Understanding Chinese Society

Understanding Chinese Society PDF Author: Xiaowei Zang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317422961
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
This second edition of Understanding Chinese Society provides a comprehensive, readable, and well-grounded introduction to the key issues affecting contemporary China. A thorough analysis is undertaken not only of China’s family patterns, education system, status, hierarchy, and ethnic diversity, but also of China’s mass media, legal system and social control, work, and cultural expression. As well as being thoroughly updated and revised throughout, this edition offers new chapters on urbanization, the environment, and civil society in China. A team of international experts guide students though social issues including: What are the key features of the family and marriage institutions in China? How are women and men faring differently in Chinese society today? How are minorities faring in China? How does the education system differentiate Chinese society? How are religion and cultural traditions expressed? Including handy pedagogical features such as a chronology of the People's Republic of China, further reading suggestions, and related novels and films, Understanding Chinese Society is suitable for anyone studying Chinese Culture and Society, Chinese Studies and Asian sociology.

Understanding Chinese Society

Understanding Chinese Society PDF Author: Xiaowei Zang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317422961
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Get Book

Book Description
This second edition of Understanding Chinese Society provides a comprehensive, readable, and well-grounded introduction to the key issues affecting contemporary China. A thorough analysis is undertaken not only of China’s family patterns, education system, status, hierarchy, and ethnic diversity, but also of China’s mass media, legal system and social control, work, and cultural expression. As well as being thoroughly updated and revised throughout, this edition offers new chapters on urbanization, the environment, and civil society in China. A team of international experts guide students though social issues including: What are the key features of the family and marriage institutions in China? How are women and men faring differently in Chinese society today? How are minorities faring in China? How does the education system differentiate Chinese society? How are religion and cultural traditions expressed? Including handy pedagogical features such as a chronology of the People's Republic of China, further reading suggestions, and related novels and films, Understanding Chinese Society is suitable for anyone studying Chinese Culture and Society, Chinese Studies and Asian sociology.

Understanding Chinese Society

Understanding Chinese Society PDF Author: Norman Stockman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745668666
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
This new book provides an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the main features of Chinese society. Drawing on a wealth of material, the author offers a fresh understanding of a unique society that has undergone continuous transformation and upheaval throughout the twentieth century. Understanding Chinese Society looks in all its richness at the society with the largest population on earth. In order to explore long-term change and continuity, the book examines China from pre-revolutionary times to today's rapidly modernising society, although the focus is on recent change. Particular attention is paid to China's cultural traditions and hierarchical relationships in familial and wider social settings, and their fate in the modern world. Successive chapters investigate changes in the relations of rural and urban sectors of society; in the structure of families; in political and economic power; in cultural hegemony, education and the media; and in patterns of social inequality. A final chapter asks whether Chinese society is becoming more complex and differentiated in the course of modernisation and considers recent debates on the growth of civil society and democratisation. This book will be indispensable for anyone studying Chinese society, Asian societies and comparative sociology.

Understanding Chinese Society

Understanding Chinese Society PDF Author: Eileen Yuk-ha Tsang
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814644870
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
' Before 1978, China was backward economically, politically, diplomatically and was extremely isolated. The country had a few diplomatic allies like North Korea, Russia and Vietnam. However, in the past three decades, the country has witnessed robust changes that have aroused the interest of the westerners in knowing more about the country. This book provides first-hand information on China''s social changes and economic transformation. It enables readers to understand the Chinese Society vividly, dynamically, and practically. It examines various facets of the Chinese society ranging from famous landmarks, popular customs, festivals, food, daily chores, etc. The book also offers tips for those who are willing to live, work and run a business in China. Contents:Basic Institutions of Chinese Societies:The Chinese Society in Pre-Reform ChinaInstitutional Changes in Post-Reform ChinaSocio-Economic Changes in the Chinese Societies:Chinese Family and Kinship: Yesterday and TodayChinese Women and Education: Better Off in Post-Socialist China?Emergence of the Chinese New Middle ClassSpending without Speaking: China''s Middle Class, Governmentality, and Conspicuous ConsumptionSocio-Cultural Changes in the Chinese Societies:Institutionalization of Guanxi (Connections)Consumerism, the Pursuit of Beauty, and Medical TourismThe Legacy of "Leftover Ladies"The Crisis of Masculinity of the Ant Tribes in Post-Reform ChinaCorruption and Green NGOs in Post-Reform ChinaPopular Culture, Media, and Society in Post-Reform ChinaConclusion — Rethinking Global Governance: Chinese Model in the Making in the 21st Century? Readership: Students, academics, politicians, businessmen and practitioners interested in China''s social changes and economic transformations. Key Features:First-hand materials on the dramatic social, cultural and economic changes in post-reform ChinaAccessible to a broad readership including students, academics, politicians, businessmen and general readersKeywords:China Studies;Changes and Transformation;Economic Reform;China'

Understanding the Chinese Language

Understanding the Chinese Language PDF Author: Chris Shei
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317662806
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Understanding the Chinese Language provides a vibrant and comprehensive introduction to contemporary Chinese linguistics. Combining an accessible style with an in-depth treatment of the topics at hand, it uses clear, full descriptions and vivid, modern examples to systematically take students through the phonology, vocabulary, grammar, discourse structures and pragmatics of modern Chinese. No prior knowledge of Chinese or linguistics is required. Features include: Six detailed chapters covering the core linguistic aspects of the modern Chinese language, such as words, content units, sentences, speech acts, sentence-final particles and neologisms User-friendly comparisons and contrasts between English and Chinese throughout the text, helping to clearly explain important complexities and nuances of the Chinese language Clear, accessible explanations and insightful analysis of topics and linguistic devices, supported by many helpful examples, diagrams and tables Vivid and relevant examples drawn from real-life contemporary sources such as internet news reports, social networks like Sino Weibo, online forums and TV reality shows, offering fascinating perspectives on modern Chinese media, culture and society Pioneering coverage of Chinese new words and the social phenomena they reveal Additional exercises and four supplementary chapters covering Chinese syllables, idioms, discourse and culture available for free download at http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415634885/ Written by a highly experienced instructor, researcher and linguist, Understanding the Chinese Language will be essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in Chinese linguistics. It will also be of interest to anyone interested in learning more about Chinese language and culture.

Understanding Chinese Culture

Understanding Chinese Culture PDF Author: Guobin Xu
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 981108162X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Promoting cultural understanding in a globalized world, this text is a key tool for students interested in further developing their understanding of Chinese society and culture. Written by a team of experts in their fields, this book provides a survey of Chinese culture, delving deeper into areas such as Chinese philosophy, religion, politics and education. It offers the reader a wide range of essential facts to better understand contemporary China through its history and cultural background, touching on key areas such as the development of science and technology in China, as well as the country’s economy and trade history, and is a key read for scholars and students in Chinese Culture, Sociology and Politics.

Understanding the Chinese City

Understanding the Chinese City PDF Author: Li Shiqiao
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1473905397
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
"One thing is clear: in marginalising Chinese tradition and falling short of wholesale importation of Western cultural and political ideals and institutions, Chinese cities have become, in one sense, the scrapyard of half-hearted emulations and acts of resistance, appearing to be neither here nor there...” - Li Shiqiao, writing in the South China Morning Post This book teaches us to read the contemporary Chinese city. Li Shiqiao deftly crafts a new theory of the Chinese city and the dynamics of urbanization by: examining how the Chinese city has been shaped by the figuration of the writing system analyzing the continuing importance of the family and its barriers of protection against real and imagined dangers exploring the meanings of labour, and the resultant numerical and financial hierarchies demonstrating how actual structures bring into visual being the conceptions of numerical distributions, safety networks, and aesthetic orders. Understanding the Chinese City elegantly traces a thread between ancient Chinese city formations and current urban organizations, revealing hidden continuities that show how instrumental the past has been in forming the present. It contextualizes Chinese urban experiences in relation to familiar intellectual landmarks. Rather than becoming obstacles to change, ancient practices have become effective strategies of adaptation under radically new terms.

A Social History of the Chinese Book

A Social History of the Chinese Book PDF Author: Joseph P. McDermott
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9622097812
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
In this learned, yet readable, book, Joseph McDermott introduces the history of the book in China in the late imperial period from 1000 to 1800. He assumes little knowledge of Chinese history or culture and compares the Chinese experience with books with that of other civilizations, particularly the European. Yet he deals with a wide range of issues in the history of the book in China and presents novel analyses of the changes in Chinese woodblock bookmaking over these centuries. He presents a new view of when the printed book replaced the manuscript and what drove that substitution. He explores the distribution and marketing structure of books, and writes fascinatingly on the history of book collecting and about access to private and government book collections. In drawing on a great deal of Chinese, Japanese, and Western research this book provides a broad account of the way Chinese books were printed, distributed, and consumed by literati and scholars, mainly in the lower Yangzi delta, the cultural center of China during these centuries. It introduces interesting personalities, ranging from wily book collectors to an indigent shoe-repairman collector. And, it discusses the obstacles to the formation of a truly national printed culture for both the well-educated and the struggling reader in recent times. This broad and comprehensive account of the development of printed Chinese culture from 1000 to 1800 is written for anyone interested in the history of the book. It also offers important new insights into book culture and its place in society for the student of Chinese history and culture. 'A brilliant piece of synthetic research as well as a delightful read, it offers a history of the Chinese book to the eighteenth century that is without equal.' - Timothy Brook, University of British Columbia 'Writers, scribes, engravers, printers, binders, publishers, distributors, dealers, literati, scholars, librarians, collectors, voracious readers — the full gamut of a vibrant book culture in China over one thousand years — are examined with eloquence and perception by Joseph McDermott in The Social History of the Book. His lively exploration will be of consuming interest to bibliophiles of every persuasion.' - Nicholas A. Basbanes, author of A Gentle Madness, Patience and Fortitude, A Splendor of Letters, and Every Book Its Reader Joseph McDermott is presently Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and University Lecturer in Chinese at Cambridge University. He has published widely on Chinese social and economic history, most recently on the economy of the Song (or, Sung) dynasty for the Cambridge History of China. He has edited State and Court Ritual in China and Art and Power in East Asia.

Understanding Peasant China

Understanding Peasant China PDF Author: Daniel Little
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300054774
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
In this innovative book, Daniel Little compares the positions of various social scientists regarding debates in China studies. Little focuses on four topics: the relative importance of individual rationality and community values in explaining traditional peasant behavior; the role of marketing and transportation systems in Chinese society; the causes of agricultural stagnation in traditional China; and the reasons for peasant rebellions in Qing China. He not only makes a constructive contribution to these controversies but also provides examples of the diversity of social science research.

Understanding China

Understanding China PDF Author: Yanan Ju
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438408072
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Using empirical research data and his first-hand experiences, the author argues that (1) the Fourth Economic Power is truly emerging with mainland China being the center stage, and the Chinese Diaspora being the key players; (2) understanding guanxi (connections), among other things, represents the key to understanding doing business in China; (3) China is not yet ready for democracy; benevolent authoritarianism will most likely define China's political life; (4) China's corruption problem—either of a structural nature or a moral nature—is solvable; (5) education holds China's future; and (6) Chinese family can be the most sustainable resource of the Fourth Power.

China’s Urban Revolution

China’s Urban Revolution PDF Author: Austin Williams
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350003239
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
By 2025, China will have built fifteen new 'supercities' each with 25 million inhabitants. It will have created 250 'Eco-cities' as well: clean, green, car-free, people-friendly, high-tech urban centres. From the edge of an impending eco-catastrophe, we are arguably witnessing history's greatest environmental turnaround - an urban experiment that may provide valuable lessons for cities worldwide. Whether or not we choose to believe the hype – there is little doubt that this is an experiment that needs unpicking, understanding, and learning from. Austin Williams, The Architectural Review's China correspondent, explores the progress and perils of China's vast eco-city program, describing the complexities which emerge in the race to balance the environment with industrialisation, quality with quantity, and the liberty of the individual with the authority of the Chinese state. Lifting the lid on the economic and social realities of the Chinese blueprint for eco-modernisation, Williams tells the story of China's rise, and reveals the pragmatic, political and economic motives that lurk behind the successes and failures of its eco-cities. Will these new kinds of urban developments be good, humane, healthy places? Can China find a 'third way' in which humanity, nature, economic growth and sustainability are reconciled? And what lessons can we learn for our own vision of the urban future? This is a timely and readable account which explores a range of themes – environmental, political, cultural and architectural – to show how the eco-city program sheds fascinating light on contemporary Chinese society, and provides a lens through which to view the politics of sustainability closer to home.