International and Area Studies Commons^™

In Case You Missed It: An Introduction To Chinese Philosophy, Miri Kim

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In this well written and organized book, Karyn L. Lai lays out the founding personalities, texts, and interventions in the early history of Chinese philosophy. What could easily have been a tortuous path through centuries’ worth of extant materials and a plenitude of voices devoted to their understanding is, rather, a brisk and focused guided tour that covers major developments in Chinese philosophy without eschewing its lesser known – but still important – aspects. An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy does exactly what it promises to do: provide a clear introduction, neither too truncated nor too bogged down in detail, that …

Buying American, Ron Javers

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When New York rumors began flying about fresh talks between Newsweek and The Daily Beast over Tina Brown’s taking over the editorship of the venerable but now reeling newsweekly I found myself wondering what Xiang Xi in Guangzhou thought of all that.

A New Book On Mao: A Quick Q & A With Author Rebecca Karl, Rebecca Karl

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Rebecca Karl, who teaches at New York University and is known in Chinese studies circles as the author of important studies of nationalism during the final years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) and the development of Marxist thought between the 1920s and the present, has a new book coming out soon. Titled Mao Zedong and China in the Twentieth-Century World: A Concise History, it’s being published (simultaneously in paperback and hardback editions) by Duke University Press. The publisher promises that it will provide readers with a “lively and concise historical account of Mao Zedong’s life and thought,” and it comes …

In Case You Missed It: Dreaming In Chinese, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Each time my three Chinese I classmates and I complained that we had chosen a language that was simply too hard to learn, our professor had an answer at the ready.

Liu Xiaobo And The Nobel Peace Prize: More Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It has now been a little more than one month since the announcement of Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize win, with the December 10 award ceremony a bit less than a month away. Here are a few links we’ve come across recently in our search for updates on the story:

Touring With A Book (Vs. Touring With A Band)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

My “book tour,” which has had me adding a lot of miles to my frequent flyer account,has finally started winding down. I’ve got some things still to come, including an upcoming event in this area with Ian Johnson in June and then during the summer some book-related talks across the Pacific, including several Shanghai gigs (details to follow in a future post) and a July 24 presentation at the Suzhou branch of the Bookworm bookstore, and so on. Still, the pace has slowed down, which put me in a reflective mood and gave me time to finish writing a piece …

You Can’T Make An Omelette With Only One Egg, Vignesh Pillai

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In her book Egg on Mao, Denise Chong chronicles the life of Lu Decheng, a seemingly ordinary man who committed the very extraordinary act of vandalizing Mao Zedong’s portrait during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. At the heart of the book is an exploration of morality under Communist rule in the Hunanese village of Liuyang, beginning with the lead-up to Lu’s birth in 1963, his formative years, his involvement in the 1989 protests, and his incarceration. Chong draws her narrative both from interviews with Lu, who now lives in Canada, and from interviews she conducted in China in April and …

Why I Support Liu Xiaobo’S Nobel Peace Prize, Wang Chaohua

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

What does a Nobel Peace Prize stand for politically? We probably can’t take the written words of Alfred Nobel himself and of the awarding committee at face value. In the past century, the prize has stirred up numerous controversies. For example, a war-mongering, coup-conspiring politician like Henry Kissinger was chosen to be honored, leaving the rest of the world with jaws dropped and the winner himself reluctant to revisit the moment in public. After all, the prize was decided and awarded by a committee of five retired politicians. In addition, no matter how politically balanced each of the actual committee …

A House Museum Café: Part 2, Leksa Chmielewski

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As I chat with the librarian-cum-barista, a Shanghainese family comes in and starts looking over the menu. They order three different kinds of imported coffee and as the librarian lights the flame percolator, I ask her whether there are differences between Shanghainese visitors and those from other areas of China.

Links, Links, And More Links

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

• The Economic Observer has started a new column that provides a roundup of the commentary and op-ed pieces contained in each week’s newspaper and also a few of the opinion pieces that appear on the EO‘s website. The most recent column can be found here. The EO has also begun providing abstracts of its monthly Book Review; check out September’s lineup here.

Planning To Write A China Book? Just Say No, Jonathan Watts

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We wrote to Jonathan Watts to ask him to write a commentary on the book tour he’s been on to promote When a Billion Chinese Jump, which included a stop at UC Irvine, but he said he was too busy being whisked from champagne receptions to meetings with Hollywood directors seeking to buy the film rights to the book to craft something suitable. Watts was, however, good enough to offer us permission to run (in slightly trimmed-down form) a piece he wrote—with tongue firmly in cheek—for a 2009 issue of the newsletter of the Beijing Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Composed while …

A Bitter Pill For Prime Minister Kan, James Farrer

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It was a bitter pill for the Democratic Party of Japan, no matter how they swallowed it. By releasing a Chinese fishing boat captain detained by Japan without a trial, Prime Minster Kan Naoto was clearly bowing under Chinese pressure. The captain had been arrested by the Japanese coast guard for allegedly ramming his boat into Japanese coast guard vessels while in territorial waters claimed both by China and Japan. The Japanese government appeared to buckle and released the captain to China on Saturday. According to an unnamed official in the prime minister’s office quoted in the Asahi Shinbun on …

Notes For Contributors

Asian Review

No abstract provided.

Does Self Management In Fisheries Enhance Profitability? Examination Of Korea’S Coastal Fisheries, Hirotsugu Uchida, Emi Uchida, Jung-Sam Lee, Jeong-Gon Ryu, Dae-Young Kim

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

Self management of natural resources has started to gain increasing attention as an alternative tool to command-and-control and market-based tools, but the fundamental question remains: is self management economically beneficial such that it should be promoted in the first place? This article uses a unique set of survey data from South Korea and applies an empirical strategy to provide some of the first quantitative evidence that self management is benefiting the fishermen. We find that positive benefits of fishery self management—an increase in fishery revenue and reduction in cost—are perceived by member fishermen, which is a good start considering the …

Media And The Non Profit World: A Case-Study On Wwf-Malaysia's Use Of Media Tools To Champion Advocacy, Anita Devasahayam

Social Space

As issues and campaigns for various causes in the non-profit space have begun to proliferate across Asia, the struggle to remain relevant and gain critical attention is growing. Author Anita Devasahayam discusses how the Malaysian chapter of the World Wide Fund for Nature tackled the challenge by devising new media strategies and advocacy campaigns to remain relevant in an increasingly connected and cause-conscious world.

Deepening Learning And Inspiring Rigor: Bridging Academic And Experiential Learning Using A Host Country Approach To A Study Tour, Susan O. Long, Yemi S. Akande, Roger W. Purdy, Keiko Nakano

Sociology

American students are increasingly incorporating study in a foreign country into their college educations, but many participate in short-term programs that limit their engagement with any more than the superficial aspects of the host culture. This article describes a short-term study abroad course for American students to Japan in which the authors drew on an “emic” host country model of group travel in an effort to combine high academic standards, personal growth, and deepened engagement with Japanese culture. The authors first consider the history of study tours in U.S. study abroad and then look at an alternative model provided by …

Introduction, Montira Rato

Asian Review

No abstract provided.

Rosenberg Institute For East Asian Studies At Suffolk University Annual Report For 2009-2010, Rosenberg Institute

Rosenberg Institute Annual Reports

These reports summarize the activities of the Rosenberg Institute during the academic year, including information related to public programming, visiting scholars, cooperation with the Asian Studies program at Suffolk College of Arts & Sciences, promotion of Suffolk's Asia-related activities, community outreach, and funding. Most reports also contain photographs of scholars, staff, and events.

India: Rising Power Or A Mere Revolution Of Rising Expectations?, Aseema Sinha, Jon P. Dorschner

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

In 2009–2010 India faces dramatically different foreign policy challenges than it faced even ten years ago. Similar to other ascendant powers such as China and Brazil but unlike smaller powers, India must not only cope with a transformed international system and project the country's global aspirations, but also ensure that its emergence as a rising power responds to its domestic dilemmas and constraints. India's actions and aspirations on the global stage have changed dramatically toward greater activism and leveraging of its newfound economic strengths. Yet, despite powerful pressures and opportunities nudging India toward a greater role in the global system, …

Climate Change And Indigenous Peoples In Latin America, Amy C. Rademacher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the detrimental effects of climate change on indigenous peoples in Latin America. Indigenous peoples throughout the region tend to live subsistence livelihoods, which tie them closely to their land and the surrounding environment. This close relationship often means that indigenous peoples acutely experience the effects of climate change and are more susceptible to its negative outcomes than other populations. Further, indigenous peoples in the region lack the mitigation and adaptation capacities to deal with damaging climatic effects.

This research was designed to view the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples through a human rights framework, …