutritional status. The innovation of poushtic powder is the production of a low-cost supplemental product using locally accessible, nutritionally fortified ingredients, allowing those from poor socioeconomic groups to benefit. At the same time, villagers have the potential to turn it into a small-scale company and profit from it in the future.

Abstract Objective. This work sought to determine the effectiveness of an aerobic exercise program on the occupational stress of nurses.Methods. Prevention-type controlled clinical trial carried out with the participation of 60 nurses working in hospitals affiliated to Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Randomly, the nurses were assigned to the experimental group or to the control group. The intervention consisted in an aerobic exercise program lasting three months with three weekly sessions one hour each. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) questionnaire measured occupational stress with 35 questions, each with five Likert-type response options, which can have a maximum score of 175 points; higher scores meant lower levels of occupational stress. The HSE was evaluated during three moments: upon registering, after finishing the exercise program (week 8), and two months after terminating the intervention (week 16).Results. The level of occupational stress was the same in the experimental and control groups during registration (86.2 vs. 86.3). Upon finishing the aerobic exercise program (week 8), the experimental group showed a higher score than the control group (119.7 vs. 86.2, p<0.01), with this score diminishing after two months of having ended the intervention (91.4 vs. 85.8, p=0.061).Conclusion. The aerobic exercise program was associated to decreased work stress of nurses in the experimental group compared to the control group at eight weeks, but this difference did not persist when the experimental group did not continue with the program.Descriptors: control groups; physical exertion; occupational stress; nurses; female.How to cite this article: Zinat Mohebbi Z, Dehkordi SF, Sharif S, Banitalebi E. The Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Occupational Stress of Female Nurses: A Controlled Clinical Trial. Invest. Educ. Enferm. 2019; 37(2):e05.ReferencesRice PL. Stress and health. 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The need to sustain and/or create a collective identity is regularly seen as one of the cultural priorities of diasporic peoples and this, in turn, depends upon the existence of a uniquely diasporic form of communication and connection with the country of origin. Today, digital media technologies provide easy information recording and retrieval, and mobile IT networks allow global accessibility and participation in the redefinition of identities. Vis-à-vis our understanding of the proximity and connectivity associated with globalisation, the role of ICTs cannot be underestimated and is clearly more than a simple instrument for the expression of a pre-existing diasporic identity. Indeed, the concept of “e-diaspora” is gaining popularity. Consequently, research into the role of ICTs in the lives of diasporic peoples contributes to a definition of the concept of diaspora, understood here as the result of the dispersal of all members of a nation in several countries. In this context, I will demonstrate how members of the Bulgarian diaspora negotiate not only their identities but also their identifications through one of the most popular community websites, Facebook. My methodology consists of the active observation of Bulgarian users belonging to the diaspora, the participation in groups and forums on Facebook, and the analysis of discourses produced online. This research was conducted for the first time between 1 August 2008 and 31 May 2009 through the largest 20 (of 195) Bulgarian groups on the French version of Facebook and 40 (of over 500) on the English one. It is important to note that the public considered to be predominantly involved in Facebook is a young audience in the age group of 18-35 years. Therefore, this article is focused on two generations of Bulgarian immigrants: mostly recent young and second-generation migrants. The observed users are therefore members of the Bulgarian diaspora who have little or no experience of communism, who don’t feel the weight of the past, and who have grown up as free and often cosmopolitan citizens. Communist hegemony in Bulgaria began on 9 September 1944, when the army and the communist militiamen deposed the country’s government and handed power over to an anti-fascist coalition. During the following decades, Bulgaria became the perfect Soviet satellite and the imposed Stalinist model led to sharp curtailing of the economic and social contacts with the free world beyond the Iron Curtain. In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the end of the communist era and the political and economic structures that supported it. Identity, Internet, and Diaspora Through the work of Mead, Todorov, and boyd it is possible to conceptualise the subject in terms of both of internal and external social identity (Mead, Todorov, boyd). In this article, I will focus, in particular, on social and national identities as expressions of the process of sharing stories, experiences, and understanding between individuals. In this respect, the phenomenon of Facebook is especially well placed to mediate between identifications which, according to Freud, facilitate the plural subjectivities and the establishment of an emotional network of mutual bonds between the individual and the group (Freud). This research also draws on Goffman who, from a sociological point of view, demystifies the representation of the Self by developing a dramaturgical theory (Goffman), whereby identity is constructed through the "roles" that people play on the social scene. Social life is a vast stage where the actors are required to adhere to certain socially acceptable rituals and guidelines. It means that we can consider the presentation of Self, or Others, as a facade or a construction of socially accepted features. Among all the ICTs, the Internet is, by far, the medium most likely to facilitate free expression of identity through a multitude of possible actions and community interactions. Personal and national memories circulate in the transnational space of the Internet and are reshaped when framed from specific circumstances such as those raised by the migration process. In an age of globalisation marked by the proliferation of population movements, instant communication, and cultural exchanges across geographic boundaries, the phenomenon of the diaspora has caught the attention of a growing number of scholars. I shall be working with Robin Cohen’s definition of diaspora which highlights the following common features: (1) dispersal from an original homeland; (2) the expansion from a homeland in search of work; (3) a collective memory and myth about the homeland; (4) an idealisation of the supposed ancestral homeland; (5) a return movement; (6) a strong ethnic group consciousness sustained over a long time; (7) a troubled relationship with host societies; (8) a sense of solidarity with co-ethnic members in other countries; and (9) the possibility of a distinctive creative, enriching life in tolerant host countries (Cohen). Following on this earlier work on the ways in which diasporas give rise to new forms of subjectivity, the concept of “e-diaspora” is now rapidly gaining in popularity. The complex association between diasporic groups and ICTs has led to a concept of e-diasporas that actively utilise ICTs to achieve community-specific goals, and that have become critical for the formation and sustenance of an exilic community for migrant groups around the globe (Srinivasan and Pyati). Diaspora and the Digital Age Anderson points out two key features of the Internet: first, it is a heterogeneous electronic medium, with hardly perceptible contours, and is in a state of constant development; second, it is a repository of “imagined communities” without geographical or legal legitimacy, whose members will probably never meet (Anderson). Unlike “real” communities, where people have physical interactions, in the imagined communities, individuals do not have face-to-face communication and daily contact, but they nonetheless feel a strong emotional attachment to the nation. The Internet not only opens new opportunities to gain greater visibility and strengthen the sense of belonging to community, but it also contributes to the emergence of a transnational public sphere where the communities scattered in various locations freely exchange their views and ideas without fear of restrictions or censorship from traditional media (Appadurai, Bernal). As a result, the Web becomes a virtual diasporic space which opens up, to those who have left their country, a new means of confrontation and social participation. Within this new diasporic space, migrants are bound in their disparate geographical locations by a common vision or myth about the homeland (Karim). Thanks to the Internet, the computer has become a primary technological intermediary between virtual networks, bringing its members closer in a “global village” where everyone is immediately connected to others. Thus, today’s diasporas are not the diaspora of previous generations in that the migration is experienced and negotiated very differently: people in one country are now able to continue to participate actively in another country. In this context, the arrival of community sites has increased the capacity of users to create a network on the Internet, to rediscover lost links, and strengthen new ones. Unlike offline communities, which may weaken once their members have left the physical space, online communities that are no longer limited by the requirement of physical presence in the common space have the capacity to endure. Identity Strategies of New Generations of Bulgarian Migrants It is very difficult to quantify migration to or from Bulgaria. Existing data is not only partial and limited but, in some cases, give an inaccurate view of migration from Bulgaria (Soultanova). Informal data confirm that one million Bulgarians, around 15 per cent of Bulgaria’s entire population (7,620,238 inhabitants in 2007), are now scattered around the world (National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria). The Bulgarian migrant is caught in a system of redefinition of identity through the duration of his or her relocation. Emigrating from a country like Bulgaria implies a high number of contingencies. Bulgarians’ self-identification is relative to the inferiority complex of a poor country which has a great deal to do to catch up with its neighbours. Before the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union, the country was often associated with what have been called “Third World countries” and seen as a source of crime and social problems. Members of the Bulgarian diaspora faced daily prejudice due to the bad reputation of their country of origin, though the extent of the hostility depended upon the “host” nation (Marcheva). Geographically, Bulgaria is one of the most eastern countries in Europe, the last to enter the European Union, and its image abroad has not facilitated the integration of the Bulgarian diaspora. The differences between Bulgarian migrants and the “host society” perpetuate a sentiment of marginality that is now countered with an online appeal for national identity markers and shared experiences. Facebook: The Ultimate Social Network The Growing Popularity of Facebook With more than 500 million active members, Facebook is the most visited website in the world. In June 2007, Facebook experienced a record annual increase of 270 per cent of connections in one year (source: comScore World Metrix). More than 70 translations of the site are available to date, including the Bulgarian version. What makes it unique is that Facebook positively encourages identity games. Moreover, Facebook provides the symbolic building blocks with which to build a collective identity through shared forms of discourse and ways of thinking. People are desperate to make a good impression on the Internet: that is why they spend so much time managing their online identity. One of the most important aspects of Facebook is that it enables users to control and manage their image, leaving the choice of how their profile appears on the pages of others a matter of personal preference at any given time. Despite some limitations, we will see that Facebook offers the Bulgarian community abroad the possibility of an intense and ongoing interaction with fellow nationals, including the opportunity to assert and develop a complex new national/transnational identity. Facebook Experiences of the Bulgarian Diaspora Created in the United States in 2004 and extended to use in Europe two or three years later, Facebook was quickly adopted by members of the Bulgarian diaspora. Here, it is very important to note that, although the Internet per se has enabled Bulgarians across the globe to introduce Cyrillic script into the public arena, it is definitely Facebook that has made digital Cyrillic visible. Early in computer history, keyboards with the Cyrillic alphabet simply did not exist. Thus, Bulgarians were forced to translate their language into Latin script. Today, almost all members of the Bulgarian population who own a computer use a keyboard that combines the two alphabets, Latin and Cyrillic, and this allows alternation between the two. This is not the case for the majority of Bulgarians living abroad who are forced to use a keyboard specific to their country of residence. Thus, Bulgarians online have adopted a hybrid code to speak and communicate. Since foreign keyboards are not equipped with the same consonants and vowels that exist in the Bulgarian language, they use the Latin letters that best suit the Bulgarian phonetic. Several possible interpretations of these “encoded” texts exist which become another way for the Bulgarian migrants to distinguish and assert themselves. One of these encoded scripts is supplemented by figures. For example, the number “6” written in Bulgarian “шест” is applied to represent the Bulgarian letter “ш.” Bulgarian immigrants therefore employ very specific codes of communication that enhance the feeling of belonging to a community that shares the same language, which is often incomprehensible to others. As the ultimate social networking website, Facebook brings together Bulgarians from all over the world and offers them a space to preserve online memorials and digital archives. As a result, the Bulgarian diaspora privileges this website in order to manage the strong links between its members. Indeed, within months of coming into online existence, Facebook established itself as a powerful social phenomenon for the Bulgarian diaspora and, very soon, a virtual map of the Bulgarian diaspora was formed. It should be noted, however, that this mapping was focused on the new generation of Bulgarian migrants more familiar with the Internet and most likely to travel. By identifying the presence of online groups by country or city, I was able to locate the most active Bulgarian communities: “Bulgarians in UK” (524 members), “Bulgarians in Chicago” (436 members), “Bulgarians studying in the UK” (346 members), “Bulgarians in America” (333 members), “Bulgarians in the USA” (314 members), “Bulgarians in Montreal” (249 members), “Bulgarians in Munich” (241 members), and so on. These figures are based on the “Groups” Application of Facebook as updated in February 2010. Through those groups, a symbolic diasporic geography is imagined and communicated: the digital “border crossing,” as well as the real one, becomes a major identity resource. Thus, Bulgarian users of Facebook are connecting from the four corners of the globe in order to rebuild family links and to participate virtually in the marriages, births, and lives of their families. It sometimes seems that the whole country has an appointment on Facebook, and that all the photos and stories of Bulgarians are more or less accessible to the community in general. Among its virtual initiatives, Facebook has made available to its users an effective mobilising tool, the Causes, which is used as a virtual noticeboard for activities and ideas circulating in “real life.” The members of the Bulgarian diaspora choose to adhere to different “causes” that may be local, national, or global, and that are complementary to the civic and socially responsible side of the identity they have chosen to construct online. Acting as a virtual realm in which distinct and overlapping trajectories coexist, Facebook thus enables users to articulate different stories and meanings and to foster a democratic imaginary about both the past and the future. Facebook encourages diasporas to produce new initiatives to revive or create collective memories and common values. Through photos and videos, scenes of everyday life are celebrated and manipulated as tools to reconstruct, reconcile, and display a part of the history and the identity of the migrant. By combating the feelings of disorientation, the consciousness of sharing the same national background and culture facilitates dialogue and neutralises the anxiety and loneliness of Bulgarian migrants. When cultural differences become more acute, the sense of isolation increases and this encourages migrants to look for company and solidarity online. As the number of immigrants connected and visible on Facebook gets larger, so the use of the Internet heightens their sense of a substantial collective identity. This is especially important for migrants during the early years of relocation when their sense of identity is most fragile. It can therefore be argued that, through the Internet, some Bulgarian migrants are replacing alienating face-to-face contact with virtual friends and enjoying the feeling of reassurance and belonging to a transnational community of compatriots. In this sense, Facebook is a propitious ground for the establishment of the three identity strategies defined by Herzfeld: cultural intimacy (or self-stereotypes); structural nostalgia (the evocation of a time when everything was going better); and the social poetic (the strategies aiming to retrieve a particular advantage and turn it into a permanent condition). In this way, the willingness to remain continuously in virtual contact with other Bulgarians often reveals a desire to return to the place of birth. Nostalgia and outsourcing of such sentiments help migrants to cope with feelings of frustration and disappointment. I observed that it is just after their return from summer holidays spent in Bulgaria that members of the Bulgarian diaspora are most active on the Bulgarian forums and pages on Facebook. The “return tourism” (Fourcade) during the summer or for the winter holidays seems to be a central theme in the forums on Facebook and an important source of emotional refuelling. Tensions between identities can also lead to creative formulations through Facebook’s pages. Thus, the group “You know you’re a Bulgarian when...”, which enjoys very active participation from the Bulgarian diaspora, is a space where everyone is invited to share, through a single sentence, some fact of everyday life with which all Bulgarians can identify. With humour and self-irony, this Facebook page demonstrates what is distinctive about being Bulgarian but also highlights frustration with certain prejudices and stereotypes. Frequently these profiles are characterised by seemingly “glocal” features. The same Bulgarian user could define himself as a Parisian, adhering to the group “You know you’re from Paris when...”, but also a native of a Bulgarian town (“You know you’re from Varna when...”). At the same time, he is an architect (“All architects on Facebook”), supporting the candidacy of Barack Obama, a fan of Japanese manga (“maNga”), of a French actor, an American cinema director, or Indian food. He joins a cause to save a wild beach on the Black Sea coast (“We love camping: Gradina Smokinia and Arapia”) and protests virtually against the slaughter of dolphins in the Faroe Islands (“World shame”). One month, the individual could identify as Bulgarian, but next month he might choose to locate himself in the country in which he is now resident. Thus, Facebook creates a virtual territory without borders for the cosmopolitan subject (Negroponte) and this confirms the premise that the Internet does not lead to the convergence of cultures, but rather confirms the opportunities for diversification and pluralism through multiple social and national affiliations. Facebook must therefore be seen as an advantageous space for the representation and interpretation of identity and for performance and digital existence. Bulgarian migrants bring together elements of their offline lives in order to construct, online, entirely new composite identities. The Bulgarians we have studied as part of this research almost never use pseudonyms and do not seem to feel the need to hide their material identities. This suggests that they are mature people who value their status as migrants of Bulgarian origin and who feel confident in presenting their natal identities rather than hiding behind a false name. Starting from this material social/national identity, which is revealed through the display of surname with a Slavic consonance, members of the Bulgarian diaspora choose to manage their complex virtual identities online. Conclusion Far from their homeland, beset with feelings of insecurity and alienation as well as daily experiences of social and cultural exclusion (much of it stemming from an ongoing prejudice towards citizens from ex-communist countries), it is no wonder that migrants from Bulgaria find relief in meeting up with compatriots in front of their screens. Although some migrants assume their Bulgarian identity as a mixture of different cultures and are trying to rethink and continuously negotiate their cultural practices (often through the display of contradictory feelings and identifications), others identify with an imagined community and enjoy drawing boundaries between what is “Bulgarian” and what is not. The indispensable daily visit to Facebook is clearly a means of forging an ongoing sense of belonging to the Bulgarian community scattered across the globe. Facebook makes possible the double presence of Bulgarian immigrants both here and there and facilitates the ongoing processes of identity construction that depend, more and more, upon new media. In this respect, the role that Facebook plays in the life of the Bulgarian diaspora may be seen as a facet of an increasingly dynamic transnational world in which interactive media may be seen to contribute creatively to the formation of collective identities and the deformation of monolithic cultures. References Anderson, Benedict. L’Imaginaire National: Réflexions sur l’Origine et l’Essor du Nationalisme. Paris: La Découverte, 1983. Appadurai, Ajun. Après le Colonialisme: Les Conséquences Culturelles de la Globalisation. Paris: Payot, 2001. Bernal, Victoria. “Diaspora, Cyberspace and Political Imagination: The Eritrean Diaspora Online.” Global Network 6 (2006): 161-79. boyd, danah. “Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?” Knowledge Tree (May 2007). Cohen, Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. London: University College London Press. 1997. Goffman, Erving. La Présentation de Soi. Paris: Editions de Minuit, Collection Le Sens Commun, 1973. Fourcade, Marie-Blanche. “De l’Arménie au Québec: Itinéraires de Souvenirs Touristiques.” Ethnologies 27.1 (2005): 245-76. Freud, Sigmund. “Psychologie des Foules et Analyses du Moi.” Essais de Psychanalyse. Paris: Petite Bibliothèque Payot, 2001 (1921). Herzfeld, Michael. Intimité Culturelle. Presse de l’Université de Laval, 2008. Karim, Karim-Haiderali. The Media of Diaspora. Oxford: Routledge, 2003. Marcheva, Marta. “Bulgarian Diaspora and the Media Treatment of Bulgaria in the French, Italian and North American Press (1992–2007).” Unpublished PhD dissertation. Paris: University Panthéon – Assas Paris 2, 2010. Mead, George Herbert. L’Esprit, le Soi et la Société. Paris: PUF, 2006. Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. Vintage, 2005. Soultanova, Ralitza. “Les Migrations Multiples de la Population Bulgare.” Actes du Dolloque «La France et les Migrants des Balkans: Un État des Lieux.” Paris: Courrier des Balkans, 2005. Srinivasan, Ramesh, and Ajit Pyati. “Diasporic Information Environments: Reframing Immigrant-Focused Information Research.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58.12 (2007): 1734-44. Todorov, Tzvetan. Nous et les Autres: La Réflexion Française sur la Diversité Humaine. Paris: Seuil, 1989.

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). They are sociocultural phenomena that emerge through interactions and negotiations among multiple actors and institutions to envision and enact a Chinese imagination of “journeying abroad” from and to the country.ReferencesBakhtin, M.M. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1982.Bohlman, Philip V. “World Music at the ‘End of History’.” Ethnomusicology 46 (2002): 1–32.Davis, Sara L.M. Song and Silence: Ethnic Revival on China’s Southwest Borders. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.Duan, Wenjie. “The History of Conservation of Mogao Grottoes.” International Symposium on the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property: The Conservation of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and the Related Studies. Eds. Kuchitsu and Nobuaki. Tokyo: Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, 1997. 1–8.Faxian. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. Translated by James Legge. New York: Dover Publications, 1991.Herzfeld, Michael. 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