This paper illustrates how Taiwan has tried to mobilize its prehistory Austronesian linguistic heritage and indigenous cultural memories to reposition itself in the Asia-Pacific…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper illustrates how Taiwan has tried to mobilize its prehistory Austronesian linguistic heritage and indigenous cultural memories to reposition itself in the Asia-Pacific. It examines how the attempt has gradually evolved into cross-border exchange and partnership based on the interconnectivity across the Pacific on different levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on policy review of the Taiwan government's growing focus on indigenous culture in strategizing diplomacy and cultural policy from 2000 through 2021 and the researcher's participant observation in expert cultural heritage meetings (2018–2021). It is also complemented by semi-structured interviews with both selected state actors and civil actors.
Findings
The past connection among indigenous communities in Taiwan and the Austronesian peoples contributes to building up new cultural circuits across-borders based upon shared indigenous heritage and demonstrates the extraterritorial role of heritage, which can be the potential base for developing diplomacy.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited in not directly engaging with actors in the Pacific given limited time, budget and mobility under the coronavirus disease (COVID) pandemic. The author would like to follow on that in her future research.
Originality/value
The paper sheds light on the uneasy relationship between indigenous heritage making and nation building and its cultural implications. This study demonstrates that the state framework of heritage is not necessarily appropriate to deal with these complicated historical matters, especially when the notion of heritage per se is not decolonised in a settler state.
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Despite being the intellectual foundation on which the notion of heritage is built and a critical element in all programmes aimed at heritage protection, interpretation as a…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite being the intellectual foundation on which the notion of heritage is built and a critical element in all programmes aimed at heritage protection, interpretation as a concept and practice is not well understood or used.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the reasons for and consequences of heritage interpretation as a concept and practice not being well understood using case studies within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) heritage arena in East Asia.
Findings
The paper shows how heritage interpretation impacts both positively and negatively on nation-building within states and the shaping of international relations between states. It identifies heritage interpretation approaches that might help to achieve reconciliation between peoples recently engaged in international conflicts. These concerns are not confined to East Asia but apply across the world.
Originality/value
The discussion draws together the three principal forms of heritage in UNESCO's global project: heritage places, protected under the World Heritage Convention; living or embodied heritage, safeguarded under the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention and documentary heritage preserved under the Memory of the World Program. Suggestions are made as to how the organizations and agencies charged with heritage protection should and could modify their interpretation policies and procedures to help remediate existing negative impacts and avoid creating new tensions in future.
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The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of indigenous heritage rights in Taiwan. It examines how this pursuit is intertwined with the global indigenous movement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of indigenous heritage rights in Taiwan. It examines how this pursuit is intertwined with the global indigenous movement, national political interests and rising local cultural awareness.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper focuses on the rise of indigenous rights in Taiwan by looking at political shifts, indigenous museums and changing frameworks through which heritage is understood. The paper uses two case studies: one is the implementation of a heritage protection law in Taiwan; the other is the launch of indigenous museums.
Findings
In Taiwan, heritage is often associated with political ideology, power relations and resource distribution. The development of heritage discourse is inseparable from the international heritage trend as well as the local political situation.
Originality/value
The pursuit of indigenous heritage rights in Taiwan is supported on the one hand by the government so as to define a distinctive Taiwanese culture and on the other to meet the demands of Taiwan’s indigenous movement. Two case studies are provided to examine the pros and cons of current indigenous heritage projects in Taiwan.
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Lala Hajibayova and Wayne Buente
The purpose of this paper is to explore the representation of Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) Hula Dance in traditional systems of representation and organization.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the representation of Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiian) Hula Dance in traditional systems of representation and organization.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study analyzes the controlled and natural language vocabularies employed for the representation and organization of Hawaiian culture, in particular Hawaiian hula. The most widely accepted and used systems were examined: classification systems (Library of Congress Classification and Dewey Decimal Classification), subject heading systems (Library of Congress Subject Headings and authority files (Library of Congress and OCLC Authority Files), and citation indexing systems (Web of Science Social Sciences and Art and Humanities databases).
Findings
Analysis of various tools of representation and organization revealed biases and diasporization in depictions of Hawaiian culture. The study emphasizes the need to acknowledge the aesthetic perspective of indigenous people in their organization and presentation of their own cultural knowledge and advocates a decolonizing methodology to promote alternative information structures in indigenous communities.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the relatively limited scholarship on representation and organization for indigenous knowledge organization systems, in particular Hawaiian culture. Research suggests that access to Native Hawaiian cultural heritage will raise awareness among information professionals in Hawai’i to the beauty of Native Hawaiian epistemology.
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Nicholas J. Goetzfridt and Mark C. Goniwiecha
Micronesia, a term that means “small islands,” refers to a region of Western Pacific islands scattered across an area of the Pacific Ocean larger than the continental United…
Abstract
Micronesia, a term that means “small islands,” refers to a region of Western Pacific islands scattered across an area of the Pacific Ocean larger than the continental United States (see figure 1). This vast area, located in the tropics almost entirely north of the Equator, covers more than 4,500,000 square miles of ocean and includes more than 2,100 palm tree‐studded islands, islets, and coral atolls. Yet its total land area is fewer than 1,200 square miles—only slightly larger than Rhode Island (see figure 2). Only about 125 of the islands are inhabited on a permanent basis, by some 350,000 people.
Shu Fan, Shengyi Yao and Dan Wu
Culture is considered a critical aspect of social media usage. The purpose of this paper is to explore how cultures and languages influence multilingual users' cross-cultural…
Abstract
Purpose
Culture is considered a critical aspect of social media usage. The purpose of this paper is to explore how cultures and languages influence multilingual users' cross-cultural information sharing patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a crowdsourcing survey with Amazon Mechanical Turk to collect qualitative and quantitative data from 355 multilingual users who utilize two or more languages daily. A mixed-method approach combined statistical, and cluster analysis with thematic analysis was employed to analyze information sharing patterns among multilingual users in the Chinese cultural context.
Findings
It was found that most multilingual users surveyed preferred to share in their first and second language mainly because that is what others around them speak or use. Multilingual users have more diverse sharing characteristics and are more actively engaged in social media. The results also provide insights into what incentives make multilingual users engage in social media to share information related to Chinese culture with the MOA model. Finally, the ten motivation factors include learning, entertainment, empathy, personal gain, social engagement, altruism, self-expression, information, trust and sharing culture. One opportunity factor is identified, which is convenience. Three ability factors are recognized consist of self-efficacy, habit and personality.
Originality/value
The findings are conducive to promoting the active participation of multilingual users in online communities, increasing global resource sharing and information flow and promoting the consumption of digital cultural content.
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The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to an indigenous community that lives in the periphery of Taiwan. The Tao were confronted with modernization beginning with the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to an indigenous community that lives in the periphery of Taiwan. The Tao were confronted with modernization beginning with the Japanese colonial time and later through missionary work and Sinicization. These exogenous factors had a major influence on the Tao's traditional lifestyle and cultural habits. After democratization and due to the Tao's empowerment and efforts of multicultural education as well as interactive learning applications, a revitalization of traditional knowledge, and cultural customs became visible.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is inspired by social scientific methods that are common in anthropological research. The data collection are based on ethnographic field work that provides a unique and authentic picture of the subject. Besides participating and systematic and informal observation, qualitative forms of interviews were applied.
Findings
The paper highlights the influences and dynamics of exogenous and endogenous factors on the traditional lifestyle of an indigenous community in the western Pacific. Due to global influences of modernity, the Tao's spiritual belief lost its importance and the traditional structures of the people began to change. However, the Tao were not only passive toward the transformation to a modern society, but they also contributed to the cultural revitalization on their own in terms of education and teaching management.
Originality/value
The paper provides valuable insights into an indigenous community in Taiwan and their way of dealing with modernity. After periods of structural discrimination, the people contributed to their own well-being and cultural revitalization with multicultural learning. In recent times, networks with other communities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region were established to foster the empowerment of traditional ecological knowledge and to develop new adequate teaching technologies.
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Landscapes bear potential as heritage resources, unifying natural and cultural history that can be experienced today in special preserved areas. The paper aims to discuss these…
Abstract
Purpose
Landscapes bear potential as heritage resources, unifying natural and cultural history that can be experienced today in special preserved areas. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Geoarchaeological investigation 2006-2011 explored this potential at the Ritidian Unit of Guam National Wildlife Refuge.
Findings
As experienced today, the Ritidian landscape heritage embodies the complex outcomes of a 3,500-year record of ecology and evolution.
Research limitations/implications
A long-term perspective of unified natural-cultural history will increase scientific accuracy and enhance visitor experience of landscapes of heritage resources.
Practical implications
Sustainable development of landscape heritage can occur most successfully in cases of thorough research in areas of protected and managed ecosystems with reasonable public access.
Originality/value
The detailed results in this case may serve as a model example for other studies and programmes developing landscapes as heritage resources.
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Western management philosophy and thought have been around for millennia; however, the supremacy of its concepts and writings has become a subject of criticisms in Africa. There…
Abstract
Western management philosophy and thought have been around for millennia; however, the supremacy of its concepts and writings has become a subject of criticisms in Africa. There is a huge gap in African management education which calls for redesigning of management curriculum to affirm African social orientation and self-determination that will enable new forms of learning and knowledge required to tackle complex global challenges. The objective of this chapter is to review Western management thought and practice vis-à-vis the existing management philosophy in Africa prior to her colonisation and advocate the need to redesign management curricula. To accomplish the aforementioned objective, this chapter took a historical, reflective and systematic approach of literature review to advance renewal of management curricula in Africa. The analysis began with a review of pre-colonial management philosophy and thought in Africa, followed by a discussion of how colonialism obstructed and promoted the universality of management. This was followed by a review of African traditional society and indigenous management philosophies. The chapter discussed topics that should feature in an African-oriented management curriculum and highlighted fundamental constructs that can be fused into management curriculum of business schools/teaching in Africa. The chapter also made a case for a flexible management curriculum structure that is broader than the conventional transmission-of-knowledge building which views students as passive learners’ by adopting suitable pedagogical tools that will be relevant for knowledge transmission and assessment and also enhance learning and management practices that is culturally fit and relevant to global practice.