Bow Before The Portrait: Sino-North Korean Relations Enter The Kim Jong Un Era,
2011
Pacific Lutheran University
Bow Before The Portrait: Sino-North Korean Relations Enter The Kim Jong Un Era, Adam Cathcart
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
The pigs were being slaughtered in the streets when the news of Kim Jong Il’s death arrived in Dachuan, a small logging village in the mountains of western Sichuan province. Over the immense and extended cacophony of the blood-letting, the retired head of the local bank explained, with a bit of apologetic joy, that the villagers were getting ready for Spring Festival, then turned back to the news from Pyongyang, shaking his head at the retrograde tendencies of China’s Korean socialist brothers.
Book Review: Behind The Gate: Inventing Students In Beijing,
2011
Southern Methodist University
Book Review: Behind The Gate: Inventing Students In Beijing, Ling Shiao
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
By drawing our attention to the previously unexamined question of space for student activism, Fabio Lanza has successfully remapped the May Fourth Movement, despite the fact that it is perhaps the most well-travelled terrain in historical research of modern China. This is not a revisionist study that seeks to de-center May Fourth in China’s passage from tradition to modernity by looking for pre-May Fourth modern experimentations and the continuity between the late Qing and May Fourth periods. In fact, Lanza travels back to the historical site of Beijing University (hereafter Beida) and the canonical moment of the May Fourth years …
When Things Go Wrong: Village Elections As A Process
Creating Contention,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
When Things Go Wrong: Village Elections As A Process Creating Contention, Kerry Brown
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
At the heart of the big story of Chinese rural democracy is the many millions of smaller stories of those who have been touched by this immense process. Before looking at village elections, therefore, here is one single story, of one man, who tried to stand in a village election, and of what happened to him. It is concrete experiences of engaging in the whole process of rural democracy like this that give village democracy its tremendous significance and interest. This section is based on papers obtained in Beijing in August 2009.
New Issue Of Twentieth-Century China Available,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
New Issue Of Twentieth-Century China Available
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
The latest issue of Twentieth-Century China should be arriving in subscribers’ mailboxes right now, bringing readers four research articles described below by Chief Editor James Carter in an excerpt from the journal’s editorial:
Ai Weiwei And The “Age Of Madness”: Day Five And
Counting,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Ai Weiwei And The “Age Of Madness”: Day Five And Counting, Lionel M. Jensen
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Just over four days after Ai Weiwei’s sudden apprehension by China’s Public Security Bureau, the government has initiated, as is its tireless and terrifying custom, the public process of building a case against the disappeared by alluding to the subject’s “crimes.”
From Monkey King To Mao: Cultivating Online Games
With “Chinese Characteristics”,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
From Monkey King To Mao: Cultivating Online Games With “Chinese Characteristics”, Marcella Szablewicz
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
With 300 million people playing Internet games in China, the question of how these games affect youth has captured the attention of the public and researchers alike. I first became interested in studying online gaming in 2002 when, as a language student in Harbin, China, I discovered the extent to which playing online games in Internet cafés had become a central part of social life for many urban youth. However, like any new technology, the growing popularity of games has also sparked growing fears about their potential to negatively impact society. In recent years the Chinese media has been full …
Book Review: Gourmets In The Land Of Famine,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Book Review: Gourmets In The Land Of Famine, Emily Hill
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Why is “eating in Canton” (shi zai Guangzhou) known as the best in China? Seung-joon Lee’s lively and original study examines the peculiarities and politics of eating in Canton (Guangzhou) from Qing times to 1937. Using a delectable range of materials in Chinese, Japanese, and English, the book offers an illuminating entrée to the culture and political correctness of eating in modern Chinese history. As the author points out, few historical studies focus on food supplies. Many narrative histories of China, for instance, include sections on the Canton-based events of the 1920s when the Guomindang and the Chinese …
Book Review: Mao Zedong And China In The Twentieth-Century World,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Book Review: Mao Zedong And China In The Twentieth-Century World, Jeremy Tai
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Mao Zedong may no longer be the sublime object of desire in China, but in recent decades his image has been continuously invoked and consumed in countless guises – both familiar and new – ranging from pop art portraits to the ubiquitous face of Chinese banknotes, from Cultural Revolution kitsch to the ObaMao souvenirs currently found in tourist traps around China. The reproduction of Mao in his various postmodern manifestations suggests a loss of meaning and depoliticization; at the same time, however, the deep-seated clash between sentimental and polemical cultural representations also makes clear that there is still much at …
On Chinese Mothering And Amy Chua,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
On Chinese Mothering And Amy Chua
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Yale Law professor Amy Chua’s article on “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” is still in the top five most-emailed stories at the Wall Street Journal’s website, four days after its publication last Saturday. Chua has attracted a considerable amount of attention with her article (and newly released book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother), which examines Chinese parenting techniques and compares them to Western approaches to raising children:
Upcoming Events,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Upcoming Events
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Happy New Year from China Beat! If you’ve just purchased a 2011 calendar, here are some upcoming China-related events—featuring quite a few China Beatniks—to jot down in it:
Chicago And The Future Of U.S.-China Summits,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Chicago And The Future Of U.S.-China Summits, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Except in the Windy City itself, where Hu Jintao heads today and will spend tomorrow, the reporting and speculative commentary on the Chinese leader’s second visit to the United States has tended to focus on it’s just-concluding Washington leg. To me, though, the stop in Chicago seemed from the start the most potentially interesting and novel part of Hu’s trip. After all, this is the first time that a visit to Chicago, an economically important crossroads city with a colorful history and famous architectural landmarks, has figured in the itinerary of the head of China’s Communist Party.
China In 2010: A Baker’S Dozen Of Links,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
China In 2010: A Baker’S Dozen Of Links, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Last month, many commentators offered up lists of top books and top news stories of 2010, sometimes focusing on a particular place or topic. It would be easy to follow suit here, in my first 2011 blog post about China. After all, there were plenty of books on the country published last year (some of which I reviewed individually or in groups). There were also plenty of China-related headlines, from those twelve months ago detailing rising tensions between Washington and Beijing, to summer ones reporting that the nation had surpassed Japan to become both the world’s number two economy, to …
A Quick Q & A With Kim Rathcke Jensen: A Beijing-Based Danish Journalist,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
A Quick Q & A With Kim Rathcke Jensen: A Beijing-Based Danish Journalist
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
A variety of events, from the Copenhagen environmental issues summit in 2009 to the controversy sparked by the Empty Chair in Oslo last year, have led to news stories in the American press that involve both China and a Scandinavian country. This led me to wonder what, if anything, was distinctive about the way Scandinavian media cover China. Realizing that there are bound to be important differences among Scandinavian countries in this regard, but needing to start somewhere in getting a feel for this issue, I turned to Kim Rathcke Jensen, a Danish reporter whose wide-ranging China-focused twitter feedhttp://twitter.com/kinablog/ I’ve …
China Beat On Break,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
China Beat On Break
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Happy holidays to all our readers and contributors from the China Beat editorial team.
Ode To The Communist Song Revisited,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Ode To The Communist Song Revisited
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Back in 2009, as the Chinese Communist Party geared up to mark one major official anniversary (the 60th birthday of the founding of the PRC), China Beat was fortunate enough to be able to run a lively piece of reportage by the versatile writer Lijia Zhang on an unusual museum devoted to a single revolutionary song. Now, as the CCP prepares for another anniversary (the 90th birthday of the organization itself), headlines about the “Red Song” wave (a fad that has been most closely associated with Chongqing but has also been making its mark on other parts of the country) …
The Red Legacy,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
The Red Legacy, Alec Ash
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
When I left Beijing after two years studying Mandarin at Peking and Tsinghua Universities, my Chinese friends from those universities threw me a leaving dinner at the Cultural Revolution restaurant, far on the outskirts of Beijing, outside the 5th ring road. While punters ate, drank and sang along with Mao era songs, waitresses dressed as Red Guards performed patriotic dances, clutching prop rifles. “Long live Chairman Mao!,” the diners would shout, tucking into red-braised pork – good thing this wasn’t the Great Leap Forward restaurant, or it would perhaps have been a quarter bowl of rice each. “Death to capitalist …
Hu Jintao’S “Concession” On Human Rights,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Hu Jintao’S “Concession” On Human Rights, Alice Miller
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Chinese President and CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao’s remarks on human rights during his joint press conference with President Obama in Washington on 19 January have been widely regarded in foreign media as a grudging concession that broke new ground in Beijing’s position on the issue. Specifically, confronted by a persistent Washington press corps, Hu for the first time acknowledged “the universality of human rights” in international politics and conceded that “a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights.”
Memories Of Hyperdevelopment: Chongqing Trip Report,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Memories Of Hyperdevelopment: Chongqing Trip Report, Jacob Dreyer
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Like any good Shanghai resident, I am more or less terrified by the China that exists outside of metro line 3. However, I had been obsessing for months about the municipality of Chongqing, a radically unusual city even by the standards of contemporary China. When I found that I had a spare weekend, I finally took a trip there to explore. Instead of describing my trip, or offering a journalistic take on the city à la Christina Larson, whose piece in Foreign Policy does that more competently than I could hope to, what follows is a series of meditations on …
Shanghai Spaces And Histories: Thoughts On Reading Qiu Xiaolong’S Years Of Red Dust,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Shanghai Spaces And Histories: Thoughts On Reading Qiu Xiaolong’S Years Of Red Dust, Daisy Yan Du
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
In Shanghai Modern, Leo Lee, a prominent specialist in Chinese literary studies, focuses much of his attention on urban space as a marker of modernity in Republican Shanghai (1912-1949). His mappings of the city include places that are located mostly in the concessions, where Western (and later Japanese) influences dominated: the high-rise buildings in the Bund, the department stores located on or near Nanjing Road, and the cafes in the French Concession, as well as dance halls, public parks, race clubs, and cinemas. Lee also touches upon the lanes populated by native Chinese, but his main focus is on …
Asia’S Disappearing Daughters,
2011
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Asia’S Disappearing Daughters, Jeffrey Wasserstrom
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Last week witnessed the publication of Mara Hvistendahl’s Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men (Public Affairs, 2011), and over the weekend my take on the book appeared online at the recently relaunched Asian Review of Books. That review is reposted here with the kind permission of the ARB, almost exactly as it ran there. Those who are interested in learning more about Hvistendahl’s arguments after reading my essay can, of course, buy the book, but U.S.-based followers of the blog have another option as well: catch one of the public events …
