Thesis (M.A.)--California State University, Long Beach, 2007. / Adviser: Linda N. Maram. Includes bibliographical references.

Cette thèse, qui s'appuie sur ma pratique artistique personnelle, analyse l'identité, l'origine, la valeur et la place de la main dans l'art en sillonnant l'ancienne Route de la soie. J'étudie mon parcours de création artistique, ma culture, mes identités multiples et mes influences au regard de l'héritage légué par La Roule de la soie et la route de La création. La traversée de la Route de la soie s'articule autour de quatre thèmes: la rencontre, le contact, le croisement et la frontière. Les recherches m'ont mené sur un voyage messianique dans le but de répondre aux questions qui me hantaient: l'influence étendue de la Route de la soie sur la création artistique est-elle source de créativité? Comment peut-elle se révéler dans les œuvres d'artistes contemporains? La route de ma création artistique se croise-t-elle avec la Route de la soie? Pour répondre à ces questions, j'ai présenté ma main comme une figure qui me lie à mes origines invisibles. Dans le premier chapitre, j'explore la notion d’identité à travers les portraits de la main, puis j'étudie la notion de frontière visible et invisible. Dans le troisième chapitre, j'analyse le toucher, le goûter et le croisement avec la Route de la soie. Enfin, j'examine le contexte des paysages intérieurs et je tente de mettre en lumière l'héritage caché ainsi que les secrets de l'art local imprégné par la culture de notre région et ce à travers les croisements et les métissages culturels. / Relying on my personal artistic practice, this thesis analyzes the identity, origin, the value and the place of the "band" in the art in weaving through the old Silk Road. The analysis of my artistic creation, my culture, my multiple identities and my influences in the light of the legacy of the Silk Road and the road of the creation. The crossing of the Silk Road is structured around four themes : the meeting, contact. The crossing and the border. The research led me on a messianic trip, in the aim of finding answers to the questions that concern me : how the Silk Road influences artistic creation, is it a source of creativity? How can it be in the works of contemporary artists? How it emerges on my artistic creation? To answer these questions, I presented my band as a figure, which binds me to my multiple origins. In the first chapter I will analyze the concept of identity through the portraits of the band, then I will look into the notion of border visible and invisible. In the third chapter, I will analyze the touch, the taste and the crossing with the Silk Road. Finally, I will examine the context of interior landscapes and I will try to demonstrate the hidden legacy as well as the secrets of the local art impregnated in the culture of our region through crosses and cultural mixes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 556-597).

China’s influence is increasing steadily in all corners of the world. One of China’s foreign policy goals is to become a technological superpower by 2025. An important part of that goal is the Digital Silk Road (DSR), a sub-project to China’s massive infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative. The DSR is on one hand contributing to positive technological developments, especially in developing countries. But on the other hand, it has gotten substantial criticism for being a front for spreading China’s digital authoritarian model and for giving authoritarian regimes the tools to effectively repress citizens and violate human rights. The aim of this study is twofold. The first aim is to examine and map out how China might be promoting autocracy through the DSR, this will contribute to a deeper empirical understanding. The second aim is to give a theoretical contribution by categorizing autocracy promotion and testing the value of active and passive autocracy promotion in relation to China and the DSR. To conduct the analysis, I will draw on literature about autocracy promotion and digital authoritarianism. The existing literature is divided on whether or not China is promoting autocracy, and I will thus be arguing that technological advances, and the DSR, makes it problematic to claim that China is not engaged in autocracy promotion. Therefore, I seek to contribute to the existing literature. The results show that China is in fact involved in autocracy promotion through the different DSR projects. It also shows that China’s support, in some cases, have been crucial in providing authoritarian regimes with repressive technologies. The results also indicate that promoting autocracy might not be an outspoken goal or strategy from China, but rather an unintended consequence when trying to reach domestic political and economic goals.

The series Leipzig Kucha Studies, in which seventeen volumes are planned, aims at publishing the results of the long-term research project (2016–2030) “Buddhist Murals of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road”. The project, conducted under the auspices of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig, focuses on an impressive corpus of wall paintings datable to approximately the fifth to tenth centuries CE and located in the Buddhist cave complexes of the ancient kingdom of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road. These narrative and devotional paintings form one of the most important sources for our understanding of the religious and intellectual history of Buddhism in Central Asia during the first millennium. The project is devoted to recording and annotating all surviving paintings of the region, including the fragments that were removed from their original sites as well as destroyed murals from which only drawings and historical photographs remain. The project also provides a platform for research on the history of Buddhism in the Kucha region and on the spread of Buddhism from South to East Asia.

No description available.

No description available.

La lutte est une mise en jeu de la force entre deux antagonistes qui tentent de se maîtriser dans un corps-à corps. Cette activité physique au principe simple est présente dans une majorité de cultures sous des formes élaborées. Elle constitue un motif imaginaire, représentant les oppositions fondamentales des mythes ou est organisée sous forme rituelle, pour que son résultat augure de la prospérité collective. Les « styles » de lutte, formes durables et localisées, correspondent à définition de la force dans les cultures et les civilisations, prenant en compte un idéal imaginaire et une construction fine desavoirs pratiques dans un système règlementaire cohérent et stimulant.En complément d’une présence universelle et de pratiques locales et originales, il est possible de rapprocher certains styles disposant de caractéristiques similaires, ce qui montre une diffusion de la lutte sur la longue durée. Les formes élaborées ont une distribution géographique régulière, correspondant aux routes de circulation de culture. Sur les routes de la soie, les styles se sont diffusés tout en se distinguant progressivement. Le long de la « Route celtique », ils ont connu une histoire complexe d’identification et de réunion, influençant même la synthèse de styles internationaux.La lutte, sur la base d’une formule d’opposition simple et modifiable, a été finement élaborée, développée en desstructures sociales plus complexes, et véhiculée le long des routes de culture. Ce cheminement sur la longue durée illustre la constitution du sport comme objet de culture, et montre comment l’ancrage du jeu et sa diffusion contribuent à créer et à enrichir la construction du sport / Wrestling is a play of strength between two antagonists who aim to master each other in a hand-to-hand opposition. The principle of this activity is fairly simple and well known in a majority of cultures and civilizations. It can be found in different elaborated forms. Wrestling symbolizes an imaginary representation of the fundamental opposition in mythology or acts as a ritual challenge in which the outcome foreshadows the collective wealth. Each wrestling style corresponds to one culture’s definition of the Strength concept, which takes into account an ideal imaginary, and a subtle construction of practical knowledge in a consistent and stimulating rules system.In addition to a universal presence and local original practices, we can easily notice similarities between styles and a wide set of common characteristics. It illustrates and implies a long-term diffusion. Elaborated forms have a steady geographical distribution, which corresponds to the roads of cultural circulation. Along the Silk Road styles spread out while they gradually evolved and grew apart. On the “Celtic Road” they experienced a complex History of identification and meeting that influenced the synthesis of international styles.Wrestling is an elementary and flexible system that has been deeply developed in more complex forms and spread out along the culture roads. This long-term progression illustrates the cultural character of sport and shows how its rooting and diffusion contribute into enriching the sport construction

This dissertation strives to analyze the role of the cultural route as an approach and evaluates its validity to foster regional cultural sustainability. The author has investigated the relationship between cultural route, cultural sustainability, and regional development through studying Swedish explorer Sven Hedin’s expedition heritage along the Silk Road. A qualitative approach was taken to study how practitioners in particular tourism subdivisions attempt to implanting Sven Hedin’s legacy into different practices in Northwest China. With the help of the Actor-Network Theory as a material-semiotic method, a significant finding is that evolutionary networks centered on Sven Hedin, as an internal drive to promote the development of cultural routes, are taking shape. Cultural route as an approach to foster regional development cannot be achieved independently by individuals and SMEs; an institutional dimension needs to be considered for integrated management. This approach offers a new participation model in regional construction to their recipients and provides a sustainable strength for inhabitants to understand their cultural identity and embrace their future.

Under början av 2010-talet populariserades en ny form av elektroniskt betalningsmedel, så kallade kryptovalutor. Dessa tillkom under slutet av 2000-talet, till stor del på grund av stora finanskrisen 2007, och fungerar som ett fristående valuta- och betalningssystem. Den första och mest välkända av dessa idag är bitcoin. Bitcoin, som många andra kryptovalutor men ingen i samma grad, genomgick en chockprishöjning under mitten 2010-talet ända fram tills 2018. Priset hade under denna tid rört sig från under $10 USD till över $20000 USD per bitcoin. En sådan ofantlig ökning av pris har skapat ett stort intresse hos många, från hobbyinvesterare till finanssektorns huvudanalytiker. En annan viktig händelse i bitcoins historia är åtalet mot Ross Ulbricht, som skapade en illegal digital handelsplats vid namn Silk Road som accepterade bitcoin. Då det fortfarande är ett nytt område har forskning kring fenomenet inte lämnat krubban än. Dock görs det uppenbart genom en snabb överblick att denna forskning främst ligger inom den ekonomiska sfären. Endast ett fåtal vetenskapliga artiklar som nämner den sociala kopplingen till bitcoin kan återfinnas, särskilt få med en kvalitativ forskningsansats. Det har därför gjort oss intresserade att göra ett tillägg till detta mer eller mindre outforskade fenomen. För att åstadkomma detta har vi valt att fokusera oss på en jämförelse av nyhetsartiklar skrivna från perspektivet av bitcoinvärlden med några av de största internationella mediepublikationer som har skrivit om bitcoin. Norman Faircloughs kritiska diskursanalys ligger till grund för teorin och metoden bakom denna analys. Det är genom hans forskningsansats som en textanalys av fenomenet möjliggörs. Detta ledde till att vi kunde urskilja ett antal olika diskurser från texterna, antagonistiska förhållanden mellan de och dess textuella konstruktion. Utifrån detta har vi härlett till vad vi tolkar vara en möjlig framkomst till sättet nyhetssidorna skriver om bitcoin.