Democratisation: Antidemocratic and democratic elements in the political culture of China

The nature of the political culture itself is often seen by commentators as the cause of democracy failing to take root in China; the antidemocratic elements of that culture being overemphasised while the democratic elements are underemphasised. This paper examines the application of the ideas of democratic culture in China to the current state of play, including the possibility of the democratic card being played by factions within the Chinese Communist Parry (CCP). There are indeed cultural problems associated with Chinese democratisation such as cultural anomie, unconscious authoritarian personalities, the legacy of egalitarianism, the radical polarisation of Chinese culture, difficulties of institutional compromise and the irrational control of aggression and fear. While the antidemocratic culture is stronger at present than the democratic culture, the new Chinese democratic culture is likely to gather strength in the future.     

Book reviews

CHINA

MELISSA SCHRIFT. Biography of a Chairman Mao Badge: the Creation and Mass Consumption of a Personality Cult. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001. 214 pp. Bibliography, index. US$52.00, hardcover; US$20.00, paper.

WM. THEODORE DE BARY and TU WEIMING (eds). Confucianism and Human Rights. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 327 pp. US$20.50, paper.

MICHAEL B. McELROY, CHRIS P. NIELSEN AND PETER LYDON (eds). Energizing China: reconciling Environmental Protection and Economic Growth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. xvii, 719 pp. Tables, figures, biographical notes, index. US$25.00, paper.

SHUMEI SHIH. The Lure of the Modern: writing Modernism in Semicolonial China 1917–1937. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. xiii, 427 pp. US$60.00, hardcover; US$24.95, paper.

SUSAN MANN and YU‐YIN CHENG (eds). Under Confucian Eyes: writings on Gender in Chinese History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. 323 pp. Illustrations. US$50.00, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

ARUN AGRAWAL and K. SIVARAMAKRISHNAN (eds). Agrarian Environments: Resources, Representation, and Rule in India. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2000. 316 pp. Foreword by James Scott, introduction, tables, endnotes, bibliography, index. US$59.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

K. J. JOSEPH. Industry under Economic Liberalization: the Case of Indian Electronics. New Delhi: Sage, 1997. 242 pp. Rs450/US$21.00, hardcover.

PETER P. MOLLINGA (ed). Water for Food and Rural Development: approaches and Initiatives in South Asia. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2000. 377 pp. Rs 495, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

M. RAMESH with MUKUL G. ASHER. Welfare Capitalism in Southeast Asia: social Security, Health and Education Policies. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000. xii, 217 pp. £50.00, hardcover.

DAVID M. AYRES. Anatomy of a Crisis: education, Development and the State in Cambodia, 1953–1998. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. 256 pp. US$52.00, hardcover.

MARTIN STUART‐FOX. Historical Dictionary of Laos , second edition. Lanham, Maryland and London: Scarecrow Press, 2001. 527 pp. US$75.00, hardcover.

SINITH SITTIRAK. The Daughters of Development: women in a Changing Environment. London and New York: Zed Books, 1998. ix, 153 pp. Bibliography, index. ISBN 1–876756‐00–4. A$39.95, paper.     

黄骅市博物馆藏铜镜选介

铜镜是古代人们照面饰容的生活用具,又是精美的工艺品,其背面装饰的各种花纹和铭文为研究古代政治经济和文化生活提供了可靠的实物资料。黄骅市博物馆收藏有部分铜镜,本文选择其中五代至明代的15面分别作了介绍。     

East Asian ideas of regionalism: a normative critique

Little was done to challenge nationalist assumptions in the name of regionalism. Regarding nationalism as a sensitive matter best left to a later stage of regionalism, they [advocates of regionalism] did not focus on how nationalist outlooks in the media and elsewhere stand in the way of both regionalism and internationalism.

Gilbert Rozman (2000: 18)

With an increasing regional integration and development, there are many competing ideas of, and proposals for, regional development in Asia. This article examines the historical evolution of the idea of regionalism, the meanings of Asian regionalisms, variations of Asian regionalisms and their impact on regional cooperation in East Asia. It discusses Mahathir's idea of neo‐Asianism, Japanese new Asianism, Chinese ideas of regionalism, and variations of Korean ideas of regionalism. It also examines a normative basis of regionalism with special reference to the sovereignty question. The paper concludes that behind East Asian regionalism is nationalism which constitutes driving forces for regionalism; that two competing orders (Asia‐Pacific regionalism versus pan‐Asianism) create different expectations and visions of how East Asia region should evolve and they are in tensions and lead to different directions; and that East Asia lacks a convincing and acceptable normative framework.1     

Dual roles of semi‐civil society in Chinese democratisation

This paper addresses the question of how a civil society impacts on Chinese democratisation, by examining the nature and features of a Chinese semi‐civil society which could be both a potential for greater democratisation, and a conservative force used by the state to maintain a neo‐authoritarian regime. It challenges the common assumption of the mere positive influence of civil society on democracy in a growing literature on civil society. It also discusses the issue of how the state and the reformer faction within the party saw and will possibly see ‘civil society’ as the rule of arts and a new source of legitimacy in the rules of games for strengthening their power. This is probably more likely than the total collapse and disintegration posited by other writers.     

汉代黄老学述略——兼及曹魏时期

两汉是中国哲学史上黄老思想发展的重要阶段。西汉前期,部分地方黄老学派由隐而显,先后进入朝廷,开创了黄老学由民间学说飞跃而为官方统治思想的局面。汉武帝时期“罢黜百家,表彰‘六经’”虽为黄老学发展的转折点,但仅止于政治意识形态领域,在其他方面黄老学仍然有很大的发展。自西汉前期至东汉后期,有黄老学者或集聚于王公卿相门下讲论“道”“德”,或授徒讲学、著书立说,从而形成了若干地方黄老学中心。司马迁所说“儒道互绌”应是特殊情况下的个别而非普遍现象。司马迁前后学黄老者更多的是儒道兼习而学有所偏。汉魏时期崇习黄老的学者中,不但出现了家庭式、家族式的黄老学者团体,而且出现了对黄老学发展发挥了重要作用的三位女性。     

Book reviews

CHINA

RICHARD MADSEN. China's Catholics: tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 191 pp. 11 b/w photographs, 2 maps, notes, bibliography, index. US$27.50, hardcover.

WANG ZHENG. Women in the Chinese Enlightenment: oral and Textual Histories. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. xv, 420 pp. 8 b/w photographs, chronology, glossary, bibliography, index. US$50.00, hardcover; US$18.95, paper.

YUEZHI ZHAO. Media, Market, and Democracy in China: between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1998. US$44.95, hardcover; US$19.95, paper.

ALAN KNIGHT and YOSHIKO NAKANO (eds). Reporting Hong Kong: foreign Media and the Handover. Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999. 223 pp. Illustrations, introduction, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. £14.99, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

JEONG‐HYUN SHIN. The Trap of History: understanding Korean Short Stories. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1998. xv, 115 pp. US$15.00, paper.

SIDNEY HAYDEN LESBIREL. NIMBY Politics in Japan: energy Siting and the Management of Environmental Conflict . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. 187 pp. £29.50, hardcover.

G. CAMERON HURST III. Armed Martial Arts of Japan: swordsmanship and Archery. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. 243 pp. Introduction, 21 b/w illustrations, notes, glossary, references, index. US$30.00, hardcover.

SOUTH ASIA

G. V. TAGARE. Saivism. Some Glimpses. Contemporary Researches in Hindu Philosophy and Religion, No. 4. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1996. vii, 161 pp. Index. Rs. 180.

LATA MANI. Contentious Traditions: the Debate on Sati in Colonial India. University of California Press, 1998. 260 pp. 5 b/w illustrations. US$47.00, hardcover; US$18.00, paper.

T. SCARLETT EPSTEIN, A. P. SURYANARAYANA and T. THIMMEGOWDA. Village Voices. Forty Years of Rural Transformation in South India . New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. 242 pp. Introduction, photographs, appendices, maps, glossary. Rs. 195, paper.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

M. NGAOSYVATHN and P. NGAOSYVATHN. Paths to Conflagration: fifty Years of Diplomacy and Warfare in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, 1778–1828. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program Publications, 1998. No price given, paper.

PATRICK VINTON KIRCH. The Lapita Peoples: ancestors of the Oceanic World. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1997. xxv, 353 pp. Plates, figures, maps, tables, preface, bibliographical references, index. US$32.95, paper.

HELEN CREESE (ed and trans). Parthayana, The Journeying of Partha: an Eighteenth‐century Balinese Kakawin. Bibliotheca Indonesica 27, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal‐, Land‐ en Volkenkunde. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998. xi, 504 pp. NLG 80.

GENERAL ASIA

FRANK B. TIPTON. The Rise of Asia: economics, Society and Politics in Contemporary Asia. Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia, 1998. xiv, 557 pp. Tables, foreword and acknowledgments, bibliography, index. A$42.95, paper.