New China-Related Content: Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review (June 2017 open-access online issue)

Article:

The Local in the Imperial Vision: Landscape, Topography, and Geography in Southern Song Map Guides and Gazetteers
Fan Lin (Leiden University)

Book Reviews:

Such Stuff as Qing Borderlands are Made On
David A. Bello, Washington and Lee University

Kwangmin Kim. Borderland Capitalism: Turkestan Produce, Qing Silver, and the Birth of an Eastern Market. Stanford, 2016.
Jonathan Schlesinger. A World Trimmed with Fur: Wild Things, Pristine Places, and the Natural Fringes of Qing Rule. Stanford, 2017. Continue reading Cross-Currents no. 23 →

Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, no. 95 [Special Issue]

The latest issue of Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Vol. 95 is now available online at: http://www.mh.sinica.edu.tw/bulletins.aspx

Contents
Special Issue on Urban Guidebooks and Representations of Space

[Articles]

Spatial Features of Temple Destruction Campaigns in Modern Chinese Cities
By Paul R. Katz

The City and the Seaside: Constructing Leisure Culture and Space at Beidaihe, 1890s-1930s
By Poon Shuk-wah

City Guidebooks and the Spatial Transformation of Modern Qingdao
By Ma Shuhua‧Zhao Chengguo Continue reading Bulletin of Institute of Modern History 95 →

Dear Colleagues

I am glad to announce the publication of the latest issue of Made in China, the open access quarterly on Chinese labour and civil society supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World, the Australian National University. You can download the pdf for free and subscribe at this link: http://www.chinoiresie.info/made-in-china-quarterly/. Below you can find the editorial of the new issue:

The Good Earth

In June, the government of the United States announced its intention to withdraw from the Paris Accords, severely undermining the global effort to contain climate change. Since then, China has entered the fray, attempting to portray itself as a world leader on environmental issues. Considering that China is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, this development might appear paradoxical. Nevertheless, in recent years the Chinese authorities have become increasingly concerned with the toll that environmental catastrophes are taking on the health of the country’s citizens, as this has the potential to spark unrest that could negatively affect governmental legitimacy. The ‘airpocalypses’ that have hit major Chinese cities and the ‘cancer villages’, where disease has spread due to soil and water pollution caused by industries, are just two instances of major environmental scandals that have made the headlines in China over the years. It is in light of this crisis—and also in an attempt to capitalise on environmental protection economically—that the Chinese leadership has been pushing forward ambitious plans for ‘environmental rejuvenation’, which include new policies and massive investments in renewable energies. Continue reading Made in China 2.2 →

My new publication on the Stalinist show trial, including as revived and adapted for our times, in China:

The Return of the Show Trial: China’s Televised “Confessions,” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Volume 15, Issue 13, Number 1. (June 25, 2017). Now online at: http://apjjf.org/2017/13/Fiskesjo.html

–ps. Today I also published an article in a Swedish paper, sparring with a Swedish government minister who is right now in China, to seal export deals. The Prime Minister who leads that delegation has said, yesterday, that he has “brought up” the case of our kidnapped citizen Gui Minhai, the Hong Kong-based publisher and bookstore owner, who has been held without trial since he was abducted from Thailand(!) in October 2015.

My article is in Swedish: “Kan Sverige låtsas ha relationer med Kina som om inget hänt?” Magnus Fiskesjö. Sydsvenska Dagbladet Snällposten, Aktuella frågor. 27 juni 2017 04:00am. https://www.sydsvenskan.se/2017-06-27/kan-sverige-latsas-ha-relationer-med-kina-som-om-inget-hant

–Our hopes are that the Swedish delegation now in China can bring home our citizen on their plane, which takes off tomorrow.

–Sincerely,
Magnus Fiskesjö

Hello–may I mention my newest publication:
“The Legacy of the Chinese Empires: Beyond ‘the West and the Rest.'” By Magnus Fiskesjö. Education About Asia 22.1 (Spring 2017), pp. 6-10.

In a special issue on “Contemporary Postcolonial Asia,” now available & downloadable at: http://www.asian-studies.org/Publications/EAA/About

This article starts with the observation that imperialism and colonialism aren’t exclusively “Western” phenomena. To think so is to miss the long view of history, and this not only impedes our understanding of empires and colonialisms generally, but it also undermines our ability to understand China, itself historically a colonialist empire built on conquest. The article briefly explains major aspects of Chinese imperialism and colonialism, and why this history and legacy today is so often obscured, and denied — even though the legacy of the Chinese empires continues to weigh so heavily on China today.

Sincerely, Magnus Fiskesjö <nf42@cornell.edu>

NEW PUBLICATION
Opening to China: A Memoir of Normalization, 1981–1982
by Charlotte Furth

“Charlotte Furth’s memoir provides a window into a China that few of us can remember or even believe possible: a country that was not the economic and political powerhouse of today, but a hesitant, slightly paranoid society emerging from decades of being closed-off to the outside world. As one of the rare witnesses to this crucial transition, Professor Furth takes us into the life of China’s most important university, showing the struggle to accept her group of visiting scholars–a microcosm for the debate in China at the time over whether the country really should open up. Written honestly and candidly, this memoir will be of interest to scholars of US-China engagement but also to general readers eager to see how much China has changed over the past decades.” —Ian Johnson, Beijing correspondent for The New York Times, and author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao Continue reading Furth memoir →