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Drawing on interviews with Chinese judges, this paper reveals the major effects of judicial reforms during the past half decade. It focuses on the ramifications of a new quota and responsibility system for judges and on the strengthening of central-government controls over the judiciary. The paper differentiates between what the Party considers to be legitimate and illegitimate influences on judges, which sheds light on recent legal developments and the role of the judiciary in Chinese governance. The article finds that illegitimate influences on courts have declined palpably, but what the Party perceives to be legitimate influences have persisted and even been reinforced. More direct, comprehensive control over judges has replaced previously fragmented, multilayered mechanisms. Despite important changes, the reforms did not lead to institutional independence of Chinese judges, nor has the stature of the courts in China's political landscape changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This collection of 11 papers on relations between Taiwan and Latin America was presented at an international symposium held in Taiwan in October 2020. This book describes the rise of China and its rivalry with the United States through the window of Taiwan-Latin American relations. [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines a work of contemporary art by the artist duo Sun Yuan (b. 1972) and Peng Yu (b. 1974). Entitled Wenming zhu (Civilization Pillar), in form the work resembles a classical stone column, but it is in fact entirely composed of layers of congealed, gleaming human fat. While the work has previously been read in relation to the emergence of zhenhan yishu or "Shock Art" in the late 1990s, I argue that it provides an important mirror on the corporeal aesthetics of the wenming discourse. In Sun Yuan and Peng Yu's Civilization Pillar, flesh is fetishized as a site for the accumulation of wenming as a by-product of the hedonism and decadence of the 21st century. Wenming is thus defined as the corporeal surplus of burgeoning consumerism, a means by which both to figure and to counter the destabilizing forces of sociopolitical transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In discussing the main forces shaping rapid fertility decline, current studies take the Yicheng two-child program as an example showing that the role of the birth-control policy in China's fall in fertility is not as strong as commonly thought. Based on a close examination of documentary evidence, this paper demonstrates that the Yicheng program is not vastly different from the national population-control effort with regard to the timing of marriage, the number of children and the childbearing interval. We argue that in Yicheng the two-child policy has done more to effect a demographic transition to low fertility than has socioeconomic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By late 1967, there had been clear signs that China's Cultural Revolution had entered the phase of retrenchment and moderation. Despite continuing radical extravagance, Beijing's efforts revolved around taming the divided mass movement and establishing new organs of local power. In this nationwide milieu, the province of Hunan stood out as a remarkable exception. It was in Hunan that there emerged a diffused yet vigorous movement in opposition to Beijing's attempts to rebuild the Party and state authorities. This movement, the Shengwulian, has been discussed by a number of China scholars. Conventional scholarly wisdom regarding this critical episode, however, seems to be based on several less-than-accurate premises. Using newly available sources, this paper re-examines the Shengwulian episode, with a special focus on how nationally significant issues, radiating out from the political center, played themselves out in relation to local contingencies, cleavages and complex power relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]