Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 8

sents a light-hearted (though by no means physically easy) account of his attempt
to simulate the American drive to head west in his article, “Then and Now: Bicy
cling Across History to Oregon.” “I would have made a lousy pioneer,” he con
fesses while recounting the fathomless pleasures of hot showers and beer.
Kelley Kelleway provides a most intellectual deconstruction of “scientific
value” in her article, “The Defining Dinosaur: The Role of Scientific Value Con
cepts in Paleontological Popularizations.” Specifically she looks at the works of
paleontologist John Horner and appropriations of dinosaurs in our current popular
culture - i.e., in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Discussing Horner’s books as
presenting scientific theory to laypersons - how each discovery moves, “asymp
totically” (look it up, I had to) towards a truth of material reality - Kelleway ques
tions, as has Donna Haraway and other before her, the supremacy of scientific
knowledge.
Jeffrey Hartnett’s views on the emerging boom of Chinese architecture pro
vides a wonderful picture behind the walls of Beijing. In “The Chinese Architect
in Shenzhen: ‘More is More’” Hartnett bases his insights on his year of teaching in
Shenzhen. What I found most interesting and surprising were his statistics on Chi
nese architects in relation to their American counterparts (there are '/loas many in
China as in the U.S.) and the corresponding volume of work produced (the Chi
nese design 5 times the volume of projects of American architects). This is accom
plished through innovative techniques such as chaogeng (a type of moonlighting)
and min qi (“people’s energy”).
Finally, with “Indonesia Honors a Political Cartoonist with a Postage Stamp,”
we bring you the second installment of Richard Ostrom’s study of Indonesian
politics. In his article published in our February 2001 issue Ostrom looked at sev
eral of the country’s popular cartoonists. In this one, he focuses exclusively on
“Gun Gun,” an Indonesian cartoonist so popular that his trademark character has
been awarded his own postage stamp.
Journey on, fair readers! Enjoy this latest foray into the world(s) of popular
culture!
Juli Barry, Ph.D.
Associate Editor
Popular Culture Review

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