Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bill Powell (1919-2008)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Stephen MacKinnon is a Professor of History at Arizona State University whose most recent book (reviewed by Nicole Barnes on China Beat last August) is Wuhan 1938. He has an abiding interest, as this post shows, in the history of Western journalists in China–an interest that led to publication of earlier books such asAgnes Smedley. He sent us this piece from India, but our PRC-based readers might like to know that they can catch him live at the Shanghai International Literary Festival on March 22, where he will give a talk at M on the Bund on “Intrigue and Romance …

Clinton Plans Visit To China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In just a week, Hilary Clinton will be in China for her first visit as U.S. Secretary of State. What will inform the visit? Here are a few readings that discuss it…

1. Surprise! Many China watchers were caught short by the news that Clinton is headed to China for a visit. The tour has been put together at the last moment, with an as-yet unclear agenda, as discussed by Ian Johnson at WSJ…

2. For an updated analysis of Clinton’s likely goals during her Asia stops, see FEER’s report. One highlight from their analysis of the China visit:

The …

China In The U.S. Annual Threat Assessment

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

News agencies have been reporting widely on the content of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual threat assessment, delivered Thursday by Dennis Blair (director of U.S. national intelligence) and peppered with language that hearkens back to the Bush era (of a whole four weeks ago, but, still, anyone else tired of references to the U.S. as the “Homeland”?). News stories have focused on the primacy given to the economic crisis in the report and the analysis of threats in the Middle East and what the report calls an “arc of instabilty” from South Asia through the Middle East. However, the report …

For Book Lovers And China Enthusiasts…

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Tis the season of book festivals, at least around here. A number of China Beatcontributors will be speaking at events in the coming months. Here is a list of readings to add to your calendars:

1. The Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival. Scroll through their program to find panels with Xujun Eberlein (Saturday, March 14, 10 a.m., and again on Sunday, March 15, 3 p.m.) and Jeffrey Wasserstrom (Monday, March 16, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Tuesday, March 17, 7:30 p.m.), as well as many other commentators and analysts (like Rebecca MacKinnon) and writers (like Zhu Wen) whose …

Obama Recommendations: Vi

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Paul French is the Shanghai-based author of Carl Crow, a Tough Old China Handand keeps the blog China Rhyming, as well as acting as publishing and marketing director at Access Asia. French’s next book, Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from the Opium Wars to Mao, will be published June 1 by Hong Kong University Press.

Obama claims to be a break with the past by which, in a very American way of defining the past, he seems to mean the last few years. Instructive as some recent China books may be, perhaps the President would care to go …

China’S Water Woes: Past, Present, And Future, Ken Pomeranz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Chinese droughts have just begun to move onto the front pages of the world’s newspapers, but the droughts are just the latest sign of much more dire warnings of water woes in China. Some China experts are talking about this (see, for instance, today’s event at the Wilson Center on “Temperatures Rising: Climate Change, Water, and the Himalayas“), but, in China Beat fashion, we’re hoping to encourage many more people to do a little more reading and talking about it too, so we invited Ken Pomeranz to reflect on the present news and suggest a few further readings for …

Is Corn Ethanol Economically Viable In The Long-Run?, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

The corn ethanol industry is in the pits, with plants being idled and firms declaring bankruptcy. Not only that, but each month seems to bring a new study assailing corn ethanol because it doesn’t help the environment, or it doesn’t reduce dependence on foreign oil, or it drives up food prices, or it is harmful to health.

These assertions each have some basis, and they have gone far to undermine public policies in support of corn ethanol. So what then is the future for the industry? Can it survive without mandates and subsidies? To answer, we must first look at …

Happy 牛Year!, Christopher C. Heselton

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On January 25, 2009, Lunar New Year’s Eve, millions of Chinese watched Zhao Benshan’s comedic stylings on the Spring Festival Gala, but for many, when they turned to check the inbox of their cell phone, they found it full of dozens of unread text messages. No, they weren’t advertising cut-rate travel packages to the latest tourist paradise – for the most part at least. They were messages from friends, family, significant-others, co-workers, and acquaintances congratulating the recipient on the “Happy 牛Year!” (a play upon “niu,” the Chinese word for ox or cow, sounding similar to the English word “new,” of …

Is Corn Ethanol Economically Viable In The Long Run?, Richard K. Perrin

Cornhusker Economics

The corn ethanol industry is in the pits, with plants being idled and firms declaring bankruptcy. Not only that, but each month seems to bring a new study assailing corn ethanol because it doesn’t help the environment, or it doesn’t reduce dependence on foreign oil, or it drives up food prices, or it is harmful to health.

Recommendations For Obama: V

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We asked China watchers from a variety of backgrounds to answer the question “What should Obama be reading about China?” While we’ve already run four installments (I, II, III, and IV), new suggestions continue to arrive. For a few of the cinematic variety, read on… Jan Berris is Vice-President of the National Committee on United States-China Relations and has worked with the committee since 1971.

I suggest that President Obama recover from the lousy week he just had by chilling out in his private movie theater and watching the following movies. None will give him a complete, or even, necessarily, …

When The Past Catches Up, Lauri Paltemaa

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In December, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated the 30 years anniversary of reforming and opening up policy that became possible in the now almost legendary 3rd plenum of the 11th Central Committee where Deng Xiaoping defeated his “Whateverist” (read Maoist) rivals in the Party leadership. This coming March, however, we will celebrate another thirty-year anniversary of one of the key policies in reforms. It was then, on March 30, 1979, that Deng Xiaoping announced that the Party would continue to uphold the “four cardinal principles” of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought, proletarian dictatorship, party leadership, and socialism. This laid the …

A Short History Of India And The Frontier States Of Afghanistan, Nipal, And Burma (1884), James Talboys Wheeler

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

19th century history of India, Afghanistan, Nepal and Burma.

The Hero Of Herat: A Frontier Biography In Romantic Form (1914), Maud Diver

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Herat, Afghanistan, fiction by Maud Diver.

Starbucks In China: A Top Five List

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Starbucks has been a glowing beacon of capitalism-on-Chinese-soil (some might say…) for years now, and many took glee in the opening of a Starbucks outlet at the Forbidden City as quiet proof of communism’s impending demise (though the outlet is now closed). Here, a top five list of articles that together tell the story of Starbucks’ development in China from international interloper to home-grown coffeehouse. Read on for more.

1. China is major potential market for Starbucks: “Starbucks Soars in China” (Asia Times Online, June 15, 2006):

In Starbucks’ headquarters in Seattle, a group of company executives meet regularly, but …

Cloud Computing, Elaine L. Westbrooks

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Presentations

What is it?
How does it work?
Who cares?
What are the Advantages & Disadvantages?
Future ofthe technology?
Discussion

The "cloud" is the term for networked computers that distribute processing power, applications, and large systems among many machines. Cloud computing is specialized data centers that host thousands of servers

Obama Recommendations: Iv, Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The search terms “Obama China” have brought a lot of readers to China Beat over the past two months. We are by no means the only ones experiencing an Obama-related reader boost (though we are the second hit on Google, right behind the BBC for a search of “Obama China”!), nor the only ones getting an Obama-related content surge. If you are looking for smart commentary on the recent Obama administration’s China snafus, for instance, check out James Fallows’s analysis from last week (hat tip: kuluyi). Those interested in live (as in right now) discussion of Sino-American relations under Obama …

Using Nebraska’S Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Program, David J. Goeller

Cornhusker Economics

Many farm or ranch families that are attempting to bring a son or daughter back into their business experience a strain on the cash flow. After all, a business that has been providing enough income for one family to live on, must now not only generate adequate income for the parents living expenses, but also attempt to provide enough income for a second family, the successor. Recent changes to Nebraska’s Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Program provide an attractive incentive that can be very beneficial for family farming/ranching operations that are trying to bring a family member back into their business. …

"Big Pants" Unveiled

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Alex Pasternak has written a couple pieces for China Beat in the past (such as “Beijing’s Olympic Forecast“), and so we were interested in his piece published a few weeks ago at The National, “Strange Loop: Is Rem Koolhaas’s gravity-defying Beijing monument the world’s most important building?“

Here is a snippet from the article, well worth reading in full:

It was only after the design emerged in public that the nicknames surfaced, and they were starkly devoid of any references to traditional Chinese culture. At the beginning, wei fang, meaning condemned building, was one oft-heard option. Later, “twisted doughnut”, “drunken …

Obama Recommendations: Iii, Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We aren’t the only ones with advice in regards to China for President Obama of late. For instance, Rebecca MacKinnon recently recommended to the President that he make sure to communicate with regular Chinese folks, as well as government leaders.

Meanwhile, book recommendations to kick off the new year are cropping up elsewhere as well — Jeff Wasserstrom, for instance, listed some of his favorites atFar Eastern Economic Review.

Here are a few more responses to our question, “What Should Obama Be Reading About China?” If you haven’t been following this feature, check out the first andsecond installments.

Howard French …

Incense Power, Incense Peace

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Whan that Aprille, with hise shoures soote,

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote

So priketh hem Nature in hir corages-

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Prologue, Chapter 1: Lines 1-2, 11-12

Taiwan’s pilgrimage season, which tends to peak around the third lunar month (Chaucer’s April) has long been a time of intense religious devotion, with moving scenes of worshippers (especially elderly women) walking for days from one sacred site to another. There are also mammoth processions, fireworks, dramatic performances, etc. Pilgrimage season is also big business for the island’s leading temples, …

Faq#8: Was There A Master Plan To Use The Olympic Games To Promote A Positive Image Of China To The World ?

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

(And What was the Strategy for Dealing with the International Criticism on Human Rights)?

(This is a shortened version of a paper presented at the conference on ““The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: Public Diplomacy Triumph or Public Relations Spectacle?” organized by the Center on Public Diplomacy, US-China Institute, and Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California, January 29-30, 2009.)

There was a common perception outside China that the Beijing Olympic Games involved a master plan to promote a positive image of China to the outside world and that this was one of the major goals of hosting …

Using Google Scholar To Search For Online Availability Of A Cited Article In Engineering Disciplines, Virginia A. Baldwin

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Many published studies examine the effectiveness of Google Scholar (Scholar) as an index for scholarly articles. This paper analyzes the value of Scholar in finding and labeling online full text of articles using titles from the citations of engineering faculty publications. For the fields of engineering and the engineering colleges in the study, Scholar identified online access for 25% of the chemical engineering and 13% of the mechanical engineering citations. During the study the format that Scholar (which is in beta version) used to present the result set changed. This change now makes discovery of online access to full text …

Most Popular Downloads -- January 2009

Institutional Repository Information

January saw 102,754 downloads, from 20,092 available open-access articles.
74% of available articles were downloaded at least once. The average for all articles was 5.11 downloads.

Articles with 150 or more downloads were:

Electronic Rodent Repellent Devices: A Review of Efficacy Test Protocols and Regulatory Actions http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nwrcrepellants/34 676
Christian Binek: List of Publications http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/physicsbinek/1 526
Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection Bibliography - Volume II: English and European Languages (2000) http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/afghanenglish/13 463
The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734). An Online Electronic Edition. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/25 419
Role of Esterase gp70 and Its Influence on Growth and Development of Dictyostelium discoideum http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/bioscimicro/77 382
EFFECTS OF …

Coming Distractions: The Annual Aas Meeting

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Robert Buswell, Association for Asian Studies President, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, the editor of the Journal of Asian Studies (and a China Beatnik, of course, who regularly contributes to this blog), have released a joint letter that may interest those who will be or are considering attending the AAS annual meeting in late March (or who simply like to follow the organizational goings-on of AAS and its flagship publications).

In the letter, Buswell, a U.C.L.A. specialist in Korean studies, and Wasserstrom lay out changes to this year’s and future annual meetings, including efforts to expand the scope of the association to …

A Bible For Beijing, Pierre Fuller

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few weeks ago my mother learned at her Greenwich, Conn., church that, beyond church grounds, Bibles cannot be purchased in the People’s Republic. Her informant was a man from the Bible Society of Singapore who gave an evening talk on the state of Christianity in China at my parents’ mainstream Protestant parish. My mother soon asked her son in Beijing, me, about this fact over the phone and I couldn’t say either way: a Chinese-language Bible was not something I’d been actively looking for yet I could have sworn I’d spotted one in a shop a while back when …

Healing The Planet And Its People: The Need To Create A Global Vision Of Leadership For The Planet, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

No abstract provided.

Everything Old Is New Again

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One year ago today, I posted an essay entitled “What Shall We Do with the Dead Dictator?”, which discussed the DPP government’s efforts to further the cause of transitional justice (轉型正義) by reexamining the legacy of former ROC President Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). A number of related policies ended up sparking considerable controversy, included renaming the CKS International Airport asTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and especially changing the name of the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall.

The KMT regained power just two months later, following which things began to move in reverse. Most recently, the Ministry …

The Oxus And The Indus (1874), Evans Bell

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Afghanistan history, 19th century

Anglo-Afghan relationship, 19th century

Afghan wars, 19th century.

Falsification Of Diplomatic Documents - The Affghan Papers

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Anglo-Afghan wars

Afghan British relationship during the 19th century

The Past And Present Of The Ccp First Congress Memorial, Shanghai, Samuel Y. Liang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

2009 is a year of anniversaries for China, with the 90th birthday of the May 4th Movement coming in the spring and the 60th of the PRC arriving in the fall. With this in mind, we’ve asked Samuel Liang of the University of Manchester, a specialist in Shanghai’s built environment, to provide our readers with background on a locale that has special significance for both of the just-mentioned anniversaries. Namely, the building where an early meeting of the Communist Party was held in 1921, which stands near the recently built shopping and entertainment district known as Xintiandi.

This structure, often …