China's Brave New World

China's Brave New World
Author: Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2007-05-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0253027764

The author of Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink delivers “a must-read for anyone interested in the world’s most rapidly changing society” (James L. Watson, editor of Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia). If Chairman Mao came back to life today, what would he think of Nanjing’s bookstore, the Librairie Avant-Garde, where it is easier to find primers on Michel Foucault’s philosophy than copies of the Little Red Book? What does it really mean to order a latte at Starbucks in Beijing? Is it possible that Aldous Huxley wrote a novel even more useful than Orwell’s 1984 for making sense of post-Tiananmen China—or post-9/11 America? In these often playful, always enlightening “tales,” Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom poses these and other questions as he journeys from 19th-century China into the future, and from Shanghai to Chicago, St. Louis, and Budapest. He argues that simplistic views of China and Americanization found in most soundbite-driven media reports serve us poorly as we try to understand China’s place in the current world order—or our own. “Rather effortlessly brilliant . . . It penetrates with a lightly knowing eye and ear into the interior mind, heart and soul of giant China and the innumerable Chinese.”—AsiaMedia “This book provides a powerful lens for outsiders to understand a globalizing China and a unique mirror for the Chinese to reflect on their own society in a global context.”—Yunxiang Yan, author of Private Life Under Socialism “Readers will find themselves far more observant and attentive to local distinctions when they take their first or next trip to China.”—Stanley Rosen, The China Journal No. 60

The Fat Years

The Fat Years
Author: Chan Koonchung
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2012-01-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385534353

Banned in China, this controversial and politically charged novel tells the story of the search for an entire month erased from official Chinese history. Beijing, sometime in the near future: a month has gone missing from official records. No one has any memory of it, and no one could care less—except for a small circle of friends, who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the sinister cheerfulness and amnesia that have possessed the Chinese nation. When they kidnap a high-ranking official and force him to reveal all, what they learn—not only about their leaders, but also about their own people—stuns them to the core. It is a message that will astound the world. A kind of Brave New World reflecting the China of our times, The Fat Years is a complex novel of ideas that reveals all too chillingly the machinations of the postmodern totalitarian state, and sets in sharp relief the importance of remembering the past to protect the future.

The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations in the New Millennium

The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations in the New Millennium
Author: Margaret Myers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2016-08-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317214072

In this book, China-Latin America relations experts Margaret Myers and Carol Wise examine the political and economic forces that have underpinned Chinese engagement in the region, as well as the ways in which these forces have shaped economic sectors and policy-making in Latin America. The contributors begin with a review of developments in cross-Pacific statecraft, including the role of private, state-level, sub-national, and extra-regional actors that have influenced China-Latin America engagement in recent years. Part two of the book examines the variety of Latin American development trajectories borne of China’s growing global presence. Contributors analyse the effects of Chinese engagement on specific economic sectors, clusters (the LAC emerging economies), and sub-regions (Central America, the Southern Cone of South America, and the Andean region). Individual case studies draw out these themes. This volume is a welcome addition to the growing body of literature on China-Latin America relations. It illuminates the complex interplay between economics and politics that has characterized China’s relations with the region as a second decade of enhanced economic engagement draws to a close. This volume is an indispensable read for students, scholars and policy makers wishing to gain new insights into the political economy of China-Latin America relations.

China in the 21st Century

China in the 21st Century
Author: Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2013-05-31
Genre:
ISBN: 0199974993

The need to understand this global giant has never been more pressing: China is constantly in the news, yet conflicting impressions abound. Within one generation, China has transformed from an impoverished, repressive state into an economic and political powerhouse. In the fully revised and updated second edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, China expert Jeffrey Wasserstrom provides cogent answers to the most urgent questions regarding the newest superpower, and offers a framework for understanding its meteoric rise. Focusing his answers through the historical legacies--Western and Japanese imperialism, the Mao era, and the massacre near Tiananmen Square--that largely define China's present-day trajectory, Wasserstrom introduces readers to the Chinese Communist Party, the building boom in Shanghai, and the environmental fall-out of rapid Chinese industrialization. He also explains unique aspects of Chinese culture such as the one-child policy, and provides insight into how Chinese view Americans. Wasserstrom reveals that China today shares many traits with other industrialized nations during their periods of development, in particular the United States during its rapid industrialization in the 19th century. He provides guidance on the ways we can expect China to act in the future vis-à-vis the United States, Russia, India, and its East Asian neighbors. The second edition has also been updated to take into account changes China has seen in just the past two years, from the global economic shifts to the recent removal of Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai from power. Concise and insightful, China in the 21st Century provides an excellent introduction to this significant global power.

China Versus the West

China Versus the West
Author: Ivan Tselichtchev
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2011-12-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470829753

China Versus the West is an innovative book. The author, a leading specialist on the international and Asian economy and business, presents the most comprehensive picture of the changing power balance between the emerging superpower China and the "old" developed economies of the West: mainly the US, Europe and Japan. The reader can clearly see in what areas and to what extent China has become the world leader, in what areas it is catching up and in what areas the West retains its superiority and has a chance to strengthen it further. At the same time, I. Tselichtchev unveils a breath-taking story of the global economy and business in the brave new world which is non-"West-led" and where major growth dynamics are coming from large emerging economies. A radically changing economic environment requires new government policies and business strategies. The book contains many valuable suggestions and ideas. Using his own analytical framework, the author presents a set of options and alternatives for Western businesses in the wake of China's production and export offensive. The book provides a uniquely sharp and thought-provoking analysis of the factors behind the global crisis of 2008-2009, largely different from what we see in other publications, and examines its implications for the global power balance. I. Tselichtchev vividly shows that it was not global, but Western crisis of a structural character which drastically changed the China-West power balance in the former's favor. He provides strong arguments showing that today's China is structurally and macro-economically stronger than most countries of the West. This leads him to rethinking the very essence of the Chinese model of capitalism and to its new definition. He expresses unconventional, sometimes controversial, but well-founded views about China's problems and weaknesses and the prospects for its political evolution. The book ends with invaluable insights into China's unique role in the world economic history, the essence of the non-"West-led" multipolar world and the positions of its major players. Arguing that from now on no single country will be ever able to "rule the world", it shows new opportunities dynamic China is opening for the West. Thoroughly analyzing and discussing a wide range of the key, often complicated issues which are now in the focus of the world's attention, the book remains very reader-friendly. It is written in the form of an unconstrained dialogue with the reader, containing a lot of the author's on-the-spot impressions, interesting facts, remarks and quotations. China Versus the West is a must reading for everyone who wants to know more about the global developments, China and the West, and also, perhaps, to get valuable inputs and hints to find his or her own place in today's new world. It is highly recommended for policy-makers, business people, academics, analysts and journalists. It is a valuable source for professors and students of the universities and business schools.

Young China

Young China
Author: Zak Dychtwald
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2018-02-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1250078814

The author, who is in his twenties and fluent in Chinese, intimately examines the future of China through the lens of the Jiu Ling Hou—the generation born after 1990—exploring through personal encounters how his Chinese peers feel about everything from money and marriage to their government and the West

Chinese Characters

Chinese Characters
Author: Angilee Shah
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2012-09-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520270274

Poignant, humorous and confusing stories of utterly ordinary people living through China's extraordinary transformations. The collection of essays creates a multifaceted portrait of a country in motion, and is an introduction to some of the best writing on China today.

China's New Confucianism

China's New Confucianism
Author: Daniel A. Bell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2010-04-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400834821

What is it like to be a Westerner teaching political philosophy in an officially Marxist state? Why do Chinese sex workers sing karaoke with their customers? And why do some Communist Party cadres get promoted if they care for their elderly parents? In this entertaining and illuminating book, one of the few Westerners to teach at a Chinese university draws on his personal experiences to paint an unexpected portrait of a society undergoing faster and more sweeping changes than anywhere else on earth. With a storyteller's eye for detail, Daniel Bell observes the rituals, routines, and tensions of daily life in China. China's New Confucianism makes the case that as the nation retreats from communism, it is embracing a new Confucianism that offers a compelling alternative to Western liberalism. Bell provides an insider's account of Chinese culture and, along the way, debunks a variety of stereotypes. He presents the startling argument that Confucian social hierarchy can actually contribute to economic equality in China. He covers such diverse social topics as sex, sports, and the treatment of domestic workers. He considers the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, wondering whether Chinese overcompetitiveness might be tempered by Confucian civility. And he looks at education in China, showing the ways Confucianism impacts his role as a political theorist and teacher. By examining the challenges that arise as China adapts ancient values to contemporary society, China's New Confucianism enriches the dialogue of possibilities available to this rapidly evolving nation. In a new preface, Bell discusses the challenges of promoting Confucianism in China and the West.