Space, Politics, and Cultural Representation in Modern China

Space, Politics, and Cultural Representation in Modern China

Author: Enhua Zhang

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2016-12-08

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1317326121

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Regarding revolution as a spatial practice, this book explores modes of spatial construction in modern China through a panoramic overview of major Chinese revolutionary events and nuanced analysis of cultural representations. Examining the relationship between revolution, space, and culture in modern China the author takes five spatially significant revolutionary events as case studies - the territorial dispute between Russia and the Qing dynasty in 1892, the Land Reform in the 1920s, the Long March (1934-36), the mainland-Taiwan split in 1949, and the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) - and analyses how revolution constructs, conceives, and transforms space. Using materials associated with these events, including primarily literature, as well as maps, political treatises, historiography, plays, film, and art, the book argues that in addition to redirecting the flow of Chinese history, revolutionary movements operate in and on space in three main ways: maintaining territorial sovereignty, redefining social relations, and governing an imaginary realm. Arguing for reconsideration of revolution as a reorganization of space as much as time, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese culture, society, history and literature.


The Spatiality of Emotion in Early Modern China

The Spatiality of Emotion in Early Modern China

Author: Ling Hon Lam

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-05-15

Total Pages: 479

ISBN-13: 0231547587

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Emotion takes place. Rather than an interior state of mind in response to the outside world, emotion per se is spatial, at turns embedding us from without, transporting us somewhere else, or putting us ahead of ourselves. In this book, Ling Hon Lam gives a deeply original account of the history of emotions in Chinese literature and culture centered on the idea of emotion as space, which the Chinese call “emotion-realm” (qingjing). Lam traces how the emotion-realm underwent significant transformations from the dreamscape to theatricality in sixteenth- to eighteenth-century China. Whereas medieval dreamscapes delivered the subject into one illusory mood after another, early modern theatricality turned the dreamer into a spectator who is no longer falling through endless oneiric layers but pausing in front of the dream. Through the lens of this genealogy of emotion-realms, Lam remaps the Chinese histories of morals, theater, and knowledge production, which converge at the emergence of sympathy, redefined as the dissonance among the dimensions of the emotion-realm pertaining to theatricality.The book challenges the conventional reading of Chinese literature as premised on interior subjectivity, examines historical changes in the spatial logic of performance through media and theater archaeologies, and ultimately uncovers the different trajectories that brought China and the West to the convergence point of theatricality marked by self-deception and mutual misreading. A major rethinking of key terms in Chinese culture from a comparative perspective, The Spatiality of Emotion in Early Modern China develops a new critical vocabulary to conceptualize history and existence.


Television Regulation and Media Policy in China

Television Regulation and Media Policy in China

Author: Yik-Chan Chin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-08-12

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1135042047

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Since the late 1990s, there has been a crucial and substantial transformation in China’s television system involving institutional, structural and regulatory changes. Unravelling the implications of these changes is vital for understanding the politics of Chinese media policy-making and regulation, and thus a comprehensive study of this history has never been more essential. This book studies the transformation of the policy and regulation of the Chinese television sector within a national political and economic context from 1996 to the present day. Taking a historical and sociological approach, it engages in the theoretical debates over the nature of the transformation of media in the authoritarian Chinese state; the implications of the ruling party’s political legitimacy and China’s central-local conflicts upon television policy-making and market structure; and the nature of the media modernisation process in a developing country. Its case studies include broadcasting systems in Shanghai and Guangdong, which demonstrate that varied polices and development strategies have been adopted by television stations, reflecting different local circumstances and needs. Arguing that rather than being a homogenous entity, China has demonstrated substantial local diversity and complex interactions between local, national and global media, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese media, politics and policy, and international communications.


The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong

The Occupy Movement in Hong Kong

Author: Yongshun Cai

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2016-08-12

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 1315532689

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The Occupy movement in Hong Kong was sustained for about 80 days because of government tolerance, the presence of determined participants, and a weak leadership. The government tolerated the occupation because its initial use of force, in particular teargas, was counterproductive and provoked large-scale participation. Unlike other social movements, such as the 1989 Tiananmen movement, the Occupy movement reached its peak of participation at the very beginning, making it difficult to sustain the momentum. The presence of determined participants who chose to stay until the government responded was crucial to the sustaining of the movement. These self-selected participants were caught in a dilemma between fruitless occupation and reluctance to retreat without a success. The movement lasted also because the weak leadership was unable to force the government to concede or devise approaches for making a "graceful exit." Consequently, site clearance became the common choice of both the government and the protestors. This book develops a new framework to explain the sustaining of decentralized protest in the absence of strong movement organizations and leadership. Sustained protests are worth research because they not only reveal the broad social context in which the protests arise and persist but also point out the dynamics of the escalation or the decline of the protests. In addition, sustained protest may not only lead to more dramatic action, but they also result in the diffusion of protests or lead to significant policy changes.


Mapping Asia: Cartographic Encounters Between East and West

Mapping Asia: Cartographic Encounters Between East and West

Author: Martijn Storms

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-06-27

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 331990406X

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This proceedings book presents the first-ever cross-disciplinary analysis of 16th–20th century South, East, and Southeast Asian cartography. The central theme of the conference was the mutual influence of Western and Asian cartographic traditions, and the focus was on points of contact between Western and Asian cartographic history. Geographically, the topics were limited to South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia, with special attention to India, China, Japan, Korea and Indonesia. Topics addressed included Asia’s place in the world, the Dutch East India Company, toponymy, Philipp Franz von Siebold, maritime cartography, missionary mapping and cadastral mapping.


Skin Colored Pointes

Skin Colored Pointes

Author: Nyama McCarthy-Brown

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2024-05-10

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1476687056

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Predominantly white casting in ballet has led many to wonder, "Where are all the black swans?" This book sheds light on female dancers of color, including thirteen primary accounts from African American, Latina, and Asian women in ballet. Topics covered include dance training, casting (and color-casting), employment, discrimination, implicit bias, success, and achievement. Dancers discuss in detail the obstacles many dancers of color face during training; considerations facing some women of color when seeking employment; performance challenges related to company work; and the teachers, parents, and community members that paved a way and widened spaces for them. Through the stories and experiences of the women featured here, models of inclusive practices and allyship are shared. The book culminates with a section providing teaching tools to support inclusive learning spaces.


The Chinese Family Today

The Chinese Family Today

Author: Anqi XU

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-11-10

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1317283538

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The Chinese economy is undergoing dramatic changes and the world is watching and changing along with it. The Chinese family is also changing in many ways in response to the economic transformation that is moving the world’s most populous nation from an agrarian economy to a global superpower. This is the first book in English to describe and explain the social transformation of the Chinese family from the perspective of Chinese researchers. Presenting a comprehensive view of the Chinese family today and how it has adapted during the process of modernization, it provides description and analysis of the trajectory of changes in family structures, functions, and relationships. It tracks how Chinese marriages and families are becoming more diverse and face a great deal of uncertainty as they evolve in different ways from Western marriages and families. The book is also unique in its use of national statistics and data from large-scale surveys to systematically illustrate these radical and extraordinary changes in family structure and dynamics over the past 30 years. Demonstrating that the de-institutionalization of family values is a slow process in the Chinese context, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Sociology, Social Policy and Family Policy.


Visual Culture in Contemporary China I

Visual Culture in Contemporary China I

Author: Zhou Xian

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-21

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1000916685

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As the first volume of a two-volume set that examines the interaction between social transformation and visual culture in contemporary China, this book explores the visual construction of popular culture, avant-garde art, and grassroots media culture. Drawing on an approach of Marxist historic materialism and academic resources of sociology, communication, and art, this study of contemporary China’s visual culture emphasizes two inter-related aspects – the visual construction of society and the social construction of the visual. It seeks to unravel how visual culture is produced and constructed, as well as how it reflects the profound social transformation and reshapes people’s understanding and experience of modernization. In this volume, the contributors revisit popular culture, avant-garde art, and grassroots media culture in contemporary China, analyzing the visual image and representation, and visual culture’s role in social construction. In doing so, the book also reveals the cultural tension of contemporary China, in which the visual aspect figures prominently. This book will serve as an essential read for scholars and students of China studies and cultural studies, as well as all levels of readers interested in visual culture in contemporary China.


Museum Representations of Chinese Diasporas

Museum Representations of Chinese Diasporas

Author: Cangbai Wang

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-10

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1000286932

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Museum Representations of Chinese Diasporas is the first book to analyse the recent upsurge in museums on Chinese diasporas in China. Examining heritage-making beyond the nation state, the book provides a much-needed, critical examination of China’s engagement with its diasporic communities. Drawing on fieldwork in more than ten museums, as well as interviews with museum practitioners and archival study, Wang offers a timely analysis of the complex ways in which Chinese diasporas are represented in the museum space of China, the ancestral homeland. Arguing that diasporic heritage is highly ambivalent and introducing a diasporic perspective to the study of cultural heritage, this book opens up a new avenue of inquiry into the study and management of cultural heritage in China and beyond. Most importantly, perhaps, Wang sheds new light on the dynamic between China and Chinese diasporas through the lens of the museum. Museum Representations of Chinese Diasporas takes a transnational perspective that will draw attention to the under-researched connections between heritage, mobility and meaning in a global context. As such, this cross-disciplinary work will be of interest to scholars and students working in the museum and heritage studies fields, as well as those studying Asia, China, migration and diaspora, anthropology, history and culture.


Unequal China

Unequal China

Author: Wanning Sun

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-07

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1136229973

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Economic development and a dramatic improvement in living standards in many parts of the People’s Republic of China during the past three decades of economic reforms have been hailed by the Chinese Communist Party and many commentators in the international arena as the most spectacular achievements in the history of humanity. However, three decades of economic reforms have also transformed China from one of the world’s most egalitarian societies into one of the most unequal. This book offers a comprehensive account of inequality in China from an interdisciplinary perspective. It both draws on, and speaks to, the existing body of literature that is generated mainly in the fields of economics and sociology, while extending its scope to also examine the political, social, moral and cultural dimensions of inequality. Each chapter addresses the question of inequality from a specific context of research, including housing, health care, social welfare, education, migration, land distribution, law, gender and sexuality. Moving beyond traditional socio-economic theories, the contributors to this volume explore a wide range of social, political, economic and cultural practices that result from, as well as further entrench, the inequalities in Chinese society. Importantly, the essays in Unequal China probe the hidden causes of inequality - namely, the role of state power and the importance of culture - and underline how both state power and cultural factors have a key part to play in legitimating inequality. With an innovative approach that moves beyond the economic and sociological roots of inequality in China, this volume is a welcome addition to what is a growing field of study, and will appeal to students and scholars interested in Chinese culture and society, Chinese politics and Asian social policy.