In contemporary China, the Cultural Revolution remains a delicate topic, little discussed, but if a Chinese citizen has read one book on the subject, it is likely to be Ji's memoir. When The Cowshed was published in China in 1998, it quickly became a bestseller. The Cultural Revolution had nearly disappeared from the collective memory. Prominent intellectuals rarely spoke openly about the revolution, and books on the subject were almost nonexistent. By the time of Ji's death in 2009, little had changed, and despite its popularity, The Cowshed remains one of the only testimonies of its kind.
The last shot of world war two has been fired and a boy is born, destined for life in a beautiful fishing village in South West Cornwall. He is surrounded, there, by friends and a loving family and his is a childhood that dreams are made of. But in this village they chain up the swings on Sundays, and as he grows, he finds that puberty and its consequences are hushed up and must never be spoken of.This novel is an album of a boy's early years, a mosaic of stories, some funny, some harrowing, that trace his journey from birth to the brink of manhood.John Kitchen was born and grew up in south Cornwall. His early life is the basis for this novel. Since retiring from teaching to write stories for children, John has published three major books. The first, Nicola's Ghost, won the Writer's Digest Prize for best young adults' novel in 2011, and the NGP Publishing Award in the same year. His second book, A Spectre in the Stones, was published in 2013, and the third, Jax' House, came out in 2016. Fragments of Springtime is his first novel for adults.John lives in a four-hundred-year-old cottage in Oxfordshire and writes his books in a bright yellow study at the back of the house. He is widowed, but has two wonderful children and four lovely grandchildren.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution began in 1966 and led to a ten-year-long reign of Maoist terror throughout China, in which millions died or were sent to labor camps in the country or subjected to other forms of extreme discipline and humiliation. Ji Xianlin was one of them. The Cowshed is Ji’s harrowing account of his imprisonment in 1968 on the campus of Peking University and his subsequent disillusionment with the cult of Mao. As the campus spirals into a political frenzy, Ji, a professor of Eastern languages, is persecuted by lecturers and students from his own department. His home is raided, his most treasured possessions are destroyed, and Ji himself must endure hours of humiliation at brutal “struggle sessions.” He is forced to construct a cowshed (a makeshift prison for intellectuals who were labeled class enemies) in which he is then housed with other former colleagues. His eyewitness account of this excruciating experience is full of sharp irony, empathy, and remarkable insights into a central event in Chinese history. In contemporary China, the Cultural Revolution remains a delicate topic, little discussed, but if a Chinese citizen has read one book on the subject, it is likely to be Ji’s memoir. When The Cowshed was published in China in 1998, it quickly became a bestseller. The Cultural Revolution had nearly disappeared from the collective memory. Prominent intellectuals rarely spoke openly about the revolution, and books on the subject were almost nonexistent. By the time of Ji’s death in 2009, little had changed, and despite its popularity, The Cowshed remains one of the only testimonies of its kind. As Zha Jianying writes in the introduction, “The book has sold well and stayed in print. But authorities also quietly took steps to restrict public discussion of the memoir, as its subject continues to be treated as sensitive. The present English edition, skillfully translated by Chenxin Jiang, is hence a welcome, valuable addition to the small body of work in this genre. It makes an important contribution to our understanding of that period.”
A warm and compelling tale, part of Lilian Harry's terrific Dartmoor-based series. The village of Burracombe is looking forward to the Coronation, but 1953 is to prove to be a year of heartbreak as well as celebration. While Stella begins to plan her wedding, her sister Maddy is only just coming to terms with the loss of her own fiancé; Val and Luke are wondering if they will ever become parents, and Hilary's chances of marriage seem at first to come closer, then to recede. The Tozer family also face anxiety. As grandmother Minnie fights for her life, Tom and Joanna's premature twins battle with their own crisis and Jackie, working and living in Plymouth, is determined to live her own life. Meanwhile, the life of the village goes on, with all its ups and downs, its feuds and differences. Bossy Joyce Warren tries to organise everything and everyone, Miss Kemp and Stella plan yet another event for the school, Jacob Prout strives to keep Burracombe looking its best for the festivities - and romance comes from a quite unexpected direction...
A true story of life as a child during the Second World War and through adolescence and teenage years in the 1950s and early 1960s. A time of worry and fear for parents, but of excitement and adventure for children. The freedom to roam and fanaticise without supervision and learning from real life experiences. Near misses which today would be considered unbelievably neglectful and dangerous. Working on the farm at fourteen. Joining the army cadets at thirteen to learn to be a soldier and going to summer camp to fire blank bullets from a .303 rifle at your mates was all good fun. On the downside, it was a time when waiting for your call-up papers at eighteen was routine. Then having to drop whatever you were doing to spend two years in the army, training as a real soldier in West Germany, or some other far away commonwealth outpost, and finally, to be demobbed as a disciplined but totally different person. All indications that at the time, you did what was required of you without fear or favour.
Air quality has a direct influence on health, welfare and production performance of livestock as the high concentrations of noxious gases, dust and airborne microorganisms are likely to reduce production efficiency and the general welfare of farm animals. Long term exposure to particulates in livestock buildings might also affect the respiratory health of farm workers. Dust in animal buildings contains many biologically active substances such as bacteria, fungi, endotoxins and residues of antibiotics (as a result of veterinary treatments) that are suspected to be hazardous to human health. Furthermore, air pollutants emitted from livestock buildings can reduce air, water and soil quality and can potentially undermine the health of nearby residents. Airborne emissions include ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide, particulates like dust and microorganisms. In addition, other potentially harmful substances such as heavy metals, antibiotic residues and components of disinfectants might be also emitted from livestock building that are potentially damaging to ecosystems. In this book, key aspects of agricultural air quality, such as monitoring, managing and reducing airborne pollutants in and around livestock facilities are reviewed. Features: addressing the raising awareness of the importance of optimal health and welfare for lifestock species with contributions from international specialists and researchers providing up-to-date information for professionals involved in modern animal producti This book will be useful for farming professionals, academics, students, policy makers, business leaders, regulatory bodies and agricultural consultants.
Within the education system, acts of violence toward animals take place and are manifested on a routine basis in science classes, in lecture halls, in school canteens, and during study visits to zoos, farms, and slaughterhouses. Taken for granted as ”necessary” for teaching and learning, this violence profoundly affects animals as well as students. It also provides new entry points for understanding education as a multispecies power regime, driven by numerous other investments than knowledge dissemination alone. What, then, is the nature of this educational violence, and how exactly does education work through techniques of interference with student and animal bodies? Based on ethnographic research within upper secondary schools and higher education, this book challenges the use of animals in education by innovative engagement of Deleuze and Guattari's tool of schizoanalysis. Sparking a fundamental rethinking of educational processes, relations, and aims, the book explores how scientific knowledge about animals proliferates through complex interplay of power and desire in contested spaces of teaching and learning. Configuring animal science education as a set of machines working in tandem with the animal industry, Helena Pedersen offers radical new insights into how education forms subjectivities and social orders under conditions of capitalist expansion that capture students and animals alike. Bringing together education studies, science studies, critical animal studies, and continental philosophy, Pedersen also provides examples of disruptive action that can put education to work for transformation and liberation.
This is a tale of personal hardship and Durelle hopes by publishing her story that it might inspire others to reach for success. She and her siblings were abandoned by both their parents at a tender age and left alone to survive in a tiny farmhouse in rural NZ, but they did more than survive.
