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This article investigates the understudied mission of Bishop Carlo van Melckebeke CICM as Apostolic Visitor for the Chinese overseas from 1953 to his retirement in 1970. Although Chinese had settled overseas from as far back as the twelfth century, the Catholic Church never had a significant presence among these communities, except in British colonial era Singapore-Malaya. Following the mid-twentieth century forced exodus of Chinese seminarians and Western missionaries from the mainland after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Holy See responded by redirecting missionary efforts through the initiatives of Bishop van Melckebeke and his colleagues to this major ethnic group scattered across the world. This article deals with this unprecedented apostolate to these diasporic communities, in a substantially different manner from previous scholarship on Catholicism in China in terms of notions of institution, and the framing of missionary activities, networks, and resources. Based on archival resources, media reports and interviews, it recounts how the Office of Apostolic Visitor and the Singapore Catholic Central Bureau extended their mission beyond the politics of the Cold War, and organised a variety of ministries to serve the overseas Chinese population residing on five continents.

Many Chinese and Western scholars have looked into the relation between Daoist and Greek thought, implementing Greek philosophical vocabularies to explain or highlight the distinctness of Daoist terms. This paper offers a view of an alternative and unexplored area of such endeavors: the translation of Daoist philosophy in modern Greek. More specifically, I offer an account of the reception and interpretation of the text by looking at three renderings of the Daodejing 道德經 (or Laozi 老子) in modern Greek. I first summarize the translators’ methodologies, overall understanding of the Daodejing’s focus and current relevance, and views on authorship and translation, and identify a set of translative trends: reliance on familiar notions, frameworks, and cultural experiences; mystification; attention to poeticity; and emphasis on a perceived remedial function of the text for a modern Greek readership. I then look at the renderings and explications of the key notions dao 道 and de 德 in four passages as case studies. The final section sums up the findings and concludes that the dominant interpretive tendency and translative trend in the examined translations is the assumption of similarity between Daoist and more familiar beliefs and frameworks.

Shijing 詩經 is the earliest collection of Chinese poems and songs traditionally considered to be compiled by Confucius. Scholarship on this collection deems the widespread wind imagery contained in it to be either a metaphor for males or a medium of emotional expression. However, the religious ideas involved in the sacrifices to the wind gods in early China, which are, in fact, deeply linked with the “wind” in Shijing, warrant further consideration. This article focuses on the relation between the “wind” in Shijing and the religious ideas involved in sacrificial rites (“ningfeng 寧風” and “difeng 禘風”) to the wind gods. Drawing upon the history of wind disasters and sacrifices to the wind gods in early China, this article suggests that the pieces entitled “Gufeng 谷風” (included in the Xiaoya 小雅 section) and “Herensi 何人斯” provide descriptions of “ningfeng” (appeasing unwanted wind). Moreover, it argues that the pieces entitled “Kaifeng 凱風” and “Tuoxi 蘀兮” depict a genial wind in connection with harvest, childbearing, and prosperity involved in “difeng”.

The popular interpretation holds that Mengzi was strongly critical of Mozi because the Mohist moral theory was antithetical to Confucian relational ethics. According to this interpretation, Mohism promotes the norm of “impartiality” or “impartial care”, which violates the Confucian norms of “filial piety” and “graded love”. Accordingly, Mengzi thought that the Confucian ideal would not be realized if Mohism continued to prevail. Scholars have tried to nuance and revise this dominant interpretation. For example, some have pointed out the importance of family-oriented values in Mohist ethical theory, arguing that Mengzi likely misunderstood or purposefully mispresented Mohism. This article is an initial attempt to modify the popular interpretation by arguing that the debate between Mengzi and Mohist regarding relational ethics is predominantly about the relations between states rather than individuals. This interpretation sheds light on a core difference between Confucian and Mohist ethical theories and can help make better sense of some later Mohist passages.

For many in the West, paternalism manifest as state interference carries a pejorative connotation, as it is often taken to entail unjustified restrictions on autonomy and self-determination and frequently believed to precipitate bureaucracy, corruption, and inefficiency. Meanwhile, uncritical deference to policies in which individual liberties remain essentially unchecked by state oversight has faced renewed scrutiny since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many across the globe are now coming to believe that we must accept greater governmental intervention in our lives, particularly during times of widespread health crises. This paper explores normative considerations justifying state intervention with respect to public health policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of Confucian paternalism, which is distinguished from a more general concept of paternalism widely used in contemporary philosophical discourse. It argues that the “soft” paternalism apropos to Confucianism has pragmatic benefits for the development of healthcare policies due to which it is not only morally warranted but even preferable to alternatives in terms of safeguarding population health.

The Four Heavenly Kings, Sida Tianwang 四大天王, are the guardians of the four quarters of the world in Buddhism. They are among the most frequently represented protective deities in Buddhist art across different traditions. In their standard iconographies developed in China popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911), they wear full armor, and each holds exclusive attributes—lute (pipa 琵琶), sword, snake, and parasol—from the east, south, west, to the north respectively. There is no direct textual base in the Chinese cannon for such iconographies. Neither can we find prototypes in India or central Asia. Indeed, how did this iconographic group develop in China? In the past, since the standard iconographies of the Four Heavenly Kings are clear, and identification is no problem, comprehensive in-depth study on this is lacking. Actually, those attributes came from a Tantric tradition related to Tibetan Buddhism filtered through the Xi Xia (1036–1227) and Yuan (1206–1368). What revealed in the development of this iconography is the complex relationship among the Tibetan, Tanguts, Mongols, and Chinese Buddhism.

In this article, I propose to trace a historical itinerary that extends from the conquest of Malacca to the early period of permanent Portuguese presence in Macau.

The last novel by Henrique de Senna Fernandes, A Noite Desceu em Dezembro, was first published in its entirety in 2015, although parts of it had previously appeared in instalments in the Macao weekly, Ponto Final, as part of a project to resurrect the feuilleton genre and, more generally, encourage Portuguese literature in Macao. Although unfinished, this novel contains themes that are consistent with the author’s more well-known works, such as the novels, A Trança Feiticeira and Amor e Dedinhos de Pé, as well as his shorter fictions. It also signals an evolution in his attitude, as a Macanese, towards the overwhelming Chinese presence in the city, as well as in his consideration of the role of females in Macao society. This contribution discusses the development of the author’s treatment of such themes and includes a translation of an excerpt from the novel by way of an illustration.

Every nation has its own peculiar character, and the Japanese in particular is a religious being because he is superstitious, fearing God (or the gods), himself, others, the group, and the environment — the islands he inhabits, the sea that surrounds him, and the sky that watches over him. To protect himself from everything and everyone, the Japanese found first in Shintoism, and later in Buddhism, principles and beliefs that shape him in dialogue with nature and society. Christianity, however, eluded him, for it proposed the synthesis of all beliefs but imposed the monopoly of truth.

Based on its original novel, public interviews given by the filmmakers, and related writings, this study examines and discusses the adapted film

Arriving in Guangzhou from Russia in December 1923 as the Indonesian representative of the Red International of Trade Unions (Profintern) in the Far East as well as Communist International (Comintern) delegate for Southeast Asia — Tan Malaka, also participated in the Transport Workers of the Pacific Conference held in the southern Chinese city in June 1924. Drawing in an assembly of delegates from China, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the Conference assigned Malaka as editor of a proposed multilingual bulletin,

After describing the editions of *Nam Van: Contos de Macau*, the first work by Henrique de Senna Fernandes, and its reception in other languages, this review is based on the new Chinese translation, undertaken in 2020 by Song Zijiang and published by Praia Grande Edições, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Macanese writer's death. We analyze the characteristics of the original Portuguese text, noting that the short stories were written over more than two decades, which grants them a certain stylistic diversity. Nevertheless, the thematic unity of the tales harmonizes these differences to a certain extent. We then propose that the Chinese translation homogenizes the formal features of the source text, while shifting the thematic axis according to the expectations of Chinese readers. In the final section, we illustrate the commendable work carried out by Song Zijiang by retranslating a passage from his Chinese text literally into Portuguese and comparing it with Senna Fernandes's original creation.

This study aims to reconstruct an essential part of the cultural and professional biography of Henrique de Senna Fernandes (HSF), particularly his lengthy tenure as a history teacher in official and commercial secondary education, in order to examine his public address commemorating the birth of Infante D. Henrique (1394–1460), delivered in 1957 at the Teatro D. Pedro V and promptly published in a magazine.

Henrique de Senna Fernandes (HSF) remains the most prolific Macanese writer and is, of all those who have taken Macao as their referent of writing, the most representative of the territory in its historical and cultural specificity. The present essay, following methodological procedures proper to the sociology of literature, is a journey through HSF's oeuvre, confronting it with the literary traditions represented in the territory, to which the work likewise refers. In the exercise of this analytical process, an additional aim was to ascertain the virtuality of the post-colonial paradigm, currently in vogue in the social sciences and humanities for the analysis of the respective work, from which it was concluded that such a paradigm, given the specificity of the territory and its influence on the processes of writing, would be of little use for the assessment of HSF's literary oeuvre. From the analytical process considered as a whole, it was thus possible to conclude that HSF's writing is not reducible to any of the literary traditions in question. HSF is a writer who, in the reckoning of what may be considered universal literature, stands on his own.

Henrique de Senna Fernandes, in various instances, professed his deep affection for Macao, endearingly referring to it as his motherland (

This article begins with an analysis of Henrique de Senna Fernandes's work, *Cinema em Macau — Desde o Início do Século XX até à Década de 30*, and aims to identify the themes addressed and the style of writing. First published in the 1970s in the newspaper *Confluência*, it is his least-known work, with the title suggesting a study on cinema in Macau, an approach adopted by the author whose sources were Macau and Hong Kong newspapers. However, if cinema constitutes the core of the narrative, the author reveals himself to be passionate about people, recording the impact of cinema on society and on Macau as a collective entity, enriching the narrative with stories of the people of the Christian city and the Chinese bazaar. Moreover, the spatial coordinates are not confined to Macau, but rather extend to the interior of China and the city of Hong Kong. We conclude that the author did not deviate from the style and themes of his novels and short stories, as he continues to focus on the lived experiences of people in Macau, with cinema serving as a pretext to revisit the themes that permeate his entire oeuvre.

The wooden stairs creaked, as I recall, when I climbed to the first floor of the Long Cheang restaurant, one of the few culau¹ that survived the fury of the city's unbridled modernization, in which the uprooting of what was already institutional became the rule. The greed for astronomical gains over a piece of land led old families and merchants to let go of what was most traditional in Macao.

It is an arduous task to speak of Henrique de Senna Fernandes, stripping away his intimate facet and all the characteristics that make him an ordinary human being. He was a father, a colleague, but above all a friend—one of those who leave behind a cruel saudade at a time when the culture of conviviality in the Portuguese language is becoming increasingly rare, with the unparalleled diminishment of the Portuguese community.

By examining the aesthetic novelistic production of Henrique de Senna Fernandes, and particularly his representation of female characters, this study aims to identify, explain, and contextualize conflicts rooted in gender issues. The methodology adopted is that of hermeneutic literary analysis, influenced by studies of identity, imagology, intercultural communication, the relationship between literature and history, and also by the study of gender asymmetries. The exercise seeks to contribute to the construction of knowledge about the representation of women in the East; to a better reading of cultural and historical codes; to the establishment of a dialogue between different spaces and people who express themselves in Portuguese; and to the self-knowledge of peoples.

Most people possess some knowledge of the overland Silk Road, yet comparatively fewer are familiar with the maritime Silk Road, despite both routes holding equal historical significance. Discussions regarding both the overland and maritime Silk Roads have predominantly emphasized their roles in facilitating international trade and cultural exchanges. However, there exists a third Silk Road—one that is seldom, if ever, mentioned—yet remains equally important to history, archaeology, and cultural heritage. This third Silk Road is the pirates’ Silk Road. Wherever thriving trade flourished, pirates were certain to prey upon it, simultaneously forging their own networks of exchange through black markets and friendly ports. Wherever cultural exchange occurred, pirates actively participated in cultural dissemination. In this article, I develop these themes through specific historical examples, with a particular focus on East and Southeast Asia. First, I discuss the routes associated with the maritime Silk Road and their connections to piracy. Next, I examine several pirate lairs situated along these routes—places where pirates purportedly buried their treasures. Subsequently, I delve into the exciting field of maritime archaeology to assess what has been uncovered regarding alleged sunken pirate ships along the maritime Silk Road. Finally, I explore some of the contributions pirates have made to the dissemination of folk religion and popular culture, as well as the potential contributions the pirates’ Silk Road can offer to contemporary historical and cultural heritage projects.