Recent archaeological finds in China have made possible a reconstruction of the ancient history of Sichuan, the country's most populous province. Excavated artifacts and new recovered texts now supplement traditional textual materials. Together, these data show how Sichuan matured from peripheral obscurity to attain central importance in the Chinese empire during the first millennium B.C.
This is the first historically comprehensive, up-to-date analysis of the causes, content, and consequences of nationalism in China, an ancient empire that has struggled to construct a nation-state and find its place in the modern world. It shows how Chinese political elites have competed to promote different types of nationalism linked to their political values and interests and imposed them on the nation while trying to repress other types of nationalism. In particular, the book reveals how leaders of the PRC have adopted a pragmatic strategy to use nationalism while struggling to prevent it from turning into a menace rather than a prop.
Traditional and indigenous food systems have existed for centuries and were in balance with local food supplies, globally. However, between the mid 20th and early 21st century the green revolution dramatically altered food production, which in turn affected the inclusivity of traditional production systems within food systems and subsequently, traditional dietary intakes. This change was accompanied by lifestyle changes and spurred a global nutrition transition. Today the world faces a global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. A new call to action to create food systems that nourish people and sustain the planet is needed. Traditional and indigenous food systems have long been recognized as systems that can both support good human nutrition as well as maintain a balance with nature. There is an underutilized knowledge base around traditional and indigenous food systems. This includes the knowledge of nutritious species, traditional culinary preparations, and cultural practices. Greater agricultural production of underutilized species can result in more sustainable agricultural and food systems which can also help improve livelihoods and food security. Traditional and indigenous cultural practices with respect to both land and water management, as well as culinary practices, contribute to both sustainable food production and consumption. These practices require a greater evidence base in order to be incorporated into public health nutrition initiatives related to improving dietary quality, such as food-based dietary guidelines for example. An increased focus on the importance of local, traditional, and indigenous food systems and nutrition could therefore help countries to improve human nutrition and, ideally, help mitigate the global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. This Research Topic will focus on documenting diverse local food systems and promoting elements within them that can help improve nutrition and health – both human and planetary - in various ways including the livelihood development of knowledge holders.
"Xuanzang (600/602-664) was one of the most accomplished and consequential monks in the history of East Asian Buddhism. Celebrated for his sixteen-year pilgrimage from China to India, his transmission and translation of hundreds of Buddhist texts, and his training of a generation of masters in China, Korea, and Japan, Xuanzang's life and legacy are the stuff of legend. In the centuries after his death, stories of his epic adventures and extraordinary accomplishments circulated in texts, images, songs, and plays. These mythic accounts recast the erudite pilgrim, translator, and court cleric as a magical monk who traveled not between China and India but between heaven and earth. Beset by bloodthirsty demons, this deified version of Xuanzang navigates the perilous paths of the netherworld to reach a pure land in the west. His purpose is to acquire a cache of sacred scriptures with the power to safeguard the living and deliver the dead. Along the way, he is guided and protected by a mischievous monkey, a lazy pig, a demonic monk, and a dragon horse. This imaginative and compelling tale received its fullest and most influential treatment in the famous sixteenth-century novel Journey to the West. In this engaging exploration of the confluence of myth, narrative, and ritual, Benjamin Brose uncovers the hidden histories of Xuanzang's many afterlives. Beginning in the eleventh century and continuing to the present day, devotees have summoned Xuanzang and his band of misfit pilgrims to perform exorcisms, guide the spirits of the dead, and possess the bodies of insurgents. Embodying Xuanzang traces the postmortem travels of China's greatest pilgrim and reveals the narrative and performative roots of China's best-known novel"--
This is a varied and wide-ranging collection of essays by Yi and foreign scholars on the history, traditional society, and modern social changes among the 7 million Yi people of Southwest China.
Introduction to Hui ethnic diversity in China As yet very little academic research has been done into the Hui people, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in China. With particular attention to the Yunnan district community, this collection of contributions skilfully presents a wealth of information on Hui Muslims and introduces readers to the issues of Hui ethnic diversity in China. Reviewing the many aspects of the religious, educational and cultural life of Hui Muslims in China, the authors provide an ethnography in which becomes clear how traditional institutions and everyday life are adapted to local customs with respect to the Islamic identity. At the same time, the relationship between the China Republic and the Hui, an official minority of China, is discussed thoroughly. Contributors: Lesley R. Turnbull (New York University), Liang Zhang (Yunnan University), Ross Holder (Trinity College Dublin), Aaron Glasserman (Columbia University), Frauke Drewes (University of Münster), Chuang Ma (Yunnan Open University), Yu Feng (Yunnan University), Suchart Setthamalinee (Puyap University)
Representing a lifetime of research and writing by noted historian Arif Dirlik, the essays collected here explore developments in Chinese socialism and the issues that have occupied historians of the Chinese revolution for the past three decades. Dirlik engages Chinese socialism critically but with sympathy for the aspirations of revolutionaries who found the hope of social, political, and cultural liberation in Communist alternatives to capitalism and the intellectual inspiration to realize their hopes in Marxist theory. The book's historical approach to Marxist theory emphasizes its global relevance while avoiding dogmatic and Eurocentric limitations. These incisive essays range from the origins of socialism in the early twentieth century, through the victory of the Communists in mid-century, to the virtual abandonment by century's end of any pretense to a socialist revolutionary project by the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. All that remains of the revolution in historical hindsight are memories of its failures and misdeeds, but Dirlik retains a critical perspective not just toward the past but also toward the ideological hegemonies of the present. Taken together, his writings reaffirm the centrality of the revolution to modern Chinese history. They also illuminate the fundamental importance of Marxism to grasping the flaws of capitalist modernity, despite the fact that in the end the socialist response was unable to transcend the social and ideological horizons of capitalism.
Majorities are made, not born. This book argues that there are no pure majorities in the Asia-Pacific region, broadly defined, nor in the West, and challenges the thesis that civilizations are composed of more or less homogeneous cultures. The 14 contributors argue that emphasis on minority/majority rights is based on uncritically accepted views of purity, numerical superiority, and social consensus.
