Longmen's Stone Buddhas and Cultural Heritage

Longmen's Stone Buddhas and Cultural Heritage
Author: Dong Wang
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2020-06-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1538141124

This thoroughly researched book provides the first comprehensive history of how a UNESCO World Heritage site on the Central China Plain, Longmen’s caves and the Buddhist statuary of Luoyang, was rediscovered in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawing on original research and archival sources in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, and Swedish, as well as extensive fieldwork, Dong Wang traces the ties between cultural heritage and modernity, detailing how this historical monument has been understood from antiquity to the present. She highlights the manifold traffic and expanded contact between China and other countries as these nations were reorienting themselves in order to adapt their own cultural traditions to newly industrialized and industrializing societies. Unknown to much of the world, Longmen and its mesmerizing modern history takes readers to the heartland of China, known as “Chinese Babylon” a century ago. With remarkable depth and breadth, this book unravels both a bygone and a continuing human pursuit of artefacts—shared, spiritual, modern, and above all beautiful that have linked so many lives, Chinese and foreign.

The Sinicization of Chinese Religions: From Above and Below

The Sinicization of Chinese Religions: From Above and Below
Author: Richard Madsen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2021-07-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004465189

“Sinicization” has become the slogan that guides Chinese official policy towards religion. What does it mean? Where will it lead? This book is one of the first in English that answers these questions.

Plunder?

Plunder?
Author: Justin M. Jacobs
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2024-09-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 178914986X

A provocative reassessment of a popular narrative that connects museums, the antiquities trade, and theft. In this thought-provoking new work, historian Justin M. Jacobs challenges the widely accepted belief that much of Western museums’ treasures were acquired by imperialist plunder and theft. The account reexamines the allegedly immoral provenance of Western collections, advocating for a nuanced understanding of how artifacts reached Western shores. Jacobs examines the perspectives of Chinese, Egyptian, and other participants in the global antiquities trade over the past two and a half centuries, revealing that Western collectors were often willingly embraced by locals. This collaborative dynamic, largely ignored by contemporary museum critics, unfolds a narrative of hope and promise for a brighter, more equitable future—a compelling reassessment of one of the institutional pillars of the Enlightenment.

The United States and China

The United States and China
Author: Dong Wang
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2021-07-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1538149397

Now fully revised and updated, The United States and China offers a comprehensive synthesis of US-Chinese relations from initial contact to the present. Balancing the modern (1784–1949) and contemporary (1949–present) periods, Dong Wang retraces centuries of interaction between two of the world’s great powers from the perspective of both sides. She examines state-to-state diplomacy, as well as economic, social, military, religious, and cultural interplay within varying national and international contexts. As China itself continues to grow in global importance, so too does the US-Chinese relationship, and this book provides an essential grounding for understanding its past, present, and possible futures.

Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era

Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era
Author: Paul R. Katz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2021-08-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429591829

Suitable for use in courses on ethnic studies or gender studies Rethinks interaction between Han Chinese and non-Han cultures Considers how religion has adapted to the challenges of modern Chinese history Describes rituals and ritual specialists largely unknown to Western readers Combines historical and ethnographic methodologies

The Routledge Handbook of US Foreign Policy in the Indo-Pacific

The Routledge Handbook of US Foreign Policy in the Indo-Pacific
Author: Oliver Turner
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 620
Release: 2022-12-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000805131

This handbook provides a comprehensive survey of US foreign policy throughout the Indo-Pacific. Home to around 60 percent of the world’s population; most of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies; around half of the world’s states with full nuclear capabilities; and a complicated web of unresolved tensions, disputes, and conflicts, the Indo-Pacific is arguably the most diverse, dynamic, and contested region on Earth. US strategy there has evolved over centuries, with its physical presence going broadly unchallenged since at least the middle of the last century. However, the rapid development and expanding influence of China – alongside the growth of India, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and others – as well as political and economic crises and disruptions within the United States itself, mean that in recent times the US has come to occupy a newly uncertain position and perceive a range of highly unfamiliar challenges. To explore how the US has managed, and continues to manage, its regional history, and how it approaches the modern-day landscape of an Indo-Pacific only recently normalised within international political discourse, the book contains 33 newly commissioned chapters from leading experts in the field. It does so partly with help from the more traditional realms of International Relations theory as well as more critical realms. It also unpacks US policy and strategy as it pertains to regional governments, states, and multilateral institutions, as well as to pressing issues including inter-state security, human rights, trade, artificial intelligence, and cyber strategy. It does so in four parts: History of the US in the Indo-Pacific Theorising US Policy and Presence in the Indo-Pacific The US and Indo-Pacific States and Institutions The US and Indo-Pacific Issues The book is designed to be of interest to students and scholars of the US in the Indo-/Asia Pacific; the international relations of the Indo-/Asia Pacific; and US foreign policy.

China in Revolution

China in Revolution
Author: Joseph W. Esherick
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2022-08-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1538162784

This book includes eleven seminal essays by one of America’s leading authorities on modern Chinese history with an illuminating preface by Prof. Elizabeth Perry of Harvard University. it covers a range of topics from the impact of imperialism to the 1989 protests that led to the Tiananmen massacre. Chapters include an explanation of how China expanded its borders far beyond the Han Chinese heartland and maintained those borders in the transition from empire to nation; how Sun Yat-sen unexpectedly emerged as the Father of the Country; and how a series of unexpected and contingent events brought the empire down in 1911. Despite conventional representations of a static and unified China, this book proves Chinese society to be diverse and constantly changing—especially after the Communist revolution which was a transformative event in modern Chinese history. Esherick denounces traditional imagery of cultural uniformity, which derives from excessive attention to the unitary state, through chapters that explore the impact of the 1937-45 War of Resistance against Japan, the dramatic wartime transformation of Chinese society in both Communist and Nationalist (Guomindang) areas, and the nature of the new Communist regime in Northwest China. In his book, Esherick examines both the Marxist-Leninist theory behind Mao’s notion of the “restoration of capitalism,” against which he waged the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and the political theater of the 1989 protest movement. Throughout the book the contingency of history, the need for careful empirical research, and the important yet limited role of history is highlighted as the key to understanding the present or predicting the future of China.

World Heritage Sites

World Heritage Sites
Author: Haiden Farrell
Publisher: Scientific e-Resources
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2018-11-11
Genre:
ISBN: 1839472790

A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area which is selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as having cultural, historical, scientific or other form of significance, and is legally protected by international treaties. The sites are judged important to the collective interests of humanity. The main objectives were to define the World Heritage in both cultural and natural aspects; to enlist Sites and Monuments from the member countries which are of exceptional interest and universal value, the protection of which is the concern of all mankind; and to promote co-operation among all Nations and people to contribute for the protection of these universal treasures intact for future generations. This beautiful book shows off these sites, providing a brief text, and photographs for each. It is a stunning indication of the longevity and durability, culture, and spirit.

Heroes in the Troubled Times

Heroes in the Troubled Times
Author: Xiefeng Guimei
Publisher: Funstory
Total Pages: 1853
Release: 2019-10-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 164677082X

There was a bright moon three feet above his head, and an azure dragon embroidered on his sleeves. Riding a horse with a sword, indulging in unbridled pleasures, roaming the Jianghu with his lover.