Conclusion: The Dragon Enters the Nets

Against the institutional background of a premodern domestic organizational structure, the PRC Government started a cautious but quickly extensive institutional reform at the end of the 1970s. The political reasoning responsible for this daring departure from Maoist policies was simple: to head-off a seemingly inevitable “dynasty change” caused by an unprecedented political, economic and ideological crisis. Beyond many CCP leaders’ expectations, however, the reform has increasingly transformed so much of the Chinese domestic organizational structure that the CCP regime, though surviving its comrades in most other socialist countries, has lost much of its grip of the nation; even the party itself has been profoundly affected by these institutional changes.

This essay introduces the concept of colonial temporality to make sense of Chinese modernization discourses. Although institutional discourses on modernization and development in China are largely nationalist and tightly entangled with state authority, they nevertheless draw from conceptions of temporality that are colonial in character. However new the technologies of subjectivity are, they are embedded in a discourse transmitted from a colonial discourse that is not new, not entirely controlled by the Chinese state and not entirely favorable to the Chinese government. I will introduce three features of this temporality that make it colonial and highly ambivalent for the Chinese state: Firstly, it was created by colonial encounters in history and in an entanglement of Western, Japanese and Chinese discourses. Secondly, it provides China with a “story” of future progress by placing it in the middle of history. And thirdly, it revolves around discourses of deficiency that compels Chinese institutional discourses to constantly compare themselves to the West. In consequence, the “quest” for a Chinese modernity also contains a search for narratives of a better future that allow imagining improvement but are not based on colonial temporality. Paying more attention to this problem would allow scholars to better understand the position of the Chinese state and of Chinese intellectuals within modernization discourses, and to better conceptualize the historic and transnational Character of these discourses.

In response to Lothar von Falkenhausen’s contention that the Western Zhou government was hopelessly stuck in a kinship structure that operated in accordance with the order of aristocratic lineages, the present paper offers new theoretical grounds as well as new inscriptional evidence showing that the Western Zhou government was a bureaucracy invented precisely to allow the Zhou king to overcome or manipulate the restrictions imposed by a kinship structure, in order to achieve actual political and administrative goals. This is the central debate in the study of the Western Zhou government as the fountainhead of the long-standing Chinese political culture and institutions. To refute the ill-conceived “anthropological model” of the Western Zhou government, the paper carefully examines the logical confusions, the wrong methodological choice, and the misinformation about contemporaneous bronze inscriptions as well as about current archaeology exhibited in Falkenhausen’s review, thus reconfirming bases for a correct understanding of the Western Zhou government already offered in Bureaucracy and the State in Early China (Cambridge 2008). Furthermore, the paper discusses intellectual norms in book reviews in the West and China and offers new insights into the date of the Ling group of vessels, a central problem in the dating of Western Zhou bronzes. The paper provides an important cornerstone for future constructive studies of the Western Zhou government and the issue of bureaucracy in Chinese history.

Since the economic reforms in the late 1970s, China has experienced continuous high growth rates and a transformation of a historically unseen scale and scope. Hundreds of million people have been lifted out of poverty and the material infrastructure has undergone an astonishing renewal. Growth rates were maintained after 2007 by means of a massive fiscal stimulus programme. There is certainly potential for continued high growth rates but major challenges are on the horizon. China will experience the most radical demographic change in the next decades with an enormous rise in dependency rates in the next 30-40 years. China face enormous environmental and social challenges with air pollution, toxic rivers, weak food security, huge income inequality, exploitation of workers, lack of social security and a highly inefficient health system. Further, corruption is endemic, not the least in the form of land seizures by local government officials. The challenges are caused by outdated and inefficient institutions, such as weak property rights, the system of fixed residency (hukou), and a politicized legal system, which are only partly and imperfectly offset by benevolent discretionary action by the central leadership. This chapter takes a cultural economic approach in an analysis of these achievements and challenges. It is assumed that everywhere economic action and business practices are heavily influenced by the taken-for-granted effects of deep-rooted cultural characteristics. In this chapter it is analysed to what extent the deep-rooted norms and values of Confucianism impacts on economic relations and the behaviour of economic agents in China today. It is assumed that basic Confucian values such as the importance of the family, group mentality, stability, loyalty to superiors, paternalism and reciprocity underpin business practices and economic governance The chapter aims at an interpretation of the achievements and challenges of the Chinese model of capitalism which stresses the role of Confucian culture underpinning the growth process. Further, the chapter analyses to what extent Confucianism is at odds with the requirements and pressures of the modernization of Chinese society as claimed by Max Weber in his seminal book ‘The Religion of China’. In this chapter, we argue that although the impact of Confucianism is ambiguous it has mostly facilitated and supported the emergence of the highly successful capitalism in China. However, the ongoing modernization of China puts pressure on the Confucian cultural heritage. New middle class norms stress quality of life and self-determination in ways that challenges the behavioural norms. Further, the introduction of a full blown capitalist economy, has led to business scandals, exploitation, corruption and corporate excesses. The widespread dissent, protests and even riots that have emerged in recent years can be interpreted as anger over violations of basic Confucian values. Together, the protests inspired by the Confucian heritage and the emerging individualism and middle class norms put pressure on the current model of development.

The banking system of the People’s Republic of China: selected aspects The reform of Chinese banking system was undertaken by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. During this structural change, the central bank of the People’s Republic of China departed the ministry and became a separate entity. The People’s Bank of China was formally established as the central bank in 1983 by the State Council. As a result of the reforms of Deng Xiaoping China underwent a change of monobank system to two-tier banking system. Moreover, the function of the People’s Bank of China as a central bank was formally confirmed in 1995 when the third Plenum of the National People’s Congress adopted The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the People’s Bank of China. The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) is the supervisor of the financial institutions in the People’s Republic of China. The central government established this institution in March 2003. The State Council is the leadership of the CBRC. The main functions of the China Banking Regulatory Commission is the formulation of supervisory rules and regulations concerning the Chinese banking institutions, the authorization of the establishment, changes of the financial institutions and also the compilation and publishing of the statistics and reports of the banking industry

BACKGROUNDChina has experienced substantial socioeconomic and institutional changes over thepast few decades. The literature has documented a variety of demographic changesduring this time, includi ...

Axiology of Law in China – Reflections on Legal Philosophy The values are important in every system of law in every country. Social order of values is protected by law. Chinese order of values was created by Confucianism. Especially, value is ritual, propriety (li), which is more important than law (fa). Li is something like savoir-vivre, some rules. Chinese is not only a person, but is a part of something bigger, member of family, citizen of country. Collective, group of people is important. So everybody has got some duties to family and duties to society. So very important value is family and virtue of goodness, humanity (ren) and filial piety (xiao). It was a conflict between Confucianism and Legalism, but only in the beginning of the Chinese Empire (Qin Dynasty) legalism was the value of the state fa was in fact more important. From Han Dynasty until today li is important. Confucianism was the official doctrine of the state, legitimized by the authorities, and after 1911 remained in Chinese legal culture and in hearts of Chinese people. In the long history of China it was time, when Confucianism was not very popular or prohibited (e.g. in 20th century), but the truth is that Chinese values or Asian values, in fact the main values of law in China, are very Confucian values. Chinese law (fa) is in many places legalization or positivisation of ritual, propriety (li).

Twentieth-century China witnessed not only the constant invasions of Western powers and internecine warfares, but also the shaking of self-confidence among the Chinese people. Ch'ien Mu (錢穆1895~1990) stands out as a pivotal historian to console the frustrated souls of the Chinese in twentieth century through his historical works. This paper attempts at a study of the theory and practice of the ”national history” (kuo-shih, 國史) in Ch'ien's historical scholarship. Ch'ien Mu had been torn between the ”universal” and the ”particular” in historical thinking. He insisted through his writings that Chinese history had her own particularity which should not be regarded as Asian footnotes to the Western patterns or theories. Moreover, Ch'ien Mu, in treating history as ”national epic” as opposed to ”scientific history,” urged the Chinese people to re-establish their own identity in Chinese history as collective memory. The present paper consists of five sections. After reviewing the content and its historical background pertaining to Ch'ien Mu's notion of ”national history” (section Ⅱ), we in section Ⅲ analyze the methodological issues in Ch'ien's ”national history” and compare the difference between Ch'ien Mu and Hsu Fu-kuan (徐復觀，1902~1982). Section Ⅳ discusses the significance of Ch'ien Mu in the context of twentieth-century Chinese historiography. Special attention is paid to the contrast between Ch'ien Mu and Fu Ssu-nien (傅斯年，1896~1950). The final section V considers the significance of Ch'ien Mu's historiography in twentieth-century Chinese and world historiography.

Since the retrocession of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong SAR government and key curriculum developers have been determined to make use of the school curriculum (formal and informal) and in particular, the two history subjects, 'Chinese History' and 'History,' to promote a national identity among students. This study shows that a Chinese national identity in ethnic, cultural and historical terms has been promoted through 'Chinese History.' At the same time, through the other history subject, 'History,' a Hongkongese identity that includes both an international and a national dimension has also been made possible. However, it is argued that in promoting a sense of national identity through the school curriculum, the government has turned the curriculum to a form of nationalistic propaganda. In addition, the emphasis on national identity would create tension between Hong Kong students, students from China and ethnical minority students.

Tan Si-Tong, just like his contemporaneous thinkers in Chinese modern times, made his life rich and took his thought shape by assimilating Buddhist thought with his own style. As soon as he got in touch with Buddhism, Tan Si-Tong changed into a devout Buddhist, not only displaying Buddhist disposition and taste in day-to-day life, but also being engaged in Reformation Movement in Late Qing Dynasty like a Bodhisattva who is very kindhearted and merciful to save all the people in suffering and distress. More important, Tan Si-Tong established a famous Reformation philosophy named ren xue (a theory about benevolence) in Chinese modern history by merging Buddhism into Confucianism. As is known to all, because of the failure of Reformation Movement, Tan Si-Tong was arrested and killed by the goernment of Qing Dynasty. At that life-and-death moment, Tan Si-Tong met his death more like a Buddha than a hero, reflecting there being Nirvāna state in his heart.

This essay aims to reconceptualize the monetary regime of late Qing and modern China as a multilayer system of currencies and examine the features and logics of its operation from the 16th century to early 20th century. We argue that this system consists of a variety of silver and copper currencies, each occupying a particular layer in the structure and each satisfying a specific market demand. Analyzing the production and circulation of copper and silver currencies, we first trace their evolution from the Qing to the Republican era and demonstrate the multi-layer currency structure persisted in China across the modernizing changes that took place at the end of the 19th century. Second, using data drawn from gazetteers, this essay adopts a quantitative approach to empirically examine the mechanism and speed of interactions between the different layers of the monetary market and reveal the operational mechanism of the multi-layer system. We suggest that this multi-layer system, while bringing some efficiency loss, also constituted an effective institutional arrangement that helped to ensure the stability of the Chinese economy in tumultuous times.

Chinese individuals and elements often appear in the works of Haruki Murakami, for example, the three Chinese residing in Japan in ”A Slow Ship to China,” and Jay in Listening to the Song of the Wind, Sherry in ”Green Street of Sidney.” In addition, Murakami writes about memories of Chinese history in Adventure of Finding a Sheep, The Chronicle of A Wound-up Bird, and After the Dark Night. Mr. huziisyouzou once remarked, ”We cannot discuss the literary achievement of Haruki Murakami if we omit the Chinese elements in his works.” Mr. Shibatasyoi, in a comparative study on Haruki Murakami and Soseki Natsume, contends that ”the proportion of Chinese elements in Haruki Murakami's works cannot compare with those of Korea in Soseki Natsume's works. However, that aspects of China often appear in his works often reveals Haruki Murakami's concern. From earlier research, we can see that China is an important element in Haruki Murakami's works and the topic has attracted many scholars. This study will focus on ”A Slow Ship to China” and Listening to the Song of the Wind to discuss the image of Chinese in Haruki Murakami's works and the author's intentions in presenting it in his works.With historical data concerning the relationship of China and Japan as reference, the author of this article will explore the characteristics of those Japanese Chinese or Chinese who resided and grew up in Japan, such as how they repress certain injuries in their unconscious, and how Haruki Murakami presents China and the images of Chinese through textual analysis.

In 1895, the failure of Sino-Japanese prompted the trend of comprehensive and systematic study of western pattern in China. In urban planning and construction, urban reform movement sprang up slowly, which aimed at renovating and reconstructing the traditional cities into modern cities similar to the concessions. During the movement, Chinese traditional city initiated a process of modern urban planning for its modernization. Meanwhile, the traditional planning morphology and system started to disintegrate, on the contrary, western form and technology had become the paradigm. Therefore, the improvement of existing cities had become the prototype of urban planning of early modern China. Currently, researches of the movement mainly concentrate on large cities, concessions, railway hub cities and some special cities resembling those. However, the systematic research about the large number of traditional small and medium-sized cities is still blank, up to now. This paper takes the improvement constructions of small and medium-sized cities in Southern region of Jiangsu Province as the research object. First of all, the criteria of small and medium-sized cities are based on the administrative levels of general office and cities at the county level. Secondly, the suitability of taking the Southern Jiangsu as the research object. The southern area of Jiangsu province called Southern Jiangsu for short, was the most economically developed region in Jiangsu, and also one of the most economically developed and the highest urbanization regions in China. As the most developed agricultural areas in ancient China, Southern Jiangsu formed a large number of traditional small and medium-sized cities. In early modern times, with the help of the Shanghai economic radiation, geographical advantage and powerful economic foundation, Southern Jiangsu became an important birthplace of Chinese national industry. Furthermore, the strong business atmosphere promoted the widespread urban improvement practices, which were incomparable of other regions. Meanwhile, the demonstration of Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Suzhou and other port cities became the improvement pattern of small and medium-sized city in Southern Jiangsu. This paper analyzes the reform movement of the small and medium-sized cities in Southern Jiangsu (1895-1927), including the subjects, objects, laws, technologies and the influence factors of politic and society ,etc. At last, this paper reveals the formation mechanism and characteristics of urban improvement movement in early modern China. According to the paper, the improvement of small-medium city was a kind of gestation of the local city planning culture in early modern China，with a fusion of introduction and endophytism.

In this paper, we conduct a survey on the learning situation of Chinese modern and contemporary history among college students in applied higher education institutions. We randomly select 200 college students as research subjects, and have them fill out an internet questionnaire. The current cognitive situation and the factors that have a significant impact on it. The analysis results show that college students in applied higher education institutions have a better initiative in learning Chinese modern and contemporary history, indicating that they have a better grasp of Chinese modern and contemporary history. Through further analysis, it is found that first-year students have a strong initiative in learning Chinese modern and contemporary history. Second year students tend to self-monitor their learning efficiency in learning Chinese modern and contemporary history, while senior students in their third and fourth years pay more attention to the practical value of learning knowledge. To enhance the quality of education in modern and contemporary Chinese history, it has a strong attraction, impact, and infectiousness that transcends time and space for the growth and development of college students.

The purpose of this article is to examine the chang of three concepts about Qi-xue (氣血), Jingmuo (經脈) and Mai-zhen (脈診) of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) in late 19th. The Principal aim of this work is to analyse the theory of Tang Zhonghai (1851-1897)'s body Knowledge. Tang is first of the Chinese doctor who based on the traditional medical theory like Huangdi nejing (黃帝內經) to explain the heart and circulation vessel system about western body knowledge which imported China in late 19th. Historians usually name his work Zhong xi yi hui tong (中西醫匯通) (Melting together in TCM and western medicine). Finally, we will know how to explain the different eyeshot of the Qihua (Qi Transformation)'s body and Xing (visible)'s body, demonstrate the difficult to assimilate TCM and Western medicine in modern Chinese history.