Asian Studies Commons^™

China Behind The Headlines: Xu Zhiyong, Susan Jakes

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this year, a graduate of his country’s most prestigious law school with an impressive record of public service, a comfortable academic post at a major university, and a political office he’d won in a trailblazing election summarized his life’s mission for a local newspaper. “I strive to be a worthy citizen, a member of a group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he told the reporter. “I want to make people believe in ideals and in justice and help them see that there is hope for change.”

Like a more well-known community organizer, Xu Zhiyong has …

Filthy Fiction: The Writings Of Zhu Wen, Julia Lovell

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Chinese fiction of the 1990s was not short on shock value. If we think of the decade’s cultural tone being set by Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 command to unleash commercial forces, then the years that followed proved rich in works that would have done the old man proud. Quick off the mark was Jia Pingwa, who triumphantly became one of the earliest, most notorious cases of a serious writer surrendering to lurid populism, with his 1993 novel, The Ruined Capital (Feidu): a best-selling, soft-pornographic tale of a male writer’s travails through the corruption of contemporary China. Things were not looking much …

In Case You Missed It: Cambridge Companion To Modern Chinese Culture, Miri Kim

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

For scholars of China who are interested in modernity, the looming question seems to be, is ‘modernity’ a valid and useful analytical category for describing, explaining, and understanding China? And if so, how should modernity and its attendant conceptual apparatuses be deployed in investigations of China’s various aspects, historical, political, cultural, and so on? In The Cambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture, editor Kam Louie and a distinguished list of contributors seek to explore China within its particular modern contexts and clarify the idea of ‘modernity’ by using historical and contemporary cases.

In his introduction Louie writes, “At first glance, …

Readings For August 3

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. An important story emerged this weekend in the blogosphere: Chinese legal scholar Xu Zhiyong was taken from his home by police last Wednesday and has not been seen since. From Evan Osnos at The New Yorker:

Xu might not have reached Marshall status yet, but he is as close as China gets to a public-interest icon. He teaches law at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. He has also run the Open Constitution Initiative, a legal aid and research organization that worked on many of China’s path-breaking cases. He and his colleagues had investigated the Sanlu milk scandal, …

Essential Spreadsheet Modeling Course For Business Students, Thin Yin Leong, Michelle L. F. Cheong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Ask any student at the Singapore Management University (SMU) to name one of the most practical and useful courses offered by the university. The answer would inevitably include CAT. CAT stands for the "Computer as an Analysis Tool" course. Originally based on a course of the same title offered by the Wharton Business School, the focus of CAT was shifted to provide business students the essential practical skills and necessary "real-world" exposure to better use personal computers for resolving business problems. The course is basically centered on using the Excel spreadsheet to work on ambiguous ill-defined problems.

“Special Position Of The Malays”: It’S A Shield, Not A Sword, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Gender Division Of Household Labor In Vietnam: Cohort Trends And Regional Variations, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, John Knodel, Manh Loi Vu, Tuan Huy Vu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study addresses the extent of change and regional differences in gender roles in the Vietnamese family based on innovative surveys in northern and southern Vietnam. The similarities and differences in political, economic, and social histories between northern and southern Vietnam provide a compelling setting to investigate the impact of socialist policies and the recent shift from a centrally planned to a market economy on gender stratification in the domestic spheres. We assess determinants of the gender division of household labor among three marriage cohorts that underwent early marital years during 1) the Vietnam War and mass mobilization, 2) nationwide …

Fault Lines In Our “Garden Of Eden State”, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

A Few Reading Recommendations

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. The new Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is out—and all its articles are available for free in PDF at its website. Those of possible interest to CB readers include:

“Beijing Bubble, Beijing Bust: Inequality, Trade, and Capital Inflow into China” (by James K. Galbraith, Sara Hsu, Wenjie Zhang); “Realpolitik Dynamics and Image Construction in the Russia-China Relationship: Forging a Strategic Partnership?” (by Maria Raquel Freire, Carmen Amado Mendes); “The Regulation of Religious Affairs in Taiwan: From State Control to Laisser-faire?” (by André Laliberté); “Nationalism to Go – Coke Commercials between Lifestyle and Political Myth” (available only in German, by …

Kabul Times (July-Sep, 1965), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, July - September, 1965

The Urumchi Unrest Revisited, James Millward

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The violence in Xinjiang took place almost a month ago, but it continues to generate interesting commentary (see, for example, this thoughtful essay by Pallavi Aiyar). The early July events have also recently had two reverberations in Australia, as Jia Zhangke and two other Chinese filmmakers pulled out of a Melbourne film festival where a documentary expected to present a sympathetic view of one of the people Beijing blames for the unrest was to be shown, and then hackers attacked the festival’s website to protest that film’s inclusion in the line-up. In light of this, we asked James Millward, a …

Race And Espionage, Sam Goffman

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The fact that China and the US spy on each other should come as no surprise to anybody. Each country is nervous about the other, and espionage, though it is surely not conducted with the same vigor as during the Cold War, is still an important part of interactions between states.

What’s interesting about Chinese espionage operations in the US, however, is that they appear to involve strong racial and nationalist overtones. The Soviet Union tended to appeal to ideology, or simply offer money or other types of benefits to its agents; China, it seems, is mainly going after overseas …

Brought To You By The People’S Republic Of The Onion, Haiyan Lee

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

America’s finest news source The Onion has a new owner! Since last week, readers have been bombarded with the good tiding, from the modified masthead, logo, and tagline, to news headlines, editorials, audio and video clips, and ads, lots of ads. The new owner goes by the appetizing name of Yu Wan Mei 鱼完美 Amalgamated Salvage Fisheries and Polymer Injection Group, supposedly a Chinese conglomerate from the inland province of Sichuan. The corporation specializes in fish by-products salvaged from the “ocean’s bounty.” Some of its finer samples are “Broiled Shark Gums,” “Multi-Flavor Variety Pack Of Pickled Fish Cloaca,” “Lightning Power …

Kabul Times (Jan - Mar, 1965), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times from January to March 1965.

A Reader: The 2010 Asian Games

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The PR folks for the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou have added China Beat to their mailing list, so we got their note this week about organizers’ plans to seed clouds to prevent rain during the Games. Our interest was piqued–we hadn’t heard much yet about the 2010 Asian Games. Here are a few of the things we found when we went looking…

1. As with the Olympic preparations in Beijing, there is massive construction, investment, and environmental management (not just cloud-seeding) underway in Guangzhou, according to Xinhua:

Authorities are pumping in more than 58 billion yuan (8.5 billion U.S. …

Kabul Times (Oct - Dec, 1964), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, October to December, 1964.

A Cultural Symbol Passes From The Scene: Ji Xianlin, Not Michael Jackson, Timothy B. Weston

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It’s been moving to watch the response in China to the July 11 death of renowned scholar, Ji Xianlin (1911-2009). While Ji’s unsurprising departure at the ripe old age of 98 has not brought quite the same flood tide of emotion and cultural stock taking in China as Michael Jackson’s completely unexpected death a few weeks earlier at age 50 has in the United States and around the world, the way the venerable scholar is being remembered in Beijing is nevertheless remarkable. Long lines of people wishing to pay their last respects waited for hours to gain entrance to a …

Kabul Times (Jul-Sep, 1964)

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Time, July thru September, 1964

Confucianism In Chinese Academia, Daniel A. Bell

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Over the last decade or so, there has been a revival of Confucianism. Popular books on Confucianism are best sellers, and official discourse from the government often expresses traditional Confucian values like harmony. What is less well known, however, is the resurgence in interest among academics in China.

Rigorous experiments by psychologists such as Peng Kaiping and Wu Shali show that there are striking cognitive differences between Chinese and Americans, with Chinese more likely to use contextual and dialectical approaches to solving problems. Psychologists Huang Guangguo and Yang Zhongfang from Taiwan and Hongkong advocate the use of traditional Chinese ideas …

Kabul Times (Apr - Jun, 1964)

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

April - June, 1964

China Beatniks Around The Web

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

After a few weeks of vacation, China Beat is back to posting (though we considered making an 8 percent reduction in our future posts in honor of the UC furlough, we’ll just be back to business as usual). Even so, it is still summer and a few contributors have been using the time to publish in other venues.

Last Saturday, Ken Pomeranz mentioned a few of his recent publications, includingthis one at the New Left Review.

Jeff Wasserstrom recently reviewed Lisa See’s new book, Shanghai Girls for Time Asia. (We ran an interview with See this spring, which you can …

Kabul Times (Jan - Mar, 1964), Afghanistan

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times from January to March, 1964

Shanghai Expo: The Us Pavilion Is On

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last November, we ran a little preview of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, pointing you to a few readings about this big “coming distraction.” Last week the US finally committed to attend the Expo, prompting a new round of Expo stories around the web.

1. It’s pretty unusual for the U.S. to land on any world list between San Marino and Andorra, but that’s its position on the Expo sign-up sheet, asreported by the AFP:

The United States signed up Friday the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, officials said, making it the last major country with diplomatic ties to China to join …

Self-Promotion Saturday, Ken Pomeranz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“Self-promotion Saturday?” My mother would be appalled, but times (and media cultures) change, and I do have a few things that might be of interest to China Beat readers. In addition to co-editing China in 2008 (which regular visitors to this site might possibly have heard of), I have another co-edited volume that came out this spring, and another book I edited has just come this summer.

The spring volume is The Environment and World History, 1500-2000 (UC Press), co-edited with Edmund Burke III; it includes both regional essays (I did the one on China), and topical ones (on energy …

Kabul Times (Oct - Dec, 1963)

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, October to December, 1963

Reading Round-Up

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

To start, a few pieces not related to the events in Xinjiang:

1. “Edge of the American West,” a history/philosophy academic group blog, ran a piece today by David Silbey titled, “Death Preparatory to Resurrection [Boxers, July 13-16, 1900]” that reflects on Western media coverage during that time of the supposed massacre of foreigners in Beijing (later proven to be false):

This was the week that the westerners besieged in the embassies in Beijing died. They would be reborn again quite quickly, but for several days in the middle of July the world was firmly convinced that they had all …

The Xinjiang Riots: Tried Paradigms, Fresh Tensions, James Leibold

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The mainstream media, both Western and Chinese, seem to be struggling to make sense of the deadly riots that broke out in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi last week. Well-worn explanations on both sides have largely failed to grasp the complexities behind this new, unprecedented wave of mass communal violence in China. Not since the dying days of the Manchu Qing empire has China witnessed this sort of spontaneous ethnically-based violence.

With initial headlines like “Chinese riot police, Muslims clash in northwestern city,” “China in deadly crackdown after Uighurs go on the rampage,” and “Uighurs cling to life in People’s …

Kabul Times (Jul - Sep, 1963)

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times, July - Sepember, 1963

Kabul Times (Apr - Jun, 1963)

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Time, April - June, 1963

Kabul Times (Jan - Mar, 1963)

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Kabul Times (Jan 1 - Mar 31, 1963)