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China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We like to keep tabs on the contributors who write for us, and some of them have been publishing some interesting pieces lately. Here’s a quick reader of five excerpts from China Beatniks.

1. At Inside-Out China, Xujun Eberlein has translated an essay (in two parts) by Sun Liping, professor of sociology at Tsinghua University. The essay has been making the rounds on the Chinese Internet. A selection:

In recent years, signs of societal breakdown have become more apparent. The core problem is the loss of control over power. During the past 30 years of reform, despite the establishment of …

Thoughts On China Underground–A Book I Didn’T Want To Like (But Did)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

That’s not necessarily the question, but it’s one I’ve been pondering for a while.

On the one hand, I’m loath to add another new form of communication to my life. After all, blogging is only something I’ve been doing for a bit over a year.

On the other hand, as I argue in a commentary about blogs that I’m hoping will be published in the next couple of months (in paper format—as it is aimed at people still skeptical about online writing), things change so fast in the digital world that we need to …

Chinese Intellectuals And The Problem Of Xinjiang, Part 2, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Having analyzed the issues of colonialism, cultural rights of Uyghur populations, and the question of a Han nationalist revival, Wang Lixiong concludes the book by three “letters” to his Uyghur friend Mokhtar, in which he reframes the discussion on Xinjiang within his more general ideas on political reform in China. His reluctance to consider Xinjiang as “different” from other regions in China (while he is less reluctant to do so in the case of Tibet) is not unproblematic; nonetheless his voice is important because he is a critical intellectual “on the edge” who has visibly not entirely renounced influencing the …

Dutch Treats

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One of the most exciting developments in the field of Taiwan history has been a steady stream of publications that shed new light on the island’s development when it was being colonized by the Spanish and the Dutch. Notable achievements include Chinese translations of Dutch and Spanish sources by Chiang Shu-sheng 江樹生 and Lee Yu-chung 李毓中, a volume of collected essays by Chen Kuo-tung 陳國棟, and an in-depth study of Spanish rule by Jose Eugenio Borao (鮑曉鷗). This scholarship represents the fruits of unstinting efforts by Leiden scholars like Leonard Blussé, as well as venerable Taiwanese academics like Ts’ao Yung-ho …

An Account Of The Kingdom Of Caubul, And Its Dependencies, In Persia, Tartary, And India (1842), Mountstuart Elphinstone

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

V. 2. Particular account of the Afghaun tribes -- Eastern tribes continued -- Mountain tribes -- Western Afghauns, Dooraunees, City of Candahar, Tereens, and Baraiches -- Ghiljies, cities of Ghuznee and Caubul, Wurduks and Caukers -- Naussers -- The provinces. Bulk, or Bactria and the Uzbeks -- The Eimauks and Hazaurehs -- Heraut -- Seestaun -- Belochistaun and Lower Sind -- Upper Sind, Moultaun, Leia, and the countries between Leia and Cashmeer -- The Royal Government of Caubul. Of the King -- Administration of the government -- Of the division of the kingdom into provinces -- Of the revenue -- …

Will China Put The "Eco" Back In "Economy"?, Alex Pasternack

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It was the recession that Chinese leaders partially credited for helping the countryreach its Five Year Plan pollution goals for the first time in 2008. Meanwhile, energy consumption has been on the decline (though it rose for the first time in three months in February), along with the demand for Chinese goods.

But to put people back to work and maintain its golden number of 8 percent growth, China will pour $586 billion into the economy. In the process, it may also pour a lot of concrete, a lot of coal into its engines, and a lot of smoke back …

Selections From The Poetry Of The Afghans (1862), Henry George Raverty

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Selections from the poetry of the Afghans : from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Literally tr. from the original Pushto, with notices of the different authors, and remarks on the mystic doctrine and poetry of the Ṣūfís

Report On The Proceedings Of The Pamir Boundary Commission (1897), M. G. Gerard

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Contents: The Pamir Boundary Commission -- Narrative of proceedings -- Historical notes -- General geographical description -- Colonel Holdich's reconnaissance in the Sarikol district -- Report on Survey work -- Synopsis of pillars and points on the Pamir boundary -- Natural History section -- Remarks upon the more obvious natural features of the Pamirs -- A systematic account of the zoological collection made on the Pamirs -- A list of plants collected on the Pamirs -- A notice of the specimens of rocks collected on the Pamirs -- A brief notice of the features of the road from Kashmir to …

China In 2008 Available

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Our forthcoming volume is no longer forthcoming–as of today, it is available for purchase. While dedicated China Beat readers may find some of the content familiar, about one-third of it is brand-new (and other pieces have been expanded). For those who want to learn more about the volume before purchasing it, we direct you to a few excerpts and discussions of the book:

An excerpt from the Introduction, by Kate Merkel-Hess

A complete table of contents

An excerpt from the Afterword, by Ken Pomeranz

A flyer about the book from publisher Rowman & Littlefield

Discussion about the book from contributor …

The Right Target For A Boycott?, Daniel A. Bell

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Shortly after the Olympic torch’s troubled passage through Paris last April, Chinese nationalists organized a campaign to boycott the French supermarket Carrefour. The chain store is perhaps the most visible symbol of French life in China, with 135 outlets in the country’s major cities. Thousands of nationalists were mobilized outside Carrefour outlets and many customers were afraid to shop there.

But the boycott was completely irrational. Carrefour China had nothing to do with pro-Tibetan protests in France and even the disabled athlete Jin Jing who was targeted by protesters in France spoke out against the boycott. Over 90 percent of …

Self-Promotion Saturday: Upcoming Events

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few reminders about upcoming events involving China Beat contributors.

Shanghai

Jeff Wasserstrom will be speaking about his new book, Global Shanghai, 1850-2010, at the Shanghai International Literary Festival tomorrow, March 15 at 4 p.m. City Weekend has been “live blogging” from the festival, so even those who don’t attend can read transcripts from readings. Some highlights for Sinophiles:Stella Dong and James Fallows and Graham Earnshaw.

Hong Kong

Wasserstrom will also be presenting at the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival on Tuesday, March 17 at 4 p.m. (at University of Hong Kong).

Charlottesville, VA

Susan Brownell and Kate Merkel-Hess …

Quiz Winners And A New Quiz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We received many correct answers to last week’s Frivolous Friday quiz. For the prize of a copy of China’s Brave New World–And Other Tales for Global Times, Jeff Wasserstrom asked readers to guess which two people he had in mind to answerthis question: “If you could bring back to life, for a day, two people you’ve written about who are now dead, and ask them questions about what Shanghai was like then, who would they be and what would you ask them?” The clues were:

1) Both people were cosmopolitan women who spent time in both China and the United …

Can China Go High-Tech When Exports Slump?, Yu Zhou

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As the financial Tsunami batter China’s exporting hubs, everyone is wondering how well China can weather the storm in the next couple of years, but a more important question is how China’s economy will emerge after the crisis. As a result of extensive research, I argue that there have been sustained forces pushing China’s industry to more innovative fields with a stronger orientation to the domestic market. The crisis will only strengthen the shift in a more dramatic manner.

This conclusion is based on my research in Beijing’s Zhongguancun, a region dedicated to innovative industry and domestic market. I started …

Mo Yan, Inaugural Newman Laureate, Honored In Oklahoma, Haiyan Lee

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On Thursday, March 5, the acclaimed Chinese novelist Mo Yan received the inaugural Newman Prize for Chinese Literature at a ceremony held on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Over a hundred invited guests attended the event, including the Chinese consul from Houston, the Oklahoma secretary of state, OU’s deans of arts and sciences, OU faculty, high school teachers, students, alumni, visitors, and donors.

The Newman Prize was created in 2008 in OU’s Institute for U.S.-China Issues at the initiative of its director Peter H. Gries, Professor of political science and author of China’s New Nationalism, who …

Chinese Intellectuals And The Problem Of Xinjiang, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It is a common assumption that Chinese intellectuals, however critical of their government, its institutions, and its policies, are unreceptive to calls for greater self-government, much less independence, in China’s autonomous regions, most notably Tibet and Xinjiang. It is therefore worth taking note of Wang Lixiong’s book on Xinjiang, published in 2007 in Taiwan, the title of which can be rendered as My Far West, Your East Turkistan.

Wang Lixiong is no newcomer to the question, having devoted the past two decades to researching and reflecting on the place of “ethnic minorities” in China’s political system, in particular in view …

Readings For International Women’S Day

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In honor of International Women’s Day, China Beat posts two reading lists, one of contemporary (recent and by no means exhaustive) visions of Chinese women and another of historical visions of Chinese women.

Contemporary:

1) Xinhua reports on the increasing services for victims of domestic violence in China, following new regulations on police response to domestic violence calls implemented today:

Yu Xiuli, a victim of domestic violence, can turn to police for help if her husband continues to beat her thanks to a regulation which came into effect on Sunday.

The 40-year-old woman in eastern Shandong Province has been bearing …

Self-Promotion Saturday: Conferencing In Shanghai

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beatniks Jeff Wasserstrom and James Farrer and friend of the blog Andrew Field will be presenting this week at a March 12-14 conference at NYU in Shanghai (on the ECNU campus), called “Urban Representations.” The conference is sponsored by NYU, Northwestern University, Sophia University, and ECNU. Click through for a schedule and paper titles.

Free Book Up For Grabs

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat‘s First (and Maybe Last) Quiz with a Prize for the Winner

Jeff Wasserstrom recently mentioned in an interview with City Weekend magazine that he’s hoping someone at the audience for his March 15 PRC book launch ofGlobal Shanghai, 1850-2010 will ask him this question: “If you could bring back to life, for a day, two people you’ve written about who are now dead, and ask them questions about what Shanghai was like then, who would they be and what would you ask them?” Well, he wouldn’t tell the magazine who he was thinking of, but he’s now told …

Year Of The Gorilla, Jonathan Tel

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This is a selection from Jonathan Tel’s forthcoming collection of short stories, The Beijing of Possibilities, to be published this summer by Other Press. Tel is the author of Freud’s Alphabet and the story collection Arafat’s Elephant. His stories have appeared in The New Yorker and Granta. Drawn to “writing fiction set in places whose inhabitants believe themselves to be at the center of the world,” Tel first visted China in 1988 and has particular affinity for Beijing.

It’s been a while since the Monkey King set out on his Journey to the West. With his Fiery-Gazing Golden-Eyes he infallibly …

China To Me

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We’ve added a new blog to our daily reading–Evan Osnos’s dispatches at The New Yorker. Currently blogging from Vietnam, Osnos posted a few thoughts on Friday about Vietnam’s lengthy relationship with China (“Long After We Left“) and a few days earlier the delightfully-titled “From Karenina to Cyrus,” which in one short vignette traces the intellectual influences from West to East over the past few generations.

In his first post to the blog, Osnos mentioned a favorite China watcher here atChina Beat, Emily Hahn. Osnos writes, “I like to imagine what she would have made of this blog. Upon arriving in …

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 …

Reflections On The Cuban Revolution, Gary Prevost

Political Science Faculty Publications

When I visited Cuba in the first few days of 1992, it was not clear that the revolution would survive. Food was in relatively short supply and electricity blackouts were common. Even long-time supporters of the revolution were pessimistic about the future. Everything that had been accomplished in its first 32 years seemed in jeopardy when the Soviet Union went out of existence at the end of 1991 and canceled most of its trade deals with Cuba. The country’s gross domestic product was in the process of shrinking by 50 percent. How did the Cuban Revolution survive that shock, and …

Prevalence And Correlates Of Adolescent Dating Violence In Bangkok, Thailand, Penchan Pradubmook-Sherer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study explored the incidence and severity of violence in dating relationships, and identified variables that explain dating violence perpetration by Thai youths. The sample consisted of 1,296 adolescents from high schools, vocational schools, and out-of-school adolescents, between the ages of 14 and 19. Findings indicate that Thai youths maintain very intensive dating relationships. The out-of-school adolescents hold the highest dating violent behaviors. While males' dating violence scores were higher, the females were involved in all types of dating violence, exceeding the males on verbal/emotional violence. The results provide useful information about cultural influences on dating violence, and have practical …

Compromising On Consideration In Singapore: Gay Choon Ing V Loh Sze Ti Terence Peter, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It is not often that a judgment contains a reference to Aristotle’s work or a coda at its conclusion. The recent Singapore Court of Appeal judgment of Gay Choon Ing v Loh Sze Ti Terence Peter (delivered by Andrew Phang JA) contained both, the latter of which an extensive judicial exposition on the difficulties (and tentative solutions) relating to the contractual doctrine of consideration. This re-evaluation of consideration at the slightest opportunity is unsurprising, given the conceptual problems that have afflicted the doctrine.There have been various judicial solutions, generally capable of classification into two distinct types: first, through an internal …

The Efficiency Of Friendliness: Japanese Corporate Governance Succeeds Again Without Hostile Takeovers, Dan W. Puchniak

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It is widely assumed that hostile takeovers are a prerequisite for an efficient system of corporate governance. This assumption is false. Since the new millennium, Japan has transformed itself from being on the brink of one of the largest economic meltdowns in modern economic history to currently being in the midst of its longest period of postwar economic expansion (2002-2007). This astounding recovery was achieved without a single successful hostile takeover of a major Japanese company. True to its postwar tradition, corporate Japan has successfully restructured through government intervention, bank-driven reallocation of capital, and orchestrated and friendly mergers — the …

Misaligned Incentives And Mortgage Lending In Asia, Richard Green, Roberto S. Mariano, Andrey Pavlov, Susan Wachter

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper provides a conceptual basis for the price discovery potential for tradable market instruments and specifically the development of mortgage securitization in Asia and the potential dangers of such markets. Nonetheless we argue for the potential importance of securitization in Asia because of its possible role in increasing transparency of the financial sector of Asian economies. We put forth a model explaining how misaligned incentives can lead to bank generated real estate crashes and macroeconomic instability, with or without securitization under certain circumstances. We examine the banking sector’s performance in Asia compared to securitized real estate returns, to provide …

India Unleashed, Nirmalya Kumar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Corporations in the developed world increasingly see India as a high-growth market and its companies as acquirers of their assets, global competitors, partners for enhancing the competitiveness of their global value chain and a source of new energy and dreams for the world economy. How did this all happen? The author shares the essence of what he learned from 10 trips to India to interview more than 30 CEOs and top executives who are unleashing the new global power of Indian firms.

Intergenerational Earnings Mobility In Singapore And The United States, Irene Y. H. Ng, Xiaoyi Shen, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

This study compared intergenerational earnings mobility in Singapore and the United States by replicating the sample criteria in the Singapore National Youth Survey on the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The mean estimated earnings elasticities are almost identical: 0.26 in Singapore and 0.28 in the United States. Transformed to 0.44 and 0.47 respectively to reflect permanent status, mobility in the two countries is moderately low compared internationally. The finding of similar mobility is not surprising given that the two countries have similar economic realities, welfare systems, education regimes, and labor structures. Policy makers face the daunting challenge of overcoming …

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 …