Lies My Teacher Told Me: Chinese-Language Preface,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Chinese-Language Preface
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Earlier this week, we published an English translation of the preface that James W. Loewen penned for the Chinese edition of his bestselling book
Beijing Bibliophile, Part Ii: Market Change And New Technology,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Beijing Bibliophile, Part Ii: Market Change And New Technology, Eric Setzekorn
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Dozens of bookstores continue to dot Beijing but recent developments are changing the landscape for readers and publishers by forcing many smaller stores out of the market. Part of this trend is due to advances in public transportation, particularly the enlarged subway system, that make it possible to travel across town for a larger selection and lower prices, leading to a decline in neighborhood bookstores. A less positive part of the bookstore consolidation is the increasing leverage state sector bookstores such as Xinhua can exert on private booksellers using market and political forces. A mixed element in the dynamic Beijing …
A Coming Sino-U.S. Currency Battle? Obama Speaks Out About The Renminbi,
2010
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
A Coming Sino-U.S. Currency Battle? Obama Speaks Out About The Renminbi, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
On November 19, 2009, I posted a story here at China Beat that I titled “The Good, the Bad, and the Boring.” The article was a review of Barack Obama’s first presidential visit to China, during which he held a somewhat bland town hall meeting in Shanghai, performed the de rigueur tours of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, and met with Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders behind closed doors. All in all, Obama’s trip seemed to be little more than an icebreaker, a quick and innocuous introduction to one of America’s most important strategic partners. But that …
Review: China’S Megatrends: The Eight Pillars Of A New Society,
2010
University of Manchester
Review: China’S Megatrends: The Eight Pillars Of A New Society, William A. Callahan
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
The future is a hot topic in China; bookstores are full of tomes asserting the 21st century as China’s century: Liu Mingfu’s The China Dream(2010) and Chan Koon-chung’s The Gilded Era: China 2013 (2009) are but two of the most recent books that describe how China is destined to become the number one country in the world.
China Beat Is Heading To The Beach . . .,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
China Beat Is Heading To The Beach . . .
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
. . . well, not exactly. But we are taking a short vacation, to focus on wrapping up the academic year here at UC Irvine. We’ll be back online June 6 (though we will keep up our Twitter feed during the break, so follow us today!). Before we go, a few links we’d like to share:
Where To Begin: Five (Or More) Books About Daoism,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Where To Begin: Five (Or More) Books About Daoism, Ian Johnson
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
With all the attention to Confucius and Confucianism, it is easy to forget how important other philosophical and religious traditions have been in shaping China’s past and influencing its present. Ian Johnson helps rectify this imbalance of coverage with “The Rise of the Tao,” a long essay in the latest issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine that highlights the significance of the Daoist revival and introduces readers to an abbess who is part of this resurgence of belief. As the very first journalist China Beat ever interviewed for the site (and someone who took part in a China …
Queueing,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Queueing
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
“In queue to visit the Indian pavilion at Shanghai’s World Expo, the man in front of me purveys what will be another hour of standing in the drizzle.
China’S Glee,
2010
University of Manchester
China’S Glee, William A. Callahan
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Since mid-2009, China has become much more assertive in world affairs, taking positions that challenge the US and Europe on numerous fronts including climate change, exchange rates, nuclear Iran, cyber security, and human rights. This list of problems came as a surprise to the many experts who for the past decade have been telling us that China’s peaceful rise demonstrates that Beijing has been socialized into the international system as a responsible actor.
Reflections On Qing History,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Reflections On Qing History, Maura Dykstra
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
A review of Pamela Kyle Crossley’s The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800, An Interpretive History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) and William T. Rowe’s China’s Last Empire: The Great Qing (Belknap Press, 2009)
Book Tour Updates: Mid-May Talks,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Book Tour Updates: Mid-May Talks
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
When the dust settles from my still-in-progress “book tour for the post-book tour age” (as I’ve taken to calling the series of events relating to China in the 21st Century that I’ve been taking part in, sometimes having the stage to myself, sometimes sharing it with others), I’m going to try to write something about the experience as a whole (though there won’t be any video log of my travels a la theones by Rebecca Skloot I’ve been enjoying: h/t to Mara H. for leading me to them on the web). But for now I’m still too busy accumulating frequent …
“A Wildly Weird And Wonderful Event”,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
“A Wildly Weird And Wonderful Event”
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
For updates and insights on the 2010 Expo, one of the first places we turn isShanghai Scrap, where Shanghai-based writer Adam Minter has been following the story for almost two years. Minter’s Expo posts cover topics such as the emergence of Haibao (September 2008), the renovation of the Bund (December 2009) and demolition of neighborhoods (October 2009), and an ongoing in-depth investigation of the twisted saga of the U.S. pavilion (most recent posthere; full archive here). Minter also has an article and slideshow about the Expo atThe Atlantic. In the wake of last Saturday’s opening ceremony, we posed a few …
Expo Stories: Trying To Keep Up From Afar,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Expo Stories: Trying To Keep Up From Afar
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
When the first World’s Fair, the Crystal Palace Exhibition, took place in 1851, it did so amidst much breathless talk of a new technology of communication that was capable of sending information across vast distances at incredible speed. That then novel but now very old “new media” invention was the telegraph, which inspired commentary much like that we’ve heard recently regarding the Internet. And it is thanks to the wonders of that newest of new media, the Internet, that I have been able to follow the final lead up to and first days of the 2010 World Expo from afar, …
Around The Web: Podcasts And Videos,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Around The Web: Podcasts And Videos
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Though we spend a lot of time reading over here at China Beat headquarters, we also like to keep up with the many China-related podcasts and videos that are proliferating on the web these days. A sampling of what’s caught our attention recently:
Shanghai Illuminations: 1890-2010,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Shanghai Illuminations: 1890-2010
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
As I’ve noted in previous blog posts, I’ve been spending a lot of time lately giving talks about my new book, China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know. And as followers of my blog posts also know, the 2010 Expo is one of the many topics addressed in that book, where I treat it largely, as an excerpt that went online a week ago illustrates, in terms of its connections to the 2008 Beijing Games. Right now, though, I’m at Yale for a conference and preparing to give a joint presentation with Rebecca Nedostup that focuses on …
In Case You Missed It: Fractured Rebellion,
2010
School of Oriental and African Studies
In Case You Missed It: Fractured Rebellion, John Gittings
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
A group of former Red Guards at Beijing’s Qinghua University, interviewed in spring 1971 about their recent factional struggles, laughed loudly (always a sign of uneasiness) and made their “frank confession”: yes, they had not always behaved in a spirit of proletarian comradeship, they admitted. “We used to sit on either side of the table and agree to make up our differences, but even while we shook hands we were kicking one other under the table!”.
Blogging Aas (3),
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Blogging Aas (3), Miri Kim
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
This intellectually and visually stimulating roundtable was chaired by Carma Hinton (George Mason University) and focused on the legacy of China’s socialist past in China’s not-quite-so socialist present. I’d like to think I took good notes, but this was a session very rich in materials and ideas (and excellently managed time-wise, which means things moved along at a brisk pace), so apologies in advance for any errors or omissions.
Blogging Aas 2010 (5),
2010
University of California, Irvine
Blogging Aas 2010 (5), Miri Kim, Charles Wheeler
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
In this panel, organized by Siyen Fei (University of Pennsylvania), Mark Edward Lewis (Stanford University), Hilde De Weerdt (University of Oxford), and Fei presented papers that creatively engaged the work of G. William Skinner on how to conceptualize empire in time and space. Lewis proposed that the northern capital historically functioned as a peripheral center that connected the agricultural and economic centers found further south with the steppe, and this positioning, a prime concern of the dynasties founded by nomads, helped maintain China as a coherent empire. De Weerdt used social network analysis to mine Song dynastybiji for data that …
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part I),
2010
National Committee on U.S.-China Relations
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part I), Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
As the end of summer vacation quickly draws near, we at The China Beat have been talking about what we read during our break from the academic grind. The summer provides an opportunity to catch up on books we missed, check out some more eclectic choices, and even read ahead when publishers are nice enough to share advance copies of forthcoming titles. Rather than just keep these conversations in-house, we decided to write up short “book reports” on some of the China-related works, both new and old, we’ve been enjoying during these summer months.
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part Ii),
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part Ii), Kate Merkel-Hess
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Moving across the country (from Irvine, California to State College, Pennsylvania) meant that most of my books—even the new ones—spent the summer packed in boxes. But alongside a rapid inhalation of all three Stieg Larsson novels, I still did a little China reading. Here, a few recommendations.
If You Can Read Chinese, Read This E-Journal,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
If You Can Read Chinese, Read This E-Journal, Xujun Eberlein
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
The new issue of Remembrance (<记忆>) continues to review Mao’s Last Revolution (by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals; Chinese translation can be found here). The four articles in issues 55 and 56 discuss the book from different angles, with thoughtful comments and legitimate questions. All are well worth reading.
