Language,gender, and Chinese culture

Conclusion The analysis of Chinese characters, idioms, and semantic placements provides the context for understanding the historical construction of gender roles, images, and ideas that inform the oppression of women in Chinese society. We have seen that language was crucial in the creation and perpetuation of the Chinese patriarchal system. The physical structure of the Chinese language testified to the continuing inequalities of gender within Chinese society, the roots of which revert to antiquity. The Chinese writing system that is by and for men serves to maintain patterns of behavior that reflect as well as reinforce gender inequality. We should recognize that social change creates linguistic and behavioral changes. Linguistic disparties reflect real and sustained social inequalities that can and should be changed. There is no other alternative for Chinese women seeking equality but to change the language and its usages. Once Chinese women expose the falseness of existing male meanings and encode their own language, a more objective social reality can be envisaged and perhaps ultimately achieved.     

Exchanging energy technology information on the internet

This paper describes the U.S. experience in using the Internet to disseminate international information about the technical and economic performance of newly demonstrated, energy efficiency technologies. It draws specifically on Oak Ridge National Laboratory's use of the Internet to promote the goals of the International Energy Agency's Center for the Analysis and Dissemination of Demonstrated Technologies (CADDET). Statistics from the U.S. CADDET home page system illustrates the potential of the Internet for contributing significantly to the goals of international information exchange. However, to reach a wider range of international and domestic audiences (beyond primarily upscale and educated professionals located in industrialized countries), Internet systems need to include other dissemination efforts that reach individuals in countries and organizations not currently using Internet services. In addition, more personal and customized information sources may be needed for providing users with the types of assistance and guidance required to translate knowledge of a technology's technical and financial performance into a decision to purchase, install, and use the technology.     

MAGELLAN'S DISCOVERIES

In 1998, the Family Court of Australia introduced an interagency, multidisciplinary pilot program for managing parenting disputes that involved allegations of child abuse. The program, known as Project Magellan, is an example of the trend in judicial administration toward specialized court programs. It involved one hundred families and several state and federal agencies and human service organizations. This article presents the findings of an evaluation of the new program and considers the implication of those findings and the potential for the success of similar programs in other jurisdictions. It points to the contribution the pilot program made to the development of knowledge about child abuse in the emotive and complex circumstances of parental separation and suggests that the interrelationship between child abuse and relationship breakdown should be acknowledged as a legitimate matter of serious concern.