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2010

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Full-Text Articles in Asian Studies

Lu Xun, Mao Zedong, Perhaps A Badger, Sean Macdonald Jan 2010

Lu Xun, Mao Zedong, Perhaps A Badger, Sean Macdonald

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Urbanatomy has been running a series called “Why I Write” for the past several months, and we’ve noticed that when asked for their favorite Chinese author, many interviewees name Lu Xun (though Ian Johnson is a vocal dissenter). It’s likely that Lu Xun’s work will be known to even more non-Chinese speakers in the future, since Julia Lovell’s new translation of his complete fiction has hit bookshelves — read an excerpt from her introduction here, and see Jeff Wasserstrom’s review of the book here. So many decades after his death, why does Lu Xun remain one of China’s best-known authors, …


In Search Of Remembrance: Jia Zhangke’S I Wish I Knew, Ken Kwan Ming Hao Jan 2010

In Search Of Remembrance: Jia Zhangke’S I Wish I Knew, Ken Kwan Ming Hao

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In his new film I Wish I Knew, a documentary on Shanghai, Jia Zhangke recreates once again, after a detour of sorts with Useless and24 City, that wonderful tension between the biographical and the historical, the primal impetus of his art, that had made Platform,The World, and Still Life, his best films, so memorable. Jia is different from all other well-known mainland Chinese directors, be they of the 5th or 6th generation — his is a singular sensibility that is aware of but not chained to the social-political, which to him are meaningful only to the extent that they are …


Behind The Headline: Water, Water Everywhere…, Ken Pomeranz Jan 2010

Behind The Headline: Water, Water Everywhere…, Ken Pomeranz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In mid-December, Financial Times published a piece about China’s south-north water diversion project. Writer Jamil Anderlini begins the article with a brief description of the project:


Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2010 - 2011, Singapore Management University Jan 2010

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2010 - 2011, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

The past year has been one of transition for SMU. We celebrated the University’s first ten successful years and looked forward to our second. I bade farewell to Professor Howard Hunter our previous president and to Dr Richard Hu our previous chancellor, as I welcomed Professor Arnoud De Meyer and Mr Yong Pung How into these offices. More recently, we held our last Patron’s Day with Singapore’s former President S.R. Nathan as Patron, and I look forward to greeting President Tony Tan as our new Patron. It has also been a year in which we left behind the role of …


“Life, It’S Been Said, Is One Big Book…”: One Hundred Years Of Qian Zhongshu, Christopher Rea Jan 2010

“Life, It’S Been Said, Is One Big Book…”: One Hundred Years Of Qian Zhongshu, Christopher Rea

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Headlines about China have been looking the same for some time now. “The China story” always seems to be political: labor riots and their suppression; sabre-rattling over Taiwan and cultural erasure in Tibet; catastrophic earthquakes and official ineptitude; internet censorship and jailed dissidents (the latest being Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo). Even ostensibly good news, such as the Chinese government’s investment in wind power, becomes yet another story about how China is going to eat our lunch.


Musings On A Museum: A Trip To Xibaipo, Kenneth Pomeranz Jan 2010

Musings On A Museum: A Trip To Xibaipo, Kenneth Pomeranz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A short trip to China earlier this month took me to Beijing to give a talk, to Shijiazhuang for a conference, and, briefly, to the Hebei countryside — my first time in quite a while in rural North China. And it once again proved that every trip teaches you something, but often not on the expected topics. (One little detail that I found telling: most of the Beijing-based academics who were at the Shijiazhuang conference told me it was their first time there. True, Shijiazhuang is not a tourist hot spot, but it is a provincial capital, with over 2 …


Night At The Museum, Kelly Hammond Jan 2010

Night At The Museum, Kelly Hammond

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When I was approached to help National Geographic with their ongoing exhibit of the Terra Cotta Warriors at their museum in Washington, D.C., I thought to myself: “Really? Me? But I work on Islam in late imperial China! I’m one of those scholars who mistakenly types Qing anytime I write about the Qin simply out of finger muscle memory! What could I possibly know about China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang?”


China Books To Check Out Jan 2010

China Books To Check Out

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

If your New Year’s resolution is to read more, or if cold winter weather has chased you inside, pour yourself a hot drink, settle into a comfortable chair, and enjoy one (or more) of these books:


The Dalai Lama’S Visit To D.C.: A Short Interview With A. Tom Grunfeld, Jeffrey Wasserstrom Jan 2010

The Dalai Lama’S Visit To D.C.: A Short Interview With A. Tom Grunfeld, Jeffrey Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The lead-up to the Dalia Lama’s meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House last week received a great deal of attention from the press, and there was also a considerable amount of after the fact assessment of the event. In order to place what happened into a broad historical perspective, I put a few questions to A. Tom Grunfeld, who is a past contributor to “China Beat” and the author ofThe Making of Modern Tibet. Here are the results of our interview via e-mail, and if you live in New York and want to hear him talk about …


Critical Masses, Commerce, And Shifting State-Society Relations In China, Ying Zhu Jan 2010

Critical Masses, Commerce, And Shifting State-Society Relations In China, Ying Zhu

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This essay is based on the script of a talk Ying Zhu gave at Google’s New York offices on February 12, 2010. Sections in bold were not part of the original talk, but have been added by the authors to tease out some of the issues that were left without further elaboration due to time constraints.


Wang Hui, Plagiarism, And The Great Bourgeois Academic Cultural Revolution, Susan D. Blum Jan 2010

Wang Hui, Plagiarism, And The Great Bourgeois Academic Cultural Revolution, Susan D. Blum

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Another revolution is afoot in China, and it might even be considered cultural. But this one is about academic culture, as China’s slow-moving iceberg floats up against the glacial mass of “international” (read: Western) principles. The fallout is fascinating for observers, though in some cases tragic for the participants.


World Cup, World Expo, And “Third World” Links Jan 2010

World Cup, World Expo, And “Third World” Links

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This is shaping up to be a big year for cities of the Global South (or what in the past was more often called the “Third World”) to serve as first-time hosts for mega-events, whether of the top-tier variety (defined here as those, like the Olympics, that involve or at least could involve more than a hundred countries) or of the second-tier type (those like, say, the Pan-American Games, that draw in nations belonging to just one region or having something else specific in common). Starting with a pair of second-tier but still major sporting events, October will find New …


Where To Begin: New Perspectives On Chinese Labor, Mark W. Frazier Jan 2010

Where To Begin: New Perspectives On Chinese Labor, Mark W. Frazier

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Studies of labor in China have taken an exciting turn in recent years with the publication of numerous rich and revealing portraits of workers, their jobs, and their place in Chinese politics and in the global economy. As thousands of migrant workers employed in auto parts suppliers for Toyota and Honda went on strike in May and June of 2010, some headlines heralded a political coming of age for China’s migrant workers. While it’s too early to assess the impact of these strikes, it is clear that migrant workers have gained a level of organizational sophistication and political awareness to …


One Day, Two Birthdays Jan 2010

One Day, Two Birthdays

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Most of the people in Philadelphia this holiday weekend have come for the Fourth of July festivities, such as readings of the Declaration of Independence and tours of Independence Hall. This year, however, a special event was part of the city’s eleven-day “Welcome America!” celebration: on Saturday, July 3, a street fair in Philadelphia’s Chinatown marked not only the 234th birthday of the United States, but also the 140th birthday of the Chinatown neighborhood itself (the district’s founding is dated to the establishment of a laundry at 9th and Race Streets in 1870). The afternoon was filled with musical performances, …


A Transcendent Moment In The Land Of Haibao Jan 2010

A Transcendent Moment In The Land Of Haibao

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I’m finally in Shanghai, where the Gumby-like Haibao is amazingly even more omnipresent than the last time I was through (and then he seemed to be everywhere). I’ve come to check out the Expo, see some new sites, catch up with some old friends, do a bit of traveling, and, as I noted in an earlier post, take part in a dialog on World’s Fairs past and present with Nick Land (that took place a few days ago) and host a weekly series of “Cosmopolitan Conversations” with assorted writers at the Glamour Bar at M on the Bund (those are …


Over Exposure, Lisa Movius, Shakhar Rahav Jan 2010

Over Exposure, Lisa Movius, Shakhar Rahav

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“The Expo story that couldn’t be printed.” That’s what editors at Shanghai’s City Weekend magazine found they had on their hands several weeks ago, when Chinese censors deemed the story below “too negative” to run. A revised version was subsequently submitted, approved by the censors, and printed in the January 20, 2010 issue. City Weekend decided not to post the original story on its website as planned, as they were told it was inadvisable due to an official caution against publishing media reports critical of the Expo. Here, we are pleased to share with China Beat readers the full, uncensored …


China Learns From The Soviet Union: An Interview With Thomas P. Bernstein Jan 2010

China Learns From The Soviet Union: An Interview With Thomas P. Bernstein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Thomas Bernstein, professor emeritus of Government at Columbia University, has recently edited a new book with Hua-yu Li, China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-present (Lexington Books, 2010). Below, an interview we conducted with Professor Bernstein via e-mail, exploring the volume’s scope and how it came into being.


Yo! Aas Is Coming To The City Of Brotherly Love, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham Jan 2010

Yo! Aas Is Coming To The City Of Brotherly Love, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I’d very much like to be in China this month, as several cities are hosting big literary events that feature many authors I’ve followed for the past several years, and whose names are probably familiar to regular China Beat readers. In Beijing, the Bookworm International Literary Festival is welcoming Graham Earnshaw (The Great Walk of China, March 6), Jonathan Tel (The Beijing of Possibilities, March 8; two excerpts are here and here), and Jeremy Goldkorn (Danwei, March 18). The Shanghai International Literary Festival is also boasting a program chock-full of talks I’d love to hear, such as Hyejin Kim on …


An Interview With Richard Mcgregor, Author Of The Party, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham Jan 2010

An Interview With Richard Mcgregor, Author Of The Party, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Richard McGregor is the former Beijing bureau chief for the Financial Times and author of the newly released The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers. I recently conducted the interview below with McGregor via e-mail; you can read excerpts from the book here and here and also find a “Why I Write” profile of McGregor at the Urbanatomy site.


Special Report: Thirty Years Of The One-Child Policy Jan 2010

Special Report: Thirty Years Of The One-Child Policy

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Scott Tong of Marketplace is concluding his three years as the program’s Shanghai bureau chief by taking an in-depth look at the One-Child Policy as it approaches its 30-year anniversary.


Confessions Of A Lifelong China Watcher, Angilee Shah Jan 2010

Confessions Of A Lifelong China Watcher, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Looking back on China’s dramatic recent history, from the devastation of the Great Leap Forward to today’s exuberant “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” is a fascinating exercise. China Watcher offers the rare opportunity to learn this history as author Richard Baum did — from the front row.


Notes On A Conversation: Ian Johnson And Angilee Shah, Miri Kim Jan 2010

Notes On A Conversation: Ian Johnson And Angilee Shah, Miri Kim

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this week, we held the final event of this year’s “China Lecture Series” at UC Irvine, featuring a dialogue between Ian Johnson and Angilee Shah. Johnson, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, is author of Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China and A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West. Shah is a freelance writer and blogger; her work has appeared at the Far Eastern Economic Review, Global Voices Online, Zócalo Public Square, and The China Beat. Below, a summary of the conversation between Johnson and Shah.


Looking At China From Across The Pacific And Across The Himalayas, Jeffrey Wasserstrom Jan 2010

Looking At China From Across The Pacific And Across The Himalayas, Jeffrey Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus on Japan?”


Reflections On Qing History, Maura Dykstra Jan 2010

Reflections On Qing History, Maura Dykstra

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A review of Pamela Kyle Crossley’s The Wobbling Pivot: China Since 1800, An Interpretive History (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) and William T. Rowe’s China’s Last Empire: The Great Qing (Belknap Press, 2009)


Around The Web: Podcasts And Videos Jan 2010

Around The Web: Podcasts And Videos

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Though we spend a lot of time reading over here at China Beat headquarters, we also like to keep up with the many China-related podcasts and videos that are proliferating on the web these days. A sampling of what’s caught our attention recently:


Blogging Aas 2010 (5), Miri Kim, Charles Wheeler Jan 2010

Blogging Aas 2010 (5), Miri Kim, Charles Wheeler

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In this panel, organized by Siyen Fei (University of Pennsylvania), Mark Edward Lewis (Stanford University), Hilde De Weerdt (University of Oxford), and Fei presented papers that creatively engaged the work of G. William Skinner on how to conceptualize empire in time and space. Lewis proposed that the northern capital historically functioned as a peripheral center that connected the agricultural and economic centers found further south with the steppe, and this positioning, a prime concern of the dynasties founded by nomads, helped maintain China as a coherent empire. De Weerdt used social network analysis to mine Song dynastybiji for data that …


Blogging Aas (3), Miri Kim Jan 2010

Blogging Aas (3), Miri Kim

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This intellectually and visually stimulating roundtable was chaired by Carma Hinton (George Mason University) and focused on the legacy of China’s socialist past in China’s not-quite-so socialist present. I’d like to think I took good notes, but this was a session very rich in materials and ideas (and excellently managed time-wise, which means things moved along at a brisk pace), so apologies in advance for any errors or omissions.


If You Can Read Chinese, Read This E-Journal, Xujun Eberlein Jan 2010

If You Can Read Chinese, Read This E-Journal, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The new issue of Remembrance (<记忆>) continues to review Mao’s Last Revolution (by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhals; Chinese translation can be found here). The four articles in issues 55 and 56 discuss the book from different angles, with thoughtful comments and legitimate questions. All are well worth reading.


Anhui’S Barefoot Aids Doctors, Annie Ye Ren Jan 2010

Anhui’S Barefoot Aids Doctors, Annie Ye Ren

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

For the past four years, I have periodically worked with a Chinese grassroots HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization (NGO) that serves children in Fuyang Prefecture, Anhui Province. The Fuyang AIDS Orphan Salvation Association (AOS)gives aid directly to local communities, addressing local needs that are often overlooked or underfunded by large-scale government projects.


A Chinese Immigrant Reads Yiyun Li, Xujun Eberlein Jan 2010

A Chinese Immigrant Reads Yiyun Li, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Among the twenty-three people who received MacArthur Fellowships last month was Yiyun Li, a fiction writer based at the University of California, Davis. Born and raised in Beijing before coming to the United States for graduate work (first in immunology, later in creative writing), Li is one member of a growing community of Chinese authors now writing in English. We asked Xujun Eberlein, also part of that group, to reflect on Li’s writing.