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This article reviews Tsuen-hsuin Tsien's "Paper and Printing," volume 5, part 1 of the "Science and Civilisation in China" series, which traces the history of paper and printing, and their precursors, in China from the Shang through the Qing dynasties. While the work is "not flawless," because it contains a number of unedited errors, it is nevertheless an "important" work for scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM CONTRIBUTOR]

This paper lays emphasis on Zygmunt Bauman's theory of "liquid love" to analyze the frail human relations depicted in Kazuo Ishiguro's Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall (2009). As Bauman points out, liquid modern habitants are condemned to live in a realm of uncertainty wherein human relations are necessarily impermanent. A concluded game must be immediately left behind so as to move on directly to the next without grudges, because none of the connecting bonds can vouch for its duration in the liquid modern scenario. Before tying the knot, individuals must anticipate the moment of loosening, and the bond need be loosely tied so that it can be untied again when the situation changes. Is this freedom to relate a means of confronting uncertainty, or derivative of a failure to withstand the frailty of human bonds? The protagonists in Ishiguro's Nocturnes do not wish to act alone when they have to untie the bonds. Finding a significant other with whom they confront the moment of untying becomes urgent and imperative, even while the significant other reminds them of whatever it is they wish to repress. If love changes because of uncertainties, Ishiguro's musicians roaming in the liquid modern world will still choose to relate to the next human bond without any delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]