Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Bitter Pill For Prime Minister Kan, James Farrer

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It was a bitter pill for the Democratic Party of Japan, no matter how they swallowed it. By releasing a Chinese fishing boat captain detained by Japan without a trial, Prime Minster Kan Naoto was clearly bowing under Chinese pressure. The captain had been arrested by the Japanese coast guard for allegedly ramming his boat into Japanese coast guard vessels while in territorial waters claimed both by China and Japan. The Japanese government appeared to buckle and released the captain to China on Saturday. According to an unnamed official in the prime minister’s office quoted in the Asahi Shinbun on …

All Judges Are Political—Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies And The Rule Of Law, Keith J. Bybee

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

This paper contains the introduction to the new book, All Judges Are Political—Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law (Stanford University Press, 2010).

The book begins with the observation that Americans are divided in their beliefs about whether courts operate on the basis of unbiased legal principle or of political interest. This division in public opinion in turn breeds suspicion that judges do not actually mean what they say, that judicial professions of impartiality are just fig leaves used to hide the pursuit of partisan purposes.

Comparing law to the practice of common courtesy, the …

A Study Of Democracy In Africa: The Senegalese Experience, Ryan Robert Riley

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis examines the development of democracy in Senegal, one of the few democracies in Africa. In order to understand why democracy has been such a challenge to establish and maintain in Africa, it is necessary to account for the broad effects of European colonization. European powers in their attempts to "modernize" the people of Africa disrupted their natural cultural progress.

The Politics Of The Romanticization Of Popular Culture, Or, Going Ga-Ga Over Pop Culture: A Critical Theory Assessment, Eric Bain-Selbo

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of The Romanticization Of Popular Culture, Or, Going Ga-Ga Over Pop Culture: A Critical Theory Assessment, Eric Bain-Selbo

Philosophy & Religion Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Avatar’S Chinese Adventure, Stanley Rosen

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

There’s been a lot of discussion of the political meanings that can be read intoAvatar and how this might relate to it being pulled from or simply ending its run in some Chinese theaters. As a political scientist with a long-term interest in the Chinese film industry, and the fate of Hollywood movies in China, and someone who is interested in the working of SARFT (the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television), here are four things worth keeping in mind when considering the situation:

Lu Xun, Mao Zedong, Perhaps A Badger, Sean Macdonald

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Urbanatomy has been running a series called “Why I Write” for the past several months, and we’ve noticed that when asked for their favorite Chinese author, many interviewees name Lu Xun (though Ian Johnson is a vocal dissenter). It’s likely that Lu Xun’s work will be known to even more non-Chinese speakers in the future, since Julia Lovell’s new translation of his complete fiction has hit bookshelves — read an excerpt from her introduction here, and see Jeff Wasserstrom’s review of the book here. So many decades after his death, why does Lu Xun remain one of China’s best-known authors, …

In Search Of Remembrance: Jia Zhangke’S I Wish I Knew, Ken Kwan Ming Hao

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In his new film I Wish I Knew, a documentary on Shanghai, Jia Zhangke recreates once again, after a detour of sorts with Useless and24 City, that wonderful tension between the biographical and the historical, the primal impetus of his art, that had made Platform,The World, and Still Life, his best films, so memorable. Jia is different from all other well-known mainland Chinese directors, be they of the 5th or 6th generation — his is a singular sensibility that is aware of but not chained to the social-political, which to him are meaningful only to the extent that they are …

Behind The Headline: Water, Water Everywhere…, Ken Pomeranz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In mid-December, Financial Times published a piece about China’s south-north water diversion project. Writer Jamil Anderlini begins the article with a brief description of the project:

What Are You Afraid Of?, Rebecca Minton, Linnea Christine Kennedy, Chapman University, Candy Rodriguez, Rachael Bridgens, Chelsey Coleman, Krista Xvx, Leticia Dessire Mayorga, Stephanie Bovis, Lorene Spiller Gambill

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and art about self-care, the judicial system, Adrienne Rich, the portrayal of women in advertising, Andrea Dowrkin, sex roles and pornography, rape culture, Rita Gross, human trafficking, welfare, contraception, Margaret Sanger, The Vagina Monologues, Guerilla Girls, feminism and religion, Sandra Harding, tenure at Chapman based on gender, and Delores Huerta.

Ua3/1/4 President's Office-Cherry Speeches & Publications, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Addresses, chapel talks, notes and educational and political speeches written and delivered by Henry Hardin Cherry and others typed on loose leaf pages. There are also quotations, reports, wills, correspondence and a political cartoon. Many items have no attribution as to author or source. Other authors include A.C. Burton, A.W. Mell, Mattie McLean and J.S. Dickey. Some items are repeated throughout the series and others have been edited. Volume 5 has been digitized for use by researchers.

In The Wake, Lindsey Mantoan

Faculty Publications

Lindsey Mantoan reviews a performance of In the Wake (by Lisa Kron) for Theatre Journal.

“Life, It’S Been Said, Is One Big Book…”: One Hundred Years Of Qian Zhongshu, Christopher Rea

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Headlines about China have been looking the same for some time now. “The China story” always seems to be political: labor riots and their suppression; sabre-rattling over Taiwan and cultural erasure in Tibet; catastrophic earthquakes and official ineptitude; internet censorship and jailed dissidents (the latest being Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo). Even ostensibly good news, such as the Chinese government’s investment in wind power, becomes yet another story about how China is going to eat our lunch.

Musings On A Museum: A Trip To Xibaipo, Kenneth Pomeranz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A short trip to China earlier this month took me to Beijing to give a talk, to Shijiazhuang for a conference, and, briefly, to the Hebei countryside — my first time in quite a while in rural North China. And it once again proved that every trip teaches you something, but often not on the expected topics. (One little detail that I found telling: most of the Beijing-based academics who were at the Shijiazhuang conference told me it was their first time there. True, Shijiazhuang is not a tourist hot spot, but it is a provincial capital, with over 2 …

The Obama Effect On American Discourse About Racial Identity: Dreams From My Father (And Mother), Barack Obama's Search For Self, Suzanne W. Jones

English Faculty Publications

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Joseph Curl reported that the Obama organization "would not answer when asked why the biracial candidate calls himself black," replying only that the question didn't "seem especially topical." Biracial ancestry and racial identity are still sensitive subjects in the United States, not suitable for sound bites. But they are perfect topics for the introspective musings of an autobiography, and Barack Obama must have thought he had answered this question in depth in Dreams from My Father (1995). In his introduction, Obama hesitates to use the term "autobiography" because it connotes, he says, "a certain closure"; …

Night At The Museum, Kelly Hammond

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When I was approached to help National Geographic with their ongoing exhibit of the Terra Cotta Warriors at their museum in Washington, D.C., I thought to myself: “Really? Me? But I work on Islam in late imperial China! I’m one of those scholars who mistakenly types Qing anytime I write about the Qin simply out of finger muscle memory! What could I possibly know about China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang?”

China Books To Check Out

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

If your New Year’s resolution is to read more, or if cold winter weather has chased you inside, pour yourself a hot drink, settle into a comfortable chair, and enjoy one (or more) of these books:

The Dalai Lama’S Visit To D.C.: A Short Interview With A. Tom Grunfeld, Jeffrey Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The lead-up to the Dalia Lama’s meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House last week received a great deal of attention from the press, and there was also a considerable amount of after the fact assessment of the event. In order to place what happened into a broad historical perspective, I put a few questions to A. Tom Grunfeld, who is a past contributor to “China Beat” and the author ofThe Making of Modern Tibet. Here are the results of our interview via e-mail, and if you live in New York and want to hear him talk about …

Critical Masses, Commerce, And Shifting State-Society Relations In China, Ying Zhu

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This essay is based on the script of a talk Ying Zhu gave at Google’s New York offices on February 12, 2010. Sections in bold were not part of the original talk, but have been added by the authors to tease out some of the issues that were left without further elaboration due to time constraints.

Wang Hui, Plagiarism, And The Great Bourgeois Academic Cultural Revolution, Susan D. Blum

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Another revolution is afoot in China, and it might even be considered cultural. But this one is about academic culture, as China’s slow-moving iceberg floats up against the glacial mass of “international” (read: Western) principles. The fallout is fascinating for observers, though in some cases tragic for the participants.

World Cup, World Expo, And “Third World” Links

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This is shaping up to be a big year for cities of the Global South (or what in the past was more often called the “Third World”) to serve as first-time hosts for mega-events, whether of the top-tier variety (defined here as those, like the Olympics, that involve or at least could involve more than a hundred countries) or of the second-tier type (those like, say, the Pan-American Games, that draw in nations belonging to just one region or having something else specific in common). Starting with a pair of second-tier but still major sporting events, October will find New …

Where To Begin: New Perspectives On Chinese Labor, Mark W. Frazier

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Studies of labor in China have taken an exciting turn in recent years with the publication of numerous rich and revealing portraits of workers, their jobs, and their place in Chinese politics and in the global economy. As thousands of migrant workers employed in auto parts suppliers for Toyota and Honda went on strike in May and June of 2010, some headlines heralded a political coming of age for China’s migrant workers. While it’s too early to assess the impact of these strikes, it is clear that migrant workers have gained a level of organizational sophistication and political awareness to …

One Day, Two Birthdays

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Most of the people in Philadelphia this holiday weekend have come for the Fourth of July festivities, such as readings of the Declaration of Independence and tours of Independence Hall. This year, however, a special event was part of the city’s eleven-day “Welcome America!” celebration: on Saturday, July 3, a street fair in Philadelphia’s Chinatown marked not only the 234th birthday of the United States, but also the 140th birthday of the Chinatown neighborhood itself (the district’s founding is dated to the establishment of a laundry at 9th and Race Streets in 1870). The afternoon was filled with musical performances, …

A Transcendent Moment In The Land Of Haibao

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I’m finally in Shanghai, where the Gumby-like Haibao is amazingly even more omnipresent than the last time I was through (and then he seemed to be everywhere). I’ve come to check out the Expo, see some new sites, catch up with some old friends, do a bit of traveling, and, as I noted in an earlier post, take part in a dialog on World’s Fairs past and present with Nick Land (that took place a few days ago) and host a weekly series of “Cosmopolitan Conversations” with assorted writers at the Glamour Bar at M on the Bund (those are …

Over Exposure, Lisa Movius, Shakhar Rahav

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“The Expo story that couldn’t be printed.” That’s what editors at Shanghai’s City Weekend magazine found they had on their hands several weeks ago, when Chinese censors deemed the story below “too negative” to run. A revised version was subsequently submitted, approved by the censors, and printed in the January 20, 2010 issue. City Weekend decided not to post the original story on its website as planned, as they were told it was inadvisable due to an official caution against publishing media reports critical of the Expo. Here, we are pleased to share with China Beat readers the full, uncensored …

China Learns From The Soviet Union: An Interview With Thomas P. Bernstein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Thomas Bernstein, professor emeritus of Government at Columbia University, has recently edited a new book with Hua-yu Li, China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-present (Lexington Books, 2010). Below, an interview we conducted with Professor Bernstein via e-mail, exploring the volume’s scope and how it came into being.

Yo! Aas Is Coming To The City Of Brotherly Love, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I’d very much like to be in China this month, as several cities are hosting big literary events that feature many authors I’ve followed for the past several years, and whose names are probably familiar to regular China Beat readers. In Beijing, the Bookworm International Literary Festival is welcoming Graham Earnshaw (The Great Walk of China, March 6), Jonathan Tel (The Beijing of Possibilities, March 8; two excerpts are here and here), and Jeremy Goldkorn (Danwei, March 18). The Shanghai International Literary Festival is also boasting a program chock-full of talks I’d love to hear, such as Hyejin Kim on …

An Interview With Richard Mcgregor, Author Of The Party, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Richard McGregor is the former Beijing bureau chief for the Financial Times and author of the newly released The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers. I recently conducted the interview below with McGregor via e-mail; you can read excerpts from the book here and here and also find a “Why I Write” profile of McGregor at the Urbanatomy site.

Special Report: Thirty Years Of The One-Child Policy

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Scott Tong of Marketplace is concluding his three years as the program’s Shanghai bureau chief by taking an in-depth look at the One-Child Policy as it approaches its 30-year anniversary.

Confessions Of A Lifelong China Watcher, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Looking back on China’s dramatic recent history, from the devastation of the Great Leap Forward to today’s exuberant “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” is a fascinating exercise. China Watcher offers the rare opportunity to learn this history as author Richard Baum did — from the front row.