Asian History Commons^™

Expo Watch 2010, Shellen Xiao Wu

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In Shanghai these days it is impossible to avoid the World Expo. Hotels are packed with domestic tourists and school groups; subway and bus televisions show a constant news loop about events at the Expo; and Haibao, the rectangular, blue mascot of the Expo, graces numerous government offices, posters, and official merchandise stalls. To ensure the target of 70 million visitors is met and exceeded for the duration of the Expo from the beginning of May to the end of October, various government offices in Shanghai have handed out Expo “gift packs” of one free ticket per Shanghai resident family. …

Beijing Bibliophile, Part Ii: Market Change And New Technology, Eric Setzekorn

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Dozens of bookstores continue to dot Beijing but recent developments are changing the landscape for readers and publishers by forcing many smaller stores out of the market. Part of this trend is due to advances in public transportation, particularly the enlarged subway system, that make it possible to travel across town for a larger selection and lower prices, leading to a decline in neighborhood bookstores. A less positive part of the bookstore consolidation is the increasing leverage state sector bookstores such as Xinhua can exert on private booksellers using market and political forces. A mixed element in the dynamic Beijing …

Review: China’S Megatrends: The Eight Pillars Of A New Society, William A. Callahan

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The future is a hot topic in China; bookstores are full of tomes asserting the 21st century as China’s century: Liu Mingfu’s The China Dream(2010) and Chan Koon-chung’s The Gilded Era: China 2013 (2009) are but two of the most recent books that describe how China is destined to become the number one country in the world.

New Release: Coming To Terms With The Nation

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On Monday, China’s decennial census began, sending six million census workers door-to-door in a quest to record and count the country’s population over the course of only ten days. A key issue in this census, according to some observers, will be placing China’s population in terms of place of residence. One thing analysts are waiting to find out, for example, is how many citizens of the PRC are described as living in cities rather than villages, as this census, which comes after a period of massive rural-to-urban migration, is supposed to describe where people physically live and work, not their …

As China Goes, So Goes The World

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Karl Gerth is a tutor and fellow at Merton College and a historian of modern China at Oxford University. His new book is As China Goes, So Goes the World: How Chinese Consumers are Transforming Everything (Hill & Wang, 2010). (See this review by Christina Larson at the Washington Monthly and this oneat Kirkus Reviews for more on Gerth’s book.) Below, an excerpt from chapter 1 of As China Goes, which takes a look at one of the most notable phenomena of 21st-century Chinese life: the sudden boom in car ownership and its far-reaching consequences.

China Beat Is Heading To The Beach . . .

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

. . . well, not exactly. But we are taking a short vacation, to focus on wrapping up the academic year here at UC Irvine. We’ll be back online June 6 (though we will keep up our Twitter feed during the break, so follow us today!). Before we go, a few links we’d like to share:

“A Wildly Weird And Wonderful Event”

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

For updates and insights on the 2010 Expo, one of the first places we turn isShanghai Scrap, where Shanghai-based writer Adam Minter has been following the story for almost two years. Minter’s Expo posts cover topics such as the emergence of Haibao (September 2008), the renovation of the Bund (December 2009) and demolition of neighborhoods (October 2009), and an ongoing in-depth investigation of the twisted saga of the U.S. pavilion (most recent posthere; full archive here). Minter also has an article and slideshow about the Expo atThe Atlantic. In the wake of last Saturday’s opening ceremony, we posed a few …

Bloggers’ Breakfast At Aas

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It’s become a tradition for China Beat contributors and friends of the blog to assemble at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting (as well as at the American Historical Association’s meeting) for a “bloggers’ breakfast” that provides China Beatniks the chance to get together and meet face-to-face — often for the first time, since so much of our business is conducted via e-mail. Last Saturday morning, we gathered at a Starbucks near the AAS conference site and talked about China, writing, and many other topics over coffee and pastries. A couple of photos from the AAS 2010 bloggers’ breakfast:

What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part Ii), Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Moving across the country (from Irvine, California to State College, Pennsylvania) meant that most of my books—even the new ones—spent the summer packed in boxes. But alongside a rapid inhalation of all three Stieg Larsson novels, I still did a little China reading. Here, a few recommendations.

China’S Communist Party: Two Glimpses Inside, Thomas Kellogg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On August 16, 2010, China reached yet another milestone in its decades-long breakneck run of economic development: it became the world’s second largest economy. According to official economic data, China surpassed a still-struggling Japan, leaving it behind only the United States in terms of overall economic size. Some analysts predicted that China could pass the US to become the world’s largest economy as early as 2030.

Jean-Philippe Béja On Liu Xiaobo

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In only a few hours, word will come from Oslo and the world will know whether or not this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner is Chinese activist and author Liu Xiaobo, currently serving an eleven-year prison sentence for “subverting state authority.”Speculation about Liu’s odds has been running at a fever pitch this week, so much so that Irish bookmaker Paddy Power made an early payout to those who had put money on Liu by Tuesday. Authorities in Beijing, however, have made it clear that this is one international prize that China doesn’t want to win.

Book Review: Shanghai World Expo Guide 2010, Adam D. Frank

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On first blush, one would think that reviewing Nick Land’s Shanghai World Expo Guidebook 2010 would be an exercise akin to reviewing a movie poster for Avatar—a kind of 2-D portrait of a 3-D experience.

Evasive Writing: Resistance To The Government And Modernization Hidden In Taiwanese Fiction, Harrison Paul

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Sometimes, it is best not to speak the truth—at least not directly. Under an authoritarian regime, the truth—whether of events or opinions—often hurts the one who reveals it more than anyone else. For this reason, writers throughout the world have long employed evasive writing tactics not only to avoid censorship of their ideas but also to escape imprisonment or execution at the government’s hand. Taiwanese writers under the period of Nationalist-imposed martial law were no different. Nativist writers, characterized by “use of the Taiwanese dialect, depiction of the plight of country folks or small-town dwellers in economic difficulty, and resistance …

The Contradictions Of Kitabatake Chikafusa's Jinno Shotoki: How The Jinno Shotoki Shows That Japan Is Not Shinkoku, Adam Wheeler

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

It is widely held by Japanese and non-Japanese historians alike that Japan has enjoyed an uninterrupted reign by a single royal family for at least the last 1,500 years, if not longer. This unprecedented system of government has given rise to much investigation as to how such a feat could have been accomplished and has also given rise to the belief that Japan is Shinkoku, or “divine land.” Theories on the longevity of the Japanese imperial family have been based on the relationship between them and surrounding families of influence, as well as the tenuous relationship that existed between …

Genre Paintings, Elisa Allan

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Artistic responses to the changing socio-political stability in Korea during the eighteenth-century indicate the growing disillusionment and dissatisfaction with yangban (gentry class) consolidated control, the thinning control of Confucianism over class, and the blossoming of contending ideas.

Grounding "Language" In The Senses: What The Eyes And Ears Reveal About Ming 名 (Names) In Early Chinese Texts, Jane Geaney

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Scholarship on early Chinese theories of “language” regularly treats the term ming 名 (name) as the equivalent of “word.” But there is a significant difference between a “word” and a “name.”¹ Moreover, while a “word” is often understood to mean a unit of language that is identifiable in its sameness across speech and writing, there is reason to believe that a ming was mainly used to mean a unit of meaningful sound.² Analyzing the function of ming is a prerequisite for understanding early Chinese theories of “language”—if such a term is even appropriate. Such an analysis will also …

The Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung, Jigme Rigpai Lodro, Nicole Willock

Philosophy Faculty Publications

(First Paragraph)

Jigme Rigpai Lodro ('jigs med rigs pa'i blo gros), the Sixth Tseten Zhabdrung (tshe tan zhabs drung), was born on May 31, 1910, the twenty-second day of the fourth month of the iron dog year in the fifteenth rab byung cycle. He was the second youngest of eight children born to his father Yang Cai, whose Tibetan name was Lobzang Tashi (blo bzang bkra shis), and his mother, Lhamotar (lha mo thar). His birthplace, Yadzi (ya rdzi), is more commonly known today by its Chinese name, Jishi Town (Jishi zhen 积石镇) in today's Xunhua Salar Autonomous County of …

A Song Unto Itself: How Rabindranath Tagore, Ram Gopal Varma And The Supreme Court Of India Hear The National Anthem, Ananya Vajpeyi

History Faculty Publication Series

Every Indian schoolchild knows - or ought to know that Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), India’s “national poet”, wrote our national anthem Jana gana mana. The song, 52 seconds long in the singing, was first presented by Tagore to a session of the Indian National Congress in Calcutta in 1911; in 1919 it was taken up by Principal James Cousins of the Theosophical College, Madanapalle, in South India, as a college prayer that he called the “Morning Song of India”. The song was debated throughout the 30s and 40s on a variety of occasions, attracting both support and criticism. In January …

Empire, Horses And Trade: An Examination Of Sixteenth Century Portuguese Efforts To Control Trade In Arab And Persian Horses Across The Arabian Sea, Chandra R. De Silva

History Faculty Publications

[First paragraph] Portuguese dominance over the trade in horses across the Arabian Sea from West Asia to the western littoral of India lasted approximately from the Portuguese capture of Goa in 1510 to their loss of Ormuz to the Persians in 1622. As will be evident from the subsequent discussion, Portuguese control was incomplete and its significance varied from area to area and also from time to time. Nevertheless, a study of their attempts to control this trade is useful for three major reasons.

Mandarins And Martyrs Of Shanxi In Late-Imperial China, Anthony E. Clark

History Faculty Scholarship

Ricci Institute Series: Sowing the Field of Christian Missions

Tianjin Report 2, Anthony E. Clark

History Faculty Scholarship

Research report on the Roman Catholic Vincentian Library in Tianjin, China. Closed in 1951 by the Chinese government.

Al-Amn Al-Fikri Fi Al-'Asr Al-'Abbasi Al-Awwal (132h-232h)., Suhailah Siqqani

Student Works (2010-2019)

This research studies the ideological challenges that confronted the Abbasid state in its first period and the positions taken by the caliphs in parrying them and guarding Islamic thought from breaches in the established principles of Islam and the beliefs of the Muslims. The effects of these policies on preserving the dominance of the Abbasid state and the integrity of Muslim society are also clarified. This entails an exposition of the most important non-Islamic sects and movements that made their appearance on the stage of ideas and the political arena in that era and which strove to criticize Islamic dogma …

Aspek-Aspek Sejarah Dalam Karya Sastera Di Zaman Kerajaan Islam Acheh Pada Abad Ke-19., Hanafiah

Student Works (2010-2019)

This Dissertation is entitled “Aspects of History in Literary Works of the 19th Century Acehnese Kingdom.” This study is aimed at figuring out historical aspects in the literary works of Aceh (hikayat) during the era of Islamic Kingdom of Aceh. The significance of this research is that it can inform on the historical events that took place in Acheh in the age and the information could be utilized by historians for history writing. Some of the historical events are found in the literary works (hikayat) of Aceh. All the problems were studied by employing inductive and qualitative methods. For data …

Suna No Onna: An Absurd Reading, Charisa Player

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Woman in the Dunes (Suna no Onna), written by Kobo Abe, readily lends itself to analysis as an existential novel, which is described as a work that “subverts and ridicules traditional genres of realistic fiction, asserting its non-mimetic autonomy over against the conventional expectations and interpretative customs of the reader” (Goebel). However, because of the way in which the novel presents its world, and the way that the narrative ends, Suna no Onna finds itself in a somewhat separate category from other existentialist texts. In his article “Kobo Abe: Japan’s Kafka,” Goebel explains Abe’s writing in Suna no Onna is …

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

No abstract provided.

Coming Distractions: Postcards From Tomorrow Square

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat has been faithfully following James Fallows’s reports for the Atlanticfrom first Shanghai and now Beijing since he moved to China in 2006. His reports have covered topics from China’s international image to the financial crisis to theGreat Firewall, and he blogs regularly at the Atlantic‘s website. Fallows’s reports have now been gathered together in a collection, Postcards from Tomorrow Square, that will be available for purchase tomorrow. Over email, Fallows chatted with Kate Merkel-Hess about the new book and his thoughts about reporting from China.

Kate Merkel-Hess: Your forthcoming book Postcards from Tomorrow Square is a collection of …

Epics And Ethics, Ananya Vajpeyi

History Faculty Publication Series

The Difficulty of Being Good could have been written by my uncle, or your grandmother, or indeed you or me, as we think about and try to make sense of the many risks, the shearing dilemmas, the awful humiliations, the terrible defeats, the ethical conundrums and the complex machinations that always have and always will characterise politics – both in the public realm of power, law and violence, but also the private realm of incessant adjustment and interaction between individuals.

Reading Round-Up: 12/18/09

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat will be going on vacation for the next two weeks, and will return in 2010. Before we sign off for the holidays, here are a few stories that have caught our eye lately:

1. In the Business Standard, Pallavi Aiyar writes that the “Ghosts of Beijing Lurk in Brussels.” Moving from Beijing to Brussels, Aiyar was anticipating a departure from the relentless cycle of urban destruction and construction that had marked her years in China:

Imagine my surprise when I arrived at Schuman, the headquarters of the European Union and a 10-minute drive from downtown Brussels, to scenes …

In Case You Missed It: Learning From Hangzhou, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I took this photo on my first day in Hangzhou when I arrived there in July 2005 for a six-week Chinese language course. I didn’t find the billboard especially interesting, but one of my friends hails from Kohler, Wisconsin, and I thought he might enjoy seeing that his hometown is known in a Chinese city that I’m fairly certain he had never heard of before I announced I would be spending the summer there. At the time, I didn’t give much thought to the billboard itself, or the thousands of other advertisements affixed to the sides of buildings, encircling construction …

China-Related Talks Around The World

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. On December 14-15, the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California will be holding a “Colloquium on China Media Studies” (RSVP required). For those not able to attend, the event will be live-streamed at the above link, beginning at noon PST on December 14.

2. Ken Pomeranz will be giving two talks in Japan next week:

December 16, 2009: Kyoto University. Participant in the “Changing Nature of ‘Nature’: New Perspectives in Transdisciplinary Field Science” conference sponsored by the Global Center of Excellence on a Sustainable Humanssphere.

December 18, 2009: Tokyo University. “Land rights and …