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Five Stylish Recent Books

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As New Year’s is often a time of glitz and glamour (and last-minute holiday giving), we thought we would feature a few books that often include text with smart things to say, but would also be worth getting just for the pictures.

1. Lynn Pan’s Shanghai Style: Art and Design Between the Wars

An examination of the polyglot artistic influences in early twentieth century Shanghai, by one of the city’s acute observers.

2. Claire Roberts and Geremie R. Barme eds.,The Great Wall of China

This book features essays by many scholars about the varied history and uses of the Great …

Taiwan Top Five, Paul Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As we prepare to ring out 2008, here are a few thoughts about some of the leading stories that have shaped Taiwan during the past year:

1. Back and Blue: Ma Ying-jeou sweeps into office as Taiwan’s new president, winning a convincing majority of the popular vote based on a platform promising a more stable relationship with China, economic prosperity, and clean government. Cross-Straits tensions have declined markedly, while the opening of direct links should bring great benefits to the citizens of both China and Taiwan. At the same time, however, the economy remains in the doldrums (see #2) …

Rock Is Not Revolution, Part Ii, Chris Heselton

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One of the early rock musicians to make the jump to mainstream and become a household name was Xu Wei. His popularity is probably due to a style that some have called Chinese country or folk rock. This style does not have the explosive rage of heavy metal that many in the popular audience find hard to accept. Instead, he Xu Wei style is a more calm and relaxing melodic rock. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Xu Wei’s music is how similar it is to many of the romantic and nostalgic lyrical themes of pop music. Hometown (故乡, 2000), …

Zeng Jingyan Accepts Hu Jia’S Sakharov Prize

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In late October, the European Parliament announced that it would award this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Hu Jia, an activist for HIV/AIDS and the environment currently imprisoned in Beijing. Hu and his wife, Zeng Jingyan, have been adept at using new media to share their message of human rights activism with an international audience, making Hu Jia better known outside China than inside it.

The award ceremony was held December 17. China has continued to protest the award.

Zeng Jingyan, who remains under surveillance at the couple’s apartment, accepted the award via video, subsequently posted on …

Philosophical Tours Of China, From Dewey To Derrida, Jeff Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Peter Zarrow’s piece last month on Bertrand Russell’s writing on and travels to China may have gotten some of our readers curious about the other two members of the triumverate of famous philosophers mentioned in the introduction to that post: the Indian poet and thinker Rabindranath Tagore and the American pragmatist and educational theorist John Dewey. What each of these two men thought about and did while in China could be well worth a posting. And perhaps in 2009 the blog will run such pieces, as it would be a very appropriate year to do so, at least in Dewey’s …

Rock Is Not Revolution, Chris Heselton

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Rock is revolution! Rock is rebellion! Rock is democracy! Well, at least Axl Rose seems to think so with his new album Chinese Democracy. A rock legend singing to democracy in China seems almost poetically fitting. When people tend to think of China and rock music, it almost always comes back to democracy, more specifically, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Rock was the theme genre of the liberal, underground democratic movement. Ever since Cui Jian (崔健) played “I Have Nothing” (一无所有)—sometimes translated as “Nothing to My Name”—at the protest, rock music has been associated with democracy in China, and …

More Last Minute Gifts: Books From China Beat Contributors

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Many of our regular contributors have recent books out on China as well. We highly recommend the following as gifts for those many China non-experts in your life.

1. Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang

For: The Worldly Progressive

Chang’s book, published this year to positive reviews (including this one at the New York Times by Howard French, where Factory Girlswas also recently named one of the Times‘ 100 notable books for 2008), follows the lives of young factory workers in Dongguang. Read an excerpt, published earlier at China Beat, here.

2. Socialism is Great!, Lijia Zhang

For: The Memoir Maven …

Divine Justice, Paul Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As China ascends to its place as a leading nation on the world stage, questions have arisen concerning the role of its legal system. As Joseph Kahn noted in a feature article entitled Deep Flaws, and Little Justice, in China’s Court System, “Justice in China is swift but not sure.” Many protests in China today center on the issue of justice, with one blogger responding to the January 2008 fatal beating by parapolice officials of a man trying to videotape a protest by lamenting “Where is justice? Where is the law? Aren’t there any rules in China?”

My newest book, …

Last Minute Gifts: China Books

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

So you’ve put off holiday shopping until now. If you’d like to share your love of China this year, here are a few recommendations for old classics and more recent releases for the recipients on your list. All these books are widely available and relatively affordable.

1. Fortress Besieged, by Qian Zhongshu

For: The Literature Lover

We’ve written about this 1947 novel at China Beat before. It is a classic of Chinese literature, but not particularly well known in the West, making it the perfect gift for a well-read friend or relative.

2. The Question of Hu, Jonathan Spence

For: …

Globalization And National Information Policy In Nigeria, Augonus Nnamdi Uhegbu

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The paper focuses on the need for a national information policy in Nigeria in the face of globalization. The paper is not anti-globalization, but believes that although globalization facilitates global access to information and its generating media, it also has the potential of exposing Nigerians to obscene information materials, and of dumping unwholesome, improperly packaged and substandard information resources in the country. The conceptual explanation of both globalization and information policy is discussed. Also discussed is Nigeria 's contemporary information environment, which this paper sees as highly risky, volatile and uncoordinated. The paper argues that with national information policy, globalization …

Library Visits And Consultation: A Case Study Of Universities In Northwestern India, Chetan Sharma

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Libraries have always been houses of knowledge for their organizations, and they play an important role in research and scholarship. The present study evaluates the use of university libraries of Northwestern India by teachers and research scholars and assesses their satisfaction.

The Changing Role Of Researchers In Nigeria : The Internet As An Alternative Future To Modernity, Manir Abdullahi Kamba

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Researchers in Nigeria have traditionally depended on conventional libraries, and information centers, where they can physically access their needed information. Their main source of information has been traditional sources such as books, journals, and newspapers. The Internet has simplified the research process. The paper further examines how the Internet has become a tool for academic research, and also a publisher that Nigerian academics and researchers should maximally use. The paper focuses on the role played by the Internet in academic research and highlights opportunities and challenges it presents. It explores the status of Internet connectivity in Nigeria and examines the …

The University Library, Information Provision, And Use By Policymakers In Olabisi Onabanjo University (Oou), Nigeria, Abiodun O. Odunewu

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Availability and timely access to information is indispensable in policy formulation and implementation. It is often believed that a library is as good as its patronage. This study is an attempt to relate the level of patronage of Olabisi Onabanjo University Library by its policymakers to its information delivery capability. A questionnaire was used to gather data, with 102 copies administered at the senate level and 18 copies administered at the Governing Council level. A total of 89 copies were returned, representing an 80 percent response rate. The study reveals inadequate patronage of the library by policymakers. The study concludes …

Information Needs And Information-Seeking Behavior Of Arts And Humanities Teachers: A Survey Of The University Of The Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, Muhammad Tahir, Khalid Mahmood, Farzana Shafique

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study explores the information needs and information-seeking behavior of humanities faculty members of the University of the Punjab, Lahore . It investigates the methods and sources used to acquire information, the importance of various information resources for their teaching and research activities, their preferred formats, the purpose of their information-seeking and problems faced. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to get a response from the targeted population which consisted of 90 teaching and research staff of humanities departments. The response rate was 69 percent. The study reveals that most of the humanities faculty members rely heavily upon books and experts …

Overlap In Web Search Results: A Study Of Five Search Engines, Rafiq Ahmad Rather, Fayaz Ahmad Lone, Gulam Jeelani Shah

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation that measured the degree of overlap between the results retrieved through Google, Altavista, Hotbot, Scirus, and Bioweb using twenty queries in biotechnology. Among the selected search engines, Hotbot had the most overlap (followed by Google) with other search engines except Bioweb. Compound and complex queries produced more overlap than simple queries.

Chinese In Laos, Caroline Finlay

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Chimes jingle on gold-painted stupas and teenagers strum guitars to the beat of passing tuk-tuks in Luang Prabang, Laos’ UNESCO World Heritage sight nestled on the Mekong. Sadly, a more obtrusive rhythm has hit the scene: the squawk of walkie-talkie phones. Like a large percentage of Lao’s motorbikes, clothes and electronics, the walkie-talkie phones are a Chinese import, strapped to the belts of the increasingly numerous Chinese tourists visiting Luang Prabang, famous for its now fragile serenity.

China has begun to re-establish ties with sparsely populated Laos, which has historically aligned with Indochina War ally Vietnam. The Chinese have made …

Selectivity In Imaging The First Emperor, K. E. Brashier

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The story of Qin may vaunt grandiose armies and new empires that encompass all under heaven, but it also extends to more humble images:

Li Si, [the chief minister of Qin], was a man of Shangcai in Chu. In his youth, when he was a minor clerk in the province, he noticed rats eating filth in the latrines of the clerks’ hostel; and if they approached a man or dog, they were generally scared of them. But when Si entered a granary, he observed that the rats in the granary were eating the stored-up grain, living underneath the main chamber …

Planning Your Business In The Volatile Economy Of 2009, Doug Jose

Cornhusker Economics

Planning what to grow in 2009 has many complications this year. Among the possible unknowns at the farm level are market prices for commodities, the cost and availability of inputs and the cost and availability of operating credit. I say “possible” because through contractual arrangements and forward pricing decisions you may already have locked in many of these prices for the next production cycle. Then there are a number of general economic situations which will impact agriculture. The financial recovery both here and worldwide is critical. Agriculture needs improvement in our general economy and improved consumer confidence in order to …

China Celebrates Human Rights, Jeremy Paltiel

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Today, December 12, 2008 Xinhua reports that China’s President and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Hu Jintao sent a letter to a symposium held by the China Association for the Study of Human Rights to commemorate International Human Rights Day, the 60th Anniversary of the passage by the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In his letter, Hu avers that since the founding of New China in 1949 China has made steady progress in the protection of human rights according to China’s “national situation” culminating in the solemn enshrinement of the principle …

Minority Degree College Libraries In Andhra Pradesh: A Study With Special Reference To Naac Standards, Syamalamba Rani

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study reviews the development of college education and library management at Degree Colleges of the minority-communities in India and Andhra Pradesh. A survey included physical conditions, administrative procedures, human resources management and workforce availability, the quality and variety of services offered, verified whether NAAC library standards are being followed, and studied the extent of computer use or phases of computerization; availability of systems, and type of software being used.

Reclaiming Old Shanghai?

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few weeks ago, it was reported that horseracing had returned to China for the first time since 1949. Though this time, the horses are running in Wuhan, horseracing in China was for a long time almost synonymous with Shanghai. In case that history is new to you, here are a few places to go for more on Shanghai’s racing history:

1. When news came earlier this year that the government might allow horseracing in Wuhan (and that spectators would be allowed to participate in a “lottery”—gambling remains illegal), Far Eastern Economic Review posted a short excerptfrom a 1983 book …

The State Of Information And Communication Technology (Ict) In Nigerian University Libraries: The Experience Of Ibrahim Babangida Library, Federal University Of Technology, Yola, Benki S.H. Womboh, Tukur Abba

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper gives an overview of the state of the ICT in Nigerian university libraries and traces the development and management of ICT facilities in the Federal University of Technology of Technology Yola library. Some problems militating against proper functioning of such facilities are highlighted and suggestion for possible solutions proffered.

Library Education In Bangladesh: Strengths, Problems, And Suggestions, A.I.M. Jakaria Rahman, Momena Khatun, Dr. Mohammed Mezbah-Ul-Islam

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article examines the historical development and current trends of library education system in Bangladesh, identifies educational institutions involved, and determines the strength of current l

December 2008 - Staff Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Reading Recommendations

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Gems on China often appear in unexpected places, and we were recently alerted to a handful worth looking into at the Literary Review of Canada. These three pieces review recent works in Chinese studies that touch on issues central to current discussions on the China blogosphere. We’ve included short excerpts below, but encourage you to make the leap to the longer versions.

The first is a review by Timothy Cheek, the author of a book on Mao that we flagged in one of our first posts last January, and a regular commentator on contemporary China, as here and here. In …

Sharing Health Records Electronically: The Views Of Nebraskans, Tarik Abdel-Monem, Mitchel Herian

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

In November of 2008, the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center implemented a public input project to gather information from Nebraskans about electronic sharing of medical information. One hundred and sixty eight Nebraskans completed an online or paper copy survey, and 34 of those survey respondents also participated in a deliberative discussion.

Comfortable with Sharing Medical Information Electronically
• Nebraskans have positive views about electronic sharing of medical information.
• Nebraskans understand the benefits of electronic health information exchange.
• Nebraskans have concerns about who should have the authority to access their electronic health information.

Experienced with Information Technology and …

Citation Analysis Of Theses In Library And Information Science Submitted To University Of Pune: A Pilot Study, R.V. Chikate, S.K. Patil

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This is a bibliometric study that used 27 LIS dissertations with a total of 6,257 citations. Most citations are from periodicals (42.2%), mostly from US and Indian journals. Nearly half of the citations recorded are from journal articles: 2,639 (42.2%) Nearly three quarters of the journal articles were from LIS journals, with the remainder from 33 other subject areas. College and Research Libraries is the most cited journal, followed by Scientometrics. Most of the citations are from 55 journals out of the total number.

New Rural Residents: Insights Into Their Decision To Stay Or Leave, Charlotte Narjes, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

What brought new residents to the Nebraska Panhandle? For many, it was the image of a small town environment, which they described as a family and faith oriented community, safe and free of traffic and congestion and often located closer to family.

This insight was one of many identified through twelve regional focus group interviews conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty as part of a research project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture-National Research Initiative.

While a number of individuals were pleased with the small town atmosphere, others found that their image of the community did not …

Charter 08: Five Links

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The biggest China news story of the moment is the issuance of Charter 08, a declaration that was created to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is inspired in part by “Charter 77,” the famous Czech group, and the arrest and detention of some of its signatories. Here are five things to read to help put the document into context, or learn more about those being help because of it.

1) Charter 08 itself, translated into English by Perry Link, can be found here.

2) A sophisticated exploration of the events of 1989 …

From Iron Girls To Oriental Beauties, Hongmei Li

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In a piece I did for the Huffington Post on women and the Olympics, I provided a brief overview of the history of ideas about feminine beauty in China and their links to concepts of modernity. This post supplements it by looking at the shift in representations of women from celebrating iron girls to extolling Oriental beauties over the course of the still relatively short history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

During the three decades that followed the 1949 founding of the PRC, one goal promoted in official discourse was that of erasing gender differences and promoting gender …