Knowing China

by Chow, Gregory C.

• ISBN13: 9789812386793
• ISBN10: 9812386793
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-02-13
• Publisher: Textstream

Table of Contents

About the author
Preface
List of figures
Some facets of China's history	p. 1
Shang, 1766-1121 BC - advanced culture and rich human resources	p. 1
Zhou, 1122-211 BC - golden period of development of Chinese thoughts	p. 3
Qin, 200 BC - national unification and strong government	p. 4
Han, 206 BC-220 AD - large empire and adoption of Confucianism ; a great historian	p. 5
Three kingdoms, 220-80; Jin, 265-420; and succession of dynasties, 304-589	p. 9
Tang, 618-901 - trade, Buddhism and poetry	p. 10
Song, 960-1126 - a flourishing capitalist economy	p. 11
Yuan, 1279-1368 - rule by Mongols but Han culture survived	p. 12
Ming, 1368-1644 - overseas explorations	p. 13
Qing, 1644-1911 - impact of Western and Japanese imperialism	p. 14
The republic of China, 1911 - political disunity, wars and economic progress	p. 16
The People's Republic of China, 1949-present - from a planned to a market economy	p. 22
Two disastrous political movements	p. 23
Economic reform initiated in 1978	p. 26
Culture and daily life	p. 31
Food and cooking	p. 32
Calligraphy and painting	p. 33
Handicraft, furniture, China, and other forms of art	p. 37
Architecture - buildings and gardens	p. 38
Martial arts and performing arts	p. 39
Chinese medicine and ways of healing	p. 42
Literature	p. 43
Philosophy	p. 45
Confucian philosophy and daily life	p. 47
Individual conduct	p. 47
Family relationship	p. 48
Social order	p. 49
Concluding remarks	p. 50
The economy	p. 53
China's economy before 1949	p. 53
Chinese economy at present	p. 55
Size of the economy	p. 57
Accuracy of Chinese official statistics	p. 59
Fundamental factors of China's economic growth	p. 63
High quality and abundance of human capital	p. 64
Market institutions	p. 65
Availability of modern technology to a latecomer	p. 66
Income inequality	p. 67
Strength and weaknesses of China's economic institutions	p. 70
The banking system	p. 71
The state enterprises	p. 73
Moral basis of China's legal system	p. 75
Social network - Guanxi	p. 77
Respect for patents and intellectual property rights	p. 78
China's legal and economic institutions	p. 79
The Chinese people	p. 85
Who are the Chinese	p. 85
The Chinese in mainland China	p. 85
Ethnic diversity and discrimination	p. 87
Status of women	p. 88
Effect of the cultural revolution on behavior	p. 89
Abuse of economic power	p. 92
Chinese outside of mainland China	p. 94
Overseas Chinese in general	p. 94
Chinese in Hong Kong	p. 95
Chinese in the United States	p. 100
Chinese in Taiwan	p. 103
China's population problem	p. 105
The Chinese government considers a large population a problem	p. 106
How many Chinese are too many	p. 107
Can China afford to have more children	p. 109
A large population has its advantages	p. 113
More people means more power and influence	p. 113
Favorable scale effects of a very large population	p. 114
Education, science and technology	p. 115
Historical background of formal educational institutions	p. 115
Education in the People's Republic of China	p. 119
Education reform after 1978	p. 122
Quality of university faculties	p. 123
Institutional characteristics of China's universities	p. 127
Non-government educational institutions	p. 130
Family education and self education	p. 132
Distinguished features of Chinese students	p. 134
Science	p. 135
Technology	p. 137
Government system and performance	p. 141
How is the Chinese government organized	p. 141
How good is the Chinese government	p. 146
Freedom	p. 147
Elections and participation in government administration	p. 152
What the government does for the people	p. 155
Personal experience working with the Chinese government	p. 161
On corruption	p. 169
On political reform	p. 173
Hong Kong and Shanghai : two modern cities	p. 177
Hong Kong	p. 177
Shanghai	p. 183
A country for tourists	p. 193
China's geography - a map of China	p. 193
Natural beauty - Guilin, Huangshan, Wuyishan, along the Yangtze	p. 195
Historical sites	p. 207
US-China relations	p. 217
The United States as a world power before and after 9/11, 2001	p. 217
The basis of US-China relations	p. 218
US-China relation in the power structure of East Asia	p. 220
Possible conflict with China over Taiwan	p. 223
China not a threat to the United States	p. 224
Economic competition from China	p. 225
US-China partnership	p. 227
Bibliography	p. 231
Index	p. 235
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