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The article presents comments on sociologist Bernard C. Go's paper "The Chinese in the Philippines: Facts and Fancies," which was published in the October 1972 issue of the "Philippine Sociological Review." The author agrees with many of Go's conclusions, notably with his statements that the Chinese no longer dominate the Philippine economy nor do they control it, that not all the Chinese in the Philippines are rich, that the Philippine Chinese community is not a fertile ground for the spread of communist ideology, that Chinese girls are willing to marry Filipinos, that never before in the history, be cause of the changes that have taken place, has the prospect of integrating and assimilating the Chinese into the mainstream of Filipino society appeared brighter than it does today. Chinese in the Philippines are far from homogeneous. Because of the existence of disparate factions sometimes working at cross purposes, the Chinese are not a monolithic group, nor are they united. However, one cannot deny the fact that the Chinese, especially the China-born, are clannish in the sense that they continue to cling to their family, clan, village, and district associations.

Political and trade dialogues (1994) between China (Sino) and the European Union (EU) to establish a comprehensive Beijing-Brussels partnership (1995) began at the end of the Cold War with their summit-level meetings in 1998. This politico-economic partnership was founded within divergent historical, sociopolitical and ideological contexts. For example, the EU, a member of the Western Block and a strategic ally of the United States, was very different from China which stood alone as a populous country of the Eastern world with industrial and financial muscle. Despite these differences, the EU upholds Sino-EU partnership which is needed to survive with engagement, especially when politically adverse circumstances arise for the two entities at global stage. China, on the other hand, believes ties with the EU can last because it has invested in neoliberal economic principles that emerged after Mao's (1970-80) communism. These factors have played a pivotal role in holding and shaping the Sino-EU partnership for global collaboration, which the two entities believe will take them into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses how Wilbur Schramm's "Soviet" communist model and J. Herbert Altschull's "Marxist" approach have been widely used as general theoretical frameworks to examine press systems in the Marxist world in general and China in particular. Argues that neither of the two models is sufficient in conceptualizing the Chinese case because of Chinese news media's transitional nature and the two models' inner theoretical flaws as normative press theories. (SG)

Analyzes the culture in China and how politics determines the form of educational institutions. Asserts that China's educational system is designed to promote selected students to elite status in the Communist Party. Discusses the links between education and the political elite and their effect on social mobility. (DMM)

Reports an individual's observations during a trip to China. Argues that the U.S. government and students must learn to understand and appreciate China because of its large population, market potential, and position among major world powers. Discusses personal impressions, the protesters at Tiananmen Square and elsewhere, and reactions to protests. (DK)

Discerning what populists mean by the people is crucial for understanding populism. However, the appeals populists make to the people differ across political systems, with distinctions particularly evident between democratic contexts and one-party states such as China. Articulations of the people in Chinese populist communication remain underexplored, which is a gap this paper addresses by clarifying how the people is constructed in the discourses that underpin Chinese populism. A total of 61 populism cases were examined through discourse and meta-analyses, from which three manifestations of the people emerged. First, the Chinese nation serves as an ideological glue to mobilize people to protest against those seen as betraying their Chinese identity or violating the sovereignty and dignity of China. Second, the mass is associated with an affective aversion to scientists and experts, but also with mass support for a satirical subculture that challenges the hegemony of elite-dominated cultural production and cultural institutions. Finally, socially vulnerable groups assemble powerless people in situations of economic impoverishment, political marginalization, and social vulnerability. The analysis reveals how these three conceptualizations of the people drive online Chinese bottom-up populism, allowing netizens to serve as mediators and pitting the people against corrupt elites and the establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studii de Ştiintă şi Cultură is the property of Studii de Stiinta si Cultura and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How are environmental conflicts managed in China and Russia? Both states are territorially large non-democracies affected by environmental degradation due to industrialisation and economic growth, and both are characterised by collectivist culture resulting from pronounced historical legacies and Communism. Our analysis of China indicates the important role played by local governments often supporting local people; and role of the negotiation between the central and the local governments. In contrast, in Russia local governments ally with businesses involved in environmental conflicts; or tend to support central government view on the conflict. However, the environmentalists' movements in Russia are better connected to external (international) support. In contrast, China exhibits more isolation of environmental movements that are less influenced by Western environmentalism, if at all. The paper aspires to bring further insights in understanding of the public environmentalism and management of environmental conflicts in Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine a Chinese family's oral history, which revolves around their tumultuous life transformations under the impact of China's communist movement between 1940 and 1977. Using interviews with four siblings who have distinctive personalities and life narratives, I focus on how they apply fatalistic thinking—a phenomenon popular among ordinary Chinese but is rarely analyzed by scholars—to make sense of the vicissitudes of the fates of the family members. I position the Chinese family's oral history in macro and micro contexts. In the macro context, since the land reform in 1940s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had attempted to replace peasants' fatalistic thinking with class analysis to explain the roots of hardships in their lives. As the communist movement and class struggle receded, fatalistic thinking—which has never been eradicated—revived. In the micro context, fatalistic thinking is expressed through distinctive memories and narratives, which are linked to personalities and identities. I argue that fatalistic thinking is a mean of self-construction that people consciously or unconsciously resort to when facing absurdity. By using fatalistic thinking, people develop narratives about the self and create a sense of mental balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A visiting professor of linguistics to a provincial Chinese university describes aspects of his experience in China, the structure of the college curriculum and university experience, the influence of communism, and university students. (MSE)

A theory of communicative action is suggested as a framework for examining the quality and nature of the intellectual interaction between Chinese scholars and their counterparts in the universities of the capitalist world. Recent Chinese political events are linked to a fundamental change in the knowledge orientation of Chinese universities. (MSE)

Provides information and observations on student governance in Chinese higher education, obtained through an interview with the Deputy General of the All-China Students' Federation, a federal body of student unions at universities, colleges, and secondary schools throughout China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. (Author/NB)

This article focuses on the epistemological changes evident in twentieth-century educational reform in China. Reflections on linkages between knowledge and modernization, based on sociological literature, are presented. The Chinese knowledge tradition, current changes in the higher education curriculum, and curricular experiments at six universities are examined. (IAH)

A discussion of the history of China's higher education system summarizes the main characteristics of the traditional scholarly institutions and considers the western academic models introduced by foreign missionaries, those selected and implemented by Chinese modernizers, and the Soviet academic model adopted by Chinese Communist leaders in the 1950s. (Author/MSE)

Attempts to theorize about the relationship between family and revolutionary change have been based largely upon the Russian case and have adopted universalistic functionalist and modernization approaches. Three major contrasts in the course of family revolution in China challenge the validity of these interpretations. (Author)

An analysis of more than 80 stories and books for Chinese children published since 1965 reveals that they almost uniformly follow a party-line formula for teaching the values of revolutionary communism. (DD)

Examines the expanding use of advertising in China. Discusses the impact of transnational corporations in communication and other areas on the development of China, and the implications that the introduction of advertising has for China's role as one of the models for developing countries. (JMF)

Compares the educational systems, particularly nonformal education, of India and China, and the impact on education of sociopolitical factors, history, government, ideology, languages, and cultures. Includes differences and similarities in educational facilities, personnel, methods, some national statistics, and charts of the education systems in both countries. (MF)

Concludes that Chinese media may one day be indistinguishable from their Western counterparts: promoting consumer goods, fostering television, dampening group discussion and active political interest, and presenting a conception of the world as an area for unresolved social conflict and drama. (PD)

The initiation of a national examination system in the People's Republic of China has had a marked impact upon educational policies. An historical overview of the Chinese educational system, the nature of the national examination, and implications of curricular change are used to support the assumption that curricular change can have profound political and social consequences. (JN)

Discusses the reception of John Dewey's ideas in China when he visited that country during the early 1920s. Dewey's specific references to grassroots political development and pragmatic education were well received because they were in harmony with certain basic Chinese values. Dewey's liberalism was rejected because it was not. (RM)

Copyright of Historical Journal / Historijski Zbornik is the property of Drustvo za Hrvatsku Povjesnicu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2018, the Fifth Amendment to China’s Constitution changed the name of the Law Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) to the ‘Constitution and Law Committee’. This involved more than a name change; rather, faced with a legitimacy crisis, the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has a strong interest in augmenting the existing basis of legitimacy and creating a new source of power resting on popular sovereignty. The idea of popular sovereignty in the Chinese context is defined as the combination of sovereignty of the people and leadership of the CPC. As the central institutional device to guarantee people’s sovereignty, the people’s congress system has its own difficulties. Although it is the highest authority endowed by the Constitution, the NPC is actually a ‘strong on paper, weak in practice’ body. The creation of the Constitution and Law Committee, entrusted with the power of review by a decision issued subsequent to the Fifth Amendment, can contribute to enhancing the role of the NPC. This could be viewed as part of the CPC’s efforts to implement functionally the principle of popular sovereignty, which, in turn, can help uphold and safeguard regime legitimacy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China Story, also known as Xi Jinping's Chinese Dream of the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation, is widely accepted as the central narrative for the leadership's ideological and political legitimacy-building efforts. Despite its significance and the widespread attention it has received in the decade since its inception, surprisingly little literature has examined the Chinese Dream through the lens of narrative theory. This article seeks to close this gap by offering a structural narratological analysis of the China Story. It illuminates how the narrative comprises policy-oriented rhetorical frames that form overarching themes that direct party-state actions and support Xi Jinping's status as the 'core' leader. The paper argues that as a 'master narrative', it seeks to provide a spiritual foundation and a compelling vision of a strong, prosperous, and unified China under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison of the former Eastern Bloc and China's ways of dealing with the social implications of rock music as an alien cultural import from the West reveals significant analogies. The paper traces the process of politicisation of rock music and compares the two different cultural spaces by mapping each space's state ideology, aesthetic traditions and identities, and discriminative political and economic tools used to marginalise rock. Here the term politicisation refers mainly to the polarisation between the communist regimes' restrictive policies, and the attempts of the rock scenes to sustain their discriminating characteristics and relationship to protest. While in European communist states rock played a relevant subversive role, conversely, in China any 'rocking' of the state has largely been averted. The Chinese rock scene as an off-mainstream urban subculture has received less popular support than its counterpart in Europe and has also proved less politically significant. This comparative case study discusses the relationship between popular music and politics by tracing analogies and differences between the former Czechoslovakia, where the ideologisation and politicisation of rock reached the highest point in the Eastern Bloc, and contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on existing studies of worker activism in formerly communist states, this paper examines the context, nature and consequences of labour protest in China’s private sector - highlighting the specific features that have emerged from China’s unique ‘communist’ political regime and partially privatized economy. As private enterprises have grown in China, private sector worker protests have been common. Three key factors have shaped this activism: (i) a disjuncture between benevolent and protective national laws and the lived experience of workers; (ii) fluctuations in the labour market; and (iii) generational shifts and learning among workers, employers and political authorities. The interplay of these factors has led protesting private sector workers to focus their ire on their employers and on occasion local political authorities, while viewing national political leaders as sources of worker support. These dynamics have had both positive and negative consequences for private sector workers and political authorities. Making comparisons with other authoritarian and communist states, this study adds to current understandings of how specific economic and political configurations engender particular characteristics of labour activism - and how these change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mark Ravenhill’s 2007 Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat is a relevant state of the nation(s) play drawing an acid portrait of Anglo-American nations and their self-congratulatory ‘freedom and democracy’ propaganda in Irak. Other committed voices have made themselves heard on the British stage in addressing worldwide political and ethical issues. This paper focuses on Lucy Kirkwood, a young British dramatist whose pungent style was revealed in Tinderbox (2008), a dystopian farce set in 21st century England. Today, Lucy Kirkwood (33) who sees herself as ‘a radical young dramatist,’ continues to explore the confused landscape of western democracy: she sketched the relations between the USA and China in Chimerica (2013), an epic drama which won her an Olivier Award for Best New Play. In the wake of Brexit and the Trump election, Lucy Kirkwood has recently announced that she would pursue her investigation of the leading nations’ policies: “The whole of democracy looks fragile and farcical. After writing about communist China in Chimerica, you suddenly look at western democracy and think: is this necessarily better? Maybe this is the endgame” (Lawson, “Chimerica”).This paper explores Kirkwood’s vitriolic portrait of today’s leading nations, and her questioning of universal concerns experienced on a personal level such as power and privacy, nationalism and identity, profit and subservience. I will examine her peculiar ability to reformulate a ‘state-of-the-nation’ format and associate innovation and convention in her treatment of subject matter, language, dramatic form and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically highlights the role of nationalism in the development of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. First, it demonstrates how the pre-1980s Taiwanese developmental state mobilised Chinese economic nationalism against Japanese colonialism and Chinese communism and adopted the strategies of graduated sovereignty, selectively subsidising certain areas and sectors, and promoting national (homogeneously imagined) territorialisation to integrate with the international market. Second, the paper exhibits how in the late 1980s, when the outflow of capital to Mainland China became a compelling phenomenon and Taiwan democratised, popular sovereignty became the norm and Taiwanese nationalism emerged. In response, the democratised state started employing Taiwanese economic nationalism and implementing populist territorial policies to consolidate the support of 'us' (the Taiwanese/Taiwan) versus 'them' (the Chinese/China). This made China and everything related a security concern that had to be excluded as 'the other'. This paper responds to the appeals of political geographers to give nationalism a central place in contemporary theories of the nation-state and contributes to the theory of the developmental state by bringing 'the nation' back. While most of the existing developmental state literature focuses on how the roles and effects of 'the state' influence economic development, taking 'the nation' seriously can provide more accurate explanations for how and why the state focuses on development or not. Accordingly, through valuing the nation this paper promotes a theory of the developmental nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Land Revolution is considered as the most important factor that led the Chinese Communist Party to the completion of the military mobilization and the final revolutionary victory in China. And it is also a hot research subject in regards to the revolution in Modern China within many disciplines including laws, economics, political science, history, sociology, and anthropology. This paper is a critical review of the studies on the issues of the Land Revolution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on three facets of problematique, theoretical paradigms, and specific topics. This review is using a new framework with four traditional research lines: studying China's revolutionary history in America since the 1950s, studying the history of the Chinese Communist Party since the founding of New China, studying the Chinese social and economic history since the 1930s, and studying the oral history since the 1990s. Based on a careful review of the current literature related to the issues in CCP's Land Revolution, the paper is critical in terms of clarifying the problematique process of the Land Revolution from the angle of the academic developmental history, to find out the internal roadmaps and the developmental paths within the academia, to look into the problems and limitations of various research traditions and theoretical perspectives, and to lay down a foundation for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between ethnic configuration and state social policy in a Chinese context. Why did the Chinese communist government have to implement a preferential policy towards ethnic minorities, and to what extent has this policy come to reshape peoples’ consciousness of their group membership? As well as analysing the reasons and intents of the Chinese Communist Party when dealing with the minority issue before and after it attained power, this paper argues that categorizing of the population served to establish the state apparatus. Why the project of ethnic identification was first initiated in Fujian (a province best known for its overwhelming Han culture) is also discussed. By unfolding the process of searching for ethnic representation in Fujian in the early 1950s, this paper further argues that the major concern of the party-state regarding ethnic minorities is to hold onto its power. Finally, this paper documents how government agents, when investigating ethnicity, interacted with the local population. The Fujian case implies as well as exemplifies how ethnicity can be invented, constructed or reconstructed as a particular representation in relation to state formation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

According to the sociological theory of literature, constraints on the creation and share of cultural works can be placed between two extremes: one with a high level of politicization and the other with a high level of commercialization (Sapiro, 2003). The overall objective of the present research is to follow the principles of Sociology of Translation to closely map and analyse the publishing activity of Romania concerning China and Chinese literature during the two stages of Romanian Communism - 1948-1965 and 1965-1989. This paper proposes, thus, an extended approach to literature, to its cultural, political and economic reception. In achieving the proposed objectives, the research expands far beyond the literary text itself, to its macro context, analysing, through quantitative research methods, a statistical database created based on two phases - the first part containing literary and non-fictional works that address and discuss issues related to China; the second part includes literary translations of Chinese literature into Romanian, either by direct translation or by an intermediate language. Throughout this paper we will map not only the number of works, but also the topics approached by writers along the two periods of the political life of Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong is the property of Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The display of the slogan 'harmony' in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing seems to signify that China is moving toward a new conception of Communism. However, the pursuit of a harmonious society is not new in Chinese history. It is actually rooted in the complex Chinese tradition, especially that of Confucianism. The idea of ren (benevolence) is often considered as the prime ideology of Confucianism, but through a closer look at Chinese traditions, one will find that Chinese familism is positioned at the core of Chinese culture. The harmony the Confucianist seeks is situated in the unequal relationship in propriety defined by familism which has profound impact on the Chinese leadership formation as shown in the Chinese imperial system. Since Confucianism is deeply rooted not only in Chinese culture but also in the cultures of its neighborhood, understanding leadership formation in the context of Confucianism can be crucial to the effectiveness for mission leaders involved in Asian leadership in the marketplace and in the ecclesial practices. It is my argument that harmony, as expressed in the unequal relationship of Chinese familism, which is the driving force of leadership formation for the Chinese over the last two millennia, can be revitalized through the expression of harmony as defined by Max De Pree in his conception of leadership formation: mutually edifying participation between persons who are stewarding God-given gifts. The first task of this paper is to define Chinese familism. This is followed by a comparative analysis of leadership formation within the Chinese cultural context, in light of the current leadership discoveries emanating from the West. The paper concludes with a presentation of potential ways in which familial ideals might be integrated with De Pree's leadership principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Communist Party began decoupling its policies and practices from Maoist communist ideology more than four decades ago. Yet, why does Maoism continue to have an impact on the behavior of Party members? In this study, we argue that, although the influence of Maoist ideology has become weaker among younger Party members and Party members with higher educational attainment, such ideological decay is countered by a process of secondhand ideological imprinting. Based on data from 1,298 non-state-owned Chinese listed firms for 2000–2017, we find that firms with Party-member board chairs file fewer patent applications and are more likely to commit patent infringement. These effects are weaker if a board chair is younger or has higher educational attainment. Importantly, the moderating effect of young age is reduced as the presence of older Party-member corporate directors in a region becomes more prominent. However, the moderating effect of education appears to be unaffected by the presence of older Party-member directors. These findings generate fresh insights on the dynamics of ideological decay and persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend" is an iconic dictum of the early Maoist era, when the free speech was nominally encouraged in order to determine intellectuals to debate and develop socialism, though soon proved to be some perverse strategy to encourage the self-signalling of the too critical stances on the system and to ease their shutting up. The Deng Xiaoping's U-turn consecrated the "seeking (of) truth from facts", marking a process of gradually finding the right path towards the "socialism/capitalism with Chinese characteristics" and since then a worldwide competition among the explanations for the "successfulness" or "sustainability" of China's transformations has spurred in the academic community of social scientists. Nowadays the Chinese unique hybrid model is under siege, with the turmoil installed in its financial markets calling for explanations of whether too much capitalism or too much socialism/interventionism is responsible for this. Our paper will propose a scrutiny of the theories standing behind Chinese realities, calling for a strategy we named "seeking truth from principles". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the changes in the Chinese Communist Party's doctrine, by stressing the main findings of the 18th Congress of the Party held between the 7th and 14th of November, 2012. It is an attempt to explore the fundamentals of China's unique and genuine model of development and the Chinese liberal-type vision concentrated in concepts such as "harmonious society", "peaceful development", "social justice and equity" and "ethical governance". Also, the Paper stresses the current challenges to China's national sovereignty, based on its relations with Japan, North Korea, and on the evolutions of the unsolved dossier of Taiwan. Concerning China's foreign policy agenda in the years ahead, Beijing will be charged with the task of balancing its traditionally low foreign policy profile with its increasing assertive day-to-day actual foreign policy behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Red tourism' is to exploit the historical heritage of the Chinese Communist Party for tourism development. Such tourism practice has been used by the nation state of China both to drive the country's economic growth and develop new patronage of the communist ideology among the young generation. From the broader context of China's economic and social changes since 1978 when the country started its open-door policy and economic reform, our paper attempts to examine 'red tourism' by analyzing how the nation state of China promotes the communist heritage through 'red tourism' in order to sustain the communist identity in a rapidly changing China. Research questions are raised to address the economic and social factors for the nation state involvement in 'red tourism': the specific roles of such involvement and the outcomes. Based on a case study, this paper presents how heritage is interpreted at a specific 'red tourism' site in order to portray a selective part of the communist heritage as a symbol of the Chinese nation. In so doing, 'red tourism' aims to serve the purpose of the nation state to sustain the communist identity in the continuing effort of developing a 'socialist country of Chinese characteristics'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of whether or not the current regime in China is sustainable is one of the key questions of interest to specialists on Chinese politics today. The authors of this paper contend that the CCP government has actually strengthened its hold on power in recent years, rather than weakening it, as so many analysts predicted. The paper uses CCP propaganda work in the current era as a lens to consider why this might be so and utilizes the term 'Popular Authoritarianism' to describe China's new political order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the patterns of entry into self-employment in urban and rural China and across different reform stages, focusing on how communist cadres have responded to new market opportunities. Analysis of data from a national representative survey shows that both education and cadre status deter people from entry into self-employment in urban areas but not in rural areas. However, urban cadres have become increasingly more likely to be self-employed over time, and only those who became self-employed in the late reform stage have enjoyed higher income returns. The paper concludes that the labor mobility process should be taken into account in studying changes in advantages/disadvantages associated with different social groups in post-socialist transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework linking communist regime collapse and privatizing economic reforms. The framework permits us to explain why certain communist regimes lost their monopoly of political power while others have not. We show that the essential difference between those communist regimes which survived economic reform and those which did not, lies in the nature of the privatization reform introduced by the communist leadership. The privatization that we call ‘Market-Leninist’, was implemented in China and Vietnam while the second type of privatization, termed ‘Embezzlement for a rainy day’ was the type of privatization implemented in Eastern Europe. We show, in the context of a game between rulers and the population, that the size of the repressive apparatus is the key element determining the type of privatization chosen by the rulers. JEL classification: P2, P3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his provocative critique of Geertz's 1966 definition of religion, Talal Asad (1993) suggests that the very project of defining the category of religion is rooted in the historical rise of Western secularism in societies formerly dominated by Christianity. In post-Mao China, there has been an explosion of activities that might be categorised as religious in the Geertzian sense, including church attendance, temple building, qi gong practice, pilgrimage, and geomancy. This paper examines two such activities, the participation of women in a Protestant church in rural Shandong and the recent protest by members of the Fa Lun Gong (Buddhist Law Qi Gong) society in Beijing, and asks what their emergence in a post-Maoist communist state tells us about the historical processes that frame the possibility of defining religion. Working with theories of religious participation from Geertz, Asad, Tambiah, and Feuchtwang, the paper develops a conception of 'symbolic participation' to illuminate the flourishing of religious practice in post-Mao China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses George Orwell's fictional story Animal Farm to make a comparison between Orwell's predictions and the Chinese experience with communism. An analogy is made between two characters from his novel, Napoleon the Boar, who attains power, and Boxer the horse, who does not. These are analogous to members and nonmembers of the Communist party, respectively. Readily available data by Griffen and Renwei (1988) are then used to compare the economic conditions of approximately 22,000 individuals. The empirical results strongly support many of Orwell's predictions. A theoretical predatory growth model that potentially explains the results is also introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a phenomenon exogenous to China, the Olympics have been proactively interpreted in the local context since China’s entry (and subsequent re-entry in 1984) into the Olympic movement. With China’s increasing involvement in promoting three bids to host the Olympic Games, two of which were successful, respectively, in 2001 and 2015, the nature of the discourse of key stakeholders in relation to Chinese elite sport has both reflected and reshaped the meaning of the Games to Chinese elite sport. This paper examines the discursive construction process of the Olympics in the Chinese elite sport system by key stakeholders through analyzing statements of political figures on sport and Olympic phenomena, Chinese elite sport policy documents, and the commentaries of leading Chinese sport academics. The analysis of discourse highlights two main features in the construction of the Games in official accounts during the period under investigation. The development of these two themes reflects the nature of the Chinese Olympic discourse, manifests the political power over the interpretation of the Olympics in Chinese context, and continues to characterize the on-going major themes in Chinese elite sport policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I present Mao's historical view based on dialectical materialism, and I propose that this socialist historiography can help the current PRC regime to reflect on its relationship to its past and its future. As we know, the contradictions of capitalism and communism lie not only in the economic and political realms but also in the completely different senses of time they offer. In the case of Maoism, it is the unfixed future that agitates people to revolutionary action. I will explore what dialectics means to Maoism by exploring both the original texts of Mao and the exegesis of various Maoist scholars, and I will also study poems written by Mao to explore his romantic view of history. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates how the drastic educational reforms during the Communist period changed the effects of family background on education in China, in comparison to other nations. Data are from the Life Histories and Social Change in Contemporary China survey and the World Inequality Study; N=130,109 in 28 societies. Since World War 11, the mean number of years of education in China paralleled, at a lower level, the rises in Eastern European Communist countries and in Western market economies. Multi-level regression analysis shows that China's educational level is not higher than would be predicted on the basis of worldwide patterns linking education to g d p and family background. Overall, the drastic educational reforms of the Communist period do not seem to have raised educational attainments, contrary to the Rousseau/Marx understanding of the primacy of private property as a generator of social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is an attempt at presenting some problems concerning current situation of the D’rung ethnic minority in the area of Dulongjiang in north-west Yunnan province, China. The primary objective of the research was documentation of the current situation of D’rungs people. The results of the fieldwork became the pretext for the discussion of Chinese “internal colonialism”. D’rungs were recognized by the Chinese authorities as “primitive communist” which, with the help of Communist government should make smooth transition to the next stage, which was a “modern” Chinese communism. Unfortunately in the process, they fell into dependence on the Chinese government. The main markers of their identity: the practice of tattooing, language and beliefs are gradually disappearing. Noticeable is the lack of continuity in the transmission of knowledge and traditions. The progressive decrease in the number of D’rung people raises serious questions about their future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the political campaigns launched by the Chinese Communist Party in the Maoist period, full mobilisation of the masses became the norm. Yet it was not just the authorities and their myriads of units and personnel who became involved. In order to achieve maximum impact, the CCP targeted and mobilised the families of the actors concerned. This paper examines the strategy and measures implemented by the CCP during the Five Antis Movement to manipulate the wives and children of businessmen and merchants and to use them as leverage in pressing businessmen and merchants to ' confess' and reveal their alleged wrongdoings in business deals with the state. Although most chose to resist and to side with their husband or father, political pressure was strong enough to force family members to become the instruments of power within the family. While the actual overall cost is impossible to evaluate, enlisting family members into political struggle left a legacy of distrust and uncertainty, which in turn dealt a serious blow to family ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hồ Chí Minh, the Vietnamese revolutionary leader who sacrificed his life for his country's independence, was in Siam from 1928-29 and briefly from March--April 1930. Siam was well placed to serve as an anti-colonial base for the Vietnamese fighting for independence in the west of central Vietnam, especially after the repression of the Chinese communists in Guangdong by Chiang Kai Shek in 1927. Northern Siam is connected to central Vietnam by land via Laos, while southern China is also accessible from Bangkok by sea routes. Hồ Chí Minh arrived in Bangkok in 1928. He went to Ban Dong in Phichit and then to Udon Thani, Nong Khai, Sakon Nakhon, and Nakhon Phanom in the northeast of Siam. The paper studies when and how Hồ Chí Minh arrived in Siam; his mission there; the places he visited; and his activities during his sojourn. We also enquire how Hồ Chí Minh carried out his mission: who accompanied him in Siam; what pseudonyms he and his collaborators used; and what strategies he used to elude arrest by local authorities. It cannot be denied that the instruction Hồ Chí Minh imparted to his compatriots during his stay contributed tremendously to the struggle for Vietnamese independence. By the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, he had accomplished his task of reorganizing and strengthening the network, and educating the Vietnamese anticolonial and revolutionary movement in Siam. In addition, he contributed to the founding of the communist party in the region, which was the task assigned to him by the Comintern. Nonetheless, we should recognize that his mission in Siam was facilitated and supported by Đặng Thúc Hứa, who, prior to Hồ's arrival, had gathered the Vietnamese into communities and set up several bases for long-term anti-colonial movements with the help of his compatriots. Hồ Chí Minh's presence in Siam has been commemorated by the Thai and Vietnamese through the Thai-Vietnamese Friendship Village and the memorial houses built after 2000 in Nakhon Phanom and Udon Thani in northeastern Thailand. These memorials have become a symbol of the good relationship between Thailand and Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many scholars, 1949 represents a revolutionary rupture in the Chinese historical narrative. For some individuals living in China at that time, however, 1949 did not appear to be a watershed event but rather a temporary readjustment demand in a degree of adaptation. This paper looks at 1949 through the eyes of Church of the Brethren missionaries working in rural Shanxi between 1945 and 1952. Having already endured the 1911 Revolution, the regional wars of the 1920s, and the Japanese invasion of the 1930s, the Brethren were confident they would be able to conform to the demands of the new communist regime. Only in 1952 and beyond did individual missionaries begin to appreciate the major, momentous events that had transformed China. Drawing on their experiences helps us understand the complexities of 1949 and appreciate the continuities that transcended the 1949 divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]