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This title offers a profound exploration of one of the world's oldest civilizations and its pivotal role in shaping global history and modern international relations. This volume, part of a series aimed at fostering mutual understanding among Allied nations during and after World War II, provides a comprehensive and realistic account of China's cultural evolution, societal institutions, and historical milestones. Drawing on contributions from distinguished scholars, the book delves into China's religious and secular thought systems, artistic achievements, economic progress, and political dynamics, offering insights that resonate with both its ancient heritage and its position in the 20th-century global order. Focusing on objective analysis over sentimentality, the book highlights China's resilience and adaptability amid internal and external challenges. It underscores the importance of understanding China's rich historical context to appreciate its contemporary developments. This volume not only serves as an invaluable resource for those seeking to deepen their knowledge of China but also embodies the spirit of international cooperation, aiming to enhance postwar collaboration and foster a more harmonious global community. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1946.

This penetrating study of China's social and cultural contacts with the West, first published in 1979, analyses the early images that China and the West had of one another, and the illusions and misconceptions that arose from these images. The book centres on the question, why did China fail to become modernised through contact with the West before the 1930s? The author examines the roles played by the agents of change – emigrants, missionaries, traders, scholars and diplomats – and the political, economic, social and cultural developments which the transmission of their ideas set in motion. The book also looks at the ways in which change was frustrated by the rulers of the country, the leaders of the imperial government and later the warlords, politicians and followers of Chiang Kai-shek. Through the author's analysis of the complex factors involved, based on extensive original research into private archive material from all over the world, and his study of the influence of centuries of Chinese cultural tradition, China's slow path to modernisation is explained and illuminated.

This 11-volume set gathers together some key older titles on China's history. Encompassing China's political, economic, and cultural development, the books gathered here also deal with contacts with the West both ancient and modern.

With its increasing wealth, a growing and better-educated urban population, and one of the world's largest trade surpluses, Taiwan has shed its identity as an impoverished, war-torn nation and joined the ranks of developed countries. Yet, despite the attention focused on the country's profound transformation, surprisingly little information exists

This ground-breaking book spans 60 years of modern Chinese history from the much neglected non-communist perspective. Concentrating on Wang Sheng's career in relation to Chiang Kai-Shek's extraordinary son Chiang Ching-Kuo, it shows that the KMT were perfecting the methods that were to make Taiwan an East Asian Tiger'economy at the very point that they lost'the mainland. The book also provides a fascinating insight into Taiwan's efforts to aid South Vietnam and Cambodia from 1960 as the Indochina war unfolded.

With particular emphasis on history, religion, literature and arts, this collection provides a multifaceted and representative picture of the classical civilizations of South-East Asia which will be of interest for comparative and cross-disciplinary studies in this field, as well as providing a number of historical and literary documents and translations of great scholarly value.

Though in recent months Putin's popularity has frayed at the edges, the dearth of comparably powerful and experienced political leaders leaves no doubt that he will continue to be a key political figure. During his tenure as Russia's President and subsequently as Prime Minister, Putin transcended politics, to become the country's major cultural icon. This book examines the nature of his iconic status. It explores his public persona as glamorous hero, endowed with vision, wisdom, moral and physical strength—the man uniquely capable of restoring Russia's reputation as a global power. In analysing cultural representations of Putin, the book assesses the role of the media in constructing and disseminating this image and weighs the Russian populace's contribution to the extraordinary acclamation he enjoyed throughout the first decade of the new millennium, challenged only by a tiny minority.

This book tells the story of Taiwan's economic revolution—how Taiwan transformed itself from a planned economy into a market economy between 1949 and 1965. The authors posit that it was the Kuomintang Government's endorsement of property rights reform and institutional change that enabled Taiwan to transform from an impoverished command economy to one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The book gives special attention to how a small group of political and economic leaders began adopting the new ideas and beliefs that created the vision that enabled them to embrace institutional and organizational innovations, actions which led to the formation of the new market economy. Using first-hand interview material with key government officials from the period, and analyses of hitherto unused Chinese-language archives including: the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek, Kuomintang party archives, and personal papers of Kuomintang leaders, as well as newspaper and journal articles published in Taiwan between 1949 and 1965, this book is both empirically rich, and gives the reader insights into Taiwan's developmental experience and the direction in which, under different circumstances, China's post-war expansion might have proceeded.Taiwan's Economic Transition will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the economic and political history and development of Taiwan. More broadly it will also appeal to scholars and students of China's historical and contemporary development, Asian economics, and Asian studies.

This groundbreaking book examines the treatment of veterans of the People's Liberation Army and military families as an illuminating window into Chinese patriotism, citizenship, and legitimacy. Using a wealth of recently declassified archival documents and employing a wide comparative perspective, Neil J. Diamant presents the first large-scale study of these groups in comparison to similar populations in other parts of Asia and in the West. He offers an unprecedented look at the'everyday interactions'among veterans, military families, state officials, and ordinary citizens as they attempted to secure urban residence, jobs, spouses, medical care, and respect. Often celebrated by the government for their glorious and patriotic service, veterans and military families were the beneficiaries of many policies, such as affirmative action in hiring and access to political power. But, the author asks, if veteran and military families were heroic, why did many of them compare their situation to'donkeys slaughtered after grinding the wheat'and'tossed-away dirty socks?'And what explains the thousands of suicides among veterans, rampant discrimination, and ongoing protests against the government? By comparing veterans in China to their counterparts in the United States, the Soviet Union, Israel, and elsewhere, this book provides important answers to the larger question of what circumstances lead to better or worse treatment of veterans, and what this treatment tells us about patriotism, legitimacy, and respect for military service.

The growing disconnect between China's market-oriented economy with its emerging civil society, and the brittle, anacronistic, and authoritarian state has given rise to intense discussion and debate about political reform, not only by Western observers, but also among Chinese intellectuals. While some expect China's political reform to lead to democratization, others have proposed to strengthen the institution of single-party rule and provide it with a solid legal base. This book brings the ongoing debate to life and explores the options for political reform. Offering the perspectives of both Western and Chinese scholars, it presents the controversial argument for building a consultive rule of law regime as an alternative to liberal democracy. It provides several critiques of this thesis, and then tests the thesis through empirical studies on the development of the rule of law in China.

Is the Kuomintang - the nationalist party of China - the villain it is sometimes portrayed to be? Or is it the embodiment of the political and moral good that partisans have claimed it to be? The party has managed a feat of economic modernization in Taiwan and has become a proponent of democracy, yet its reputation has been marred by brutal acts of repression and ineptitude. Focusing on the role of Kuomintang party elites in the democratization process in Taiwan, this book considers the Kuomintang's evolution from a Leninist state party to a fractious one in a competitive political system.

'China's Bitter Victory'is a comprehensive analysis of China's epochal war with Japan. Striving for a holistic understanding of China's wartime experience, the contributors examine developments in the Nationalist, communist, and Japanese-occupied areas of the country. More than just a history of battles and conferences, the book portrays the significant impact of the war on every dimension of Chinese life, including politics, the economy, culture, legal affairs, and science. For within the overriding struggle for national survival, the competition for political goals continued. China ultimately triumphed, but at a price of between 15 and 20 million lives and vast destruction of property and resources. And China's bitter victory brought new trials for the Chinese people in the form of civil war and revolution. This book tells the story of China during a crucial period pregnant with consequences not only for China but also for Asia and the world as well. Addressed to students, scholars, and general readers, the book aims to fill a gap in the existing literature on modern Chinese history and on World War II.