China in 2008 A Year of Great Significance

by Merkel-Hess, Kate; Pomeranz, Kenneth L.; Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N.; Spence, Jonathan D.

• ISBN13: 9780742566606
• ISBN10: 0742566609
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-16
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

The Beijing Olympics ensured that the world would be watching China in 2008, and the year turned out to be the most tumultous and traumatic for the Chinese since the massive Tiananment uprising of 1989. Crippling winter storms, riots in Tibet, the devastating Sichuan earth-quake, and many other dramatic events-including the PRC edging out the United States to become the country with the most Internet users-grabbed international headlines. This innovative book, based on postings from the China Beat (the noted group blog/electronic magazine based at the University of California, Irvine) as well as works from other leading publications and completely new material, showcases the as-it-happened reports and commentaries of a mix of distingusihed academics, high-profile journalists, freelance writers, and up-and-coming young China specialists.

Author Biography

Kate Merkel-Hess is editor of the China Beat and a doctoral candidate in the history department at the University of California, Irvine. Kenneth L. Pomeranz is coeditor of the Journal of Global History and Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is editor of the Journal of Asian Studies and professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Introduction: China in 2008: Reflections on a Year of Great Significance	p. 1
Anxieties of a Prosperous Age	p. 13
Coal Minter's Daughter	p. 14
NIMBY Comes to China	p. 15
Homeowners' Protests in Shanghai: An Interview with Benjamin Read	p. 19
Gilded Age, Gilded Cage	p. 21
Melamine and Milk in Modern China	p. 29
Little Emperors or Frail Pragmatists? China's'80ers Generation	p. 33
Tibet	p. 37
Media Coverage of Tibet	p. 38
At War with the Utopia of Modernity	p. 40
How to Think about Tibet	p. 42
Ballooning Unrest: Tibet, State Violence, and the Incredible Lightness of Knowledge	p. 44
Meanwhile, Across The Straits...	p. 57
The Election in Taiwan	p. 58
Selection of Readings on Taiwan	p. 59
What Shall We Do with the Dead Dictator?	p. 59
Trauma and Memory-228 in Taiwan Today	p. 61
The Return of the Two Nationalisms	p. 63
Nationalism and the Torch	p. 67
Follow the Bouncing Torch	p. 68
Torching the Relay: An Interview	p. 69
Chinese Protesters Extinguish Olympic Torch in Protest?	p. 78
Why Were Chinese People So Angry about the Attempts to Seize the Torch in the International Torch Relay?	p. 81
Sidebar: Pass On the Flame's Spark	p. 86
Earthquake and Recovery	p. 89
Giving Long-Term Relief	p. 90
Rumor and the Sichuan Earthquake	p. 91
Earthquake and the Imperatives of Chinese Mourning	p. 97
Chinese Responses to Disaster: A View from the Qing	p. 101
Sidebar: China and the Red Cross	p. 104
Resistance Is Useful	p. 105
After the Earthquake: Former Students Report on the Disaster	p. 108
Letters from Sichuan II	p. 111
Shanghai Images In Beijing's Year	p. 115
A Better Life in New Shanghai?	p. 116
Disappearing Shanghai	p. 117
Tiananmen Reconsidered	p. 133
Revolutionary Anniversaries	p. 134
Tiananmen's Shifting Legacy	p. 135
The Gate of Heavenly Peacemaking	p. 140
The Road to the Olympics	p. 145
Vietnam's Youth Given a Rare Chance to Protest-against China	p. 146
China's Olympic Road	p. 147
Historical Precedents: Putting the Beijing Games in Context	p. 148
Could China Stop Taiwan from Coming to the Olympic Games?	p. 150
Why Can't the Chinese Authorities Allow a Little Space for Protests during the Olympics?	p. 153
The Games and Propaganda: Propping Up the Party?	p. 157
The Boycotts of '08 Revisited	p. 161
How to Talk to Strangers: Beijing's Advice	p. 163
Sidebar: Learning English, Learning Chinese	p. 165
Hand Grenades and the Olympics	p. 166
The Olympics as Spectacle	p. 171
Painting over Mao: Notes on the Inauguration of the Beijing Olympic Games	p. 172
It's Right to Party, En Masse	p. 173
Where Were China's Women on 8/8/08?	p. 177
What Would Mao Think of the Games?	p. 179
The Olympics around the World: Wishful Reporting in England	p. 182
Vancover: Host to Winter 2010 Olympics	p. 183
Nobody (?) Likes a Spoiler	p. 184
A View from Aotearoa-New Zealand	p. 184
From the United States to China, by Way of Israel	p. 185
Sidebar: From Lovers to Volunteers: China's National Anthem	p. 186
Beijing's Olympic Weather: "Haze," Blue Skies, and Hot Air	p. 187
Beijing Soundscape: Volunteerism, Internationalism, Heroism, and Partiotism at the 2008 Games	p. 192
China After the Games	p. 201
After the Olympics, What?	p. 202
One Bed, Different Dreams: The Beijing Olympics as Seen in Tokyo	p. 203
China's Olympic Run	p. 205
Follow the Leader	p. 209
Early Critics of Deng Xiaoping-A 1978 Flashback	p. 210
Facing Up to Friendship	p. 212
Preserving the Premier's Calligraphy at Beichuan Middle School	p. 215
Boss Hu and the Press	p. 216
Hua Guofeng: Remembering a Forgotten Leader	p. 220
Things Seen and Unseen	p. 225
Why Was Yao Ming Fined?	p. 226
Digital China: Ten Things Worth Knowing about the Chinese Internet	p. 228
The Chinese Press in the Spotlight	p. 230
Finding Trust Online: Tigergate to the Sichuan Earthquakes	p. 233
Things We'd Rather You Not Say on the Web, or Anywhere Else	p. 235
Pop Culture in a Global Age	p. 239
Rocking Beijing	p. 240
Kung Fun Panda, Go Home!	p. 241
In Defense of Jiang Rong's Wolf Totem	p. 245
Sidebar: Wolf Totem: Romanticized Essentialization	p. 247
Wei Cheng: From and Elite Novel to a Popular Metaphor	p. 248
Faking Heaven: It's All Done with Mirrors	p. 251
Reinvented Traditions	p. 261
It's Not Just 8/8/08: A Year of Chinese Anniversaries	p. 262
The Global Rebranding of Confucius	p. 263
China: Democracy or Confucianism?	p. 270
China and the United States	p. 275
Culture and Collapse	p. 276
A Nation of Outlaws	p. 277
Democracy or Bust: Why Our Knowledge about What the Chinese Lack Is Really No Knowledge at All	p. 282
Follow the Money: A Tale of Two Economies	p. 284
Yellow Peril Consumerism: China, North America, and an Era of Global Trade	p. 290
Conclusion: Postcard from December: A Year of What Significance?	p. 301
Appendix: China in 2008: A Chronology	p. 313
Acknowledgments	p. 317
About the Editors	p. 325
About the Contributors	p. 327
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