Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Chatting With Wen

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One of the topics we raised in China in 2008 was the changing relationship between the Chinese leadership and regular people over the past years. Last weekChina Digital Times pointed to another example of this changing relationship–Wen Jiabao answering netizens’ questions online. We’ve run a few related pieces at the site before, such as Nicolai Volland’s “Boss Hu and the Press” and Richard Kraus’s “Preserving the Premier’s Calligraphy at Beichuan Middle School.”

Wolf Totem Revisited (Yet Again)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I know that this site has run more than its fair share of commentaries on Wolf Totem already, including both a negative review and a piece defending the novel. I’ve even done one piece about it already myself, which took the form of a wrap-up look at the widely varied responses it generated in different quarters. It might seem that enough is enough, but I can’t resist slipping in one more short post, due to a new award that this work is up for that some people who thought it shouldn’t have gotten earlier prizes might be rooting for it …

Umpires, Not Activists: The Recent Jurisprudence Of The Nebraska Supreme Court, Richard F. Duncan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Nebraska is the “Big Red” state, both in football and in politics. The people of Nebraska are conservative and they wish to rule themselves, either directly through the retained powers of initiative and referendum, or indirectly through the process of self-government and laws enacted by their democratically-elected representatives. Government by the judiciary is simply not the way we do things in Nebraska.

The people of Nebraska are fortunate to have a state Supreme Court so much in tune with the will of the people. As this Report has shown, recent decisions of the Nebraska Supreme Court demonstrate that the court, …

Burning Mississippi Into Memory? Cinematic Amnesia As A Resource For Remembering Civil Rights, Kristen Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The 1988 film Mississippi Burning drew extensive criticism for its misleading portrayal of the FBI’s investigation of three murdered civil rights activists in 1964. As critics noted, the film ignored the role of Black activists who struggled for racial justice even as it graphically depicted the violence that activists and other Blacks faced during the civil rights era. This movie’s selective depiction of events surrounding the activists’ deaths constituted the film as a site of cinematic amnesia, a form of public remembrance that provokes controversy over how events ought to be remembered. An analysis of the film and its ensuing …

Engaging Latinos In Culturally Specific Educational Programming: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Paul R. Springer, Cody S. Hollist, Karen Buchfink

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Results from the 2000 United States census highlighted that the Latino population had exceeded the African American population as the largest U.S. minority group. Furthermore, during the past 20 years, migration patterns for Latino families have spread throughout the West, Midwest, and South and not merely in the border states. To meet the rising educational and human service needs, professionals have sought to develop programs that are effective at helping the Latino populations. This article presents a theoretical model for engaging Latinos in family and consumer science education and outreach programs. The model was designed for family and consumer science …

Call For Papers And Presentations: First Annual Interdisciplinary Conference On Human Trafficking, Unl Human Trafficking Team

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 1st (2009)

PAPER AND PRESENTATION TOPICS: We solicit papers from all academic disciplines, including all social sciences, economics and business, law, journalism, womens’ and gender studies, public health, math and statistics, education, etc. We solicit speakers and researchers from government, NGO, and foundations to present papers or talks.

Most Popular Downloads -- February 2009

Institutional Repository Information

February saw 120,812 downloads, an 18% increase over the previous month.

There were 158,062 “hits” to article cover pages, and 79% of these resulted in a download.

74% of available open-access articles were downloaded at least once during the month.

The average number of downloads per available OA article was 5.66.

The top 25 most popular downloads were :

Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection Bibliography - Volume II: English and European Languages (2000) 521
Electronic Rodent Repellent Devices: A Review of Efficacy Test Protocols and Regulatory Actions 493
The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734). An Online Electronic Edition. 443
Christian Binek: …

The Impact Of Weather Extremes On Agricultural Production Methods: Does Drought Increase Adoption Of Conservation Tillage Practices?, Ya Ding, Karina Schoengold, Tsegaye Tadesse

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

One benefit of conservation tillage practices is an increase in soil moisture. The paper combines panel data techniques with spatial analysis to measure the impact of extreme weather events on the adoption of conservation tillage. Zellner’s SUR technique is extended to spatial panel data to correct for cross-sectional heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and contemporaneous correlation. Panel data allows the identification of differences in adoption rates as a function of the severity of past drought or flood events. The adoption of no-till, alternative conservation tillage, and reduced till are estimated relative to conventional tillage. Extremely dry conditions in recent years are found …

Art And Art History Collection Development Policy, Jeanetta Drueke

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Collection Development Policies

The art and art history collection supports the teaching, research and service activities of the entire university community. Its primary audience is the faculty, staff, and students of the Department of Art and Art History in the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. Its primary focus is support for the undergraduate and graduate curricula for art and art history. Specific and transient research needs of art and art history faculty and graduate students are supplemented through Interlibrary Loan. Materials are not purchased for the general public though they may benefit from the collection. While the collection focuses on works …

“I Don’T Want To Be Selling My Soul”: Two Experiments In Environmental Economics, Natalia V. Ovchinnikova, Hans J. Czap, Gary D. Lynne, Christopher W. Larimer

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

We conducted two experiments in the context of environmental protection. We found that profit considerations and personality traits are among the essential determinants of individual contributions to the solution of environmental problems. The results show that environmental considerations are powerful motivators and subjects are willing to forgo pecuniary profits for the sake of “doing-the-right-thing”. The study shows that the environmental groups can purchase carbon offsets directly from the providers at a lower-than market price and still obtain a relatively large market share.

Identity Implications Of Relationship (Re)Definition Goals: An Analysis Of Face Threats And Facework As Young Adults Initiate, Intensify, And Disengage From Romantic Relationships, Steven R. Wilson, Adrianne D. Kunkel, Scott J. Robson, James O. Olufowote, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Identity implications theory (IIT) is applied to analyze how young adults manage identity concerns associated with the goals of initiating, intensifying, and disengaging from romantic relationships. Participants wrote their responses to one of six hypothetical romantic (re)definition scenarios, indicated whether they actually would pursue the relational goal if their scenario were real, and rated degree of threat to both parties’ face. Responses were coded for positive and negative politeness strategies. Participants in different relational goal conditions perceived different face threats, varied in their likelihood of pursuing the relational goal, and employed different politeness strategies. Relationship (re)definition goal also moderated associations …

Deranged Loners And Demented Outsiders? Therapeutic News Frames Of Presidential Assassination Attempts, 1973–2001, Kristen E. Hoerl, Dana L. Cloud, Sharon E. Jarvis

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

There were 7 assassination attempts on U.S. presidents between 1973 and 2001. In this article, we critically examine coverage of each attack in the New York Times and the Washington Post, describing how the coverage employs therapeutic discourse frames that position the president as vulnerable and portray the attackers as lonely and demented outsiders. Noticing contradictions in this pattern, we also identify counter-frames, including those acknowledging the political motivations of the assassins, the diminished public sphere that is a context for those actions, and the contradictions in a legal system that denies the insanity pleas of those framed so …

Memorializing A Mountain Man: John G. Neihart, Doane Robinson, And Jedediah Smith, Timothy G. Anderson

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

In the middle of September 1908, a "sort [of] trampish looking fellow" called on Doane Robinson, secretary of the South Dakota State Historical Society and head of the state's Department of History. The visitor had just spent more than forty days on the Upper Missouri River, making his way in a small boat from Fort Benton, Montana, to Pierre, South Dakota. He had written Robinson a week earlier to warn him that he might not be looking his best. "You will not expect me to appear in evening dress," he told Robinson. "Yesterday I saw a mirror -- it made …

Michigan Must Be Bold To Stop National Jokes, Sue Burzynski Bullard

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

If absence makes the heart grow fonder, it also makes it grow more observant. A Michiganian most of my life, I am proud to be from the Great Lakes state. Now living in Nebmka, I Google Michigan news to keep up. The state's downside is covered in grim depth. It's news, sure. But the sour image is not tempered with much good news. Even more travel stories would suggest more to Michigan than unemployment.

Birth Weight, Math And Reading Achievement Growth: A Multilevel Between-Sibling, Between-Families Approach, Bridget J. Goosby, Jacob Cheadle

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We used multilevel covariance structure analysis to study the relationship between birth weight, family context and youth math and reading comprehension growth from approximately ages 5 through 14 within and between families. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child Sample, we examined the relationship between birth weight and subsequent academic achievement growth disparities, distinguishing between birth weight and other contextual social confounders. We found that smaller birth weight is associated with lower math and reading scores at age 5. Additional findings indicated that the home environment has important developmental consequences from early childhood and into adolescence. Overall, …

Commentators On Clinton On China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Following Hillary Clinton’s visit to Asia, there have been a range of commentaries on her new approach to China. Clinton’s downplay of that standard gambit of Sino-American relations, human rights, has pleased some commentators and maddened others. Here’s a selection of five ways of looking at her China visit:

1) A Missed Opportunity, Merle Goldman at the Boston Globe:

The Charter 08 episode in China reveals widespread dissatisfaction with China’s authoritarian market economy, including those who are the supposed beneficiaries of China’s political model. Their participation in the Charter 08 movement may be attributed not only to worsening economic conditions …

Regarding The Guantanamo Uyghurs, James Millward

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I never thought I’d see “Free the Uighurs” on the editorial pages of major U.S. newspapers, but there it was last Thursday in the Washington Post (Editorial, February 19, 2009, p. A14) and Monday in the Los Angeles Times (Editorial, Feb. 23, 2009). Of course, the editorial was not discussing Uyghurs in China, but the seventeen Uyghur detainees at Guantanamo, whom a federal appeals court ruled could be brought to the U.S. only by an act of the executive branch, not the courts. The Post urged the Obama administration to do the right thing by these men, whom the Bush …

James Hevia On Summer Palace Relics

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With disputes relating to looted Chinese objects in the news, we asked Professor James Hevia of the University of Chicago, author of an important book called English Lessons, which includes analysis of foreign military actions in China from the 1860s through the post-Boxer occupation of 1900-1901 and was cited in our earlier post on the topic, if he had any thoughts on the subject to share with our readers. Already quoted briefly in a useful Christian Science Monitor article on the issue, here’s what he had wrote in response to our query:

The recent announcement by Christie’s of yet another …

In Case You Missed It: Passion Of The Mao, Jeremiah Jenne

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Passion of the Mao is the quirky documentary produced by Lee Feigon based on his book Mao: A Reinterpretation. There’s some things to like about the film. I appreciated the irreverence, and there were a number of chuckle-worthy jokes and sly references as well as several precipitous descents into banal toilet and body humor. (Some of which, for awhile, are also pretty chuckle-worthy.) Mao’s writings are referenced throughout the film, though Mr. Feigon’s choice to have them read using a voiceover that recalled the worst of the Fu Manchu films from early Hollywood is odd. Mr. Feigon also gives prominence …

Around The Web…

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In case you are interested in reading more from writers we’ve referenced recently or on topics we’ve been tracking lately, here are a few recommendations from this week.

The New York Times ran a set of commentaries yesterday on “what the Chinese want from Obama,” including commentaries by Michael Meyer and Daniel Bell(links to their previous pieces at China Beat).

Meyer writes about Clinton’s visit to China, and the power she has to shift discussions in China (and the U.S.) about China’s desire for an “American lifestyle”:

Yet as modernizing Chinese cities emulate America’s car-friendly designs — and often employ …

Self-Promotion Saturday

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

You can find a new interview with Jeff Wasserstrom at Shanghai City Weekend, in anticipation of the Shanghai International Literary Festival. You can find interviews with many other authors, including James Fallows and Cecelia Chang. There’s also an interview with Wang Gang, the author of the very interesting-sounding novel English (about which CB was previously unaware). Here is a short excerpt from the interview with Wasserstrom (much more at City Weekend):

CW: What’s one question you’d like to be asked at SILF? I’d love it if someone asked me: “If you could bring back to life, for a day, two …

Seward Casa Board Development Workshop, Heartland Center For Leadership Development

Heartland Center for Leadership Development Materials

Agenda from the Seward CASA Board Development Workshop, February 21, 2009, presented by the Heartland Center for Leadership Development.

Fascinatin’ Facts

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Harper’s has just put its famous “index” feature online and it is (thrill of thrills) searchable. Of course, this has spawned a host of postings around the web about what the index has covered over the years. Among those are a few China watchers.

Shanghaiist notes that there has been only one substantive mention of “Shanghai” in the twenty-five years of the index (there are two hits for the word “Shanghai,” but one is for Shanghai Tang).

Tim Johnson did a search for “China” and shares some of the entries from the past three years, with the source of the …

February 2009 - Staff Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

Time Machine: Dear Us Presidential Candidates…, Robert A. Kapp

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

February, 2009: we are in the early days of a new Administration, and the Internet and print media bulge with messages of advice to the new President and the new Secretary of State about how to deal with China. Some of the missives are Olympian. Others are avuncular. They serve multiple purposes, and seek to reach multiple audiences.

Reading them, I was reminded of one of my own exercises of a similar nature, in the fall of the year 2000. Eight long years; so much has happened. Then, we were only a couple of months beyond the huge political battle …

Punks At Kinko’S, Pierre Fuller

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Microfilm is deadly. Deadly for the eyes, the brain and, as I recently learned here on a research jaunt to Beijing, the stomach. So when a CD booklet on the bar of a Haidian district livehouse caught my weary eye I thought I’d found a good wall ornament for the apartment and a better image to set my evenings eyes on. The only problem was the insert – a black & white sketch of a mass of punks tossing Molotovs at a grinning Mao – wasn’t big enough. I was thinking poster size, so I took it to the first …

Debating The Summer Palace

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

While scholars, like James Hevia in English Lessons, have revised historical views of the impacts of Western imperialism in China during the nineteenth century, China’s government is arguing for a revision of its own. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the Chinese government has been pressing for relics stolen from the Summer Palace—about to go up for auction at Christie’s—be returned to China:

The two Qing dynasty bronze animal heads, one depicting a rabbit and the other a rat, are believed to have been part of a set comprising 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac that were …

The Jas For Free: Revolution!

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last spring, we reported from the annual AAS meeting on President Elizabeth Perry‘s inspiring address (“Reclaiming the Chinese Revolution“). For a short period of time, the address is available for free PDF download and we strongly encourage you to grab a copy while you can. [Link will take you to the issue and from there you can select the format in which you wish to view Perry’s piece.] The address begins:

REVOLUTIONS ARE UNPOPULAR THESE days, among Western politicians and scholars alike.We put our faith in liberal institutions such as markets and courts of law, looking to “democratic transitions” rather …

Readings Around The Net

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. Rebecca MacKinnon has a great new article at First Monday (“peer-reviewed journal on the internet”) called “China’s Censorship 2.0: How Companies Censor Bloggers.” It is required reading for all those tracking China’s web developments.

2. David Flumenbaum has produced a great reader that tracks the developments of and reactions to the CCTV fire in Beijing. It includes videos and excerpts from news reports.

3. If you haven’t yet read chinaSMACK, you can catch a clever recap of their 2008 postings here.

A week ago, we ran Lauri Paltemaa’s reflection on democracy movements and anniversaries in China this year. Here’s …

A Year Of Telling Tales

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“Tales from Taiwan” also celebrated its first birthday recently. Since our inaugural posting on January 14, 2008, Peter Zarrow, Jennifer Liu, Yong Chen, and I have been contributing pieces about various aspects of Taiwanese culture. In terms of readership, here is a bit of numerology provided courtesy of the China Beat‘s web wizards:

The general page for “Tales” received 1,297 views as of February 5, totaling approximately 500 fewer than the tenth-most viewed post for the China Beat (Five Sites for Lesson Plans and Teaching Materials on China; 1,775 views).

Our Taiwan top five reads as follows:

1. The KMT …