This paper provides a policy-oriented overview of the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in China, examining it as a living carrier of national identity. While ICH is deeply rooted in China’s 5000-year civilization—encompassing everything from Kunqu Opera to traditional tea-making—it currently faces significant dilemmas, including inheritance breakage, shrinking cultural spaces, and the tension between preservation and economic development. Drawing on a narrative review of Chines...

Culture  History 

In the late Qing Dynasty, the 36 Weirs of Baishaxi Stream in Jinhua fell into frequent disputes. A particularly intense struggle for the water rights (legal or customary entitlements that determine how individuals or groups can access, use, and control water resources) of the Shanhe Weirs erupted between the Yin and Yu lineages downstream, turning local documents such as county gazetteers (xianzhi) and temple gazetteers (miaozhi) into a battlefield for power. The Yu lineage, whose water rights h...

History 

This study examines the historical and cultural significance of mushrooms within the ethnomedicinal practices of the Baganda of central Uganda, situating these practices within broader frameworks of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), heritage studies, and the history of medicine in Africa. While mushrooms have long been valued in Buganda as sources of food, medicine, and spiritual meaning, their ethnomedicinal applications and historical evolution remain under-documented in formal scholarship. ...

History 

Hsi-sheng Chi’s 1976 English monograph *Warlord Politics in China, 1916-1928* was the first to systematically construct an analytical paradigm of “relation-culture” in the study of Beiyang warlord politics. This research broke away from the traditional class-based historical view and regarded the warlord group as a dynamically operating power balance system. Its core innovations lie in: 1) employing political science and sociological theories to deconstruct warlord factions, proposing three sust...

History 

The article is a description of theories of origin, migration and development of the Luo people’s governing system of kingdoms and chiefdoms in South Sudan and Eastern Africa. The narrative aims to highlight the traditional beliefs of the historical background which will be led by three questions: who are the Luo people, and where did they use to live? What caused their separation and migrations and where have they ended up today? What kind of governing system controls their affairs today? The a...

Culture  History  Anthropology 

Religion has been one of the platforms where either believing in the existence of the evil spirit, bad spirit that causes harm or trouble to general people, or purification, protection from such a spirit has been manifested for ages. Among the different religions of the world, Christianity, in its Holy Bible, also contains numerous references to the practices of Witchcraft, Sorcery, the occult, or Black Magic, where people attempt to gain knowledge of such practices to collect money and become w...

Culture  History  Politics 

The Renaissance was a pivotal period in Western history, marked by the mutual influence and co-evolution of technological innovation and artistic production. This article employs a historical analysis, drawing on key case studies such as printing, perspective, improvements in painting materials, and the workshop model. The findings demonstrate that technological innovation empowered artistic creation; at the same time, artistic pursuits of expressive forms and market demand drove technological i...

History 

Kansas City initially accumulated strength through trade, relying on its superior port conditions. After the first railway was built into the city, it entered a period of rapid urbanization, with a large number of people flocking to Kansas City in search of development opportunities. To meet housing needs, the government expanded the city scale multiple times. Population mobility and technological progress gave rise to frequent trading activities, which in turn drove economic prosperity and prom...

History 

The twenty-first century has been a time of revival and disruption for decolonization movements. Movements such as #Rhodes Must Fall have ignited calls for the decolonization of higher education institutions and challenged the colonial legacy of academia, including the curriculum. As elsewhere in the world, higher education in South Africa is under pressure to reinvent and transform itself. Curriculum decolonization is one of the central issues in the reform of higher education in South Africa, ...

History  Politics  Curriculum Development  Educational Reform  Higher Education 

This study investigates Household Register Fraud in Imperial Examinations (HRFIE) and its institutional mechanisms within the Qing examination system, building upon Liu Xiwei’s foundational research. The analysis reveals how the Quota-Allocation-by-Region system and Native-Place Testing Principle, while designed to balance educational opportunities and maintain stability, paradoxically stimulated HRFIE through regional quota disparities, population mobility, and stringent registration constraint...

History