Previous research on the Tujia epic Sheba Songs has primarily relied on qualitative methods, which are less conducive to objectively examining the text’s features. This paper introduces quantitative research methods to explore the textual characteristics of Sheba Songs and compares its features with those of regulated verse, modern Chinese poetry, and Chinese folk songs. The structure of the study is as follows: (1) From the perspective of word frequency distribution, Zipf’s law is employed to verify the “naturalness” of the Sheba Songs text. (2) From the perspective of part-of-speech probability distribution, clustering indices reveal that, compared to regulated verse, the stylistic features of Sheba Songs are closer to those of modern Chinese poetry. (3) Clustering experiments using relevant clustering indices confirm the inclination of Sheba Songs toward the characteristics of “folk balladization.”

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Digital feminism is an innovative approach to gender equality, and social media has also served as a key tool in the growth of feminist voices and activism. In Asia, a region where patriarchy and cultural conventions have shaped social order to a considerable degree, social media has served as a fertile ground for advocacy and mobilisation. This essay examines how social media is used as both a form of empowerment and conflict, including advocacy on the web, the creation of online communities, and the culturalisation of feminist movements. But it also exposes broader barriers, such as online bullying, the digital divide and state censorship, that prevent digital feminism from developing and becoming more inclusive in Asia. Taking this perspective, the paper examines the activist use of digital technologies to advance feminist values in diverse and politically closed environments. This finding highlights the need for systemic solutions to close digital divides, defend online activists and create inclusive digital communities. It also contributes to the discussion of how technology, culture and feminism go hand in hand and what it means for social media-driven feminist movements in Asia to flourish or fail.

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This essay considers the spread and reception of Dream of the Red Chamber in the West through the theory of aesthetic reception. Though it was originally read with wonder and Orientalist suspicion, its Western reception has progressed through increasing exposure to Chinese culture and literature, gaining an appreciation of its thematic and cultural depth. In its conception, aesthetic reception theory, developed by Hans Robert Jauss, emphasises the openness of reading, even when texts traverse linguistic and cultural borders. The paper covers translation issues confronting Dream of the Red Chamber translators, such as interpreting culturally distinctive symbols, reusing narrative conventions, and conveying Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist philosophical concepts. By investigating choices in translation and their effect on reception, the paper illustrates how cultural translation turns the text around for Western readers, turning Dream of the Red Chamber from an exotic object into a world literature classic. If it takes account of the significance of cultural exchange in translation, this research offers a glimpse of the future of Chinese literature’s global influence.

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This study investigates whether the presence of explicit cross-cultural pragmatics instruction in L2 learners improves communicative skills. Focusing on practical pedagogy and cultural sensitivity, the study evaluates whether formalised instruction in politeness, face-saving and indirectness improves students’ intercultural sensitivity. By way of an experiment, subjects were randomly assigned to an experimental group that received focused pragmatic teaching and a control group that received regular language tuition. It turns out that, in our experiments, explicit teaching did dramatically enhance the performance of the experimental group in role-play tests – suggesting an enhanced capacity to change language use to suit different cultures. From this research, it appears that explicit pragmatics training makes it possible for learners to make linguistic decisions with precision, in a way that is both linguistic and culturally correct. Giving students these tools, clear pragmatic training makes for more assured and versatile L2 speakers and hence a richer language acquisition that responds to the demands of global communication.

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