Best of
China
2002
The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices
Xinran - 2002
As an employee for the state radio system, she had long wanted to help improve the lives of Chinese women. But when she was given clearance to host a radio call-in show, she barely anticipated the enthusiasm it would quickly generate. Operating within the constraints imposed by government censors, “Words on the Night Breeze” sparked a tremendous outpouring, and the hours of tape on her answering machines were soon filled every night. Whether angry or muted, posing questions or simply relating experiences, these anonymous women bore witness to decades of civil strife, and of halting attempts at self-understanding in a painfully restrictive society. In this collection, by turns heartrending and inspiring, Xinran brings us the stories that affected her most, and offers a graphically detailed, altogether unprecedented work of oral history.
Shanghai Diary
Ursula Bacon - 2002
As the holocaust approached, many Jewish families in Germany fled to one of the only open ports available to them: Shanghai. Once called "the armpit of the world," Shanghai ultimately served as the last resort for tens of thousands of Jews desperate to escape Hitler's "Final Solution." Against this backdrop, 11-year-old Ursula Bacon and her family made the difficult 8,000-mile voyage to Shanghai, with its promise of safety. But instead of a storybook China, they found overcrowded streets teeming with peddlers, beggars, opium dens, and prostitutes. Amid these abysmal conditions, Ursula learned of her own resourcefulness and found within herself the fierce determination to survive.
Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China
David Hinton - 2002
China's tradition of "rivers-and-mountains" poetry stretches across millennia. This is a plain-spoken poetry of immediate day-to-day experience, and yet seems most akin to China's grand landscape paintings. Although its wisdom is ancient, rooted in Taoist and Zen thought, the work feels utterly contemporary, especially as rendered here in Hinton's rich and accessible translations. Mountain Home collects poems from 5th- through 13th-century China and includes the poets Li Po, Po Chu-i and Tu Fu. The "rivers-and-mountains" tradition covers a remarkable range of topics: comic domestic scenes, social protest, travel, sage recluses, and mountain landscapes shaped into forms of enlightenment. And within this range, the poems articulate the experience of living as an organic part of the natural world and its processes. In an age of global ecological disruption and mass extinction, this tradition grows more urgently important every day. Mountain Home offers poems that will charm and inform not just readers of poetry, but also the large community of readers who are interested in environmental awareness.
Daughter of China
C. Hope Flinchbaugh - 2002
Nineteen-year-old Mai Lin has two serious handicaps in Chinese society-being born a girl, and worse, choosing to become a Christian. But she dreams of attending Shanghai University..The poignant, uplifting story that follows is a triumph of love and courage and a tribute to all who stand for their faith in the face of great odds.
Sounds of the River: A Young Man's University Days in Beijing
Da Chen - 2002
He soon faces a host of ghastly challenges, including poor living conditions, lack of food, and suicidal roommates. Undaunted by these hurdles, and armed with a dogged determination to learn English and "all things Western," he competes to win a chance to study in America—a chance that rests in the shrewd and corrupt hands of the almighty professors.Poetic, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Sounds of the River is a gloriously written coming-of-age saga that chronicles a remarkable journey—a travelogue of the heart.
The Emperor's Silent Army: Terracotta Warriors of Ancient China
Jane O'Connor - 2002
Describes the archaeological discovery of thousands of life-sized terracotta warrior statues in northern China in 1974, and discusses the emperor who had them created and placed near his tomb.
Moonbeams, Dumplings Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities Recipes
Nina Simonds - 2002
They can feast on golden New Year's dumplings and tasty moon cakes, build a miniature boat for the Dragon Boat Festival and a kite at Qing Ming, or share the story of the greedy Kitchen God or the valiant warrior Hou Yi. This stunning compilation from bestselling cookbook author Nina Simonds and Leslie Swartz of the Children's Museum, Boston, is the perfect gift for families that have embraced Chinese holidays for generations--and for those just beginning new traditions.
400 Million Customers
Carl Crow - 2002
Probably the best selling book on doing in business in China ever – and undoubtedly the best ever written – 400 Million Customers is both amusing and informed. First published in 1937, it is the distillation of the experiences of one of the most successful foreign businessmen ever to wash up on the China coast. Crow brilliantly explains the eternal truths about doing business in the Middle Kingdom.
Escape from China: The Long Journey From Tiananmen to Freedom
Zhang Boli - 2002
After two years as a fugitive, Zhang -- the only leader to elude capture -- knew that he must bid his beloved country, as well as his wife and baby daughter, farewell. Traveling across the frozen terrain of the former Soviet Union, where peasants rescued him, and through the deserted lands of China's precarious borders, Zhang had only his extraordinary will to propel him toward freedom. As told in Escape from China -- a work of great historical resonance -- his story will renew your faith in the human spirit.
The Lady and the Tigers: Remembering the Flying Tigers of World War II
Olga Greenlaw - 2002
Returning to the United States in 1942, she wrote The Lady and the Tigers, which war correspondent Leland Stowe hailed as "an authoritative and true to life story of the AVG." Out of print for more than half a century, her book has now been brought up to date by Daniel Ford, author of Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942. What's more, Ford explains for the first time where Olga and Harvey Greenlaw came from, how they became caught up in the saga of the Flying Tigers, and what happened to them after their tumultuous year with the AVG. Black and white photographs--many never published before--round out the text.
Rhapsody in Red- How Western Classical Music Became Chinese (Hc)
Sheila Melvin - 2002
This lucidly written account traces the biographies of the bold visionaries who carried out this musical merger. Rhapsody in Red is a history of classical music in China that revolves around a common theme: how Western classical music entered China, and how it became Chinese. China's oldest orchestra was founded in 1879, two years before the Boston Symphony. Since then, classical music has woven its way into the lives of ordinary Chinese people. Millions of Chinese children take piano and violin lessons every week. Yet, despite the importance of classical music in China - and of Chinese classical musicians and composers to the world - next to nothing has been written on this fascinating subject. The authors capture the events with the voice of an insider and the perspective of a Westerner, presenting new information, original research and insights into a topic that has barely been broached elsewhere. "Every chapter is as exiting as it is revealing. The book is thoroughly researched, with superb bibliography. I am ecstatic; my students will be electrified." - Clive M. Marks, Chairman, The London College of Music, Trestee, Trinity College of Music and The London Philarmonic Orchestra
A Chinese Bestiary: Strange Creatures from the Guideways through Mountains and Seas
Richard E. Strassberg - 2002
The Guideways through Mountains and Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries b.c.e., contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora, and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together translations from the work itself with information from other texts and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated guide to the imaginative world of early China.Unlike the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens. Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition. Seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time, and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art during the late Ming dynasty.This beautiful volume, compiled by a well-known specialist in the field, provides a fascinating window on the thoughts and beliefs of an ancient people, and will delight specialists and general readers alike.
Chinese Medicine in Contemporary China: Plurality and Synthesis
Volker Scheid - 2002
If Chinese medicine is "traditional," why has it not disappeared with the rest of traditional Chinese society? If, as some claim, it is a science, what does that imply about what we call science? What is the secret of Chinese medicine's remarkable adaptability that has allowed it to prosper for more than 2,000 years? In Chinese Medicine in Contemporary China Volker Scheid presents an ethnography of Chinese medicine that seeks to answer these questions, but his ethnography is informed by some atypical approaches.Scheid, a medical anthropologist and practitioner of Chinese medicine in practice since 1983, has produced an ethnography that accepts plurality as an intrinsic and nonreducible aspect of medical practice. It has been widely noted that a patient visiting ten different practitioners of Chinese medicine may receive ten different prescriptions for the same complaint, yet many of these various treatments may be effective. In attempting to illuminate the plurality in Chinese medical practice, Scheid redefines-and in some cases abandons-traditional anthropological concepts such as tradition, culture, and practice in favor of approaches from disciplines such as science and technology studies, social psychology, and Chinese philosophy. As a result, his book sheds light not only on Chinese medicine but also on the Western academic traditions used to examine it and presents us with new perspectives from which to deliberate the future of Chinese medicine in a global context.Chinese Medicine in Contemporary China is the product of two decades of research including numerous interviews and case studies. It will appeal to a western academic audience as well as practitioners of Chinese medicine and other interested medical professionals, including those from western biomedicine.
Giants Walked Among Us: The Story of Paul and Ina Bartel (The Jaffray Collection of Missionary Portraits Book 28)
Anthony G. Bollback - 2002
It was only natural, for their parents on both sides were also missionaries to China. Paul first met Ina at the missionary boarding school, but it would be years before they married.
The lot of pioneer missionaries in early 20th-century China was grim. Ragtag bandit bands constantly clashed with undisciplined soldiers. Blood flowed. Bullets flew. But that did not deter Paul and Ina, for the situation was even worse for Chinese Christians. In many places, martyrdom was something to be expected.
The lives of the Bartels can be described only partially in these pages. Marked by incredible commitment, relentless vision and godly grace, the influence of Paul and Ina Bartel continues to reach the worldwide community of their beloved Chinese.
CIA's Secret War in Tibet
Kenneth J. Conboy - 2002
But the story of Tibetan resistance weaves a far richer tapestry than anyone might have imagined.Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison reveal how America's Central Intelligence Agency encouraged Tibet's revolt against China--and eventually came to control its fledgling resistance movement. While the CIA's presence in Tibet has been alluded to in other works, the authors provide the first comprehensive, as well as most compelling account of this little known agency enterprise.The CIA's Secret War in Tibet takes readers from training camps in the Colorado Rockies to the scene of clandestine operations in the Himalayas, chronicling the agency's help in securing the Dalai Lama's safe passage to India and subsequent initiation of one of the most remote covert campaigns of the Cold War. Establishing a rebel army in the northern Nepali kingdom of Mustang and a para-commando force in India designed to operate behind Chinese lines, Conboy and Morrison provide previously unreported details about secret missions undertaken in extraordinarily harsh conditions. Their book greatly expands on previous memoirs by CIA officials by putting virtually every major agency participant on record with details of clandestine operations. It also calls as witnesses the people who managed and fought in the program--including Tibetan and Nepalese agents, Indian intelligence officers, and even mission aircrews.Conboy and Morrison take pains to tell the story from all perspectives, particularly that of the former Tibetan guerrillas, many of whom have gone on record here for the first time. The authors also tell how Tibet led America and India to become secret partners over the course of several presidential administrations and cite dozens of Indian and Tibetan intelligence documents directly related to these covert operations. Ultimately, they are persuasive that the Himalayan operations were far more successful as a proving ground for CIA agents who were later reassigned to southeast Asia than as a staging ground for armed rebellion.As the movement for Tibetan liberation continues to attract international support, Tibet's status remains a contentious issue in both Washington and Beijing. This book takes readers inside a covert war fought with Tibetan blood and U. S. sponsorship and allows us to better understand the true nature of that controversy.
The Columbia History of Chinese Literature
Victor H. Mair - 2002
Stretching from earliest times to the present, the text features original contributions by leading specialists working in all genres and periods. Chapters cover poetry, prose, fiction, and drama, and consider such contextual subjects as popular culture, the impact of religion, the role of women, and China's relationship with non-Sinitic languages and peoples. Opening with a major section on the linguistic and intellectual foundations of Chinese literature, the anthology traces the development of forms and movements over time, along with critical trends, and pays particular attention to the premodern canon.
Sex, Law, and Society in Late Imperial China
Matthew Sommer - 2002
During this time, the basic organizing principle for state regulation of sexuality shifted away from status, under which members of different groups had long been held to distinct standards of familial and sexual morality. In its place, a new regime of gender mandated a uniform standard of sexual morality and criminal liability across status boundaries—all people were expected to conform to gender roles defined in terms of marriage.This shift in the regulation of sexuality, manifested in official treatment of charges of adultery, rape, sodomy, widow chastity, and prostitution, represented the imperial state’s efforts to cope with disturbing social and demographic changes. Anachronistic status categories were discarded to accommodate a more fluid social structure, and the state initiated new efforts to enforce rigid gender roles and thus to shore up the peasant family against a swelling underclass of single, rogue males outside the family system. These men were demonized as sexual predators who threatened the chaste wives and daughters (and the young sons) of respectable households, and a flood of new legislation targeted them for suppression.In addition to presenting official and judicial actions regarding sexuality, the book tells the story of people excluded from accepted patterns of marriage and household who bonded with each other in unorthodox ways (combining sexual union with resource pooling and fictive kinship) to satisfy a range of human needs. This previously invisible dimension of Qing social practice is brought into sharp focus by the testimony, gleaned from local and central court archives, of such marginalized people as peasants, laborers, and beggars.
Poems of Hanshan
Hanshan - 2002
The poems collected under his name have had an immense impact worldwide, especially among Zen Buddhists, and have been translated into many languages. Peter Hobson's translation of more than a hundred of the poems, almost all of which are published for the first time in this volume, brings those qualities of timelessness, poetic diction and engaging rhythm that do justice to the concepts and language of the original. This edition includes not only a clear and succinct introduction for the general reader but also highly informative sections on Hanshan's place in history and on issues involved in translating Hanshan.
A Patterned Past: Form and Thought in Early Chinese Historiography
David Schaberg - 2002
He contends that the coherent view of early China found in these texts is an effect of their origins and the habits of reading they impose. Rather than being totally accurate accounts, they represent the efforts of a group of officials and ministers to argue for a moralizing interpretation of the events of early Chinese history and for their own value as skilled interpreters of events and advisers to the rulers of the day.
Way and Byway: Taoism, Local Religion, and Models of Divinity in Sung and Modern China
Robert Hymes - 2002
Were Chinese gods celestial officials, governing the fate and fortunes of their worshippers as China's own bureaucracy governed their worldly lives? Or were they personal beings, patrons or parents or guardians, offering protection in exchange for reverence and sacrifice? To answer these questions Hymes examines the professional exorcist sects and rising Immortals' cults of the Sung dynasty alongside ritual practices in contemporary Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as miracle tales, liturgies, spirit law codes, devotional poetry, and sacred geographies of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. Drawing upon historical and anthropological evidence, he argues that two contrasting and contending models informed how the Chinese saw and see their gods. These models were used separately or in creative combination to articulate widely varying religious standpoints and competing ideas of both secular and divine power. Whether gods were bureaucrats or personal protectors depended, and still depends, says Hymes, on who worships them, in what setting, and for what purposes.
Secrets and Spies: The Harbin Files
Mara Moustafine - 2002
But by the mid-1930s, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria drove many Russians to seek refuge elsewhere. For the thousands who returned to their motherland in the Soviet Union, it was a bitter homecoming. At the height of Stalin's purges, they were arrested as Japanese spies. Some were shot, others sent to labour camp, few survived. Among them were members of the author's family. Driven by curiosity and armed with chutzpah, Mara Moustafine fronted up at the headquarters of the former KGB in post-Soviet Moscow and asked for help to discover what had happened. She got more than she bargained for. The family's secret police files, retrieved from archives at opposite ends of Russia, revealed the horror of the purges as well as startling secrets about their lives in turbulent years in China and the Soviet Union. What was fact? What was fiction? Written with sensitivity and humour, Secrets and Spies skilfully weaves personal and political, past and present to give an insider's perspective on the life of ordinary people in extraordinary times.
The Animal and the Daemon in Early China
Roel Sterckx - 2002
Roel Sterckx shows how perceptions of the animal world influenced early Chinese views of man's place among the living species and in the world at large. He argues that the classic Chinese perception of the world did not insist on clear categorical or ontological boundaries between animals, humans, and other creatures such as ghosts and spirits. Instead the animal realm was positioned as part of an organic whole and the mutual relationships among the living species--both as natural and cultural creatures--were characterized as contingent, continuous, and interdependent.
My Sister China
Jaroslav Průšek - 2002
Prusek mostly stayed in Beijing. The book provides both records of personal experience, observations on everyday life in China at that time, as well as many comments on the history and culture of China, including a number of inspiring personal reflections on Chinese culture in general. For today's reader Prusek's memoirs of his encounters with representatives of modern Chinese culture-scholars, writers and pets (Zheng Zhenduo, Bing Xin, Shen Congwen and others) - are especially valuable. In this respect the memoirs represent one of the pioneering efforts in the Western discovery of modern Chinese literature. The book was written for the general public during the war years, when Czechoslovakia was under the Nazi occupation. Between the lines of this unusual travelogue, messages of humanity and resistance against war ideology can be clearly heard. In this respect this book also bears witness to Prusek's uncompromising stance during the war and his personal courage in expressing it.
The Jade Necklace
Paul Yee - 2002
This story is set in Vancouver's Chinatown at the turn of the 20th Century and follows the life of a servant girl from China who longs to bring her mother and brother to join her in the New World.
Shanghai Boy, Shanghai Girl: Lives in Parallel
George Wang - 2002
In English.
China's Long March Toward Rule of Law
Randall Peerenboom - 2002
Randall Peerenboom asserts that China is in transition from rule by law to a version of rule of law, although not a liberal democratic version. In addition to scholars and students, this book is of interest to business professionals, policy advisors, and governmental and non-governmental agencies.
Chinese Proverbs 中國成語
Ruthanne Lum McCunn - 2002
Each proverb-presented in both Chinese and English-offers classic advice and keen observation on subjects ranging from affection (A good friend shields you from the storm) to common sense (Do not climb a tree for fish) to the hardest lessons (The eyes are wide but the stomach is narrow). Charming illustrations by Hu Yong Yi bring the proverbs to life, and an insightful introduction illuminates their history and significance. Witty, wise, and utterly delightful, Chinese Proverbs is the perfect gift for those seeking guidance with good humor.
Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy
Dainian Zhang - 2002
Comments by important Chinese thinkers are arranged around sixty-four key concepts to illustrate their meaning and use through twenty-five centuries of Chinese philosophy. This unique guide was prepared by Zhang Dainian, one of China's most famous living philosophers. Zhang reaches back to include concepts in use before the oracle bones (c. 1350-1100 B.C.)-what could be called a philosophical "prehistory." But the focus of the work is those concepts that gained currency in classical Chinese philosophy, especially those whose meanings are deeper and more difficult to grasp. Translated and edited by Edmund Ryden in consultation with the author, the book also includes helpful introductory commentary by Ryden for each section.
Red Sorrow
Nanchu - 2002
She was left to fend for herself and her younger brother. When she grew older, she herself became a Red Guard and was sent to the largest work camp in China. There she faced primitive conditions, sexual harassment, and the pressure to conform. Eventually, she was admitted to Madam Mao's university, where politics were more important than learning. Her testimony is essential reading for anyone interested in China or human rights. -- Like Anchee Min's Red Azalea, Red Sorrow conveys the drama of an entire society in upheaval through a story of personal survival.
Obscene Things: Sexual Politics in Jin Ping Mei
Naifei Ding - 2002
After first appearing around 1590, Jin Ping Mei was circulated among some of China’s best known writers of the time and subsequently was published in three major recensions. A 1695 version by Zhang Zhupo became the most widely read and it is this text in particular on which Ding focuses. Challenging the preconceptions of earlier scholarship, she highlights the fundamental misogyny inherent in Jin Ping Mei and demonstrates how traditional biases—particularly masculine biases—continue to inform the concerns of modern criticism and sexual politics.The story of a seductive bondmaid-concubine, sexual opportunism, domestic intrigue, adultery and death, Jin Ping Mei has often been critiqued based on the coherence of the text itself. Concentrating instead on the processes of reading and on the social meaning of this novel, Ding looks at the various ways the tale has been received since its first dissemination, particularly by critiquing the interpretations offered by seventeenth-century Ming literati and by twentieth-century scholars. Confronting the gender politics of this “pornographic” text, she troubles the boundaries between premodern and modern readings by engaging residual and emergent Chinese gender and hierarchic ideologies.
Imperial Chinese Military History: 8000 BC - 1912 Ad
Marvin C. Whiting - 2002
It is intended to fill the biggest of the gaps in military knowledge about non western warfare. It describes China's major wars, its growth in military theory and technology and the first use of gunpower. Here you will meet the theorist SunTzu and Wu Chi; the bandit, Liu Bang, who faught his way to the throne. You will ride with the great commanders Han Xin; Cao Cao(Tso Tso), and Zhuge Liang, "He of the five inches of limber tounge". You will meet the greatest conqueror of them all; Genghis Khan and that paragon of loyalty YueFei.
Wilson and China: A Revised History of the Shandong Question
Bruce A. Elleman - 2002
Breaking with accepted scholarly opinions, the author argues that Wilson did not "betray" China, as many Chinese and Western scholars have charged; rather, Wilson successfully negotiated a compromise with the Japanese to ensure that China's sovereignty would be respected in Shandong Province. Rejecting the compromise, Chinese negotiators refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, creating conditions for the Soviet Union's entry into China and its later influence over the course of the Chinese revolution.
Contemporary Chinese Philosophy
Chung-Ying Cheng - 2002
Contemporary Chinese philosophers developed sophisticated positions in many central areas of philosophy and set out to reinterpret the complex inheritance of ancient Chinese philosophy. Contemporary Chinese Philosophy features leading scholars describing and critically assessing the works of sixteen major twentieth-century Chinese philosophers. The book explores these philosophers' attempts to revive and modernize the Confucian, Daoist, Mohist, Legalist, Logicist, Neo-Confucian, and Buddhist schools as well as their critiques of Western thinkers from Plato to Wittgenstein. It demonstrates that the values and achievements of Chinese philosophers offer a gateway to understanding the development of Chinese views of humanity and reality. This volume enables students and general readers to understand the rich and challenging diversity of issues and positions explored in contemporary Chinese philosophy.
The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (Chinese English Edition)
Ling Yuan - 2002
This dictionary also includes words from classical times that have survived in contemporary usage as well as slang and words from Chinese dialects that have become widely used. The dictionary has been extolled as a classic of the contemporary Chinese language thanks to its balanced compendium of every day words, encyclopedia of terms of standard reference, and its accurate definitions and highly illustrative examples. With five appendices including Chronology of Chinese History in both Chinese and English.
Digital Dragon: High-Technology Enterprises in China
Adam Segal - 2002
Ideologically, the government would not promote private-ownership firms and instead created a hybrid concept, that of nongovernmental enterprises or minying qiye. Adam Segal examines the minying experience, particularly in high technology, in four key regions: Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, and Guangzhou.Minying enterprises have been neither clear successes nor abject failures, Segal finds. Instead, outcomes varied: though efforts to create a core of innovative high-tech firms succeeded in Beijing, minying enterprises elsewhere have languished. He points to variations in local implementation of government policies on investment, property-rights regulation, and government supervision as a key to the different outcomes. He explains these peculiarities of implementation by putting official decisions within their local contexts. Extending his analysis, he compares the experience of creating technology enterprises in China with those of Korea (the chaebol system) and Taiwan (enterprise groups).Based on interviews with entrepreneurs and local government officials, as well as numerous published primary sources, Digital Dragon is the first detailed look at a major Chinese institutional experiment and at high-tech endeavors in China. Can China become a true global economic power? The evolution of the high- technologies sector will determine, Segal says, whether China will become a modern economy or simply a large one.
Chinese Architecture
Fu Xinian - 2002
Six of China's greatest architectural historians have joined with a leading Western scholar to write this text, a collaborative history of Chinese architecture.
Blood and History in China: The Donglin Faction and Its Repression, 1620-1627
John W. Dardess - 2002
Many were purged from key positions in the central government for their relentless push for a national moral rearmament under the Tianqi emperor. While their martyrs' deaths won them a lasting reputation for heroism and steadfastness, their opponents are remembered for fatally degrading the quality of Ming political life with their arrests and tortures of Donglin partisans. John Dardess employs a wide range of little-used primary sources (letters, diaries, eyewitness accounts, memorials, imperial edicts) to provide a remarkably detailed narrative of the inner workings of Ming government and of this dramatic period as a whole. Comparing the repression with the Tiananmen demonstrations of 1989, he argues that Tiananmen offers compelling clues to a rereading of the events of the 1620s. Leaders of both movements were less interested in practical reform than in communicating sincere moral feelings to rulers and the public. In the end the protesters succeeded in commemorating their dead and imprisoned and in disgracing those responsible for the violence.A work of unprecedented depth skillfully told, Blood and History in China will be appreciated by specialists in intellectual history and Ming and early Qing studies.
Reflections on Asia
Mahathir Mohamad - 2002
Mahathir says much that needs to be said about Asia and the rest of the world. He speaks his mind on how Asia can reinvent itself after the chaos of the Asian crisis of 1997: by reexamining the way the global economic system functions and challenging some of the most fundamental tenets of global capitalism. Understand the man and his thoughts by reading what he has to say about the crucial issues of our times: Asia's road to recovery, currency controls, globalization, capitalism, democracy, Islam, Asian values, China, Japan, Malay politics, etc. By analyzing and bringing into focus these issues, he hopes to encourage sober and rational discussion of them by concerned and intelligent world citizens at this crucial juncture of the world's evolution.
Chinese Art: Masterpieces in Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
Sergio Basso Filippo Salviati - 2002
Tracing China's immensely rich artistic and cultural history, the reader will be introduced to the many art forms produced in China during the long time-span covered by this ancient civilization: from the early ritual jades crafted in the Neolithic period and the bronzes cast to honor ancestors in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, to the splendor of Buddhist art, the delicacy of porcelain wares, to the aesthetic principles underlying Chinese traditional painting. Well-known masterpieces, such as the terracotta army buried in the 3rd century BC near the tomb of the First Emperor, are discussed and illustrated alongside lesser-known but equally fascinating works of art, such as the Buddhist wall paintings of the Dunhuang caves in Gansu province or the artifacts recovered from Liao period tombs (AD 907-1125). Each chapter is accompanied by a thorough analysis of one 'masterpiece' considered to be representative of the period under examination, while the works of art are analyzed within a larger cultural and social perspective, in order to provide the reader with a full account of the major achievements attained by China in the realm of the arts. Filled with stunning images and written by authors who have a long experience in the field, this single volume fills a gap in the literature on the subject. Despite the many books published on the art of China, few are in fact conceived as an organic, comprehensive introduction to this subject. Chinese Art is an invaluable addition.
Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-Wing Cinema Movement, 1932-1937
Laikwan Pang - 2002
This unique book explores the history, ideology, and aesthetics of China's left-wing cinema movement, a quixotic film culture that was as political as commercial, as militant as sensationalist. Originating in the 1930s, it marked the first systematic intellectual involvement in Chinese cinema. In this era of turmoil and idealism, the movement's films were characterized by fantasies of heroism intertwined with the inescapable spell of impotency, thus exposing the contradictions of the filmmakers' underlying ideology as their political and artistic agendas alternately fought against or catered to the taste and viewing habits of a popular audience. Political cinema became a commercially successful industry, resulting in a film culture that has never been replicated. Drawing on detailed archival research, Pang demonstrates that this cinema movement was a product of the era's social, economic, and political discourses. The author offers a close analysis of many rarely seen films, richly illustrated with over eighty stills collected from the Beijing Film Archive. With its original conceptual approach and rich use of primary sources, this book will be of interest not only to scholars and fans of Chinese cinema but to those who study the relationship between cinema and modernity.
The Bear Watches the Dragon: Russia's Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations Since the Eighteenth Century: Russia's Perceptions of China and the Evolution of Russian-Chinese Relations Since the Eighteenth Century
Alexander Lukin - 2002
In his interpretation of this relationship from the Russian point of view, Alexander Lukin shows how over the course of three centuries China has seemed alternately to threaten, mystify, imitate, mirror, and rival its northern neighbor. Lukin traces not only the changing dynamics of Russian-Chinese relations but the ways in which Russia's images of China more profoundly reflected Russia's self-perception and its perceptions of the West as well. As both Russia and China take distinctive approaches to political and economic development and integration in the twenty-first century global economy, this reinterpretation of their relationship is timely and valuable not only to historians but to all students of international affairs.
Nation, Governance, and Modernity in China: Canton, 1900-1927
Michael Tsin - 2002
In retracing various fragments of the city’s history in this period, the book argues that modernist politics as practiced by the Nationalists and Communists represented a specific political rationality embedded in the context of a novel conception of the social realm.Modern governments invariably base their claim to legitimacy on the support of “society” or “the people.” The mobilization of hitherto disenfranchised constituents into the political process is thus a central component of the nation-state. Modern governments also produce schemes for categorizing and organizing these same constituents to ensure social unity and their base of support. The author analyzes this apparent paradox of modern governance—emancipation and discipline—as shown in the discourse and practice of Canton elites and the lives of the city’s inhabitants.Canton, which witnessed the modernization of both its physical and social structures in the early twentieth century, was the site of the first modernist government in Chinese history. The new governing elites, the Nationalists and Communists, attempted to dissect and classify their constituents into different classes or segments and to transform them into disciplined members of a new body social. Contrary to their expectations, extensive organizational work, though empowering the newly mobilized, did not lead to the formation of a well-ordered society. Instead, it brought into sharp focus the heterogeneity of Canton society and highlighted the impossibility of its analysis and management as a totality. To the dismay of the modernizers, social discipline could be restored only through violence.
Changing Meanings of Citizenship in Modern China
Merle Goldman - 2002
The contributors to this volume address how citizenship has been understood in China from the late imperial era to the present day, the processes by which citizenship has been fostered or undermined, the influence of the government, the different development of citizenship in mainland China and Taiwan, and the prospects of strengthening citizens' rights in contemporary China.
Practicing Kinship: Lineage and Descent in Late Imperial China
Michael Szonyi - 2002
Based on a wide range of newly available sources such as lineage genealogies and stone inscriptions, as well as oral history and extensive observation of contemporary ritual practice in the field, this work explores the historical development of kinship in villages of the Fuzhou region of southeastern Fujian province.In the late imperial period (1368-1911), the people of Fuzhou compiled lengthy genealogies, constructed splendid ancestral halls, and performed elaborate collective rituals of ancestral sacrifice, testimony to the importance they attached to organized patrilineal kinship. In their writings on the lineage, members of late imperial elites presented such local behavior as the straightforward expression of universal and eternal principles. In this book, the author shows that kinship in the Fuzhou region was a form of strategic practice that was always flexible and negotiable. In using the concepts and institutions of kinship, individuals and groups redefined them to serve their own purposes, which included dealing with ethnic differentiation, competing for power and status, and formulating effective responses to state policies. Official efforts to promote a neo-Confucian agenda, to register land and population, and to control popular religion drove people to organize themselves on kinship principles and to institutionalize their kinship relationships. Local efforts to turn compliance with official policies, or at least claims of compliance, to local advantage meant that policymakers were continually frustrated.Because kinship was constituted in a complex of representations, it was never stable or fixed, but fluid and multiple. In offering this new perspective on this history of Chinese lineage practices, the author also provides new insights into the nature of cultural integration and state control in traditional Chinese society.
Language, Ontology, and Political Philosophy in China: Wang Bi's Scholarly Exploration of the Dark (Xuanxue)
Rudolf G. Wagner - 2002
The brilliant Wang Bi and his generation of young scholars grew up in a no-man's land without teachers and orthodoxy. Defying the established school divisions, they set out on a vigorous and daring new philosophical inquiry which came to be known as Xuanxue, the Scholarly Exploration of the Dark. They found subtle pointers in the Laozi, the Book of Changes, and the Analects of Confucius about the inequity of language and the ensuing need to proceed by subtle indications that ultimately led to a philosophy of Being.In this book, Rudolf G. Wagner shows how Wang Bi's sophisticated analysis of subtle pointers in the language of the Laozi developed into an ontology that served as the basis for a political philosophy of the ruler/subject relationship and a guide for the public performance of an enlightened ruler. Wang Bi's work initiated the reading of the Laozi, the Book of Changes and the Analects as philosophical texts and has had a lasting impact on Chinese philosophy.
Eastern Tibet: Bridging Tibet and China
Christoph Baumer - 2002
Provides a vivid photographic record of the people and the geography of east Tibet, and an erudite description of the rich traditional culture that has been preserved by the region's inhabitants."
Across the Darkness of the River
Hsi Muren - 2002
Collected here for the first time in English, Hsi's poems speak profoundly of an awkward poise between the anxiety of remembering and the need to forget.
Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy And Asian Relations
Catherine Forslund - 2002
She earned the respect of and held the ear of presidents and cabinet members in a time before women were generally accepted in such circles. The Chinese-born wife of General Claire Chennault of World War II Flying Tigers fame, Anna Chennault was a leader in America's informal relations with East Asia from 1950 to 1990. Informal diplomacy-exchanges between citizens of different nations outside of official institutional apparatus that seek to influence events or governmental attitudes-is an increasingly important avenue of international relations in the modern age. Professor Catherine Forslund's new book, Anna Chennault: Informal Diplomacy and Asian Relations examines Chennault's unique, multifaceted career as an exemplar of American informal diplomacy during the post-World War II era. Chennault carved a name for herself in her own right in this arena, establishing herself in Republican party politics, the international aviation industry, and in Washington and Asian social circles following her husband's 1958 death. She used her contacts on both sides of the Pacific to achieve informal diplomatic goals that coincided with American national policy: protecting "free" Asian nations from communism and expanding American influence in Asia. Later, Chennault directed her energies toward building ties between Taiwan, China, and the United States. The book presents a new analysis of Anna Chennault's role in the "October Surprise" of the 1968 presidential election. In addition, Forslund demonstrates how Chennault used gender as an advantage in the male-dominated worlds of foreign relations, politics, and business. A fascinating look at a woman before her time, this new book is an informative and engaging account of the complex nature of U.S.-Asian relations, diplomatic processes, and the role of women in foreign affairs.