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All Good Things Must Come To An End: China Beat’S 1,000th Post, Maura Cunningham, Kate Merkel-Hess, Ken Pomeranz, Jeff Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With much gratitude, the China Beat editors say goodbye.

What a difference four years can make—for a blog, a country, and a planet. (“Blog, country, planet” might have made a nice coat of arms if we’d thought of it…) When China Beat launched early in 2008, blogs seemed like relatively new kids on the block, at least to academics. Four years later, the genre is old hat, sharing a landscape with newcomers like Tumblr, Twitter, and other microblogging platforms, and we’re increasingly catching up on China news not on computers but on devices that fit in our palms.

The blog …

Book Review: A Passion For Facts By Tong Lam, Maggie Clinton

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Tong Lam’s engaging new study A Passion for Facts analyzes the processes by which modern modes of apprehending and ordering the social world were forced upon and ultimately embraced by Chinese political and intellectual elites during the late Qing and Republican periods. Lam focuses on the rise of the “social survey” (shehui diaocha) as a means of knowing and constituting a new object called “society” (shehui), as well as the epistemological violence of imperialism that rendered the social survey a seemingly natural way of investigating the world. By the time the Nationalists assumed state power in 1927, Lam argues, “seeking …

Book Review: Superstitious Regimes By Rebecca Nedostup, Stefania Travagnin

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Superstitious Regimes is an interdisciplinary work that sheds new light on the interaction between the state-body and the religion-body in early twentieth-century China, with a focus on the Nanjing Decade (1927-1937). Nedostup develops her analysis from both a diachronic and synchronic perspective. The author underlines shifts and continuities between a few historical periods: Sun Yat-sen’s time, the early years of the Nanjing Decade, the late years of the Nanjing Decade, and the post-Nanjing Decade.

Nedostup’s interdisciplinary study is of interest for a large readership: students and scholars of Chinese studies, Chinese politics, Chinese religions, and Chinese history would all benefit …

Book Review: Dream Of Ding Village By Yan Lianke, Mike Frick

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Unsurprisingly, the Chinese government levied a “three nos” ban—no sales, no distribution, and no promotion—against Dream of Ding Village after its publication in 2005. Though the storytelling relies heavily on dream sequences, Yan takes little poetic license when exposing the depth of the state’s culpability in spreading HIV among poor, medically-naïve farmers. He is just as uncompromising when detailing how officials denied responsibility for the ensuing AIDS epidemic, even as they profited from its human tragedy. No one in Ding Village receives medical care, mental health counseling, food assistance, or a chance to hold the blood heads legally accountable. Cast …

Changsha: Photographs By Rian Dundon, Rian Dundon

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Rian Dundon, whose photographs have previously appeared at China Beat, will soon be releasing a new book of photography on China, Changsha. Dundon’s book will feature a forward written by friend of the blog Gail Hershatter and includes his photos of and essays on the Hunan province city of Changsha. For more information, and to pre-order a copy of the book, see the book’s website (pre-sales of the book are part of a crowd-funding campaign raising funds for its first run with the publisher, Emphas.is). Below is a special teaser of Changsha material that Dundon has prepared for China Beat …

Celebrating Chunjie In Old Nanjing, Sarah Tynen

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“You must be so homesick! Aren’t you going home to celebrate chunjie?” asked the Auntie who sells tofu on the back of a freight tricycle in the old city of Nanjing. Auntie rides down the narrow, winding alleys of Old Nanjing several times a day to emphatically announce her price of tofu at 500 grams for 1.5 yuan (that’s about a pound for 25 cents). Standing at my doorstep the week before chunjie, or the Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year in the West, she told me to stock up. It was the last day of …

“Unwavering Public Support” Not Quite So Easy To Find These Days, Duncan Hewitt

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It was just like old times—in many of China’s major newspapers, a prominently displayed half-page story headlined: “Officials and citizens all across the country express unwavering support for central party leadership’s decision.” It followed hot on the heels of the previous day’s People’s Daily headline: “Resolutely support the party’s correct decision,” which appeared on many front pages. In the wake of the stunning news that Bo Xilai, one of China’s most prominent politicians, had been suspended from the ruling Politburo, and his wife arrested on suspicion of being involved in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, the Chinese Communist …

The Taiwan Elections In Historical Perspective, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

During a recent trip to Taipei to observe the January presidential and legislative elections, like many people with little first-hand knowledge of Taiwan, I was struck by the unique traits of Taiwan’s democracy. The elections also seemed relevant to many debates in China, not only because they were closely followed and tweeted by critical voices on the mainland, but also because of their significance against the broader historical and geographical context of the history of modern China, a connection which holds true even if one subscribes to the view that Taiwan had no previous connection with this history before 1945 …

Rural Return: Xi Jinping’S Iowa Visit, Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to the US took him across the country, from Washington, DC, to Los Angeles (where, sadly, despite spending some time with a sartorially-challenged David Beckham, he did not show off his soccer skills, as he did in the subsequent Irish leg of his trip).

But it wasn’t the visits to the coasts that dominated human interest stories on Xi Jinping’s trip, but the days in the middle, when he spent a little time in Iowa. Xi first visited Iowa in 1985, when he was an official in Hebei province, and this trip was a …

Excerpt: Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom, Stephen R. Platt

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A big new China book to hit shelves in recent weeks is Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War, written by University of Massachusetts, Amherst historian Stephen Platt. Platt places the Taiping Rebellion in a global context, emphasizing its importance to American and European observers of the conflict, whose economic ties to China made them keenly interested in the country’s domestic situation. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom also offers new insights into how the Taiping Rebellion tied into Chinese internal politics, particularly the ways in which the Taiping rebels sought …

Book Review: Developmental Fairy Tales, Nicole Kwoh

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

At the 1996 APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, Jiang Zemin concluded his speech on economic development with a quote from Lu Xun: “For actually the earth had no road to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made” (1921). This quote highlights the important role played by the first generation of modern Chinese literature in shaping the current rhetoric of building a road to progress. In Developmental Fairy Tales: Evolutionary Thinking and Modern Chinese Culture, Andrew F. Jones explains the construction of this ubiquitous concept of cultural and historical progress. With a focus on Lu …

Salvaging Memories From The Ruins Of The Three Gorges, Daisy Yan Du

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. The construction of the dam began in 1994 and was completed in 2009. Proponents bill it as a symbol of China’s rise on the global stage, while critics worldwide see it as a huge humanitarian crisis that has the potential to worsen in years to come. The biggest controversy of this project concerns the forced migration of around two million people, who, due to the rising water, have been displaced from their hometowns along the upper reaches of the Yangzi River in Chongqing and Sichuan and Hubei …

Digital Chinese Whispers: Death Threats And Rumors Inside China’S Online Marketplace Of Ideas, James Leibold

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Chinese internet is a wonderfully raucous and interesting place. It has greatly expanded the scope of public discourse and activity, despite the party-state’s extensive censorship regime. Not surprisingly, the world’s largest cyber-community exhibits tremendous depth and diversity: progressive cyber-activists and professional agitators; navel-gazing starlets and steam-venting gamers; mundane infotainment and the banal waxing of quotidian life; and, sadly, dark corners of fear, hatred and paranoia. It’s all there; it simply depends on where one looks. Like other technologies before it, the internet is normatively neutral, and thus can be put to good, bad and anodyne uses: individuals—not tools—shape the …

Book Review: Modern China’S Network Revolution, Brett Sheehan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The title of Zhongping Chen’s new book has a double meaning. Modern China’s Network Revolution refers both to his claim for new, revolutionary forms of networking among lower-Yangzi Chinese elites at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries and to the revolutionary roles of those networks in elite mobilization, especially in the 1911 revolution which overthrew the Qing. As such, the book makes a meaningful contribution to debates on the nature of Chinese organizational practices, especially merchant organizational practices, and to debates about the nature of late-Qing elite mobilization and the relationship of those mobilized elites …

Behind Bo Xilai’S Halo, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the wake of Bo Xilai’s sudden downfall, shortly after what could be called an online carnival among China watchers—probably more in celebration of a rare, real-life political drama than anything else—international media is changing its tune and beginning to paint a more sympathetic image of Bo than previously reported, by focusing on Chinese people’s love of him. Reuters, for example, has a report titled “In China’s Chongqing, dismay over downfall of Bo Xilai” that quotes a working “stick man” (棒棒军, a porter-for-hire) who praises Bo as “a good man” that “made life a lot better here.” The Telegraph‘s Malcolm …

Book Review: Chiang Kai-Shek’S Interpersonal Relationships: Perspectives Across The Strait, Sherman Lai

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This book brings together papers and panel discussions of a conference on Chiang Kai-shek held in Taipei in January 2011 with the joint participation of historians from both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. It reflects new scholarship on Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese-speaking world and showcases the approaches that historians in the PRC adopt in handling challenges that their Western colleagues do not encounter. While Chinese historians have enormous audiences, they do not share the academic freedom enjoyed by their colleagues in the West and Taiwan. Because their careers and livelihood are dependent on the Chinese Communist …

Buchrezension – Book Review: Jan Bemmann (Herausgeber) (2012): Steppenkrieger. Reiternomaden Des 7.–14. Jahrhunderts Aus Der Mongolei, Primus Verlag Darmstadt, Format Din A4, 416 Seiten, Zahlreiche Farbfotos Und Zeichnungen, Michael Stubbe

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Book review of Jan Bemmann (Herausgeber) (2012): Steppenkrieger. Reiternomaden des 7.–14. Jahrhunderts aus der Mongolei. Primus Verlag Darmstadt, Format DIN A4, 416 Seiten, zahlreiche Farbfotos und Zeichnungen, Preis 39,90 Euro. ISBN: 978-3-86312-011-5.

Erforschung Biologischer Ressourcen Der Mongolei, Band 12 = Exploration Into The Biological Resources Of Mongolia, Volume 12: Front Matter And Table Of Contents, Annegret Stubbe

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The title page, front matter, and table of contents for volume 12 of the Erforschung journal (i.e. the Black journal) of the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg, Halle (Saale).

Morphology And Variation Of The Asiatic Wild Ass (Equus Hemionus Hemionus), Kati Schöpke, Annegret Stubbe, Michael Stubbe, Nyamsuren Batsaikhan, Renate Schafberg

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

A collection of recent skeletal remains from the Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus hemionus PALLAS) was prepared and stored in the Museum of Domesticated Animals “JULIUS KÜHN” in Halle, Germany.

The collection is based on carcass remains sampled between 2001 and 2006 under the leadership of Michael Stubbe during joint Mongolian-German Biological Expeditions

Skeletal remains of 43 individual specimens were studied (18 mares, 15 stallions, and 10 juvenile asses). The determination of sex and age was initially based on carcass information from observations made in situ in the field. Subsequently, skull traits, including dentition and development of canine teeth …

Biodiversity And Evolutionary Development Of Oligocene-Pliocene Lagomorphs (Lagomorpha, Mammalia) Of Mongolia, M. A. Erbajeva

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Lagomorphs (pikas and hares) are an ancient group of small mammals originated in Asia in the Paleocene-Eocene. The earliest evidence of their presence in Mongolia is dated to the Early Oligocene. The taxa flourished during the Late Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene; at the Late Pliocene they were reduced both in their diversity and in abundance. No data on lagomorph are known from the Pleistocene and Holocene, though there are 7 taxa of lagomorphs present in the modern fauna. Altogether, more than 50 lagomorph species, extinct at present, are known to have existed in Mongolia since the Oligocene through the Late …

50 Years Mongolian-German Biological Expeditions And Their Future = Fifty Years Mongolian-German Biological Expeditions And Their Future, Michael Stubbe, Ravčigijn Samjaa, Annegret Stubbe

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

First two paragraphs:

In 2012 we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mongolian-German Biological Expeditions. The roots can be found in the old German-Russian scientific relationships in the history of the University Halle-Wittenberg in connection with August Hermann Francke (1663–1727) and his Foundations (founded in 1698). It’s a long tradition, dating back to the 18th century when early researchers as Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709 –1746) or Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811) reached the northern border of Mongolia. Other sources of close connections between Halle and Russia are given by persons as the physician Friedrich Hoffmann (1660–1742), the mathematician Christian Wolff (1679-1754) …

Home Range Characteristics Of Corsac And Red Foxes In Mongolia, Tserendorjiin Munkhzul, J. D. Murdoch, R. P. Reading

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Red (Vulpes vulpes) and corsac foxes (V. corsac) live sympatrically throughout most of Mongolia, but few details of their home range characteristics exist. We captured and radio-tagged 13 red fox (♂ = 5, ♀ = 8) and 15 corsac foxes (♂ = 8, ♀ = 7) between 2004 and 2008. We tracked their movements to estimate home range sizes and examined the effects of four factors on home range size, including sex, age, season, and year. We determined mean home range size for 12 red and 10 corsac foxes that had sufficient data using fixed kernel …

Ochotona Daurica Pallas, 1776: Modern And Past Distribution Area In Mongolia And The Transbaikal Region, M. A. Erbjeva, N. V. Alexeeva, T. V. Kisloschaeva

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Ochotona daurica Pallas, 1776 is one of the ancient species among modern taxa having an origination in Transbaikalia possible at the end of Pleistocene. Review on the Late Pleistocene- Holocene-Recent area of distribution of this species is given on the base of new evidences and detail analysis of the previous data.

Long-Term Research On Biodiversity In West Khentey, Northern Mongolia, Michael Mühlenberg

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Biodiversity is studied at ecosystem, community, and species level around Khonin Nuga, where the University Goettingen supports a research station since 15 years (established 1997 in cooperation with the National University of Mongolia). In that period 39 scientists have been involved and 67 students graduated with theses (7 PhD) about field work at that station. Inventories started at 1998 for several taxa and are now compiled in a book, which will be printed 2012 in Ulaanbaatar. It covers fungi, lichens, plants, several insect groups, spiders, crustaceans, and all vertebrate classes. For all taxa adequate experts proved the species lists. Because …

First Stable Isotope Analysis Of Asiatic Wild Ass Tail Hair From The Mongolian Gobi, Micha Horacek, Petra Kaczensky, Merina Burnik Sturm

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Stable isotope analysis has become a powerful tool to study feeding ecology, water use or movement pattern in contemporary, historic and ancient species. Certain hair and teeth grow continuously, and when sampled longitudinally can provide temporally explicit information on dietary regime and movement pattern. In an initial trial, we analysed a tail sample of an Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus) from the Mongolian Gobi. We found seasonal variations in H, C, and N isotope patterns, likely being the result of temporal variations in available feeds, water supply and possibly physiological status. Thus stable isotope analysis shows promise to …

Pleistocene Faunal Fossils From Bayangol I Site, Bulgan Aimag, Mongolia, Takao Sato, Fedora Khenzykhenova, Toshiaki Tsurumaru, Masao Ambiru, Jun Takakura, Yoshiaki Otsuka, Shigeo Iida, Natalya Schepina, Batmunkh Tsogtbaatar

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

During excavation of the Bayan-gol I Palaeolithic site in the Bulgan Aimak, Mongolia, some faunistic remains were recovered attributable to Aves (two species), Anura (two species), and mammals (three species). The fossil remains bear a considerable similarity to the corresponding species of today in Mongolia.

Long-Term Ecology Of Asiatic Wild Ass (Equus H. Hemionus Pallas) In Central Asia, Annegret Stubbe, Michael Stubbe, Nyamsuren Batsaikhan, Ravčigijn Samjaa

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The main population of the nominate form Equus hemionus hemionus Pallas, 1775 occurs in the south-east Gobi desert of Mongolia. From 2003 to 2012 we studied the reproductive ecology and mortality of dschiggetajs or khulans (English also ‘hulan’). During these years, the rate of reproduction was variable, ranging from 6.4% to 23.0% depending on climate, feeding conditions, and fitness of the mares. Our research shows that there appears to be a relationship between minimum temperatures in June (main foaling time) and rate of successful reproduction. The primary cause of decline in the numerical density of the population of E. hemionus …

Morphological Disparity Among Rock Voles Of The Genus Alticola From Mongolia, Kazakhstan And Russia (Rodentia, Cricetidae), V. N. Bolshakov, I. A. Vasilyeva, A. G. Vasilyev

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The Central Asian high-mountain or rock voles of the genus Alticola Blanford, 1881 are one of the least studied groups of rodents. Taxonomic status of various geographic forms is not yet established until our days. This genus is not enough examined by biochemical and molecular genetic methods. We analyzed morphological disparity among rock voles of the genus Alticola from 8 localities. The samples studied represent 7 nominal species: A. semicanus Allen, 1924 (East Mongolia), Alticola argentatus Severtzov, 1879 (East Kazakhstan), A. tuvinicus Ognev, 1950 (Russia: Tuva), A. olchonensis Litvinov, 1960 (Russia: Olchon Island), A. macrotis Radde, 1861 (Russia: Khamar-Daban ridge), …

Herpetological Diversity Of Mongolia And Its Conservation Issues, Khorloo Munkhbayar, M, Munkhbaatar

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

From the viewpoint of evolution, the classes of amphibians and reptiles could be considered as relicts, and because they are poikilothermic animals, it’s very difficult for these species to live under the dry and cold climatic conditions in Mongolia. Even species diversity is poor, Mongolian herpetological composition is unique, highly adopted to the country’s harsh climate and originated a long time ago.

In Mongolia, six species of amphibians belong to four genera, four families and two orders and the recorded 21 species of reptiles belong to 13 genera in six families of two suborders.

Ecology And Behaviour Of The Black-Billed Capercaillie (Tetrao Urogalloides Stegmanni) In The Khentej Mountains, Mongolia, Siegfried Klaus, Karl-Heniz Schindlatz, Alexander V. Andreev, Hans-Heiner Bergmann

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Introduction

A common inhabitant of East Siberian larch forests, the Siberian or black-billed capercaillie (Tetrao urogalloides) ranges south to the limits of the boreal forests in the northern Mongolian mountains and east to the very coast of the Asian continent (KLAUS et al. 1989). Tetrao urogalloides MIDDENDORF (1851) has priority over T. parvirostris BONAPARTE (1856). Therefore, we prefer the T. urogalloides.

The subspecies T.u. stegmanni was first described on the basis of morphological differences by POTAPOV (1985) using specimens collected during Russian expeditions by KOZLOVA (1930). This description was based on 18 males in the collection at …