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The historical role of the prominent Chinese writer, social activist and thinker Lu Xun (1881-1936), is difficult to overestimate. His works influenced social change within China and became recognized internationally. For these and other reasons, he was of particular interest in the Soviet Union. Since 1932, his works have been published in numerous editions in Russian and have received a great deal of scholarly attention in the Soviet Union. Such unprecedented attention was initially based on the idea that he held similar revolutionary sentiments to those prevailing in the Soviet Union. Later, from the second half of the 1960s to the early 1970s, the ideological disagreements between the Soviet Union and China influenced the direction of Lu Xun studies in the Soviet Union. Soviet leader Khrushchev called for peaceful coexistence with the capitalist West, while Mao Zedong stressed the universal character of the proletarian revolution. Lu Xun was highly respected in both the USSR and China, and thus became an influential tool in this polemic. But, for Soviet scholars, this renewed focus on Lu Xun offered an opportunity to provide a new perspective on the writer's works. This paper analyzes how the Sino-Soviet split influenced Russian academics' positions on Lu Xun. The focus is on the three main points of contention in the ideological disagreements between the PRC and the USSR. First, Soviet critics focused on the psychological aspects and individualism in the Lu Xun's works. Second, a special focus on humanistic elements in the writer's ideas can be seen as a result of the Soviet disagreement with the Cultural Revolution's period. Third, by pointing to the internationalist aspects of Lu Xun's writings, Soviet scholars attempted to expose the Sinocentric political attitudes of the ruling circles in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses how China, Japan and Korea are perceived by the American fashion magazine, Vogue USA, to explore the relationship between country image and the fashion business. We analysed the quantity and contents of 164 articles published about these countries between July 1997 and June 2008. Seventy-eight articles discussed China, 54 were about Japan and 32 discussed Korea. We identified the salient aspects of country image for each and compared the similarities and differences. We identified two significant themes in texts and visual data on China: its fast-growing fashion industry and both its modern and traditional clothing item, the cheongsam. Significant topics on Japan included Japanese fashion designers, the unique street fashions and pop culture of Japanese youth, and the traditional aesthetics of the geisha. Vogue USA showed the least interest in Korea; no prominent image of Korean fashion emerged in the publication. Implications for further research are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The sources of high quality volcanic glass (obsidian) for archaeological complexes in the Amur River basin of the Russian Far East have been established, based on geochemical analyses by neutron activation and X-ray fluorescence of both ‘geological’ (primary sources) and ‘archaeological’ (artifacts from the Neolithic and Early Iron Age cultural complexes) specimens. A major obsidian source identified as the Obluchie Plateau, located in the middle course of the Amur River, was found to be responsible for supplying the entire middle and lower parts of the Amur River basin during prehistory. The source has been carefully studied and sampled for the first time. Minor use of three other sources was established for the lower part of the Amur River basin. Obsidian from the Basaltic Plateau source, located in the neighboring Primorye (Maritime) Province, was found at two sites of the Initial Neolithic (dated to ca. 11,000–12,500 BP). At two other sites from the same time period, obsidian from a still unknown source called “Samarga” was established. At the Suchu Island site of the Early Neolithic (dated to ca. 7200–8600 BP), obsidian from the ‘remote’ source of Shirataki (Shirataki-A sub-source) on Hokkaido Island (Japan) was identified. The range of obsidian transport in the Amur River basin was from 50 to 750 km within the basin, and from 550 to 850 km in relation to the ‘remote’ sources at the Basaltic Plateau and Shirataki-A located outside the Amur River valley. The long-distance transport/exchange of obsidian in the Amur River basin in prehistory has now been securely established. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]