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Given China's investment in sport, success in international competitions and recent hosting of high-profile events, there is no doubt the country is a rising power in the realm of global sports. Encouraging readers in other international settings to consider this topic from their own cultural contexts, this collection addresses the question of why China has so tightly embraced modern sport. How does this interact with China's mediated ability to play and compete with the west? The first English collation of works from both established and emerging sociological scholars on sport culture in China, this collection analyses how sport is seen as a channel of observing global, political and economic challenges. Bringing a foundational Chinese context to each chapter, contributors analyse topics including traditional sports, nationalism, football fandoms, commercialisation and esports. Offering critical insights into ‘glocalized'sporting cultures and political hegemony, authors dig deep into common sociological theories to address issues around mediating power and China's sport culture. Examining the relationship between sport and social transformation, contributors also reflect on how we might research the sociology of sport in China going forward. Exploring how sporting cultures, practices and attitudes differ across cultural settings, The Mediating Power of Sport demonstrates how China has created new forms of influence through sport and considers what this might mean for how we think about soft power, international prowess and the deeper role sport can play on the world stage.

This book provides a comprehensive study of land property rights and transaction systems in late imperial China, specifically during the period of 1560 – 1950. The book introduces the work of two key scholars working in Chinese economic history and land property history, synthesizing existing research with important new findings.The book traces the evolving nature of Chinese land property rights over time, discussing changing influences and contexts. It discusses the traditional role of small individual family farms and how these differed from the manor economy of early modern Europe, leading to a substantial middle class of peasant farmers with relative economic and social stability, as well as how this has uniquely shaped Chinese economic development in the long run. Chapters explore the different ways that private, corporate and state/publicly owned land co-existed in China during this period, with an in-depth examination of the impact of dian (conditional sale)and huomai (revocable sale) customs on the protection of smallholders in the face of advancing agricultural, technological and political reforms. The book also discusses the diversity of types of land transactions including sales, rent deposits, tenancies, and mortgages and how these changed in different dynasties, as well as the economic and political implications of the globalizing 20th-century and growth of the free market for Chinese property. Combining a long run perspective with highly detailed analysis of Chinese property customs, this book will be a valuable resource for economic historians, researchers of agricultural history, and those interested in the history of China.

Located in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, Yushichang is a typical village of the Pumi ethnic group. With a current population of more than 360, the village has been home to the Pumi people for more than 500 years. Over the first six decades of the People's Republic of China, Yushichang village has managed to protect both its ecological environment and the Pumi culture. Drawing on a rich trove of oral history and ethnographic studies, this book tries to understand, at both the micro and macro levels, how this population has navigated the tension between tradition and modernity and what resources it might bring to bear to meet future challenges.

Kulinaristik als Wissenschaft ist zuständig für sämtliche Phänomene des Essens als Bedingung physischen (Ernährung, Nutrition) und sozialen (Kommunikation) Überlebens jedes einzelnen Menschen. Gerahmt sind kulinaristische Forschungen grundsätzlich durch ethische Aspekte wie die Vermeidung von Hunger, die Sicherstellung ausreichender Ernährungsressourcen für alle Menschen, Tierwohl, Nachhaltigkeit. Daher nimmt Kulinaristik mit ihren kultur-, natur- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Perspektiven auf das Kulturthema Essen sowie mit ihren Praxisfeldern wie Bäckerei, Metzgerei, Landwirtschaft, Hotellerie, Gaststätten, Gastlichkeit, Imkerei, Fischerei eine zentrale Position im Spektrum der Lebenswissenschaften ein. Neben der Präsentation von Kulinaristik als Lebenswissenschaft bietet dieses Jahrbuch innovative Beiträge zu physikalischen Prozessen bei Herstellung und Zubereitung von Speisen, zum weiten Themenbereich des Essens in biblischen Texten, zu möglichen Zusammenhängen zwischen Küche bzw. Essensgewohnheiten und Kolonialismus, zu Aspekten der Speisekultur Chinas, zu Metaphern aus dem Bedeutungsbereich des Geschmacks, zu Wortfeldern des Essens und deren semantischer Analyse.

In Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation, Juwen Zhang provides a systematic survey of such oral traditions as folk and fairy tales, proverbs, ballads, and folksongs that are vibrantly practiced today. Zhang establishes a theoretical framework for understanding how Chinese culture has continued for thousands of years with vitality and validity, core and arbitrary identity markers, and folkloric identity. This framework, which describes a cultural self-healing mechanism, is equally applicable to the exploration of other traditions and cultures in the world. Through topics from Chinese Cinderella to the Grimms of China, from proverbs like “older ginger is spicier” to the life-views held by the Chinese, and from mountain songs and ballads to the musical instruments like the clay-vessel-flute, the author weaves these oral traditions across time and space into a mesmerizing intellectual journey. Focusing on contemporary practice, this book serves as a bridge between Chinese and international folklore scholarship and other related disciplines as well. Those interested in Chinese culture in general and Chinese folklore, literature, and oral tradition in particular will certainly delight in perusing this book.

This book provides extensive information on craftsmen-built houses in China. Though some inroads have been made in studying this folk custom, this work represents the first comprehensive and systematic monograph. The book examines the topic at the two main levels of “history” and “theory”. Combining historical textual research, contemporary textual research, and field study, the book presents systematic information on the folk custom of craftsmen-built houses in China. At the level of theoretical research, it puts forward some original opinions on the major theoretical issues, such as the folk custom of religious belief, the boundary between superstition and religion, and the relationship between oral literature and ritual. The book provides a guide to help readers systematically understand the folk custom of craftsmen-built houses in China. Sharing valuable insights into Chinese architectural history, as well as religious studies, cultural anthropology, and folklore, it will appeal to researchers in the fields of folklore, cultural anthropology, and architecture and can also serve as a popular science book for understanding Chinese architectural culture.