About the Book
In the third volume of this popular series, leading experts provide fascinating and unexpected insights into critical issues of culture, economy, politics, and society in today's China. This world, outside the reach of state control and either misunderstood or unreported in Western media, gains clarity and dimension from the fresh insights of a prominent group of activists, investigative journalists, lawyers, scholars, and travelers, who share a common interest in lessening the profound information gap between China and the rest of the world. In sixteen new essays, they address such key topics as civil society, consumerism, environmental adversity, ethnic tension, the Internet, legal reform, new media and social networking, nationalist tourism, sex and popular culture, as well the costs of urban gigantism to portray the complexity of life in contemporary China—and how, increasingly, it speaks to the everyday experience of Americans.
Contributions by: David Bandurski, Susan D. Blum, Timothy Cheek, Gady Epstein, Andrew S. Erickson, Lionel M. Jensen, John Kamm, Wenquing Kang, Katherine Palmer Kaup, Travis Klingberg, Orion A. Lewis, Benjamin L. Liebman, Jonathan S. Noble, Tim Oakes, Jessica C. Teets, Alex L. Wang, and Timothy B. Weston.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: China, the United States, and Convulsive Cooperation
Lionel M. Jensen and Timothy B. Weston
Part I: In the Headlines
Chapter 1: Jousting with Monsters: Journalists in a Rapidly Changing China
David Bandurski
Chapter 2: Youth Culture in China: Idols, Sex, and the Internet
Jonathan S. Noble
Chapter 3: Dismantling the Socialist Welfare State: The Rise of Civil Society in China
Jessica C. Teets
Chapter 4: Mutually Assured Destruction or Dependence? U.S. and Chinese Perspectives on China’s Military Development
Andrew S. Erickson
Chapter 5: China’s Environmental Tipping Point
Alex L. Wang
Chapter 6: China’s Historic Urbanization: Explosive and Challenging
Timothy B. Weston
Chapter 7: The Worlds of China’s Intellectuals
Timothy Cheek
Chapter 8: Why Does China Fear the Internet?
Susan D. Blum
Part II: Beyond the Headlines
Chapter 9: Producing Exemplary Consumers: Tourism and Leisure Culture in China’s Nation-Building Project
Travis Klingberg and Tim Oakes
Chapter 10: Professionals and Populists: The Paradoxes of China’s Legal Reforms
Benjamin L. Liebman
Chapter 11: The Decriminalization and Depathologization of Homosexuality in China
Wenqing Kang
Chapter 12: The Evolution of Chinese Authoritarianism: Lessons from the “Arab Spring”
Orion A. Lewis
Chapter 13: Culture Industry, Power, and the Spectacle of China’s “Confucius Institutes”
Lionel M. Jensen
Chapter 14: Tensions and Violence in China’s Minority Regions
Katherine Palmer Kaup
Chapter 15: An Unharmonious Society: Foreign Reporting in China
Gady Epstein
Afterword: What Future for Human Rights Dialogues?
John Kamm
About the Author :
Timothy B. Weston is associate professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Lionel M. Jensen is associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Notre Dame.
Review :
In these high-quality scholarly essays, specialists from various fields investigate the most critical issues that China is facing and making a great effort to deal with. They include China's relationships with the US and other countries, human rights issues, social welfare reform, a sharp rich-poor division, rapidly growing popular culture, emerging consumerism and tourism, rapid urbanization, economic development and environmental protection, intellectuals of different ideologies, the establishment of a modern legal system, ethnic tensions in minority regions, the decriminalization and depathologization of homosexuality, and China's efforts to introduce its language and culture to the world. The in-depth discussions of these issues are based on the most current data and information resources, and they really go beyond the headlines of limited Western media coverage on China. Providing a panoramic view of contemporary China and comprehensive coverage of Chinese economic, political, technological, social, and cultural changes, as well as the influence of these changes on the whole world, this is a must read for all scholars and students of China studies. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.
This is the third volume in the popular series China beyond the Headlines by Rowman & Littlefield. The first volume, China beyond the Headlines, was published in 2000, and the second volume, China’s Transformations: The Stories beyond the Headlines, in 2007. The series has made contributions in two dimensions. First, academically, it helps our understanding of contemporary China. . . . This series has enabled readers to capture the main aspects of a changing China. Second, there is a policy dimension, namely, China’s relations with the West, particularly with the United States. The editors have a specific target, namely, to influence the general public. Therefore, the volume is not only for academic circles, but also for ordinary people who are interested in international affairs. All the chapters in these volumes are easy to read without difficult academic jargon. The continuous publication of the series points to its success. Readers appreciate their great efforts. ... Overall, [this] volume is structured into three levels. At the first level, the editors want to show what changes have happened in China and how they happened. At the second level, they attempt to demonstrate how limited these changes are for China politically, particularly in regards to democratization and human rights progress. . . At the third level, they seek to spell out how such limited changes will affect China’s relations with the outside world, particularly the United States. . . . To a great degree, at all these levels, this volume has achieved its goal.
Getting a fix on Chinese cultural and political shifts has never seemed more urgent. So the appearance of this collection of wide-ranging, informative, and fluidly written essays is not just something to welcome but something to celebrate. I can't wait to bring the book into a classroom and take it for a spin with my students.
The essays in this book pull off the fine balancing act of giving an ideal introduction to contemporary China while also delving in depth into the most important issues at play today.
