Japanese impacts asserted itself in the Czech theatre even before the First World War. The first domestic activities are associated with the expressionist director F. Zavřel, with his English productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Mikado, whose plot is situated in Japan. Even before that (in 1902) the Neues Deutsches Theatre in Prague hosted set of Japan´s „new wave theatre“. Its presentation of the shinpa performance at the end of the nineties of the 19th century pushed the traditional kabuki theatre to the „old wave theatre“ - kyūha. The star of the group was a leading Japanese actress Kawakami Sada Yakko (1871-1946). One of the most important representative of the Czech interwar avant-garde theatre, Jiří Frejka, produced the play Asagao by Kakashi Yamada in the Modern studio in 1929. This title became part of the meagre „golden treasure“ of the Czech puppet dramaturgy after the war. The indisputable highlight of the possibilities of our acquaintance with authentic Japanese theatre was the first performace of the imperial company gagaku (music) and bugaku (dance) outside Japan, which took place in the Spanish Hall of the Prague Castle on 30th June 1998. It was an official expression of the Japanese emperor´s respect to Vaclav Havel. and Jaromír Kazda, Petr Pavlovský.
At the beginning of the 1330s on of the most important travelogues describing the road through the then Mongolian Asia to China was written. Its author was Odoric of Pordenone (or of Friuli, of Udine, etc.), a Franciscan friar born near Pordenone. A large part of the travelogue is taken up by a story about four Franciscan missionaries and the alleged transfer of their bones by Odoric from the Indian city of Thana to one of the Franciscan settlements in southern China. This story occurs in almost all versions of Odoric´s travelogue, but it is missing in a few (except for a brief mention of the martyrdom of the four Franciscans). It seems that this passage, which incidentally, also considerably differs from the rest of the travelogue style, is a later addition, resulting from the influence of the emerging hagiographic tradition. My article presents the historical circumstances of the events that occured just prior to the arival of Odoric in Thana and their representation in the frescos in Udine. A constituent part of the article is a translation of a substantial part of this passage from Odoric´s travelogue, based on the Latin text of the unpublished manuscript XVII.E.2., held by the National Museum Library in Prague., Vladimír Liščák., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The main objective of the article is to analyze the Sino-Vietnamese conflict over the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea as they still represent an unhealed wound in the relations of both countries. Apart from assessing the rising importance of the archipelago, the article aims to present the history of the conflicting claims as well as predict possible consequences of the dispute., Petra Andělová a Mária Strašáková., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Two years after the beginning of the Bahraini uprising, the time has come to look back and review the aftermath of the events of Spring 2011. This article places the failure of the Bahraini uprising into its wider geopolitical context. By reviewing the aftermath of the revolution, this article also seeks to review some of the paradoxes and stereotypical narratives about the "Arab Spring" such as the notion of a "Facebook & Twitter revolution". The author comes to the conclusion that the government´s hunt for an Iranian security threat migght actually have helped to strenghten the position of the domestic radicals., Zbyněk Tarant., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
This contribution analyses several photographs made by Czechoslovak legionaries; these photographs capture various aspects of Buryat Buddhism in Cis-Baikalia - monks, lay people, their cult structures, temples and shrines and also interiors, altars etc. The set of about twenty photographs of this type were found in the Central Military Archive of the Czech Republic in Prague, they have not been precisely identified and have a remarkable testimonial value. They capture the state of Buryat Buddhism before the Bolshevik revolution whose effects became apparent in this region only after the departure of foreign intervention armies, including Czechoslovak legionaries. It is not an extensive and systematically created set; the photographs were discovered more or less by accident and they do not represent a targeted collection. Nevertheless their historical value is significant and they illustrate the situation around Lake Baikal very well., Luboš Bělka., and Obsahuje poznámky a seznam literatury
The article aims to summarize the main moments of the modernization process of Vietnamese literature, which was triggered by the penetration of the French into Vietnam in the second half of the 19th century. It was the press and magazines that played a major part in the transformation of Vietnamese literature as well as translations of Western and Chinese literature that inspired Vietnamese writers in their creative endeavors. The modernization movement culminated in 1925, when first two modern Vietnamese novels were published and Vietnamese literature found its own voice., Mária Strašáková., and Obsahuje poznámky a seznam literatury