Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Interview With Lijia Zhang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On Iowa Public Radio’s “The Exchange” (follow that link to stream the mp3 recording). Zhang is currently a participant in the University of Iowa’sInternational Writing Program. She discusses her book, Socialism is Great!, her life experiences, and China in the late twentieth century (as well as her book as a possible gift for Sarah Palin).

Her most recent piece at China Beat is “Ode to the Communist Song.”

Coming Distractions: Speaking To History

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Paul A. Cohen, professor of history emeritus at Wellesley College and also an associate at the Harvard Fairbank Center, has long been interested in not justwhat happened but also how historians tell the stories of the past. As one of the strongest advocates for China-centered historical work, Cohen has explored this tension between history and its telling in works that sometimes reveal unknown stories and sometimes confound the traditional tellings of well-known historical events. These earlier works include China Unbound: Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past, History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth,China and Christianity, and …

Filastrocca Preschool In Pistoia, Italy: Promoting Early Literacy Through Books And The Imagination: A Conversation With Alga Giacomelli (Library Teacher),, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lella Gandini

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

This manuscript is composed as if a ‘conversation,’ to let readers hear the different perspectives of the speakers. The chief source is the lecture prepared by Alga Giacomelli to accompany her presentation, The Space of Identity, 2005 Secondary sources are direct quotes from school documents and interviews (with approval and review of system administrators). The authors wish to acknowledge the children, families, and teachers of Filastrocca Preschool as the co-creators of this book. Special thanks to the Burchietti family who allowed the video team of Bambini: Early Care and Education in Pistoia, Italy, a Child-Friendly City (Video, 2003) to come …

Parent Engagement And School Readiness: Parent-Child Relationships In Early Learning, Carolyn P. Edwards, Susan M. Sheridan Dr., Lisa Knoche

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

Parental behavior during a child’s first five years of life is critical for the development of important social and cognitive outcomes in children that set the stage for life-long adaptation and functioning. This chapter will review some of the key findings about the importance of parent-child relationships in early learning. Three dimensions of parent behavior will be described as “parental engagement”: (a) warmth and sensitivity, (b) support for a child’s emerging autonomy, and (c) active participation in learning. Cross-cultural variations in which the styles of these behaviors are expressed will also be considered.

Culture And Collapse Revisited, Pierre Fuller

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In May of this year I wagged a few fingers at British writer Simon Winchester for an op-ed piece he penned in the wake of Sichuan’s devastating quake. Appearing as it did both in the New York Times and in its global edition, the International Herald Tribune, his attempt at posing a supposedly quake-fit “West” or “America” against a Chinese people who had collectively all “turned their back” as early as the 16th century on science and construction know-how begged immediate comment.

I soon found myself in the bowels of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies’ …

Calf Finishing Versus Background/Yearling Finishing Systems: Where’S The Profit?, Rebecca M. Small, Darrell R. Mark

Cornhusker Economics

As corn prices have more than doubled in the last two years, cattle producers continually look for alternatives to finishing calves exclusively in feedlots on high concentrate rations. Historically, Nebraska feeders have placed a high proportion of fall-weaned calves on feed in October and November and sold them as fed cattle in May. However, as corn prices increase, livestock producers have more incentive to background calves during the winter and following summer on forages, and delay placing the cattle on feed until they are long yearlings at the end of the summer grazing season.

Based on University of Nebraska–Lincoln research …

In Case You Missed It: Tibet Special, Part 3–Comments By Pico Iyer And Pankaj Mishra

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Continuing our series seeking to draw attention to overlooked readings on Tibet, we are happy to be able to provide comments by two long-time friends of the blog, Pico Iyer and Pankaj Mishra, talented and versatile writers whose most recent books are The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond, respectively. It seemed particularly appropriate to ask Iyer and Mishra to suggest articles or books that they have found useful in thinking about Tibet but which might be under the radar of …

The Palmer And Stevens “Usual And Accustomed Places” Treaties In The Opinions Of The Courts, Charles D. Bernholz, Robert Weiner

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

One hundred fifty years ago, Joel Palmer, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Oregon Territory, and Isaac I. Stevens, as Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs of the Washington Territory, negotiated a series of treaties with tribes of the Pacific Northwest. These 10 instruments have affected the gathering rights of tribes and of others in this area and throughout the United States and have generated a substantial amount of litigation. This article reports on the 512 citations to these specific documents in 354 opinions, between the years 1874 and 2005, in various jurisdictions ranging from territorial courts to the …

In Case You Missed It: Tibet Special, Part 2

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This second piece in our ongoing series highlighting “In Case You Missed It” readings on Tibet, is devoted to reflections by Charlene Makley, a member of Reed College’s Anthropology Department. She was part of the same Boulder roundtable mentioned in our first post in the series, and she is the author of The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post Mao China, published last year by the University of California Press in cloth and paperback editions.

Having just returned from a year in Tibetan regions of the PRC, I am not completely versed on the most recent …

Blog To Book: The China Beat Moves Into The Print World

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This Self-Promotion Saturday will be the first of a series devoted to a book project:China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance. Rowman & Littlefield will be publishing it fairly early in 2009 and it will be edited by three people familiar to “China Beat” readers: Kate Merkel-Hess, Ken Pomeranz and Jeff Wasserstrom, all of whom are based at UC Irvine. Some of the content will also be familiar to “China Beat” readers, since the book will include material that first appeared on this site (though in some cases in an updated and expanded form). China in 2008 will also …

In Case You Missed It: Tibet Special, Part 1

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It has now been six months since “China Beat” ran a series of reports about and suggested readings relating to the March unrest in Tibet. We thought this a fitting time to try to figure out what some of the best works out there are that deal with Tibet in general, not just a particular crisis involving the region and its people. So, we will be asking some people the following question: “Can you think of any particular article or book relating to Tibet that you wish more people had read?” We’ll run the answers periodically, as they come in. …

Political Attitudes Vary With Physiological Traits, Douglas R. Oxley, Kevin Smith, John R. Alford, Matthew V. Hibbing, Jennifer L. Miller, Mario J. Scalora, Peter K. Hatemi, John R. Hibbing

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals’ experiences, recent research suggests that they may have a biological basis. We present evidence that variations in political attitudes correlate with physiological traits. In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War. Thus, the degree …

In Case You Missed It: The Thrill Of The Chase, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

My redeye flight from Singapore to Shanghai in August was timed purposefully before the Olympics ended, but my route was planned meticulously to avoid the big Olympics events.

Before the trip I likewise scoured the library of the Singapore school where I teach for fresh (or at least fresh to me) narratives on China–the kinds of simple but expansive journeys that unabashedly take young explorers “beyond the headlines” and spark awe-inspiring careers. I’d already read Peter Hessler’sOracle Bones and I was looking for more.

(My friend Anka was tasked with writing about life in China, and I was tasked with …

What Did The Cultural Revolution Look Like?

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Many people outside of China get their first ideas about the Cultural Revolution from reading memoirs or works of fiction that deal with the years 1966-1969 or the final decade of the Maoist era (1966-1976). It is also possible, though, to start to grapple with the meaning of that complex and traumatic period via its visual culture, and finding out about a new exhibit and a new online collection (new to me at least) has inspired this Top Five List. It includes some sites that have been mentioned before at China Beat, but seem worth referring to again.

1. The …

Department Of Agricultural Economics Publications In 2007

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Annual Department of Agricultural Economics Faculty Publication List (for 2007)

The Impact Of Technological Change On A Competitive Industry, Richard K. Perrin

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

This study analytically evaluates the impact of technological change on output and input markets in a competitive industry of identical firms. Firm-level technology and technological change are represented parametrically as local approximations to unknown functional forms. The comparative statics analysis solves for changes in equilibrium market prices and quantities as functions of parameters that characterize technological change. The technology-induced shift in industry supply is shown to equal the rate of technological change plus the share-weighted induced change in input prices. The model provides a consistent and systematic framework for evaluating the impact of technological change, either ex ante or ex …

A Crash Course In Infrastructure: Expensive But Essential Components For Rural (And Urban) Nebraska’S Future, Sandra K. Scofield

Rural Initiative Program: Publications and Reports

“Ironically rural America has become viewed by a growing number of Americans as having a higher quality of life not because of wat it has, but rather because of what it does not have.” This quote from an unknown author found by a graduate student in the University of Nebraska Rural Initiative focuses on a poin we often forget.

No doubt you can name many things we are happy not to have in rural Nebraska: smog, traffic jams, urban canyons, lack of green or open spaces, the list goes on. Many of these “deficiencies” amount to assets that rural areas …

Using Hedge Information As A Risk Management Tool For Feeder Cattle, B. Williams, Matthew Stockton, Roger K. Wilson

Cornhusker Economics

Hedging can be a valuable tool to minimize price uncertainty for producers. There are two types of hedges producers may use, a short hedge and a long hedge. Short hedges are used to lock in a net selling price when prices are expected to fall, while a long hedge is used to lock in a buying price when prices are expected to rise for a commodity that is bought and used as an input.

A short hedge is initiated by selling a contract on the futures market. The contract is generally bought back close to the time the contracted commodity …

Tainted Love

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Forget about any barbequing. Taiwan is just beginning to recover from one of the worst typhoons in recent memory. Super Typhoon Sinlaku spent the entire weekend over the island, meandering up the east coast, doing a loop-de-loop around Yilan, moving northwest and doing a second loop-de-loop around Danshui, before taking another jaunt to the west and finally traipsing off to the northeast. Mountain areas have been inundated with between 3 AND 5 FEET OF RAIN, resulting in numerous casualties (7 dead and 14 missing so far) and catastrophic damage (bridges washed out, riverside hotels toppled or swept away, crops destroyed, …

September 2008 - Staff Meeting Minutes

ALEC Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

To Grill Or Not To Grill?

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Enough of politics! The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節; also known as the Moon Festival) is this Sunday, so let’s break out a case of Taiwan Beer, and slap some squid and pork patties on the barby. Well, maybe not…

You see, the government, led by the Environmental Protection Agency (環保署), is encouraging people to refrain from a favorite evening activity, namely the family (or community barbeque. According to agency estimates, this could help reduce the island’s carbon footprint, as over 6,000 tons of CO2 would be produced if even one-third of the nation’s residents fired up their grills. Subsequently, numerous city …

In Case You Missed It: Fragile Superpower

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I was in the Chicago O’Hare Airport a few weeks ago and noticed that a re-release of Peter Navarro’s The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won had made it onto that prized bit of airport-bookstore real estate, the shelf directly below the cash register. Anyone who has followed news on China in the past decade is familiar with the narrative Navarro, a professor of business, spins out here in hyperbolic boldface. His view, as one reviewer put it, is that “the Chinese will eat us for lunch” by building a massive military, …

2008 Nebraska Farm Income Prospects, Bruce B. Johnson

Cornhusker Economics

There’s a quiet late-summer hush over Nebraska’s cropland these days. Except for swaths of earlier hail and extended flooding, crops are looking good just about everywhere. And if good weather holds through harvest and prices remain strong, a banner year for Nebraska’s crop producers could be in the making. While it is still too early to call it official, the income potential associated with our major crops may be nothing short of “bin-busting.”

Even so, the situation is almost bitter-sweet in this diverse state where livestock and crop production go hand-in-hand. Record-level prices for corn and soybeans convert to escalating …

Most Downloaded Documents For August 2008, University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Digital Commons

Institutional Repository Information

Most-Downloaded Documents: August 1 -- August 31, 2008 from DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln The Top 25:

1. The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734). An Online Electronic Edition.
2. Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection Bibliography - Volume II: English and European Languages (2000)
3. A Description of New England (1616): An Online Electronic Text Edition
4. Online Dictionary of Invertebrate Zoology: Complete Work
5. Electronic Rodent Repellent Devices: A Review of Efficacy Test Protocols and Regulatory Actions
6. EFFECTS OF OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT: A CURRENT AWARENESS BIBLIOGRAPHY
7. Justice According to Law
8. PIGEON ASSOCIATED PEOPLE DISEASES
9. La …

The Great Diversion

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Allegations about money-laundering by former President Chen Shui-bian, his relatives, and his acquaintances have been front page news for three weeks, and, on some TV stations, occupy the first 30-40 minutes of the news hour. As might be imagined, this is also a hot topic on the political talk shows, day after day after day. New reports continue to surface about alleged improprieties, ranging from misusing government funds, to opening shady accounts in Swiss banks and tax havens like Liechtenstein and Aruba, to buying mansions and other properties in the U.S. The media hounds are now hot on the chase …

Recommended Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

There was more “strolling” in China this week (see #4), and these are the pieces we enjoyed in our own strolls around the internet this week…

1) Head over to Beijing Sounds for a thoroughly enlightening and entertaining piece by Randy Alexander on spoken Chinglish–and particularly the sort that results from transcribing English using Chinese characters (yep, you read correctly–follow the link for images of the texts that teach using this method and even the amazing audio clips of what English spoken this way sounds like).

2) Victor Cha wonders if the Olympic Games were “too perfect”?

3) China Beat‘s …

Librarian Status At Us Research Universities: Extending The Typology, Mary K. Bolin

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

A typology of librarian status developed for land grant universities is extended to US research universities. Land grant librarians are tenure-track faculty in 70% of institutions. Librarians in the expanded population have that status slightly more than half the time. Institution size, geographic region, and public/private governance are discussed.

Faking Heaven: The Utopian Will To Order In China, Timothy S. Oakes

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Now that the 2008 Olympics have come and gone, Beijing can perhaps breathe a sigh of relief that after two weeks of intensive scrutiny, the most embarrassing thing the foreign media could come up with during the Games was that some of the events in the spectacular opening ceremony were faked. First, we learned that 9-year old Lin Miaoke was not in fact singing a revised “Song of the Motherland” at all, but was lip-synching the voice of the less photogenic Yang Peiyi (see Geremie Barmé’s “Painting Over Mao”). Then, we learned that at least some of thefirework footprints leading …

An Olympic Evaluation, Eric Setzekorn

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With the Olympics already more than a week in the past, life in Beijing is slowly returning to normal. The Chinese government appears to have achieved what it wanted, producing an overwhelming show to awe foreign and domestic audiences and a clutch of gold medal winners to gloat over. The results for two of the more hidden goals of the games look mixed: promoting athletics for personal health along with national pride and using the Olympics to educate a new generation of urban Chinese as confident global citizens. And a negative legacy from 2008 looks to be the expansion of …

Olympic Echoes In Denver And St. Paul

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When the media spotlight shifted instantaneously from Beijing to Denver last week, it was easy to focus on things that the Olympics and the Democratic Convention had in common as spectacles, especially since each ended with a big party in a stadium where rock music played and fireworks exploded. But if there’s a real American sequel to the Beijing Games, it’s the Republican Convention underway in St. Paul.

It’s true that in Denver one big story involved long-term rivals working together to achieve a new goal. This is definitely an Olympian theme in the era of “Dream Teams” made up …