Search Results (15)

This study aims to explore the values of character education in the Chinese animated film Three Monks. This film serves as a teaching tool, not only imparting animation principles to university students majoring in animation but also showcasing Chinese cultural philosophy and educational values in implicit, exaggerated, and humorous action design. We employed a descriptive qualitative method. A total of 73 college students majoring in animation watched the film without any prior explanation of animation principles and moral education and then listened to detailed explanations of the character education and animation principles integrated into the film. Through repeated viewing, analysis, and summarization of the storyline, character behaviors, and action design in Three Monks, the values of character education, such as religion, kindness, diligence, independence, responsibility, tolerance, self-reflection, unity and cooperation, and courage to innovate, were embodied. These values are manifested through the film’s storyline, conflicts, character actions, animated performances, and background music. We compared the students’ pre- and post-viewing attitudes based on their discussions, reflections, and course evaluations. The results revealed that conveying moral values through animated films internalized and transmitted character education among university students, shaping cultural identity and social norms. This approach enhanced students’ learning engagement and improved their learning efficiency. Full article

The Confucian hermeneutic approach to the Yijing 易經 (or Book of Changes) delineates a transition from the pursuit of divinatory meaning to the cultivation of virtue and action. As an integral part of the Yijing’s semantic framework, decisive phrases (Duanci 斷辭)—such as those denoting auspiciousness or ominousness—not only reflect historical efforts to ascertain the significance of divinatory cases, but also embody a distinct normative orientation inherent in the text’s teachings. This orientation not only guides human action but also shapes moral character, which in turn provides the foundation for virtuous and effective action. The interpretive paradigm initiated by Confucian exegetes thus offers valuable insights for contemporary theories of ethics and practical philosophy. Full article

Creole writer Sidonie de la Houssaye (1820–1894) registered the threat of anglophone dominance after the Civil War on behalf of a host of characters drawn from the geographies and ideologies in and around her home in Louisiana. Her little-known literary tales depict the period as a cultural and linguistic border zone. In addition to the texture of Louisiana French and Creole heritage, the tales depict the vexed social dynamics of prejudice and fragility. In the context of this special issue on good and evil, the poorly known children’s tales offer insight into these pernicious tensions that persisted under the surface of moral victory after the Civil War. La Houssaye’s lessons for children take up the moral panic of a Louisiana reckoning with its legacies of racial violence and cultural erasure. This article argues that morality in these tales takes shape in interpersonal practices that can be learned to heal social ills. What I have called La Houssaye’s “ethics of social life” relies on education rather than condemnation to redefine human bonds. If a broader lesson emerges from the stories taken together, it suggests that structural change is slow to heal cultural wounds. We must ourselves be the agents of a healthier community. Full article

This paper explores how sound design in the Harry Potter film series shapes the symbolic significance of written words within the magical world. Sound mediates between language and meaning; while characters gain knowledge by reading and seeing, viewers are guided emotionally and thematically by how these written texts are framed through sound. For example, Harry’s magical identity is signalled to viewers through the score long before he fully understands himself—first through music when he speaks to a snake, then more explicitly when he receives his letter from Hogwarts. Throughout the series, characters engage with a wide array of written media—textbooks, letters, newspapers, diaries, maps, and inscriptions—that gradually shift in narrative function, from static props to dynamic, multi-sensory agents of transformation. Using a close analysis of selected scenes to examine layers of utterances, diegetic sounds, underscore, and sound design, this study draws on metaphor theory and adaptation theory to examine how sound design gives writing a metaphorical voice, sometimes framing it as character, landscape, or moral authority. As the series progresses, becoming more autonomous from the literary source, written words take on greater symbolic significance, and sound increasingly determines which texts are granted narrative power, whose voices are trusted, and how viewers interpret truth and agency across media. Ultimately, written words in the films are animated through sound into agents of growth, memory, resistance, and transformation. Thus, the audio-visual treatment of written magic reveals not just what is written, but what matters. Full article

This article critically examines the star persona of Lola Flores, an iconic Spanish flamenco artist, within the historical and political context of Francoist Spain (1939–1975). It argues that Flores’s carefully constructed star image not only persisted into post-Franco Spain but also served as a covert vehicle for the continued propagation of National-Falangist Catholic ideology. The article primarily focuses on two major productions: the book Lola en carne viva. Memorias de Lola Flores (1990) and the television series El coraje de vivir (1994). Both portray a linear and cohesive version of her life from childhood to her later years, carefully curated to defend and rehabilitate her image. While many view Flores as a self-made artist, the article argues that her star persona was a deliberate construct—shaped by Suevia Films, a major Francoist-era film studio, and media narratives that aligned her with traditional gender roles, Catholic values, and Spanish nationalism. Despite emerging in post-Franco Spain, Flores’s narrative does not mark a rupture from the ideological frameworks of the past. Instead, it repackages Francoist values—particularly those surrounding patriarchal gender norms, suffering, and the glorification of sacrifice—to ensure her continued relevance. Suevia Films (1951) played a significant role in shaping her star persona as a symbol of Spanish folklore, aligning her with Francoist ideals of nation, Catholic morality, and submissive femininity. Her image was used to promote Spain internationally as a welcoming and culturally rich destination. Her persona fit within Franco’s broader strategy of using flamenco and folklore to attract foreign tourism while maintaining tight ideological control over entertainment. Flores’s life is framed as a rags-to-riches story, which reinforces Social Spencerist ideology (a social Darwinist perspective) that hard work and endurance lead to success, rather than acknowledging systemic oppression under Francoism. Her personal struggles—poverty, romantic disappointments, accusations of collaboration with the Franco regime, and tax evasion—are framed as necessary trials that strengthen her character. This aligns with the Catholic ideal of redemptive suffering, reinforcing her status as the mater dolorosa (Sorrowful Mother) figure. This article highlights the contradictions in Flores’s gender performance—while she embodied passion and sensuality in flamenco, her offstage identity conformed to the submissive, self-sacrificing woman idealized by the Francoist Sección Femenina (SF). Even in her personal life, Flores’s narrative aligns with Francoist values—her father’s bar, La Fe de Pedro Flores, symbolizes the fusion of religion, nationalism, and traditional masculinity. Tico Medina plays a key role by framing Lola en carne viva as an “authentic” and unfiltered account. His portrayal is highly constructed, acting as her “defense lawyer” to counter criticisms. Flores’s autobiography is monologic—it suppresses alternative perspectives, ensuring that her version of events remains dominant and unquestioned. Rather than acknowledging structural oppression, the narrative glorifies suffering as a path to resilience, aligning with both Catholic doctrine and Francoist propaganda. The article ultimately deconstructs Lola Flores’s autobiographical myth, demonstrating that her public persona—both onstage and offstage—was a strategic construction that perpetuated Francoist ideals well beyond the dictatorship. While her image has been celebrated as a symbol of Spanish cultural identity, it also functioned as a tool for maintaining patriarchal and nationalist ideologies under the guise of entertainment. Full article

This study focuses on Xizi-belief (惜字信仰) and provides a comparative analysis of the religious philosophies of Tianming (天命) and Tianli (天理), using the Hunan region as a case study. Through anthropological methods and fieldwork, this study explores how Classical Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism shape and guide word-cherishing behaviors based on the conceptual philosophies of Tianming and Tianli. The Tianming conception views characters as revelations of heavenly destiny. Through religious rituals, people cherish words to honor heaven and seek to change their destinies through heavenly forces, reflecting worldly desires and spiritual pursuits and emphasizing heaven with personhood. In contrast, the Tianli conception sees words as carriers of moral and natural laws. Guided by Confucian ethics and the concept of karma and retribution, it influences people’s moral norms and behavioral practices, reflecting the metaphysical moral law of a just and righteous heaven. Both conceptions not only involve the worship and protection of words but also profoundly embody a deep understanding and pursuit of the order of the universe, moral norms, the ethics of life, and the meaning of life. This study reveals three modes of influence: the religious philosophy integration model, the ritual practice model, and the architectural embodiment model. These models emphasize the positive impact of Xizi-belief on ethics and social life, prompting people to demonstrate positive guidance in human behavior through reverence for Tianming (mandate of heaven), adherence to Tianli (principle of heaven), and respect for nature. Under the guidance of classical religious ethical principles, the spread of Xizi-belief and the practice of Xizi religious ceremonies promote the harmonious development of individual virtues and social order, achieving harmony between humans and the universe. Full article

This systematic review examines preschool educators’ perceptions and implementation of Values Education (VE), emphasizing its critical role in moral and ethical development during early childhood. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review synthesizes findings from Scopus, ERIC ProQuest, Web of Science, and PsycINFO, covering studies published between 2000 and 2024. While educators recognize the importance of VE in shaping children’s character and promoting ethical behavior, several inconsistencies exist in its application. Successful VE programs often include explicit curriculum integration, teacher role modeling, and structured classroom activities. This review underscores the need for professional development initiatives to equip teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver VE effectively, and emphasizes fostering a supportive preschool environment to enhance VE practices. Furthermore, the review emphasizes that a systematic approach to VE can positively impact children’s intellectual, emotional, and social development, fostering ethically responsible individuals ready to engage actively in society. Full article

The early connection children form with nature is vital in fostering positive attitudes towards the environment. Television plays a significant role in shaping these attitudes, yet the inclusion of environmental messaging in children’s programs remains unexplored. This study investigates the extent of conservation messages and nature portrayals on Australian free-to-air children’s television. A mixed-methods approach was employed, analysing all programs airing on ABC Kids, a network aimed at children aged two to six years old, over a seven-day period. Phase 1 involved summarising program descriptions, types, styles, moral themes, and durations. Phase 2 entailed viewing all episodes and noting environmental representations, which were then analysed using content analysis. Only 14.3% of programs (10/70), representing 10.3% of airtime (481/4652 min), included an ‘Environmental Experiences’ moral theme. Content analysis revealed six distinct themes in environmental representations, with more positive than negative messages. These messages were predominantly implicit, conveyed through character dialogue and imagery. Environmental moments represented a balance of flora and fauna but were largely not fact-based. This study suggests a need for increased airtime for environmentally focused programs and more consideration of current environmental issues. Producers are encouraged to include more positive environmental morals and align themes with children’s learning styles to enhance their connection to and understanding of environmental issues. Full article

Papua, Indonesia, is a region of cultural and religious diversity. However, in facing social challenges, the development of youth character has become a critical issue. The Research and Development Centre for Religion, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Republic of Indonesia, conducted a survey of secondary schools. In 2021, the high school student index in Papua Province was below the national average. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship and level of correlation between religiosity and integrity among youth in Papua. We employed Christian biblical figures as models to illustrate their methods of developing and maintaining moral and ethical attributes. The method used is a quantitative approach with descriptive and correlational techniques. The findings indicate a significant positive correlation (0.629) between the religious dimension and the integrity dimension. This demonstrates a strong relationship between these two dimensions. The conclusion of this study essentially implies that there is a beneficial and strong relationship between religious discipline and integrity. This suggests that the two dimensions work together to shape and develop the personality of the younger generation. Full article

In the past, the teaching of C programming courses was teacher-centered, and students’ practical ability, innovation ability, independent learning ability, and moral character were not effectively improved. In order to meet the requirements of teaching informatization, OBE philosophy, “Golden Course” construction, and ideological politics in the curriculum for course teaching, we have been reforming how C programming courses are taught since 2013 from the perspective of sustainable development in order to realize the synergistic promotion of knowledge imparting, ability training, and moral character shaping. First, we systematically reformed the teaching support system in eight dimensions: changing the teaching philosophy, enriching teaching resources, reconstructing the teaching environment, reshaping the course content, transforming the teaching process, innovating teaching methods, reforming course evaluations, and building ideological politics surrounding the ecology of the curriculum. On this basis, we divided the teaching classroom into three classrooms: theory, practical training, and innovative practice. We ensured that teaching resources, information technology, diversified evaluation, and moral character shaping were always integrated into the classroom. Then, we used a combination of “online and offline, in-class knowledge learning and extra-curricular autonomous practice, teachers’ careful lectures and seniors’ guidance, ability training and moral character shaping, and impart knowledge and innovative practice” to build a student-centered teaching model of “three classrooms–four integrations–five combinations”. Since the application of this model in course teaching, students have not only enhanced their sense of access to learning and improved their course performance, independent learning ability, and practical ability, but have also improved their innovation ability, with students achieving excellent results in thesis publication, patent applications, software copyright applications, discipline competitions, and innovation project applications. Students have cultivated a strong sense of social responsibility and high moral character, and employers are highly satisfied. This teaching model has been adopted and reused in 12 engineering courses and has achieved good application results. The teaching model can provide a reference for college engineering courses to build a student-centered information-based education ecology, create high-quality classrooms, and collaboratively improve students’ abilities and moral character. Full article

For Thomas Aquinas, the imagination, being one of the “inner senses”, is a doorway to attain true knowledge. In this paper, we first analyze his lexicon in this regard (imaginatio and phantasia). Second, we discuss imagination as the subject matter of the intellectual virtues, which facilitate cognition and judgment. The development of imagination is the foundation of his vision of education not only on the natural but also on the supernatural level. Third, we explore Aquinas’ moral assessment of imaginative art and finally its influence on shaping the character. This influence occurs on two levels: it is assessed from the perspective of charity, justice, prudence and purity, namely to what extent the art serves these values, whereas the second criterion is beauty. Full article

Accra, the capital city of Ghana, is characterized by limited networked supply, heterogeneous water providers, and various forms of provision. In this paper, we explore how the people delivering water through water tankers shape the distribution of water across the city. Drawing on empirical descriptions of water sourcing and distribution by truck drivers, we show that who gets what water at what price is shaped by the ability of tanker drivers to act as brokers, piecing together various social and material arrangements and resorting to different rationalities and expertise. We analyze how state actors deal with tanker supply seeking to reconcile their mandates with the realities of water supply. Analyzing urban water supply through the practices of water distribution, we show the messy and open-ended character of water governance processes. A practice-based approach makes the complex interrelations between different water providers across the city visible, and underscores the role of individual and collective identities, emotions, moral norms, and unequal interdependencies between actors in shaping urban water distributions. Full article

The London premieres of Henrik Ibsen’s plays in the late 1880s and 1890s sparked strong reactions both of admiration and disgust. This controversy, I suggest, was largely focused on national identity and artistic cosmopolitanism. While Ibsen’s English supporters viewed him as a leader of a new international theatrical movement, detractors dismissed him as an obscure writer from a primitive, marginal nation. This essay examines the ways in which these competing assessments were reflected in the English adaptations, parodies, and sequels of Ibsen’s plays that were written and published during the final decades of the nineteenth century, texts by Henry Herman and Henry Arthur Jones, Walter Besant, Bernard Shaw, Eleanor Marx and Israel Zangwill, and F. Anstey (Thomas Anstey Guthrie). These rewritings tended to respond to Ibsen’s foreignness in one of three ways: Either to assimilate the plays’ settings, characters, and values into normative Englishness; to exaggerate their exoticism (generally in combination with a suggestion of moral danger); or to keep their Norwegian settings and depict those settings (along with characters and ideas) as ordinary and familiar. Through their varying responses to Ibsen’s Norwegian origin, I suggest, these adaptations offered a uniquely practical and concrete medium for articulating ideas about the ways in which art shapes both national identity and the international community. Full article

This article describes the narratives and projections that shaped the contested character of Hardwar and the river Ganges as symbols par excellence of the Hindus’ claim to India’s sacred geography over the last two hundred years. It deliberates on the tactics and practices through which Hardwar’s ancient and legendary status has been employed to assert Hindu identity and territorial claims vis-à-vis the colonial administrators, but also to exclude the country’s Muslim and Christian populace. The purifying, divine land of Hardwar enabled the nationalist imagination and struggle for a Hindu India, even as it was instituted as a site for the internal purification of Hinduism itself, to mirror its glorious past. The article describes the contests and claims, based on religion and class, as well as the performance of socio-economic and existential anxieties that the sacred quality of Hardwar and the river Ganges continues to authorize and enable in post-colonial India. For this, we draw particularly on the Kanwar Mela, an annual event in which millions of mostly poor young men carry water from the river Ganges on foot, and often over long distances. We deliberate on the significance of the sacred water, rituals, and the journey in reinforcing these pilgrims’ perceptions of the self, and their moral claims over the nation and its territory. Full article

Female characters frequently appear as animals in the unstable universe of James Joyce’s a Finnegans Wake. What Kimberly Devlin terms “the male tendency to reduce women to the level of the beast” is manifest in Finnegans Wake on a large scale. From the hen pecking at a dung heap which we suppose is a manifestation of matriarch Anna Livia Plurabelle, to the often lascivious pig imagery (reminiscent of Bloom’s experience with brothel-keeper Bella in the “Circe” episode of Ulysses) associated with juvenile seductress Issy, the lines between animal and human are frequently blurred when it comes to representing the feminine in the Wake. As scholars such as Devlin have highlighted, such constellations of images have their roots in blatantly misogynistic iconographies. Indeed, the reinscription of female characters into bestial roles in the Wake echoes a religious history of the dehumanisation of women. Yet, while this gendered representational tendency has been noted in Joycean and, more recently, wider modernist studies, its deployment and impact as a cultural and literary trope has not yet been interpreted according to the sociohistorical and cultural contexts which shaped the composition of Finnegans Wake. In particular, the culturally-specific sexual politics of Free State Ireland (1922–1937), against which Joyce arguably pushes throughout the entirety of the Wake, offer a suggestive lens through which to view the text’s interconnected representations of the feminine and the bestial. This article suggests that, in Finnegans Wake, the nonhuman is a mode through which Joyce explores the fraught sexual politics of early twentieth-century Ireland. Specifically, the bestial feminine becomes an avenue to inspect, expose, and satirise prevalent contemporary fears over female sexual licentiousness and national moral decline. Historicising the text’s grappling with themes of carnality and baseness, the article discusses the ways in which the woman-as-animal is deployed in Finnegans Wake as a grotesque symbol of an unbridled and threatening female sexuality—an extreme embodiment of 1920s and 1930s Ireland’s worst fears surrounding the perceived degeneration of Irish women’s modesty. Unearthing the Wake’s social contexts in order to interpret its sexual politics, this article ultimately asks whether the trope of the woman-as-animal stages a complete resistance against the conservatism of early twentieth-century Ireland’s sexual politics, or whether Joyce’s invocation of a historically misogynistic and patriarchal construction risks reinforcing the dehumanisation of women, moving the text’s sexual politics further away from the liberatory. Full article