China/Intellectual/Post-Mao/Web Sites and Resources

First, kill all the Legalists

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 0 Comment

Sam at Useless Tree draws our attention to a really interesting website called 新法家(in English the New Legalist) I’m not quite sure who these people are, but the website is out of Beijing and quite impressive. Sam does not much care for them, seeing them as “nationalists who are appropriating ancient Legalist texts, together with some Taoist volumes, to fashion a neo-traditionalist legitimation for a contemporary Chinese assertion of power globally” That sounds about right to me.

Sam is much bothered by their attempts to tie together Legalism and Daoism, but to me it just sounds like Huang-Lao stuff, as there were lots of links between Legalism and Daoism right from the start. I am also not that surprised to find people looking back to the Legalists themselves, as this was a big item in the early 20th century as people began going through the Chinese tradition looking for the genealogy of a modern nation in the Chinese past. The New Legalists may seem weird, but they have a long way to go before they can match up with Kang Youwei.

Of course these people are looking into the past to find something different than the Chinese thinkers of a century ago. They are finding environmentalism and anti-globalization ideas, along with lots of occasions for nationalist chest-thumping. As Sam points out it is pretty bizarre to see Han Fei as a Green. Still they do seem to be drawing on a pretty wide range of classical thought. According to their mission statement

The Chinese people have built up a unique and comprehensive thought system covering medicine, economics and politics. This system aims at a dynamic balance between different parts of the human body, between different groupings of people within a society, and between human society and nature. All its subsystems follow the principle of “guiding changes towards balance” (from The Yellow Emperor’s Four Cannon ) economically, arranging production and consumption in accord with the change of seasons and with nature’s productive capabilities at the time; and politically, allocating limited resources among people according to their respective contributions to the society1

This actually does sound bit like a lot of the Warring States-Han stuff you would find in Mark Edward Lewis’s work. For me the most interesting part is the twisted Marx quote at the end. A lot of the site has an anti-capitalist feel, or at least a feel that China is best off if it does not totally adapt American culture. Part it seems to be vaguely Maoist egalitarianism and concern for the workers, “end capital’s hegemony in the name of liberty” and part of it an even more vague utopianism that owes something to Mao and also a lot various bits of traditional Chinese thought.

  1. 中国人还在这一伟大哲学的基础上建立起了独特的医学、政治、经济体系——她追求人体内部、社会与自然、社会内部各阶层之间 的动态平衡，她的医学、政治、经济都按“应化之道、平衡而止”（《黄帝四经·道法》）的原则构建——经济上，她按照自然时序与产出能力进行生产和消费；政 治上，她按一个人对社会贡献的大小对有限的资源进行配置  ↩

China/Post-Mao

Why is Obama winning?

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 2 Comments

There are few things I enjoy more than following American elections in the Chinese press. Zaobao (from Singapore) had something recently on Obama and why he is doing so well. Like many foreigners I think they were mystified by this unknown becoming known, but they put some thought into it. They rejected the Clinton camp’s suggestion that his success is entirely attributable to his 花言 (flowery words). After all, many prominent officials and movie stars are supporting him. I get the impression that they think American voters are sheep (which I might be inclined to agree with) but that they also think that American elites are significantly harder to fool (which I really doubt, but then I’m an American not a Confucian). They do point out that as a young man Obama can deal with the grind of the campaign trail, and that he has been successful in raising small amounts of money from lots of people. The one I found most interesting is that they claim that people are worried about American becoming a banana republic if we end up with a Clinton to follow a Bush who followed a Clinton who followed a Bush. I have heard Americans mention that, but I doubt many Democratic primary voters will switch to McCain on that basis. I guess from an Asian perspective that problem jumps out at you more. It’s a nice piece that explains things pretty well. As much as I find some of their thinking odd I wish the American press ran articles on foreign elections that were half as informative.

China/Gender/Post-Mao

Strawberry Cake

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 1 Comment

One of my students is doing an honors thesis on kissing. Specifically she is looking at a series of articles from Ling Long that explain what kissing is and why Shanghai women of the 1930’s should be doing more of it if they want to be modern women. One of the interesting things about Ling Long is that there are lots of pictures of scantily clad women (usually foreigners) in it. She suggests that the pictures (like the text of most of the issues) was intended to present modern, western ideas about sexuality and the role of women to Chinese people in a way that was both intimate and at the same time foreign enough to not be threatening. Thus foreign movie stars were great subjects.

It is an interesting thesis1 in part because it is interesting and in part because I think it offers an insight that helps us to understand some aspects the modern Chinese press. Even fairly serious Chinese papers tend to have a lot of cheesecake shots (almost always women. sorry) like this set of photos of Jessica Alba2 Part of it is just the idea that this will sell papers, but I find the text fascinating, as they seem to be dressing it up as something that will help us (Chinese readers) to understand the West. Here is the caption

中国日报网环球在线消息：Jessica Alba在出演电影《甜心辣舞》中，用热辣的舞姿，加上漂亮的脸蛋，赢取了“美国甜心”的称号。一组Jessica Alba的内衣泳装照，甜蜜诱人好似草莓蛋糕，解释了秀色可餐一词。

An overly literal translation might be: Jessica Alba in the film Honey? used her hot and spicy dancing and  and a beautiful face to win the title of “America’s Sweetheart”3 In this set of photos of Jessica Alba in her underwear and swimwear she is as sweet and tempting as a strawberry cake, looking both sexy and tasty?

Very weird, in part because it is always hard to really translate some types of language, but also because the ‘serious’ American press does not dress up its pictures of movie stars this way. But as long as it helps you to understand Americans I guess it is o.k.

  1. Which she explains much better than this ↩

  2. No, I have not done a comparative study of the frequency of scantily clad women in the Western and Chinese press ↩

  3. This is the hook for the ‘story’ and it seems quite wrong ↩

China/Classics/English/Historiography/War

Perennial Question: Martial Arts in Chinese Militaries?

Posted on by Jonathan Dresner / 7 Comments

I got a query from a reader which echoes a question I’ve gotten in class1 many times:

With China’s long history of martial arts, how prominent can it be said such arts were (if at all) in actual military affairs outside the realm of legends?

My immediate thought is that there’s almost no connection whatsoever: what little I have read of pre-modern Chinese military theory places most of the emphasis on strategy (e.g. Sunzi) and unit organization (e.g. Huang, 1597). In massed combat, individual fighting skills mostly take a backseat to numbers, tactics, technology and discipline. There are times when smaller numbers of skilled warriors can overcome a disadvantage of numbers — the Mongols come to mind — but their combat style isn’t really part of any conventional martial art tradition. Chinese culture being largely Confucian, there isn’t as much of a warrior literature, either2 in which individual soldiers might be valorized for bravery, strength and skill. There is some of that which comes out of the operatic/dramatic tradition, and Ming literature like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but it’s a late development with almost no connection to actual military practices.

In fact, about the only place I’ve run across a connection between martial arts and combat is in histories of the Boxer Uprising like Paul Cohen’s History in Three Keys, in which he actually argues that most of the “fighting style” of the Fists United in Righteousness, etc., was based on imitation of stage fighting. Anyone know of other examples, or major sources that I’ve missed?

  1. Actually, the question is usually much less carefully phrased, and I hear it at least as often in Japanese history  ↩

  2. Again, I’m think of Japanese examples like the Heike monogatari, etc.  ↩

Blogs and Carnivals/China/Education

Chinese tools

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 0 Comment

Here are a few cool tools for those of you (like my students) who are learning Chinese.

Beijing sounds is a cool blog about how Chinese is spoken in Beijing, with soundclips to help you learn the true Beijing hua

Pinyin News Thrilling updates from the world of Pinyin This is connected to PinyinInfo, which has cool tools

Chinese Pera-Kun Dictionary. This will let you mouse-over Chinese text and see an English translation. (works with Firefox)

And of course, the Asian Studies Toolbar 

China/Diplomacy/Ming

Ming Imperialism

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 0 Comment

I just found something interesting about the early Ming. It appears from the Ming Shi-lu that the Ming founder at first just sent envoys to various tributary states to inform them of the founding of the new dynasty. Within the next couple of years, however, new envoys were sent out.

Envoys were sent to Annam, Korea and Champa to carry out sacrifices to the mountains and rivers of those countries. Previously, the Emperor had observed abstinence in various respects and had personally compiled the sacrificial text. On this day, the Emperor held an audience and provided the envoys with incense and silks. The incense was contained in gold boxes. The silks comprised one length of silk and two pennants of patterned fine silk. All were in the colours of the four directions (方色). The sacrificial tablets were personally signed by the Emperor with his Imperial name.

The Ming emperor was doing as much of the sacrifice as possible without leaving home, (with his envoys doing the rest) so that he was personally making the sacrifice and he was really the ruler in those places. I think this is new, and the impression I get is that the Ming were at least initially thinking about a much closer relationship with their tributary states, possibly under the influence of the Yuan example.

Have I been doing translations from the Ming Shi-lu in my spare time? No. Geoff Wade has been putting his translations of those parts of the Shi-lu dealing with Southeast Asia on-line. The search function works quite well and makes it a real research tool. It is a very cool resource, and much worth looking at.

China/Chinese/Diaspora/Gender/Identity/Post-Mao

中华文化永恒精神价值

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 2 Comments

早报有好奇怪的文件关于中国得婚姻制度。 作者 叶鹏飞谈到中国的离婚率上升。在一部分时一个建立在史学研究基础上的观点。 他说道国外婚姻制度的改变，特别斯泰芬尼·库茨（Stephanie Coontz) 的书。对我来说这是很有意思，因为在美国的报纸如果有一事可以说有”永恒精神“就是我们的婚姻制度。

但是，他也说道中国文化的最基本的特色。一个 是余英时的“一生为故国招魂”，和“回家过年”的文化精神。

“回家过年”的冲动显示着中国文化在基层的旺盛生命力，但愿中国人在现代化的过程中不会因此陷入“无家可归”的困境中去。

有一部分”日本人論 “的味道。在国外他可以分析历史变成，但在国内(或者文化内)他要识别中华的永恒精神。最有意思是他的文化特点是回家过年。美国的文化是一样。以前我们没有火鸡节，但是在二十世纪我们越来越多“在冰天雪地中艰难跋涉，坚持回家 ”. 是非常现代的文化传统

China/English/General/Republican

Shanghai and Modernity

Posted on by katrina / 6 Comments

I am currently working on a paper about Shanghai and modernity – obviously a lot of work has been done on that from the perspective of Chinese modernity but I am trying to understand the ways in which to Westerners it was perceived (in the interwar period) as a ‘modern’ city (or not). Noel Coward wrote Private Lives while staying at the Cathay Hotel, for instance, and I am intrigued by the sudden rush of interest in Shanghai of that period in Western culture (cf.The White Countess, Lust Caution, etc). Anyone here have any opinions/suggestions?

On a side note, I just defended my PhD thesis on Thursday so am finally done!! Apologies for my absence from the site while I was finishing.

China/English/Imperialism/Manchukuo/Republican

Racial harmony in China's North-East

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 1 Comment

In honor of Black History Month I thought I would post something on W.E.B. Dubois and China. I knew that DuBois had dabbled in almost every radical movement imaginable during his long life but I had not known that he was also for a while much enamored of Japanese Pan-Asianism. I knew that the Japanese made considerable efforts to convince intellectuals from around the world that Manchoukuo was a heaven on earth, but I had not known that they got him.1 in 1936 Dubois toured Manchoukou as part of a Japanese-sponsored tour of East Asia. One result was the article below, which was published in the Pittsburgh Courier in February of 1937.

Continue reading →

  1. Although given that he managed to praise both Stalinist Russia and Mao’s China at various points in his life he was not the most discerning chooser of allies  ↩

Blogs and Carnivals/Korea

Asian History Carnival #19

Posted on by K. M. Lawson / 5 Comments

Welcome to the 19th Asian History Carnival here at Frog in a Well – Korea. Below are some of the excellent postings to be found around the web in the last two months or so for anyone interested in Asian history. This time we have an especially large number of China postings to recommend.

Of late, submissions of nominations to the Asian History carnival have been few in coming which is probably partly due to a lack of good and timely advertising but I continue to find that there are a number of places on the web where quality postings related to Asian history can be found.

I am also happy to see that we continue to see new websites which deserve similar praise. The new weblog China Beat: Blogging how the East is Read is an excellent example of this with very high quality material. The site went live in mid-January and includes an impressive list of contributors. Soon after the site went online the historian Kenneth Pomeranz offered a posting for their regular feature “This Day in History” by describing the rise and fall of Wang Mang, reformer and throne usurper and the kinds of patterns in Chinese history which be seen in the career of this figure. Jeff Wasserstrom offered us a list of top-five Shanghai urban legends, including the famous park sign about “Dogs and Chinese” and the idea that Shanghai was a mere fishing village before the Opium wars. Kate Merkel-Hess suggests a list of five Chinese historical events that got more attention. Another posting by Wasserstrom suggests we revisit past moments when East-West exchanges increased and suggests some good reads we might consider.

Another site which has consistently offered high quality history postings which get frequently highlighted in Asian history carnivals is Jeremiah Jenne’s Granite Studio. This is no less true for the last few months. In a series of “Voices from China’s Past” posting we lean about the novelist and playright Lao She, the “household instructions” of the 6th century scholar-official Yan Zhitui, and the role of Yue Fei and Qin Gui and patriotism in the Song dynasty and historiography of the period. Among his “This Date in History” postings we find a description of the Zunyi Conference of 1935 and urges caution in an attempt to evaluate its real impact on the rise of Mao.

Both Granite Studio and our own C. W. Hayford have taken the opportunity to talk about the anniversary of Zhou Enlai’s death, with Jeremiah giving us an overview of some of the memorial images of his life and death. In his posting here at Frog in a Well, Professor Hayford offers us a few more stories about the man’s career and attempts to address some of the questions raised in the original Granite Studio posting.

Zhou Enlai’s death was not the only one to be remembered. Tenement Palm offers us a look at Liang Qichao‘s life and especially the importance of Liang in popularizing Darwinist ideas. Yan Fu, who also made an appearance in the posting just mentioned, is the topic of our own Alan Baumler, in his posting on the reception of Darwin in China, especially through Yan Fu’s On Strength.

Blog postings remembering the deaths of famous figures in Chinese history are joined by a recent posting reminding us that the 50th anniversary of the hanyu pinyin phonetic system just passed on February 11th.

The excellent weblog the Useless Tree continues to give us interesting postings looking at the connections between politics, current events, and Confucian and Taoist ideas. One good recent example includes a discussion of the relationship between Mao and Taoist ideas. The Useless Tree joins Alan here at Frog in a Well in an exchange about teaching Confucius and the debates surrounding the use and authenticity of certain Confucian texts.

Jonathan Benda shares some notes on a talk recently given in Taiwan by the Chinese historian Yang Tianshi on the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek. I added my own thoughts about Yang’s argument here at Frog in a Well.

An article by Robert Townsend in the AHA journal Perspectives which is upbeat on the career prospects of aspiring historians prompted a response at PhDinHistory looking to evaluate the suggestion that things bode well for African, Asian, and Latin American Specialists through a close look at available statistics. See Townsend’s response in the comments.

The famous southern gate 남대문(南大門) of Seoul burnt down last week and a mood of national mourning quickly set in. A posting over at the Marmot’s Hole gives us a closer look at the Gates of Seoul. Also at the Marmot’s Hole are two interesting contributions by Robert Neff, including an interesting article looking at the celebration of Christmas in modern Korea and one on the impact of Korea’s first russian military advisors.

Some other nuggets:

– The Early Tibet blog offers a look at Christianity in Early Tibet and evidence that shows the work of missionaries there and in Central Asia.

– Sepia Mutiny reminds us of FDR’s anti-imperialist goals and Churchill’s recognition of the threat posed to the British empire posed by his friends efforts.

– In the posting over at the Opposite End of China, we are introduced to the Pickle King of Islamistan and the rise and fall of Khalid Sheldrake’s power in Xinjiang.

– Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei gives us a look at Geremie R. Barmé’s essay comparing the Chinese press now with that in the cultural revolution.

– Our own Alan Baumler suggests that an 11th century poem by Shao Yung can help us understand why many people who may have little reason to support Barack Obama.

– Our own Jonathan Dresner takes Thomas C. Reeves to task on his use of the analogy between Iraq and Korea.

– Guest blogger Sayaka Chatani shares with us a recent article from Sekai on the Chinese Communist Eighth Route Army’s POW policies with the Japanese.

– Jonathan gives us an overview of his panel at the 2008 AHA conference while our Frog in a Well contributor Morgan Pitelka offers two postings on the University of Sydney Japanese History Workshop in December.

Japan Focus

Japan Focus continues to be one of the best places on the web for open access to quality articles on the history of East Asia. While it is impossible to highlight them all, below are a few of the recent articles posted to Japan Focus that I especially enjoyed:

Gyokusai or “Shattering like a Jewel”: Reflection on the Pacific War by Hiroaki SATO looks at the concept of gyokusai, or to die in a beautiful act like a shattered jewel instead of surrendering shamelessly and the evolution of Japanese wartime policies related to it.

The Comfort Women, the Asian Women’s Fund and the Digital Museum by Wada Haruki introduces the Digital Museum, funded by the controversial Asian Women’s Fund dedicated to the preservation of the memory of the sexual slavery endured by the “comfort women” during the war and describes the process of the creation and evolution of the Asian Women’s Fund, which has been criticized by many.

Nikkei Loyalty and Resistance in Canada and the United States, 1942-1947 by Stephanie Bangarth. We have all heard about the fate of the Japanese-Americans during World War II. This fascinating article takes a comparative look at both the wartime and early postwar fate of the Nikkei in Canada.

The Contested Heritage of Koguryo/Gaogouli and China-Korea Conflict by Ahn Yonson gives a wonderful overview of the historical controversy over the ancient kingdom of Koguryo and what is at stake in the nationalist claims of historians in China and Korea. It claims very reasonably that there needs to be much greater appreciation for the “multiple relationships and mutual observations that transcend national, cultural, social and political borders.”

The Forging of Alien Status of Koreans in American Occupied Japan by Mark E. Caprio looks at the creation of the status as “aliens” in occupied Japan of the large Korean minority, the impact of these policies on the behavior of the Koreans in Japan, and the difficulties faced by Koreans in both repatriation and in establishing residence in Japan.

East Asia History Lectures Online

Jeremiah over at Granite Studio posted a series of three talks available online by the recently deceased historian Frederic Wakeman:

Part I: China’s Longue Durée and Mongol Occupation
Part II: Ming Nativism and the Local Turn
Part III: Qing Culturalism and Manchu Identity

This reminds me that there are dozens of interesting lectures available in video or audio format online and, to my knowledge, still no good website which indexes these excellent lectures when they come in from the many diverse places they can be found online. Below are just a few examples of lectures, interviews, and book talks that can be found online of interest to students of Asian history:

Japan’s Colonization of Korea – Alexis Dudden
How the War of Resistance to Japan Made and Unmade China – Rana Mitter
Tea and the Origins of the China Trade – Jonathan Chu
In the Ruins of Empire: Battle for Postwar Asia – Ronald Spector
Marco Polo: Silk Road to China – Larry Bergreen
China’s Return to Tradition: How to Interpret the New Forces Emerging in China – Yu Ying-shih
China Rediscovers its Own History – Yu Ying-shih
A Money Doctor from Japan: Megata Tanetaro in Korea, 1904-1907 – Michael Schiltz
Tibet: Does History Matter – Tsering Shakya (mentioned at Granite Studio here)
Godzilla and Postwar Japan – William Tsutsui
Conversation with Tsuyoshi Hasegawa on “Racing the Enemey: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan”
John Dower on Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor Hiroshima 9/11
Conversations with History: John Pomfret “Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China.”

I believe there is a great need for a good website that can be easily updated which posts links to these kinds of lectures when they become available. As it is now, they can be found only by frequently checking hundreds of university websites, library websites, organizations, youtube, and other locations.

For the time being, I recommend that if you find an online audio or video lecture about Asian history that you give it the del.icio.us tag:

ahlecture

Asian History Resources
For some time here at Frog in a Well we have hosted the East Asian Libraries and Archives wiki, which continues to grow, albeit slowly. However, the web now has a new and potentially much more expansive attempt to create a history archive wiki, this time supported by the American Historical Association. Check out the new AHA ArchivesWiki which is now live. It has already been populated with basic information about dozens of archives in the United States and elsewhere. You can read more at the AHA weblog in a posting by Robert B. Townsend.

Bandô-Sammlung des DIJ (German and Japanese only) – I recently discovered that the website of the DIJ (German Institute for Japanese Studies) in Tokyo hosts an impressive collection of primary documents related to the 板東俘虜収容所 from World War I.

ArchivesOnFlickr – An effort is underway to promote the tacking of photographs of materials from archives on Flickr. Read more about the idea at this ArchivesNext posting. While there are few photos related to Asia so far, this might be worth keeping an eye on.

Classical Historiography for Chinese History – Benjamin Elman has an extensive bibliography on sources, dictionaries, chronologies, and other tools that looks like it would be a must for pre-modern historians.

US “Tiananmen Papers” – The National Security Archive recently made available some US government documents related to the 1989 Tiananmen incident.

Historical materials regarding the Comfort Women Issue – There are a number of historical documents and other PDF documents related to the Comfort Women issue on the digital museum discussed in the Wada Haruki article dicussed above in the section on Japan Focus.

This concludes this Asian History Carnival. The next issue will be in early April and we may have a volunteer to host it. If you are interested in hosting future editions in June, August, or October please send me an email at kmlawson at froginawell.net.

China/English/Intellectual/Qing

Darwin the Confucian

Posted on by Alan Baumler / 3 Comments

As today is Darwin Day I thought I would post something on China’s reception of Darwin’s work. He tended to be confused with Spencer at first, and Elman gives some examples of how his work continued to be misunderstood for a very long time. Still, it is not surprising that Chinese tended to see Darwin through Spencer. Spencer was big in the West, and for those obsessed with the survival of nations rather than the survival of species Spencer would seem more to the point. Yan Fu‘s On Strength first appeared in 1895 and was the first serious account of Darwin published in China.

Darwin is an English biologist. Heir to his family’s scholarly traditions, he traveled around the world as a young man, amassing a rich collection of rare and curious plants and animals. After several decades’ exhaustive and subtle reflection upon them, he wrote The Origin of Species. Since the publication of this book, of which nearly every household in Europe and America now has a copy, there has been a tremendous change in the scholarship, politics, and religion of the West. The claim that the revolution in outlook and intellectual orientation occasioned by Darwin‘s book exceeds that of Newtonian astronomy is hardly an empty one.

His book says that for all their diversity, the species originated from a single source and that their differences developed slowly, for the most part in connec­tion with changes in the environment and an abiding biological tendency to­ward incremental differentiation. Eventually divergence from the remote source led to vast and irreversible differences, but these were brought about by natural processes in later ages and were not inherent in life at its origins.

Two chapters of the book are particularly noteworthy. . . . One is called “Competition” and the other, “Natural Selection.” “Competition” refers to the struggle of things to survive, and “Natural Selection” is the retention of the fit. The idea is that people and things exist in profusion, surviving on what the natural environment provides, but when they encounter others, peoples and things struggle over the means of survival. At first species struggled with species, and when they advanced somewhat, one group (jun) struggled with another.

Not bad, in my opinion, although I think he may overestimate Darwin’s sales figures a bit. At the end of this reading he is already leaving Darwin’s interest in species to look at the competition among “groups.” Here he is pretty clearly influenced by Spencer

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Blog Carnival

Upcoming Asian History Carnival

Posted on by K. M. Lawson / 0 Comment

I’ll be posting the 19th Asian History Carnival at Frog in a Well – Korea on the evening of February 14th, Seoul time. Learn more about the Asian History Carnival here.

Nominate posts for the carnival here or use the tag http://del.icio.us/tag/ahcarnival/. If you find useful online resources related to Asian history you can tag them with http://del.icio.us/tag/ahresources

I am also really hoping we’ll get some volunteers to host the next few carnivals. Please send me an email at kmlawson at froginawell.net if you are interested in hosting the next carnival, which will be held, ideally, April 4th, with the next one on June 6th..

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