International Relations Commons^™

798 Faces

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“At Beijing’s 798 art district, I photograph a visitor, who inspects his own photos, while an artwork inspects him. 798 has become a destination for young Chinese to kill time, and shop, in one of the city’s more counter-culture environments.”

“At Beijing’s 798 art district, I photograph a visitor, who inspects his own photos, while an artwork inspects him. 798 has become a destination for young Chinese to kill time, and shop, in one of the city’s more counter-culture environments.”

–Alec Ash

In Case You Missed It: China’S Monetary Challenges, Maura Dykstra

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When I first left to study in China, I asked around about what presents to bring. I took the advice of a professor, and boarded a plane to Shanghai with two bottles of Johnny Walker and two cartons of Marlboro cigarettes. I had heard tales of men and women in China beseeching their foreign friends to purchase such items at Friendship Stores, and had been reassured that these name-brand products would be eagerly consumed by deprived whiskey-drinkers and smokers on the mainland. I wasn’t in China for more than a week when, stepping into a local convenience store, I was …

Berlin Wall Anniversary And China: Five Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. “What Came Down Was the Wall and What Stood Up Was the People,” by Shi Zhe, a translation of an op-ed from Southern Weekend (hat tip Danwei):

The resurgence of Germany after the war was achieved by each and every person living in a misshaped land. In the end it was regular people that were the main reason West Germany was able to win the peaceful competition between two systems. Their hard work day in and day out the proved themselves to the world, redeeming the dignity of the entire ethnicity. Outsiders usually like to evaluate the Berlin Wall …

Looking Back 20 Years: Who Deserves Credit For Ending The Cold War?, Nicholas Hayes

University Chair in Critical Thinking Publications

No abstract provided.

The Legacy Of Lu Xun: Photos From Shaoxing

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this week, The China Beat featured an excerpt from the introduction of Julia Lovell’s forthcoming translation, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun. Urbanatomy has also recently run a piece on Lu Xun and his legacy in Chinese literature, and a story at China Daily discusses Lu Xun’s writings and Lovell’s translation.

I was especially interested, however, in this essay at Urbanatomy by Anna Greenspan (who has also written for The China Beat), as she provides a tour guide to Lu Xun-related sites in Shanghai. While I haven’t visited any …

Around The Web: Art And China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A few of the stories related to art that have caught our eye recently:

1. The big story in Chinese art this week was the unveiling of a new Mao statue in Changsha (thanks to Shanghaiist for that link), which depicts the future Great Helmsman as a 32-year-old. The Mount Rushmore-esque monolith shows Mao as a romantic young revolutionary, gazing resolutely into the distance as his unusually long hair blows in the wind. Although one member of the design team said that they “were particularly concerned with differentiating it from past images,” the statue evokes the feel of “Chairman Mao …

Revival, Paul Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Just over two months have passed since the devastation wrought by Typhoon Morakot, but the reconstruction of Siaolin Village 小林村 and its venerable Plains Aborigine (平埔族) culture is already well underway. A major step forward took place this past weekend with the successful restaging of the annual Siraya 西拉雅 ritual known as the “Siaolin Night Festival” (小林夜祭). This event was accompanied by the holding of a conference on the reconstruction of southern Taiwan’s Plains Aboriginal culture (「重建南臺平埔族群文化」學術研討會) and the official opening of an exhibition of artifacts from Siaolin’s Plains Aborigine culture (小林平埔文化特展) at the Chia-hsien Cultural Hall (甲仙地方文化館). Visiting dignitaries …

Some Expo-Disney Connections

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Needless to say, the Shanghai-Disney story, which has just taken a dramatic turn, is one that I’ve been following with great interest. How could I not, when the University of California-Irvine, where I teach and “China Beat” is based, is closer to the original Disney theme park than any other major research university? When my last book not only looked at Shanghai’s past but speculated a bit about what it may become in the near future as it continues to develop? When I’ve published a travel-themed commentary-cum-memoir that alluded to the role that visits to the Magic Kingdom in Anaheim …

Coming Distractions: The Complete Fiction Of Lu Xun–A New Translation

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We’re pleased to present here an excerpt from the introduction of Julia Lovell’s forthcoming translation of Lu Xun’s fiction. Lovell examines the uses (and abuses) of Lu Xun’s writings by Mao Zedong in the decades after the author’s death, pointing out the ways in which the CCP smoothed over rough edges and ignored inconvenient truths as it disseminated Lu Xun’s work for the Chinese public to study. Since the reforms of the late 1970s, Lu Xun has been transformed yet again, and now occupies a status equivalent to that of Charles Dickens in Britain: while his work might be respected, …

Review: Making Religion, Making The State, Miri Kim

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A collection of essays on the religious revival in the People’s Republic of China,Making Religion, Making the State (Stanford UP, 2009) focuses on how the state has influenced the development of Chinese religious institutions and practices. But, as the title suggests, the state’s rehabilitation of different religions has been far from a one-way street, with both clergy and laity prompting the state to adjust its strategies. The essays demonstrate just how complicated this process has been thus far, and suggest that the dynamics of the current religious revival will remain subject to change, albeit under the shadow of a state …

Lijia Zhang: Virtually And In Person

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last Thursday, Lijia Zhang gave a talk at the University of California, Irvine campus to a packed room. In addition to discussing her book, Socialism is Great!, Zhang also discussed her experiences as a writer in China.

Currently in residence as a fellow at the University of Iowa’s International Writer’s Program (for Iowa Citians, Zhang will be giving a reading at Prairie Lights todayat 4 p.m.), Zhang has also been hosting a talk show in China. Click here to see her interview with the Australian ambassador to China, Dr. Geoff Raby; you can find more videos at Blue Ocean Network’s …

November Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

Healing the Past, Protecting the Future. By Alejandro Toledo. Americas Quarterly. July 13, 2009.

The Hidden Costs Of Terror, Cath Collins

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In this month’s featured article, former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) gives a thoughtful and insightful account of how post-atrocity accounting and reconstruction feels ‘from the top’. What can an incoming head of state possibly do or say that will redress and repair the social and human costs of decades of violence? What about the centuries of injustice and inequality that fueled the flames? In fact Toledo did perhaps as much as he could, and more than many thought he would be able to, in recognising and beginning to address the ethnic, class, and institutional faultlines that tore Peru apart …

The Peruvian Precedent, Katherine Hite

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the early days of September 2009, former Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) president Salomón Lerner received a series of sick anonymous messages: “We will do to you what we did to your dogs.” Lerner’s two pet dogs had been fatally poisoned. The poisoning and the death threats against Lerner joined other vicious retaliations, including continuous attacks on another powerful human rights symbol, Lika Mutal’s “The Eye that Cries,” a sculpture in Lima that mourns the tens of thousands of Peruvian victims of internal armed conflict. In a twisted way, the poisoning, death threats, and attacks show that Peruvian …

From Atrocities To Security: A Parable From Peru, Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

I have no expertise on the domestic politics of Peru, but I know that its often violent past shares much with its Latin American neighbours. Though not a practice confined to this region, I also know that events in the region have made notorious the chilling euphemism “disappearances.”

The Limits Of Executive Action For Human Rights, Henry Krisch

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Between 2001 and 2006 Alejandro Toledo served as President of Peru. He entered office committed to, in his words, “restoring the democratic institutions that had suffered from a steady deterioration during the previous decade,” (that is, during the rule of former President Alberto Fujimori). Moreover, he took up the task of providing Peruvian society with “a full accounting of the atrocities that had occurred in previous decades.” This personal commitment to re-establishing a functioning democracy based on the rule of law, a commitment based in part on his participation in the anti-Fujimori demonstrations, lead him to seek an honest accounting …

Double Take

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I took this photograph in Hanoi last summer, during my first trip to Vietnam, a brief but memorable one, the main purpose of which was to give lectures about the Journal of Asian Studies and the nature of scholarly publishing in the West. Many things I saw there made me think of China (either as it is today or as it was a decade or two ago), including this store. When I first took the photograph, I was reminded of a Danwei post I had seen a few months earlier that featured a May 4th commemorative graphic (from the Chinese …

Dirty Innards, Paul Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Taiwan has recently been upset by the news that imports of American beef will soon resume, including internal organs. The resulting upheaval has featured more hysteria than science, but has nonetheless had an impact on the current government’s popularity, with President Ma’s approval rating plummeting by 14%. In the midst of the discomfort about potentially contaminated beef, however, concerns are also being raised about other forms of filth at the political and social levels:

1. Yet another KMT legislator is facing the end of his political career, with the Taiwan High Court yesterday upholding a lower court ruling annulling his …

Peter Hessler: Readings On The Web

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Peter Hessler will be speaking about his new book at the University of California, Irvine on February 16 (mark your calendars, Southern Californians!). Hessler will be in the midst of a tour for the book, Country Driving. We noticed a few readings by and about Hessler this week, and thought, in honor of his upcoming visit, to share them with you.

1. This week’s New Yorker features a piece by Hessler on Lishui, a Chinese city that has a booming business in export artwork. Click here for a slide show narrated by Hessler. (For another take on Chinese copies/forgeries in …

In Case You Missed It: Repeat After Me

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In 2005, when Rachel DeWoskin published her memoir of living in Beijing during the 1990s, I was so excited that I immediately bought the first copy I saw in a Hong Kong bookstore. Foreign Babes in Beijing represents a rare female voice among the expats-in-China genre of books, and DeWoskin’s tales of working in public relations and acting in a Chinese soap opera are deftly and humorously written. It’s a book that I still recommend to people who want to know more about living in China, and I’m looking forward to seeing the film version that’s currently in development.

After …

Party Girl

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“Taken in a packed Christian service I attended out of curiosity at a wannabe mega-church in Beijing. While the passionately Christian Chinese acquaintance I went with stood reverent and modest by my side, this girl happened to step into my shot.”

–Alec Ash

The Curious Case Of Jia Junpeng, Or The Power Of Symbolic Appropriation In Chinese Cyberspace, Guobing Yang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

An Uncanny Story[1]

On July 16, 2009, an anonymous internet user in a popular Baidu discussion forum posted a message titled “Jia Junpeng, your mother wants you to go home to eat.” The message has only twelve Chinese characters in its title and has no other content. Yet it got 3,000 responses within five hours, responses that range from the routine socializing type (“Support!” “Interesting!”) to the funny and sarcastic (“I am not going to eat at home today. I’m eating in the Internet bar. Please pass on my message to my mom.”). Within one day, it received seven million …

10/19 Reader

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. This is a rather belated link, but in case you missed it at China Digital Times, you might be interested to read their translation of a piece on “‘The Wall’ and ‘Climbing Over the Wall’” by Tu Zifang from Southern Metropolis Weekly.

For so many years, the busiest people on the Chinese internet are those who make the Wall software and the “Climbing the Wall” software. It has been said that those people all have something in common: 1. They are all Chinese, 2. They all made a fortune, 3. They all have studied in the US. The only …

Vietnam And Afghanistan: Lessons In Disaster?, Nicholas Hayes

University Chair in Critical Thinking Publications

No abstract provided.

Response To “Islamic Fundamentalism: An Ignored Specter In The Xinjiang Riot”, Mark Elliott

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat has run several pieces recently on the Xinjiang riots. On October 2, we featured Rian Thum’s “The Ethnicization of Discontent in Xinjiang,” which argued that the riots had raised ethnic tensions in the region. A few days later, we published “Islamic Fundamentalism: An Ignored Specter in the Xinjiang Riot,” written by Liang Zheng. Zheng argued that the foreign media had ignored indications that the riots were instigated by fundamentalists from southern Xinjiang, an argument that preserves the notion of ethnic harmony in Urumqi itself.

Today we run a response to Zheng’s argument from Mark Elliott, Professor of Chinese …

Yes, You Too Can “Win In China”: An Interview With Filmmaker Ole Schell, Dustin Wright

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

There has understandably been no shortage of commentary on China’s rapid economic development. Much like Japan’s economic “miracle” of the last century, this other industrialization in East Asia has generated considerable discussion, both in academia and popular media. No doubt, much of the discussion rests on a healthy crop of skepticism regarding the actual sustainability of China’s growth. However, though export growth has slowed since the boom apex in 2007, the country’s economy is nonetheless continuing to grow and many observers maintain that China is surviving the global recession better than any other major economy.

But as both domestic and …

Talks By Jeff Wasserstrom In Heidelberg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Jeff Wasserstrom will be giving several talks at the University of Heidelberg over the next few days in the series “China Beat–Mega-Events and Recent Trends in Transcultural China”:

Thursday, October 15

“New Possibilities and Old Patterns in Publishing in and about China,” with a response by poet Bei Ling

Friday, October 16

“Mega-Events and the Rise of Global Cities: The Shanghai World Expo in Historical and Comparative Perspective”

Monday, October 19

“Chatter about China in the Global Public Sphere: From the Boxer Crisis to the Beijing Games and Beyond”

Details about these events are available here.

Long Live The Nation

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“祖国万岁. Long Live the Nation.” The main pavilion of the Expo looks like a cross between a UFO and the hull of a ship. I spoke with some bystanders who turned out to be residents of the area. The old couple comes out everyday at night to marvel at the dramatic displays on the Expo pavilion. It seems that there isn’t enough to warrant a lawn chair but they beg to differ. It’s their city.

Photo by Grace Park, caption by Jonathan Hwang. Both are students at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies.

Learning From Lai Changxing?, Jeremy Brown, Xian Wang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Last year, Angilee Shah wrote a review at China Beat of Oliver August’s Inside the Red Mansion. The review inspired Simon Fraser University Professor Jeremy Brown to assign the text to a class and he recently invited the book’s protaganist, Lai Changxing, to join his class for a day. Brown and one of his students provide an account of the day’s visit below (for a write-up in Chinese, see this report at The Global Chinese Press).

A few days before National Day, Lai Changxing joined our fourth-year Chinese history class at Simon Fraser University. For almost three hours China’s most …

Chinese History Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

A hodgepodge of historically or (historian-) relevant readings from the last few weeks…

1. Of greatest interest to the historians around here (particularly those of us who don’t make it to Cambridge regularly), Harvard and the National Library of China have signed a deal to digitize Harvard’s collection of 51,000 rare Chinese books:

Once completed, these images dating as far back as the Song ynasty in 960 AD, will be publicly available for free on the Web to scholars in China and elsewhere.

“We need to change the mindset that rare materials must be kept behind closed doors,’’ said James …