Month: September 2019

A Birthday Letter to the PRC

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Source: China File (9/28/19)
A Birthday Letter to the People’s Republic of China
By Yangyang Cheng

(China Photos/Getty Images) A student draws the Chinese national flag on a chalkboard during an activity to mark National Day, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, September 30, 2007.

Dear People’s Republic,

Or should I call you, China?

I am writing to you on the eve of your 70th birthday. 70, what an age. “For a man to live to 70 has been rare since ancient times,” the poet Du Fu wrote in the eighth century. You have outlived many kings and countless men, and you have lasted longer than every other state that has espoused the hammer and sickle. Congratulations must be in order.

I was born a few weeks after you turned 40. We are both October babies, a fact I was so proud of as a child, your child. During a class in elementary school, the teacher showed us a recording of the day of your birth The audio, raspy with time, still echoes in me as I write, its black-and-white imagery etched in my memory.

“The People’s Central Government of the People’s Republic of China is founded today!” Chairman Mao declared atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace, overlooking a sea of red flags and exuberant faces. His portrait hung at the center of the gate, where it remains, next to these words: “Long Live the People’s Republic of China.” Continue reading A Birthday Letter to the PRC →

China’s New Red Guards review

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Source: SCMP (9/25/19)
China’s New Red Guards: rise of the neo-Maoists examined in briskly written book
Author Jude D. Blanchette explores the stresses within China’s Communist Party. ‘It may present itself as a united and monolithic organisation but is in fact a sackful of sects struggling for control of the narrative’
By Peter Neville-Hadley

In China’s New Red Guards, author Jude D. Blanchette explores how the country continues to be shaped by Mao Zedong’s legacy.

In China’s New Red Guards, author Jude D. Blanchette explores how the country continues to be shaped by Mao Zedong’s legacy.

“The mortuary of global politics is piled high with the corpses of socialist countries,” said PLA Air Force Senior Colonel Dai Xu in a 2014 pep talk to a military audience in northeast China.

A hero to the neo-Maoists, whose rise is described in Jude D. Blanchette’s China’s New Red Guards – The Return of Radicalism and the Rebirth of Mao Zedong, Dai saw shadowy forces everywhere conspiring to add Chinese socialism to the list of casualties, whether by encouraging “peaceful evolution” or taking to the streets in the then ongoing Occupy Central protests.

A China specialist at United States risk-advisory firm Crumpton Group, Blanchette has had face-to-face meetings with many of his subjects – neo-Maoists and opposing economic reformers, grass-roots activists and high-profile figures alike. Continue reading China’s New Red Guards review →

Communication, Media, and Governance 2012–cfp

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Call for Third Biennial Conference on Communication, Media, and Governance in the Age of Globalization

The National Communication Association (NCA) announces the Third Biennial Conference on Communication, Media, and Governance in the Age of Globalization, to be held on the Beijing campus of the Communication University of China (CUC), June 19-21, 2020. The conference seeks to foster greater understanding between and collaboration among Chinese scholars of Communication and a wide range of international colleagues affiliated with NCA.

For this event, we will be using the United Nation’s “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs). Approved in 2000, and signed by all 191 UN members, the MDGs serve as benchmarks in human development, quality of life, and global partnership. The eight MDGs are:

  • To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
  • To achieve universal primary education;
  • To promote gender equality and empower women;
  • To reduce child mortality;
  • To improve maternal health;
  • To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
  • To ensure environmental sustainability; and
  • To develop global partnerships for development.

Continue reading Communication, Media, and Governance 2012–cfp →

Bowdoin lecturer position

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Chinese Language Lecturer (Bowdoin College)

The Asian Studies Program at Bowdoin College invites applicants for the position of Lecturer in Chinese Language, to begin in July 2020. The initial appointment will be three years, contingent on successful review after the first year, with the possibility of additional renewal upon subsequent reviews. We seek candidates with native or near-native fluency in Chinese and English; at least an MA in Linguistics, Foreign Language Pedagogy, Second Language Acquisition, or related field; and substantial teaching experience at the college level in the United States. The successful candidate will teach a 3/2 annual course load at all levels of the language curriculum, as well as contribute to the Chinese Language Program by participating in Chinese language table, student advising, and other co-curricular activities. Bowdoin provides conference travel support as well as competitive internal funding for research and other professional development. Continue reading Bowdoin lecturer position →

The Transcultural Streams of Chinese Canadian Idenitities

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New Publication

Jessica Tsui-yan Li, editor The Transcultural Streams of Chinese Canadian Identities. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019.

https://www.mqup.ca/transcultural-streams-of-chinese-canadian-identities–the-products-9780773556850.php

Investigating the conditions that shape Chinese Canadian identities from various historical, social, and literary perspectives. Highlighting the geopolitical and economic circumstances that have prompted migration from Hong Kong and mainland China to Canada, The Transcultural Streams of Chinese Canadian Identities examines the Chinese Canadian community as a simultaneously transcultural, transnational, and domestic social and cultural formation. Continue reading The Transcultural Streams of Chinese Canadian Idenitities →

The Future of Independent Documentary in China

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Source: dGenerate Films (Sept. 2019)
Navigating “The Future of Independent Documentary in China” in 2019
by Maya E. Rudolph

“The Future of Independent Documentary in China” was the focus of a recent panel at the University of Southern California, where as part of the Visible Evidence documentary conference, Luke Robinson of the University of Sussex led a discussion amongst Chinese cinema scholars and filmmakers including independent filmmaker Zhu Rikun, Jenny Chio of USC, Michael Berry of UCLA, and Sabrina Qiong Yu of the University of Newcastle.

These scholars and filmmakers, all based outside of China, positioned the panel as an opportunity to look back at the devastation of documentary communities in recent years, examine the current landscape for independent documentary, and engage in a community-oriented dialogue making sense of the questions that have always stalked China’s documentary makers – do the challenges facing Chinese documentary communities represent a death knell or the opportunity for a transformation? Where do we go from here? Continue reading The Future of Independent Documentary in China →

Novel collection to commemorate 70th anniversary of PRC

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Source: Xinhua (9/24/19)
China releases novel collection to commemorate 70th anniversary of PRC founding

BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) — China has recently published a collection of 70 novels to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The selected novels, unveiled Monday in Beijing, are outstanding literary works that reflect the changes in China and the lives of Chinese people in the last 70 years, depicting the progressive spirit of the people in promoting the country’s development.

The novels vary greatly in terms of style, genre and theme, consisting of historical novels, biographical novels and works of science fiction. Continue reading Novel collection to commemorate 70th anniversary of PRC →

‘What about China?’ is a bad response to the climate crisis

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Source: The New Republic (9/20/19)
“What About China?” Is a Bad Response to the Climate Crisis
Unlike Washington, Beijing has at least gestured at a national plan to fight global warming.
By DANIEL K. GARDNER

Beijing smog in 2015 (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Whenever the subject of climate policy comes up in the United States, someone in the room, sooner or later, is sure to point out that China today emits more carbon dioxide than the U.S. What is China doing to tackle the climate crisis, they ask.

Together, China and the U.S. are responsible for a walloping 43 percent of the world’s total annual carbon emissions. If the world is to keep the planet from warming more than two degrees over pre-industrial levels, neither country can stay on the sidelines. But there’s a profound difference, so far, in how the two countries have approached the issue. In the U.S., public concern has driven government engagement with the climate. Prodded by an increasingly agitated and vocal public, Democratic politicians, including 2020 presidential hopefuls, are increasingly discussing a potential Green New Deal, and other plans to deal with the crisis. But what will come of any of this is anybody’s guess, and any meaningful, concerted action by Washington will likely have to wait until the current president leaves office. While individual climate-aware states and cities are helping to compensate, the national government remains in a holding pattern. Continue reading ‘What about China?’ is a bad response to the climate crisis →

China wants the world to stay silent on camps

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Source: NYT (9/25/19)
China Wants the World to Stay Silent on Muslim Camps. It’s Succeeding
By Jane Perlez

Near the banks of a river in Hotan, China, the low building in the background, shown last month, has housed a re-education camp. It was unclear if the camp, in the Xinjiang region, was still operating. Credit: Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times

BEIJING — When Turkey’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visited Beijing this summer, he hailed a new Silk Road bridging Asia and Europe. He welcomed big Chinese investments for his beleaguered economy. He gushed about China’s sovereignty.

But Mr. Erdogan, who has stridently promoted Islamic values in his overwhelmingly Muslim country, was largely silent on the incarceration of more than one million Turkic Muslims in China’s western region of Xinjiang, and the forced assimilation of millions more. It was an about-face from a decade ago, when he said the Uighurs there suffered from, “simply put, genocide” at the hands of the Chinese government. Continue reading China wants the world to stay silent on camps →

Management of Lunatics in Colonial HK

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Lecture: Sound Minds at the Port?-The Management of Lunatics in Colonial Hong Kong
Speaker: Assistant Prof Harry Yi-Jui Wu (Hong Kong University, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine)

Photo credit: “A Hong Kong chair” – J.C./ Wellcome Collection

ALL ARE WELCOME
DATE: Wednesday 16 Oct 2019
TIME: 18:00 until 20:00
ROOM: Room 152
309 Regent Street, University of Westminster, London, UK. W1B 2HW

This presentation traces the development of early psychiatric services in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century Hong Kong and explores the meaning of managing lunatics at the colonial port. In 1854, the British colonial government launched an ordinance to invest Consuls in the Ports in China to protect the Persons and Property from being damaged by people of unsound minds. During the second half of the 19th Century, managing “lunatics” or “the insane” became gradually important for Hong Kong to maintain its function as the doorway between the two empires. In most of the medical history accounts, scholars have largely emphasized the agenda of racial segregation and racial psychiatric theories derived from that place. However, in the case of Hong Kong, instead of developing racial sciences, lacking rigorous research, one could observe more about how governmental and medical officers endeavoured to uphold the regular operation of the prospering trade port in the cross-cultural context. From the deportation of Chinese, establishment of the Temporary Lunatic Asylum, founding of Victoria Hospitals, negotiation with Tung Wah Hospital to the collaboration with John Kerr’s Refuge in Canton, this presentation attempts to shift the focus on the development of racial psychiatry in a broad sense to the practicality of a wide range of administrations for European and Chinese lunatics. On the one hand, it aims to re-examine the existing historiography of colonial medicine. On the other hand, it attempts to echo recent calls to see Hong Kong as a fluid concept and the use of Hong Kong as a process rather than a static entity. Continue reading Management of Lunatics in Colonial HK →

U of Texas, Austin position

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Description

The Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin invites applications for a faculty position in Asian Humanities at either the assistant (tenure-track) or associate (tenured) level with a regional specialization in either China or Japan, to begin August 2020. We seek applicants with research interests in literature, intellectual history, visual culture, or other fields in the humanities, focusing on premodern, modern, or contemporary periods. The successful candidate will be expected to engage in scholarly research, to teach two courses per semester, to supervise students at the undergraduate, M.A., and Ph.D. levels, and to contribute to the intellectual life and service needs of the department and the university. Continue reading U of Texas, Austin position →

The sexist music of Yan Lifei

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Source: Sup China (9/23/19)
The Sexist Music Of Yan Lifei
THE EDITORS

On the right, Yan Lifei; on the left, Chinese propaganda from the 1950s, when gender equality was championed with Chairman Mao’s famous saying, “Women hold up half the sky.”

“Mommy, don’t go to work. Cuz even if you go, you won’t make much money.” These are not phrases pulled from a Jordan Peterson speech, but the music that millions of Chinese children are listening to these days.

The controversial tune “Mom, Don’t Go to Work” was written by Yán Lìfēi 闫立飞, and was brought to public attention in China earlier this month when it was performed in a singing competition on state broadcaster CCTV. On the show, a little girl, who was one of the contestants in that week’s episode, sung part of the song, which contained a string of problematic lyrics such as:

  • “Mommy, don’t go to work anymore. Otherwise, I have no one to play with.”
  • “Mommy, even if you go to work, you won’t make much money.”
  • “Mommy, look at me. What a poor child I am.”

Continue reading The sexist music of Yan Lifei →

Why Taiwan is unfinished business for Xi Jinping

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Source: Financial Times
China: Why Taiwan is unfinished business for Xi Jinping
As Beijing gears up for the 70th anniversary of Communist party rule, its greatest unresolved legacy has resurfaced
By Lucy Hornby in Beijing

Mao Tse-tung, leader of the Chinese Communist party on April 20, 1949 . (AP Photo)

Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist party of China on April 20, 1949, just months before it took control of the country © AP

In 1937, during the Chinese civil war, a communist agitator was captured by nationalist troops in southern Shanxi Province. Her father, an administrator working for a local warlord, negotiated her release after a few days of detention.

The fervent young communist was Qi Yun, whose nephew Xi Jinping is now the leader of China. The administrator was Mr Xi’s maternal grandfather Qi Houzhi, a man who fought on the opposite side of the civil war from Mr Xi’s more famous father, communist veteran Xi Zhongxun.

The complicated politics of Mr Xi’s family during the Chinese civil war of the 1930s and 1940s are especially relevant this year, as their heir celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Communist party rule over mainland China, while navigating a messy challenge to its authority. Continue reading Why Taiwan is unfinished business for Xi Jinping →

IUP

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Dear China Studies Colleagues,

I am Andrew Andreasen, Resident Director of the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (IUP) at Tsinghua University in Beijing (清华大学 IUP 中文中心). I am writing to announce the call for applications to our Spring semester program. Although most of you are aware of the IUP Program, I would like to provide a few words of introduction.

The Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies (IUP), located in Beijing on the Tsinghua University campus, is specifically designed to deliver advanced Chinese language competency through highly intensive and specialized language skills training. We have the lowest student instructor ratio of all Chinese study programs.

Leading the way for more than 55 years, IUP has always been the preferred choice of scholars and professionals seeking high level Chinese language training, including more and more scholars each year applying for from the Blakemore-Freeman, Schwarzman, Yale Light and Yenching Academy programs. IUP is the only program that is supported by a consortium of 11 elite North American universities with leading China studies programs. Continue reading IUP →

York University position

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Full Time Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream)
Discipline/Field: Chinese Language, Literature and Culture
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University
Affiliation/Union: YUFA
Position Start Date: July 1, 2020

The Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, York University invites applications for a teaching stream tenure track position in Chinese Language, Literature and Culture at the rank of Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream to commence July 1, 2020. The successful candidate will be expected to teach undergraduate courses and to provide creative educational leadership in enhancing teaching and learning through curricular and pedagogical innovation in the classroom and at the level of programs. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. All York University positions are subject to budgetary approval. Continue reading York University position →