Arbitrary Arrest And Detention Of Human Rights Defenders In Iran: Subduing The Voices Demanding Rights,
2010
University of Denver
Arbitrary Arrest And Detention Of Human Rights Defenders In Iran: Subduing The Voices Demanding Rights, Sachchi Karki
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Arbitrary arrest and detention, oftentimes used to curtail the freedom of opinion and expression, as well as the right to association and peaceful assembly, has continued to characterize Iranian regimes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Such arrest and detention of human rights defenders (HRD)–who individually or with others act to protect and promote human rights—has demonstrated the repressive nature of the Iranian regime. Human rights lawyers, civil society representatives, journalists, and women’s rights movements and trade union activists are among the most commonly targeted HRD.
Ann Hui’S Films And The Poetics Of Mundane Redemption,
2010
Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica
Ann Hui’S Films And The Poetics Of Mundane Redemption, Peter Zarrow
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Seen from above, people are ants. As ants are specks in nature, so people—at least Hong Kongers—are specks in the massive infrastructure of forty- and fifty-storey highrises, the limitless concrete of train and highway networks, and the forbiddingly busy shops. Seen up close, however, face-to-face, they become souls. The camera in the masterpiece directed by Ann Hui, “The Way We Are,” switches between these two perspectives. “The Way We Are” (lit. “Day and Night in Tin Shui Wai” 天水圍的日與夜, 2008) simply shows the quotidian, extremely ordinary events in the lives of a few characters, gradually revealing how they came to …
The New Red Guards,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
The New Red Guards
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
“Far out to the East of Beijing, past the city’s fifth ringroad, the Cultural Revolution isn’t over yet.
We’Re Back!,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
We’Re Back!
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
We’re returning from a two-week hiatus just in time to call your attention to the final event in a series of author talks that China Beat has produced in cooperation with several other UC Irvine organizations during the 2009-2010 academic year. Tomorrow’s dialogue at UCI, featuring Ian Johnson and Angilee Shah, is free and open to the public (details here).
The Tao Of Avatar — And Why This Sort Of Movie Cannot Be Made In The Prc At This Point In Time…,
2010
Williams College
The Tao Of Avatar — And Why This Sort Of Movie Cannot Be Made In The Prc At This Point In Time…, Sam Crane
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
We saw Avatar last night (I know, I’ve been on a movie kick of late…). It was visually stunning. The story was unremarkable: a melodramatic morality tale (the good guy wins in the end!). But it did have a couple of Taoist elements, which were no doubt quite consciously incorporated into the story.
China’S Promise,
2010
The ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
China’S Promise, Geremie R. Barme
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
The year 2009 was marked by a series of important anniversaries in the history of the People’s Republic of China. Some of these were commemorated with due pomp and circumstance in the official media and dissected at length during learned gatherings and discussions. Others, those events that I think of as ‘dark anniversaries’, passed by in an atmosphere of heightened alertness, surveillance and official anxiety. Dark anniversaries are the signposts of quelled protests, social unrest and state violence, events such as the 1959 rebellion in Lhasa, the shutting down of the Xidan Democracy Wall in Beijing in 1979, the tragedy …
Behind The Wheel, About To Snap,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Behind The Wheel, About To Snap, Peter Hessler
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
. . . A photo, that is. Below, Peter Hessler shares some of the photographs he took while traveling across China doing research for his latest book, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. Read our review of Country Drivinghere; for other takes on the book, check out Jonathan Yardley’s review at theWashington Post, and Adam Daniel Mezei’s write-up at his blog.
Readings Around The Web: Fun In The Sun Edition,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Readings Around The Web: Fun In The Sun Edition
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
• Heading for the beach and looking for the perfect book to toss in your tote bag? At Five Books, authors are interviewed and asked to recommend five books on a specific topic. Though the site covers far more than China, several of the features are China-focused and worth a look; check out Rod MacFarquhar on the Cultural Revolution, Isabel Hilton on China’s environmental crisis, and Richard McGregor on the Chinese Communist Party.
Expo Watch 2010,
2010
Princeton University
Expo Watch 2010, Shellen Xiao Wu
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
In Shanghai these days it is impossible to avoid the World Expo. Hotels are packed with domestic tourists and school groups; subway and bus televisions show a constant news loop about events at the Expo; and Haibao, the rectangular, blue mascot of the Expo, graces numerous government offices, posters, and official merchandise stalls. To ensure the target of 70 million visitors is met and exceeded for the duration of the Expo from the beginning of May to the end of October, various government offices in Shanghai have handed out Expo “gift packs” of one free ticket per Shanghai resident family. …
Beijing Bibliophile, Part Ii: Market Change And New Technology,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Beijing Bibliophile, Part Ii: Market Change And New Technology, Eric Setzekorn
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Dozens of bookstores continue to dot Beijing but recent developments are changing the landscape for readers and publishers by forcing many smaller stores out of the market. Part of this trend is due to advances in public transportation, particularly the enlarged subway system, that make it possible to travel across town for a larger selection and lower prices, leading to a decline in neighborhood bookstores. A less positive part of the bookstore consolidation is the increasing leverage state sector bookstores such as Xinhua can exert on private booksellers using market and political forces. A mixed element in the dynamic Beijing …
Review: China’S Megatrends: The Eight Pillars Of A New Society,
2010
University of Manchester
Review: China’S Megatrends: The Eight Pillars Of A New Society, William A. Callahan
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
The future is a hot topic in China; bookstores are full of tomes asserting the 21st century as China’s century: Liu Mingfu’s The China Dream(2010) and Chan Koon-chung’s The Gilded Era: China 2013 (2009) are but two of the most recent books that describe how China is destined to become the number one country in the world.
New Release: Coming To Terms With The Nation,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
New Release: Coming To Terms With The Nation
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
On Monday, China’s decennial census began, sending six million census workers door-to-door in a quest to record and count the country’s population over the course of only ten days. A key issue in this census, according to some observers, will be placing China’s population in terms of place of residence. One thing analysts are waiting to find out, for example, is how many citizens of the PRC are described as living in cities rather than villages, as this census, which comes after a period of massive rural-to-urban migration, is supposed to describe where people physically live and work, not their …
As China Goes, So Goes The World,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
As China Goes, So Goes The World
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Karl Gerth is a tutor and fellow at Merton College and a historian of modern China at Oxford University. His new book is As China Goes, So Goes the World: How Chinese Consumers are Transforming Everything (Hill & Wang, 2010). (See this review by Christina Larson at the Washington Monthly and this oneat Kirkus Reviews for more on Gerth’s book.) Below, an excerpt from chapter 1 of As China Goes, which takes a look at one of the most notable phenomena of 21st-century Chinese life: the sudden boom in car ownership and its far-reaching consequences.
China Beat Is Heading To The Beach . . .,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
China Beat Is Heading To The Beach . . .
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
. . . well, not exactly. But we are taking a short vacation, to focus on wrapping up the academic year here at UC Irvine. We’ll be back online June 6 (though we will keep up our Twitter feed during the break, so follow us today!). Before we go, a few links we’d like to share:
“A Wildly Weird And Wonderful Event”,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
“A Wildly Weird And Wonderful Event”
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
For updates and insights on the 2010 Expo, one of the first places we turn isShanghai Scrap, where Shanghai-based writer Adam Minter has been following the story for almost two years. Minter’s Expo posts cover topics such as the emergence of Haibao (September 2008), the renovation of the Bund (December 2009) and demolition of neighborhoods (October 2009), and an ongoing in-depth investigation of the twisted saga of the U.S. pavilion (most recent posthere; full archive here). Minter also has an article and slideshow about the Expo atThe Atlantic. In the wake of last Saturday’s opening ceremony, we posed a few …
Bloggers’ Breakfast At Aas,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Bloggers’ Breakfast At Aas
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
It’s become a tradition for China Beat contributors and friends of the blog to assemble at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting (as well as at the American Historical Association’s meeting) for a “bloggers’ breakfast” that provides China Beatniks the chance to get together and meet face-to-face — often for the first time, since so much of our business is conducted via e-mail. Last Saturday morning, we gathered at a Starbucks near the AAS conference site and talked about China, writing, and many other topics over coffee and pastries. A couple of photos from the AAS 2010 bloggers’ breakfast:
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part Ii),
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
What I Read On My Summer Vacation (Part Ii), Kate Merkel-Hess
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
Moving across the country (from Irvine, California to State College, Pennsylvania) meant that most of my books—even the new ones—spent the summer packed in boxes. But alongside a rapid inhalation of all three Stieg Larsson novels, I still did a little China reading. Here, a few recommendations.
China’S Communist Party: Two Glimpses Inside,
2010
Fordham Law School
China’S Communist Party: Two Glimpses Inside, Thomas Kellogg
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
On August 16, 2010, China reached yet another milestone in its decades-long breakneck run of economic development: it became the world’s second largest economy. According to official economic data, China surpassed a still-struggling Japan, leaving it behind only the United States in terms of overall economic size. Some analysts predicted that China could pass the US to become the world’s largest economy as early as 2030.
Jean-Philippe Béja On Liu Xiaobo,
2010
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Jean-Philippe Béja On Liu Xiaobo
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
In only a few hours, word will come from Oslo and the world will know whether or not this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner is Chinese activist and author Liu Xiaobo, currently serving an eleven-year prison sentence for “subverting state authority.”Speculation about Liu’s odds has been running at a fever pitch this week, so much so that Irish bookmaker Paddy Power made an early payout to those who had put money on Liu by Tuesday. Authorities in Beijing, however, have made it clear that this is one international prize that China doesn’t want to win.
Book Review: Shanghai World Expo Guide 2010,
2010
University of Central Arkansas
Book Review: Shanghai World Expo Guide 2010, Adam D. Frank
China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012
On first blush, one would think that reviewing Nick Land’s Shanghai World Expo Guidebook 2010 would be an exercise akin to reviewing a movie poster for Avatar—a kind of 2-D portrait of a 3-D experience.
