Chinese Studies Commons^™

What Shall We Do With The Dead Dictator?

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One of the thorniest problems facing fledgling democracies involves how to cope with memories of their former dictators. Attempts to assess this aspect of a country’s history are especially problematic due to the fact that the trauma many citizens have suffered is tempered by the lingering impact of indoctrination and hero worship (consider the debates over Suharto’s rule now that he has just passed away). Add to this mixture of emotions the spices of identity formation and electoral politics and its volatility can increase exponentially.

For the past year, Taiwan has been in the throes of grappling with the legacy …

In Case You Missed It: New Books On Women And Family In China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Two new English-language books by two of my favorite scholars in Chinese women’s studies are not to be missed: Susan Mann’s The Talented Women of the Zhang Family, and Harriet Evans’ The Subject of Gender: Daughters and Mothers in Urban China. Harkening to Margery Wolf’s foundational concept of the “uterine family” (see Wolf’s Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan), both works explore Chinese culture and history through the lives of women and their relationships with their sisters, mothers, daughters, and aunts.

Best known for her 1997 book, Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century, whose arguments rely on …

Taelspin For Saturday, January 26, 2008

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Following up on Susan’s excellent post (the first in a series) about preparations for this summer’s Olympics, this Saturday edition of The Taelspin leads off with reports that members of Team USA have been issued specially designed anti-pollution masks to wear in Beijing. Tim Johnson, the Beijing bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers, and author of the blog China Rises: Notes from the Middle Kingdom, gives his take on the situation.

As anyone who has been to Beijing knows, there has been an almost obsessive focus on public hygiene in getting the city ready for the games. I could go on …

Frivolous Friday: China Beat Goes Hollywood

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last year saw some curious news stories appear that linked China with Hollywood, from ones involving Mia Farrow’s critical views of the Beijing regime, to ones reporting Paris Hilton’s trip to Shanghai to attend an MTV awards show, to ones detailing sex scenes being cut from the version of Ang Lee’s film so that it could be showed in the PRC. With these still fresh in China Beat’s mind, this week’s “Frivolous Friday” offering takes the form of quiz, which tests the pop culture acumen and in some cases also the Sinological savvy of our readers. (Answers as well as …

Beijing Olympic Faq #1: Politics And The Olympics

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last year the International Olympic Committee (IOC) invited me to write an essay on the Beijing Olympics, and “The Beijing Effect” was published in the July-September 2006 issue of The Olympic Review. At the end of that essay I wrote, “China hopes that it will change the Olympic Games, but is the West really open to that possibility? Are we truly ready for ‘One World, One Dream’?” Since that article appeared in the official magazine of the IOC, it is not implausible that Beijing decided to answer my question. On August 8, 2007, Beijing marked the one-year countdown to the …

This Day: The Nanjing Massacre, Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On January 25, 1938, The New York Times ran a single piece about the on-going occupation of the Guomindang capital, Nanjing, by Japanese troops. Hallett Abend wrote for the Times:

“Stripping away all the Japanese excuses about military necessity…the stark fact remains that the conditions in Nanking one month and ten days after the victorious Japanese Army crashed the gates of China’s former capital are so lawless and so scandalous that Japanese authorities continue to refuse permission to any foreigners except diplomatic officials to visit the city…Again on Jan. 7 Japanese authorities apologetically admitted to the writer that conditions in …

Daily Reads—The Sequel: Five Valuable More-Than-Just-China Asia Sites

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last week, our blog-list focused on sites specifically devoted to the PRC or Taiwan, but astute commentaries on and information related to China Beattopics sometimes shows up other kinds of places on the web. With this in mind, we’ll be doing at least two sequels—this one on sites we value that have an Asian focus but are not China-specific, then another later on that deals with sites that have a global purview (but periodically have insightful things to say about Chinese themes).

1. Japan Focus

Since this site’s editor, Mark Selden, is the author or co-author of several important books …

5 Good Short Reads On China Beat Topics–All By People Who Aren’T China Specialists

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Academics focusing on China, like other area specialists, tend to place a high value on formal training in the language and culture of the place we’ve devoted ourselves to teaching and writing about. We think (and I’m no exception) that most of the best scholarly work on Chinese issues has been done by people with this kind of training. And the people outside of the academy that we pay the closest attention to—journalists, free-lance writers, business commentators, policy analysts, etc.—tend to be those who have had some training in Chinese studies, or know the language and have demonstrated a primary …

Taelspin For Monday, January 21, 2008

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This past Christmas, AIDS activist and new daddy Hu Jia was arrested by Chinese authorities. He is currently in detention and his lawyers have been denied access, while his wife and newborn son remain under house arrest with extremely tight security. This month a You Tube video appeared, filmed by Hu and his wife last year, that can only be described as “Reality TV for Those Under Government Surveillance.” Rebecca MacKinnon, one of the best bloggers on the media and China today, gives a searing analysis of the situation. For more on Hu Jia, the blog Black and White Cat …

Taelspin For Sunday, January 20, 2008

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Taelspin will glean the best of the China blogosphere for your reading enjoyment. Suggestions and comments on blogs or posts we missed are always greatly appreciated.

This has been rumored for awhile here in Beijing, but the Angry Chinese Blogger gives the lowdown on the decision by some of the top Olympic teams to avoid staying in Beijing during the games. Reportedly, teams from Europe and America are making arrangements to stay and train in (and this is sure to be particularly galling to the Chinese) Japan out of concerns for pollution, food safety, and other issues. No idea how …

Following A Recipe: When Op-Ed Pieces On China Go Wrong

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is visiting Beijing and the Daily Telegraph has a dour op-ed piece written by Bruce Anderson in today’s edition. Anderson argues that China’s reemergence as a great power is not nearly as worrisome as the prospect of China’s failure.

“If China succeeds, there will be a price. The West would lose power. But Chinese success is much the lesser evil. Imagine what would happen if that huge and powerfully armed nation became a failed state.”

Fair as it goes. China is a large, powerful, and nuclear-armed nation. A collapse of the Chinese state would likely …

Why China’S Dollar Pile Has To Shrink (Relatively Soon)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

James Fallows has a piece in the February, 2008 Atlantic on what he calls “The $1.4 Trillion Question” – why China continues to accumulate $1 billion a day in relatively low-return American assets (mostly Treasury bills), why this can’t go on forever, and what it could mean if this pattern of investment ends abruptly rather than slowly. On the whole, it’s a good introduction, with some useful background on the people responsible for making the central government’s investment decisions. (The point that one of the two key figures, unlike his counterparts almost anywhere else, has never invested for himself, or …

Self-Promotion Saturday: China’S Brave New World

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

My latest book—and my first that is virtually free of footnotes, includes lots of first-person anecdotes, and has some chapters that combine equal parts historically informed analysis and playful musings—went into production a year ago. At the time, I didn’t realize quite how much of a “best of times, worst of times” year 2007 would turn out to be for the appearance of a work like China’s Brave New World—And Other Tales for Global Times, which strives to offer an alternately serious and whimsical look at ways the PRC and the world at large have been changing.

On the plus …

Frivolous Friday

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Rachel DeWoskin’s Babes in Beijing is only one example of an increasingly frank discussion over the past few years of the experiences of foreign women in China. Anna Sophie Loewenberg, a journalist and filmmaker, has been making videos about her life in China (with particular focus on love) for the past year or so under the title Sexy Beijing. You can find more, including contemporary news briefs, at the Sexy Beijing YouTube page or homepage.

The popular American television show, America’s Next Top Model (hosted by Tyra Banks), took its final episodes to Shanghai and then Beijing last fall. Below, …

Our Daily Reads: Best Of China Blogs

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The contributors at The China Beat read a lot of China blogs. Here is a primer of a few of our collective favorites. We welcome you to add your own must-reads (or plug your own blog) in the comments section.

Best One-Stop Source of Information: China Digital Times

Best Media Blog: A tie between Danwei and China Media Project

Best Industry Blog: China Law Blog

Best News Blog: Beijing Newspeak – Written by Chris O’Brien, a language polisher/rewrite artist for Xinhua, a fascinating and frequently hilarious look behind the scenes of Chinese media.

Best Issue Blog: China …

In Case You Missed It: They Chose China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the opening scenes of Shuibo Wang’s 2005 documentary, “They Chose China,” American soldiers dressed in the long, padded winter coats of the Chinese military cluster around a microphone to explain the international threat posed by McCarthy’s witch hunts and U.S. intolerance for freedom and democracy. The documentary tells the story of these twenty-one American soldiers, held as POWs by the Chinese during the Korean War, who refused repatriation after the 1953 armistice.

Through a mix of archival footage, Chinese and American TV clips, and contemporary interviews with one of the few surviving defectors, Wang tries to unearth why the …

Five Good Short Books On China: A Guide For Readers With Limited Attention Spans

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This list is for an imaginary couple who are about to take their first trip to China and have made it clear to me that they only have a limited amount of time to spend reading up on the country in advance. Or, perhaps better yet, they’ve been honest enough to tell me that they won’t start to read up on China until their plane actually takes off, and they want some ideas of what to cram into the limited space of their carry-on bags. Though busy, these imaginary friends (I do have real ones, but none that have asked …

On The China Beat

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China has been looming ever larger in the global economy and the global imagination in recent years, and the international chatter about the country hit a crescendo last year with reports about things like lead paint, moon shots, an architectural face-lift in the capital in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games, high growth rates, a rising middle class, and ever sharper divides between haves and have-nots. As China draws more attention from the Western media and its readership, the need for storytellers and interpreters of China has also grown. As China scholars and writers who are concerned about the way …

After The Avalanche

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Most Taiwan observers expected a convincing KMT victory in last Saturday’s Legislative Yuan elections, perhaps even a landslide. What we got was an avalanche, with the KMT garnering 81 of 113 seats (71.68%), as opposed to a paltry 27 for the DPP. The scale of the rout was unprecedented, especially since the KMT ended up with just over 51% of the popular vote, as opposed to approximately 37% for the DPP, numbers that do not differ that dramatically from those of past elections.

A wide range of factors contributed to the DPP debacle, including profound concerns with the slow pace …

Anniversaries: The Rise And Fall Of Wang Mang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We subscribe to an online encyclopedia to help one of my sons with homework, and because I placed the order, their “This Day in History” feature comes to my inbox. China rarely figures, which isn’t that surprising. After all, they need brief, punchy items that will catch readers’ attention, and that means items familiar enough to a general audience that a five word title is understandable, and that only three sentences are needed to remind us of what happened and why we should care. So I’m not crusading for “1644: Manchus enter Beijing with the help of Wu Sangui” to …

Chow, Kai-Wing: Publishing, Culture, And Power In Early Modern China, Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Chow, Kai-wing.Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8047-3367-8.

Brokaw, Cynthia J., Commerce In Culture: The Sibao Book Trade In The Qing And Republican Periods (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Brokaw, Cynthia J. Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods. Cambridge:. Harvard University Asia Center, 2007.

ISBN 9780674024496

The People's Peking Man: Popular Science And Human Identity In Twentieth-Century China, Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Schmalzer, Sigrid. The People's Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

ISBN 978-0-226-73860-4.

Between Heaven And Modernity: Reconstructing Suzhou, 1985-1937 (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Carroll, Peter J. Between Heaven and Modernity: Reconstructing Suzhou, 1985-1937. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.

China And The Great War: China's Pursuit Of A New National Identity And Internationalization (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Xu, Guozt. China and the Great War: China's Pursuit of a New National Identity and Internationalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Disarming The Allies Of Imperialism: The State, Agitation, And Manipulation During China's Nationalist Revolution, 1922-1949 (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Murdock, M. G. (2006). Disarming the allies of imperialism: The state, agitation, and manipulation during China's nationalist revolution, 1922-1949. Ithaca: East Asia Program, Cornell University.

董橋專欄文章的語言風格研究, Ka Wai Ng

Lingnan Theses

董橋是當今著名的文字大家，也是香港重要的專欄作者。董橋於上世紀九十年代中旬始涉筆專欄寫作，至今仍筆耕不綴。他的專欄文章，風格獨特，在香港文學史以至當代中國文學史上地位特殊，具有研究的價值。

本論文以語言風格學為主要理論依據，並運用舉證、歸納、統計等方法， 考察董橋專欄文章的語言風格。論文主要分為四章：第一章為引論，概括交代研究的背景、對象、目的、範圍以及對語言風格理論作一簡述；第二章為風格的形成(上)「創作主體與交際語境」，從生活經歷、文化修養、思想性情、 創作觀以及專欄載體等主客觀因素，探討董橋語言風格的成因；第三章則為風 格的形成(下)「風格要素與風格手段」，涵蓋詞彙風格、句法風格和修辭風格的研討，重點考析董橋專欄文章語言風格賴以形成的語言要素及風格手段。 結構上則採「先總後分」的方法，先描述董橋的語言風格本色，然後再按個別欄目分析各自的語言風格特色。第四章為總結，重申董橋專欄文章風格的構成 原因，勾勒文章中反覆而持續出現的「語言風格」，並帶出董橋文章的「正典化」現象，收結全文。

《現代》雜誌研究 : 翻譯與創作, Hoi Lam Lee

Lingnan Theses

《現代》雜誌於一九三二年五月創刊，共出版三十四期，其間曾刊登一百 四十二篇翻譯詩、小說及散文，當中以詩和小說為主。《現代》雜誌普通被認為 是現代主義刊物，但通過翻譯小說，亦可見其現實主義的一面。另一方面，雜 誌所刊登的翻譯詩，與現代詩關係密切，更可視為現代詩的濫觴。

本文以翻譯作品為軸心，討論《現代》雜誌對西方文學的接受和介紹。第 一章導言，先簡述研究概況及現代主義與現實主義的概念，釐清本文方向，繼 而按章討論《現代》雜誌的翻譯與創作之關係。第一章通過翻譯詩及小說的題 材及表現手法，討論雜誌對現代主義和現實主義的接受，以及編者對詩與小說 的不同取向。第二章比較《現代》發表的中文作品與翻譯作品，分析兩者於風 格上的異同。第三章比較《現代》雜誌和其他三十年代的雜誌，就其異同討論 《現代》對西洋文學接受和介紹的特點及影響。結論部份《現代》雜誌於翻譯 及創作的特點，帶出其影響，並以雜誌對傳播西方文學的貢獻作結。

《大公報》的《文藝副刊》和《文藝》(1933年-1949年), Wan Ching Chung

Lingnan Theses

《大公報》是中國新聞史上出版時間最長的中文報紙，創刊於1902 年6 月 17 日，至今已出版將近106 年，完整地記錄了中國百年滄桑。《大公報》香港版 創刊於1938 年8 月13 日，復刊於1948 年3 月15 日，半個多世紀以來，見證 了香港的風雲變幻。

論文主要研究三、四十年代《大公報》的《文藝副刊》、《文藝》副刊，歷 經沈從文(主要編輯時間：1933 年9 月─1936 年4 月)、蕭乾(主要編輯時間：1936 年4 月─1939 年8 月)、楊剛(主要編輯時間：1939 年9 月─1941 年12 月)三位 主編的薪火相傳，不僅擁有全國文藝副刊中最廣泛的作者群，而且被譽為中國 近現代著名作家的「文學搖籃」。當時大部分新進作家的初期之作，相當一部分 是在《大公報》文藝副刊上率先發表。這些作家中的大部分，成為中國文學運 動的中堅。這一時期的《大公報》副刊，與《大公報》的社評、星期論文和新 聞通訊一道，被中國新聞史學家評為「當時新聞界四絕」。

論文共分八章，第一章是「引言」，第二章是「文藝副刊是中國報紙特色」， 第三章是「《大公報》『四不』及對文藝副刊的影響」，第四章是「沈從文編《大 公報．文藝副刊》」，第五章是「蕭乾編《大公報．文藝》（津、滬版）」，第六章 是「蕭乾、楊剛編《文藝》（港版）」，第七章是「《大公報．文藝》走進歷史」， 第八章是結論「《文藝副刊》和《文藝》的主要貢獻」。

中國白蛇系列小說 (唐-清) 蛇女變形研究, Pui Yi Fung

Lingnan Theses

變形是民間故事的重要元素。白蛇故事是中國著名的民間故事，變形 情節亦貫穿於唐朝至清朝的白蛇小説之中。「變形」能夠在白蛇小説中長久風行，應該有其特殊的藝術技巧與思想内容存在，值得加以重視。

要進入人世，白蛇必須幻化「人形」，才能與人類相戀。其實，白蛇所變之「形」，乃人們慾求之投射。白蛇化身的白衣娘子，美麗、富有，擁有強烈的性慾，是男主角的「理想女性」，彌補其現實生活之欠缺。可是，白蛇間中露出本相，人性之中夾雜了妖性，使男主角又愛又怕。本文第二章「變形與人妖關係」， 將探討白蛇如何成爲情慾之化身，以及故事中所呈現的兩性關係。

由於白衣娘子乃蛇妖所化，爲了維持「人身」並掩藏「蛇相」，蛇妻多給丈夫設立禁制。蛇妻「設禁」而丈夫「守禁」，丈夫受到規管，故對妻子產生畏懼心理。因此，分析白蛇故事之「禁制」，可剖析女強男弱的人妖關係之來源。禁制的設立能誘發好奇心，偷窺者對白衣娘子的「破禁」窺視，致使她原形畢露。 可以說，變形與禁制在白蛇故事中得到完美結合。本文第三章，將從「變形與禁制」的角度出發，並以「設禁—破禁—後果」這一民間故事常見的敍事模式 為框架，深入剖析白蛇故事女強男弱的兩性關係之來源。

偷窺者對白衣娘子的窺視，可使故事情節及人妖關係發生突轉。偷窺者偷窺前，故事的氣氛是較平和、寧靜的，人妖之間也是和睦相處的。可是，一旦偷窺者發現真相，故事情節便起伏、動蕩，人妖關係也隨即破裂。究竟白蛇故事的敍述者，如何靈活操縱視角，設置懸念、製造氣氛，並以故事中的角色作 爲自己的「敍述代理」，從而推動故事情節發展？本文第四章「變形與敍事」， 將從視角、角色、時間，探討白蛇小説描寫白蛇變形所運用的敍述技巧。

白蛇故事能夠成爲家喻戶曉的民間故事，變形元素應該發揮了很大的效 用。本文以變形為中心，從「變形與人妖關係」、「變形與禁制」、「變形與敍事」 三個角度，分析白蛇故事人妖戀之心理及敍述技巧，藉以揭示白蛇故事歷久不衰的魅力所在。