Political Science Commons^™

Qinghai Earthquake Stories In Translation

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

•At his blog, Bruce Humes compares a Newsweek story on the earthquake’s aftermath, “A Sympathetic Hearing,” with its Chinese translation appearing inCankao Xiaoxi (参考消息), finding that quite a bit got edited out and altered. Highlights of the Cankao Xiaoxi version, summarized by Humes:

•Quotes from China social commentator Yang Hengjun are cut to ribbons and then spliced, partly to remove references to anti-Tibetan prejudice among Han, arguably fostered by China’s own media coverage (“It’s very hard to see real Tibetans…on TV, they’re dancing all the time, shaking hands with leaders, celebrating, or shown as troublemakers.”)

•Chinese people don’t “Tweet” (even …

The Eternal Flame: Politics Of The Olympic Games, Alyssa Gunstrom

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Terrorism And The Law: Show Trials And Why The Show Must Go On, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the nature and meaning of terrorism trials during the United States’ war on terror.

Cia And The Cold War Era, Mary E. Byers

Senior Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency and its role in the Cold War. Great detail highlights the timeliness of the CIA’s creation and dynamic role over the years that followed its founding. For half a century, attempts to understand the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dominated the CIA’s agenda. Thus, careful study of this era is important to understanding the progression of intelligence within the United States. The avenue of research for this thesis was a collaboration of published books, online journals, credible websites, and personal interviews. The development of the …

Political Theory Today: Results Of A National Survey, Matthew J. Moore

Political Science

This article reports the results of a 2008 national survey of political theorists. The results, based on 1,086 responses from professors at accredited, four-year colleges and universities in the United States, provide information about the demographic characteristics of political theorists, opinion data on the place of political theory within political science, the proportion of political theorists in political science departments, teaching loads, expectations for tenure, the experience of political theorists on the academic job market, and, finally, rankings of theorists, journals, publishers, professional organizations, and Ph.D. programs.

Robert Barnett On The Qinghai Earthquake

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the aftermath of last week’s earthquake in Qinghai, Brice Pedroletti of Le Mondeinterviewed (via e-mail) Robert Barnett, director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University. (Read the interview, and a related story, at Le Monde’s website.) Below, an unedited English version of their interview, which is posted here with permission of both Brice Pedroletti and Robert Barnett.

Interview with Robert Barnett on Yushu’s earthquake political implications (April 16th)

Brice Pedroletti: What can we expect the political mood to be in the Tibetan population as well as among the monks, towards the Chinese authorities, over one year after …

Updates On The Qinghai Earthquake

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

1. Evan Osnos has a “Letter from China” at his New Yorker blog that addresses the earthquake as “a test of openness,” as rumors spread throughout the country worry that the government is hiding predictions of another quake that will supposedly hit Beijing and Tianjin in the coming weeks. Osnos also links to this page at the Huffington Post, which lists organizations accepting donations to aid in earthquake relief.

2. China Digital Times has centralized its news about the earthquake at this page.

3. Danwei’s “Front Page of the Day” looks at how various Chinese newspapers covered the earthquake.

4. …

Dancing Is My Hobby

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“In Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia, a 76-year-old former PLA soldier and amateur calligrapher from Shanghai dances away another Tuesday morning. Underneath his footwork, he has written in almost as flawless spelling, ‘Dancing is my hoby’.”

— Alec Ash, Six

Asia, Faraway Or Next Door?, Samuel Y. Liang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On my way from England to AAS 2010, I stopped in New York for two nights and visited the Chinatown in Manhattan. This prosperous area sprawls beyond the boundary shown in the tourist map towards the shoreline of the East River; it also encroaches on neighboring Little Italy, which is increasingly like an island in a sea of Chinese shops and restaurants. The density of the shops and their gaudy commercialism, it seems to me, exceed those in Chinese cities and are quite similar to those in Won Kok, Hong Kong.

In a buffet-style restaurant, I got to know two …

Qinghai Earthquake Readings

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Quite a bit is being written today about Wednesday’s earthquake in Qinghai, and we expect many more stories in the coming days. Here, a survey of what we’ve found online so far:

1. The Guardian has put together an interactive map of the quake region, as well as a powerful photo series.

2. Danwei has translated a commentary by Wang Jian of China National Radio, which focuses on the difficulties of relief and rescue efforts:

At this time, we do not have enough tents to shield the victims from the cold, and we do not have enough blankets to warm …

Expo Readings Around The Web

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With the Shanghai World Expo opening in just a few short weeks, it’s now showing up in news stories on a daily basis. A few links to check out:

1. The team at Shanghaiist got to take a tour of the still-under-construction Expo grounds last week, and have posted quite a number of pictures from their visit; check out their galleries of Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C. Over at Shanghai Scrap, Adam Minter documents his look inside the U.S. Expo pavilion (and his underwhelmed reaction) in a story here.

2. Also at Shanghaiist, Elaine Chow has conducted a …

Before China Beat, There Was China Beyond The Headlines, Timothy B. Weston

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

For several years now there has been a close connection between China Beat and China beyond the Headlines. The latter, a series of essay collections edited by myself and Lionel M. Jensen, is designed for a general and classroom audience (Volume One was published in 2000; Volume Two, China’s Transformations, was released in 2007). In addition to some common players who have been involved with both, such as Geremie Barmé, Tim Cheek, Tim Oakes, Jeff Wasserstrom and myself, China Beat and China beyond the Headlines are fortunate to share Susan McEachern of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers as an editor. Each …

To Think Nuclear, To Go Nuclear, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The article discusses three of the many psychological problematics about nuclear weapons, weapons employment, and war underlying the language of policies, programs, plans, treaties, and one’s support or rejection of them.

The Rise And Fall Of Maududi's Jamaat-E-Islami In The Light Of Social Movement Theory, Mujtaba Isani, James Simeone, Faculty Advisor

John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Book Talk(S)

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Finishing up work on China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, which is due out in a few days from Oxford University Press, and then more recently preparing for a series of public events that are linked in some way to its publication, set me thinking about the varied ways that books incorporate things that have gone before them. The many kinds of building blocks, from tales told to things written down, that authors use to create something new.

I’ve never written a novel, but I’ve heard that these can easily grow out of a tale told …

Socialist Cosmopolitanism: China Beat Event

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On Wednesday, April 7, the China Beat was pleased to co-host (with the Humanities Collective) a talk at UCI by Nicolai Volland, who teaches Chinese Studies at National University of Singapore. Volland spoke on “Socialist Cosmopolitanism: China’s Other ‘Age of Openness’ in the 1950s.” ReferencingFrank Dikötter‘s recent book on Republican China, The Age of Openness: China Before Mao, Volland argued that 1950s China can also be seen as “open,” if not to the U.S. and Western Europe. Volland explored cultural exchanges within the socialist world to provide evidence of China’s continued international engagement during the early Mao years. Interested readers …

Though I Am Gone

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In his review of Andrew Walder’s Fractured Rebellion: The Beijing Red Guard Movement, John Gittings discusses the July 1966 murder of Bian Zhongyun, deputy principal of the Beijing Normal Girls’ High School. Gittings mentions that Bian’s story has been told in a moving documentary that features interviews with her husband, who shares photographs that he took at the time of her death. The entire movie, Wo sui siqu (我虽死去 Though I Am Gone), is available on YouTube; below, we’ve embedded the first section of the film (in Mandarin with English subtitles).

Listen At Home To Peter Hessler And Ken Pomeranz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Earlier this year, UC Irvine hosted a conversation between Peter Hessler and Ken Pomeranz, centering on a discussion of Hessler’s new book, Country Driving. A podcast of that event is now available, jointly produced by The China Beat andMaking History Podcast (a site run by Jana Remy, a UCI History graduate student and friend of the blog). Check it out at the MHP website, or on iTunes.

Naccs 37th Annual Conference, National Association For Chicana And Chicano Studies

NACCS Conference Programs

Chicana/o Environmental Justics Struggles for a Post-Neoliberal Age
April 7-10, 2010
Grand Hyatt

Just One Child Wins Post-1900 Levenson Prize

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Though China Beat contributors come from around the globe, the blog’s editorial team is based at UC Irvine. For that reason, we take special pride in announcing that at last month’s Association for Asian Studies annual meeting, UCI Professor of Anthropology Susan Greenhalgh won the Joseph Levenson Prize for Best Book on China Post-1900. Professor Greenhalgh’s book, Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China, was published by the University of California Press in 2008, and attempts to answer several questions that have permeated her work as a population specialist during the era of the one-child policy:

Why? Why …