From Republican Party to Republican Religion: The New Political Evangelists of the Right

Abstract

This essay shows an important shift in the Religious Right from Evangelical participation to Renewalist participation in politics. Renewalists, who are largely Pentecostals, Charismatics and non-denominational Christians, have been lumped into the "Evangelical" category by scholars and the media alike. Yet their theological orientations and concerns drive political questions and actions in different ways. Sarah Palin's placement on the Republican ticket in 2008 as the Vice Presidential candidate represents the first time an explicitly Renewalist Christian has been nominated. Since then, Palin's weaving of her theological orientation has influenced both political activity and Republican candidates in the 2012 election. Butler's essay explores Palin's contribution to this change, and poses questions about how this shift affects the future of the Religious Right.     

Introduction: The Historiography of Republicanism and Republican Exchanges

Abstract

Though the history of republicanism has been a popular topic of research since the mid-twentieth century, there are still various issues and areas that have remained neglected—not least the exchange of republican ideas from one cultural context to another, particularly across national boundaries. The purpose of this special issue is to offer some exploration of this neglected area, and this essay serves as an introduction to it. The essay offers an overview of the literature on republicanism that has been produced since the mid-twentieth century, it demonstrates the different ways in which republican exchange can be conceived and considers how the essays that follow contribute to our understanding of this issue, and finally it proposes a new way of thinking about republicanism.     

The sound of images: peddlers' calls and tunes in Republican Peking

Street peddlers were a common feature of city life in China well into the twentieth century. The presence of these small-scale, often single-good merchants can be traced back to earlier centuries. That they survived until after WWII reflects in part the state of economic development of China, where recent immigrants were prepared to take up the meanest, lowest-paid jobs to make a living. In Peking, thousands of peddlers roamed the streets, and more particularly, the hutongs where most of the population lived. They ceaselessly offered their goods and services to the residents, day and night. In order to attract customers and to entice them out of their walled houses and courtyards, peddlers uttered musical vocal phrases, sometimes in elaborate form, and more interestingly, they sometimes used musical instruments. In this paper I examine who they were, how they operated and what they represented to Peking's urban society. From this sketchy social portrait, I will move into a study of how the peddlers were represented in various settings of the pictorial records. Finally, I argue that peddlers were an integral part of a kind of street theater. This is not just a metaphor. Through their calls, songs, and music, peddlers created a constant flow of live entertainment in the street.     

对共和体制的失望：梁济之死

在很多国人寄予希望的1918年秋,前清京官梁济却选择以自杀警示国人。他看到的社会大问题是实行不久的共和体制不仅未能改善社会风气,反而使之恶化,有可能因“国性不存”而“国将不国”。梁济对其为何要“殉清”的解释体现出比同时代许多人更清醒的国家意识,而他对一些民初社会问题的观察和分析也相当深刻。然而,当时社会对他的自杀反应并不强烈,主要报道局限在报纸的戏剧和余兴版面;而少数作出反应的知识精英也未曾充分认识到梁济思想的重要,这一状况要到后来他更多遗著出版才有所改变。     

民初华侨联合会述论

针对学术界对华侨联合会研究文章不多的现状,分析了华侨联合会产生的历史背景和特点,阐述了其在民国初年团结华侨积极参加民国的政治、经济、外交、教育等活动。争取华侨权益,以及对民初历史产生的积极影响和历史功绩。回顾这段历史,对于团结海外华侨,发扬其爱国主义精神,引导他们积极参加祖国的现代化建设和统一事业,共同实现中华民族的伟大复兴有着积极的意义。     

The Nation in Utero: Translating the Science of Fetal Education in Republican China

As Chinese nationalists grappled with the political and military weakness of the young Republic of China, some sought to strengthen the Chinese race by advocating a return to the ancient practice of fetal education. Fetal education held that every sight, sound, and flavor that a pregnant mother took in through her senses, as well as her emotions and demeanor, directly affected her fetus. This paper examines how the text Taijiao, Song Jiazhao’s 1914 Chinese translation of Shimoda Jirō’s Japanese work Taikyō, presents a modern reformulation of fetal education that draws upon both modern Western science and East Asian medicine. As the text uses modern biology and psychology to explain and demonstrate the efficacy of fetal education, it also narrows the scope of fetal education to focus almost exclusively on the mother’s psychological state. Similarly, as the text turns to instruct women on the practice of fetal education, it draws upon Edo and Qing gynecological principles to emphasise the importance of the pregnant mother’s emotional self-control. Ultimately this text represents a neo-traditionalist response to modernity as it presents a Neo-Confucian vision of fetal education focused on a pregnant mother’s moral self-cultivation and emotional self control.     

Forming an anti-imperialist national identity in Republican China: The Finnish interpretation

This article focuses on Finnish national identities because they expressed the shared experiences of newly established Finnish communities, and they were crucial in constructing a new nation. It also explores created images of the Finnish and Finland, as well as community construction in Republican China, especially after Finland gained independence in 1917. Another aim is to examine those Finnish political, cultural and economic activities that supported their identity construction in China. The specific emphasis will be on analysing the largest and sometimes cross-functioning Finnish groups in China: the governmental officials and the commercial community. By using qualitative methods, namely, discourse analysis and historical analysis, this study shows how the Finnish community created alternative, sometimes imaginative and frequently anti-imperialist national identities in the new Republican China. Indeed, by signing the Treaty Principles of Reciprocity and Equal Treatment, it was agreed that Finland and China ‘shall enjoy same rights, privileges, favours, immunities and exemptions which [might] be accorded to similar foreign agents in accordance with the principles of international law’. This article argues that Finnish aspirations were positively regarded by many Chinese, and they respected this quite unique national connection with Finland.     

The origins of Turkish Republican citizenship: the birth of race*

Abstract. This article explores the emergence of the dominance of racialised Turkish citizenship. Contrary to the conventional methods that investigate the early republican era, this paper starts by examining the final years of the Ottoman Empire with a special emphasis on the Balkan Wars as the birth of racialised technologies of citizenship. Then, I analyse the encounters between racialised thought in the Ottoman Empire in the twentieth century and its recurring counterpart in these encounters: ‘European modernity’. Next, I dwell on an illustration of a materialisation of racialised citizenship in the Ottoman Empire: the displacement and elimination of Armenian citizens. Finally, by probing the dominant strand of modern citizenship and nationhood in Europe, I articulate the commonalities of racialised citizenship in Europe and the Ottoman Empire in the early twentieth century. I conclude by arguing that race as a particular identity should not be seen as an institutionalised aspect of citizenship only in ostensibly ‘Oriental and absolutist regimes’. Instead, the focus should be on moments at which ‘European modernity’ and various nationalisms (racial, ethnic, cultural) mutually constitute each other.     

Institutional Transplantation: The Chinese Lawyers in Republican Shanghai,1912-1937

Sun Huei-min's book is the latest among a number of scholarly works on the role of the legal profession in Republican China.While some of the issues addressed in this book were covered in those other works,the author has provided more details and introduced new issues,partly through primary sources that were not taken up earlier.Alison Connor's works ("Legal Education during the Republican Period:Soochow University Law School," Republican China 19,no.1 (1993):84-112;"Lawyers and the Legal Profession During the Republican Period," in Kathryn Bernhardt and Philip Huang,eds.,Civil Law in Qing and Republican China.Stanford:Stanford University Press,1994),for instance,did not use the Shanghai Bar Association (SBA)'s annual reports,while Xiaoqun Xu's works ("The Fate of Judicial Independence in Republican China,1912-1937," China Quarterly,no.149 (1997):1-28;Chinese Professionals and the Republican State:The Rise of Professional Associations in Shanghai,1912-1937,New York:Cambridge University Press,2001) did use the SBA's annual reports but not the SBA's archives.