The China Hearings: America's Shifting Paradigm on China

This article attempts to fill a hole in rapprochement literature by examining the 1966 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the People's Republic of China. Historian Michael Lumbers contends that the China hearings served as a watershed in American attitudes toward China. This article explains how and why this change occurred. The China hearings contributed to Sino-American rapprochement in two different ways. One, the witnesses suggested to the public a new policy toward China, containment without isolation. The popularity of containment without isolation and the Johnson administration's use of it in their policy reorientation suggest that the China hearings had an effect. The hearings were not only a turning point, but also the culmination of a larger process. It demonstrated that American sentiment toward China had clearly moved away from hostility and toward cooperation. And during the 1960s, scholars of East Asian studies served as opinion leaders in this process.     

Tibet:The Westernmost Part of China

This is a book written by Xu Ping, with the China National Center for Tibetan Studies. Published by the Knowledge Publishing House in March 2001 as the leadingbook of a series entitled Books on the Journey Into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it has been given high value for knowledgeand apprecistion.The book, written in the form of travel notes, records themySterious and unsophisticated aspects of Tibet, natural beauty, unique folklore, and the hardy working people sent to Tibetfor economi…     

China in Australia: The Discourses of Changst

Abstract

China matters significantly to contemporary Australia in terms of trade relations, capital movements, education and global order. Australian public discourse on China, however, inhabits two conflicting parallel universes, one a narrative of economic complementarity, the other of fear and anxiety. The spectre of the rise of China haunts Australian society in and among these two spheres: one in which China’s economic rise is to be encouraged as a sign of it joining the capitalist world system, and the other in which China’s ascent is regarded as a threat to be contained. The paper examines this problematic discourse, calling it Changst [China angst], arguing that it is permeated with a developmentalist logic (Chakrabarty, 2000) that misreads China through the homogenising history of both capitalism and Eurocentrism. This reading of China as but a copy of Western capitalism evokes anxiety because its distinctive forms of capital flow disrupt the comforting teleology. Equally, when Chinese society, including its education system, is perceived as not-yet modern, this induces fear of cultural contamination from the outpouring of Chinese international students. The exploration of this anxiety is conducted via six Australian case studies, showing how China’s engagement with Australia produces intense but unwarranted angst.     

阅读文学的理由——读藤井省三《村上春树心底的中国》

藤井省三《村上春树心底的中国》构建了从鲁迅到村上春树再到王家卫的影响链条,详尽分析概括了村上春树作品在中国的一些规律性阅读现象。如此宽阔的视野与实精神证,对认识当代人阅读文学的缘由、心态和意义极具启发性。文学所关注的乃是人之心灵,所呼唤的是人的自省,正如村上春树的作品虽然常常被消费社会所利用,但其精神实质却依然是生活在消费社会中的人们强大的反思力量。     

“中国手艺”之名与实

美国学者鲁道夫·P·霍梅尔(Rudolf P.Hommel)的大作《手艺中国:中国手工业调查图录》的研究对象正是我们现今骤然兴起的"非物质文化遗产"。"手工艺术"在历史的分化和演化中会集结为特定的"行业",这在全世界都是一个通则。中国文明体有自己的概念、分类和命名,形成了独特的表述体系。"分类概念"具有引导思维的特性,它不仅属于言语表述,更是一种话语权力,我们完全丢弃中国传统体系中的概念、分类系统尤其需要警示。如果我们把中国传统的"手工技艺"视为一笔丰厚的非物质文化遗产的话,眼下要做的工作就是还原传统概念体系,即从"名"到"实"的整体回归。     

Monumentality in Urban Design: The Case of China

An American urban geographer and noted specialist on China comments on the preceding review essay on monumentality in the urban design in world cities (Ford, 2008). Focusing on monumentality in China, the author surveys a number of monumental urban projects in Beijing (particularly in relation to Olympic construction), Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Kunming. In the context of urban theory, he discusses the massive presence of the Chinese state in everyday urban life. Noting the explosive urban growth and megaproject-related construction, the author alludes to recent evidence that the clearing of city neighborhoods and mass displacement of residents have prompted widespread opposition and resistance at the local level. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O18, R14, R53. 9 figures, 42 references.     

日伪“中华民国维新政府”始末

日本侵华期间,在华中地区扶持建立了傀儡政权———伪“中华民国维新政府”,旨在加紧对中国进行政治、军事、经济侵略。     

中国模式和中国经验

所谓"北京共识"曾任《时代》周刊外国报道编辑、目前大部分时间在中国生活和工作的乔舒亚·库珀·拉莫(亦译雷默)2004年月在英国伦敦外交政策中心发表了"北京共识(Beijing Consensus)"一文,认为中国的发展模式不同于新自由主义的"华盛顿共识(Washington Consensus)",其核心价值正在全世界产生涟漪效应,并将给世界特别是广大发展中国家带来希望。文章认为,从策略上来说,"北京共识"要求,私有化     

Bridging Cultures: The Forging of the China Consular Mind

ABSTRACT

This article examines the imperial socialisation of young consular officials and how they were prepared for their role as intermediaries between Britain and China. Drawing on private papers and public archives, it uses the career of one such official to analyse the processes which took place when they joined the China Consular Service and how their evolving mentality reflected and further shaped its collective mind. It argues that such officials learned to develop a cultural sensitivity towards China which would be key to their ability to forge the collaborative relationships that underpinned the British presence. Whilst it is generally acknowledged that that presence was marked by an unquestioning belief in the imperial mission, there has been less focus on how that sensitivity enabled Britain to maintain its dominant position in China until the outbreak of the First World War. The article argues that, although that sensitivity was self-serving, and notwithstanding the unequal treaties, it derived from a genuine interest in and sympathy for the country which was instilled into officials from the outset of their careers. However, those elements also helped perpetuate the degradation of China's sovereignty during this period. To understand how this took place and why China continues to characterise the period as ‘the century of humiliation’, we need first to explore how that sensitivity, with its underlying ambiguities and tensions, was forged and sustained as part of the mind-set of the consular service.     

China and India: The Institutional Roots of Differential Performance

At the start of the so‐called development race sixty years ago, China, showcasing revolutionary socialism, and India, boasting parliamentary democracy, had close similarities in economic structures and levels of development, but striking differences in terms of cultural cohesion, institutional flexibility and political orientation. The outcome of the race is unambiguous: the question is not who won, but why and how? It is argued here that a wide margin had already opened up in China's favour by the time of the systemic or policy‐regime switch‐points, 1978 in China, and shortly thereafter in India. The author seeks explanations for this differential performance in the divergent institutional configurations of the two societies and economies, especially in the rural sector in the pre‐reform period, and highlights the contrast between the power of the Chinese mass mobilization mode of transformation and the persistent institutional rigidities and obstacles in the Indian case. Post‐reforms, processes of ‘pervergence’— an emerging congruence in negative social features — appear to dominate over tendencies towards conventional convergence. The author reflects on the historical significance of the two development paths: did Nehruvian state‐led planned development and Maoist socialism serve essentially as pioneers of capitalism, leveraging the re‐launching of the two once‐powerful Asian giants back into the global capitalist game on dramatically revised terms of engagement?     

The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: 1

Abstract

Desert landscapes are the least understood among terrain types of the Earth. The dearth of basic information on arid landforms has resulted in the misconception that the desert is man-made and that, therefore, we can 'fix it'. Scientific evidence indicates that deserts are part of the natural features of both Earth and Mars. They form as a result of the lack or scarcity of rain, which may be cyclical. The basic layout of today's arid terrain appears to have formed during humid periods in the geological past. Understanding of such features and those caused by wind erosion and deposition is essential to the development of deserts and semiarid lands for the benefit of mankind. Images obtained by spacecraft provide a new tool that is very useful in this regard, particularly in the location of groundwater resources to be used at times of cyclical droughts.     

Funding Economic Transition in China: The Privatization Option

An American specialist on the economy of China examines whether gradual and partial privatization remains a viable option for the future, or whether rapid privatization of remaining state-owned enterprises is now necessary. The paper presents estimates indicating that rising expenditures stemming from changes in the country's economy, demographics, and technology will increase fiscal pressure on government revenues, resulting in fiscal shortfalls and exposing other vulnerabilities. Privatization is then assessed in terms of its potential to generate additional resources to support the next round of economic growth in China. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: E62, H10, P20. 1 table, 54 references.