Global Asia Journal

Is China a Responsible Developing Country? Climate Change Diplomacy and National Image Building

Sanna Kopra — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:25:13 PDT

A state’s image is an important resource for wielding national power in global politics. Its prestige and reputation often influence the interactions with other states. As an emerging superpower, China is under pressure to shoulder more responsibility for tackling global climate change. The West has criticized China as a “climate criminal” that threatens global climate stability. In response, the Chinese government implemented a series of comprehensive programs to improve its image abroad. This paper examines China’s national image building in the realm of international climate politics. It draws on the official rhetoric and policy statements to discuss the innovative strategies that China employed to advance its broader diplomatic agendas. By referring to itself as a developing country, China proclaims that it has neither a historical responsibility nor the resources to mitigate climate change, and that it desperately needs the financial and technological support from the West. By employing the rhetoric of being a peace-loving and harmonious nation, China has begun to address the problems of global climate change, even though it refuses to submit to any binding emission reduction targets in the negotiations over a post-Kyoto international climate agreement.

Governing Employees: A Foucauldian Analysis of Deaths from Overwork in Japan

Yoshio Shibata — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:43:20 PDT

This article explores the institutional causes of karoshi (death from

overwork) and karojisatsu (suicide induced by overwork and

work-related depression) in Japan. Rejecting the culturalist

explanations of these health problems, this study discusses the

management-labor struggles of postwar Japan and their impacts

on the institutional modes of labor relations. It specifically

examines the institutional features of internal labor markets that

are closely linked to karoshi and karojisatsu by exploring how the

Japanese employees are driven to overwork at the micro level.

Drawing on the Foucauldian idea of governmentality and utilizing

a sociological approach, this research treats these institutional

forms of labor relations as part of the governmental technology

that has adversely affected the everyday working lives of

employees and has compelled them to overwork.

Civilization and Competition: Study Societies and State Formation in Late Qing China

Hon-Fai Chen — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:05:44 PDT

The institutional platforms that supported activist intellectuals seeking to inaugurate political and cultural modernity through the formation of study societies (xuehui) proliferated throughout the late Qing China (ca. 1895-1911). While existing studies either subsume this distinctive phenomenon under the political programs of reform and revolutionary movements or conceive it as a kind of the prototypical formation of civil society and the public sphere in late Qing China, they seldom question the meanings and functions of ‘civilization,” “society” and “civility” as the constitutive and highly contested notions underlying the cultural and political practices of these study societies. This paper argues that the symbolic and practical aspects of this phenomenon can be better understood as a sociological process of state formation. By generalizing Norbert Elias’ analysis of the relationship between power figuration and affective self-constraint inEurope’s transition from an absolutist “court society” to an imperialist “world society,” this paper explains why and how these study societies arose as a civilizing movement within the context of Chinese social and cultural politics of the late nineteenth century.

The Politics of Patriarchal Bargaining in a Chinese Village

Siu-Keung Cheung — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 10:02:36 PDT

This paper focuses on the changing status of women in a village community in the colonial and post-colonial New Territories of Hong Kong SAR, China. It argues that village women are active agents in reclaiming their personal autonomy and play a proactive role in influencing the sociopolitical order of rural society. In particular, this study demonstrates how village women individually and collectively engaged the patriarchal rule in dealing with the Chinese lineage organizations in the New Territories. It asserts that women’s domestic existence is never a wholly domesticated one but instead it contains significant elements of self-articulation and selfempowerment. The continuity of patriarchal rule in the New Territories fails to constitute any moral and philosophical leadership (i.e., hegemony) with active consent from the people. Chinese village women often succeeded in claiming their own rights and defending their interests within the patriarchal system.

Christianity and Female Empowerment: The American Presbyterian Mission Schools in Weixian, Shandong Province (1883-1920)

John R. Stanely — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:47:16 PDT

Between the arrival of Robert Morrison in 1807, the first Protestant

missionary to China, and the expulsion of Western missionaries in the early

1950s, one important area of missionary work for Chinese women was the

establishment of schools at the primary, secondary and university levels.

This education work afforded girls and young women opportunities for

advancement not provided under the existing patriarchal society. This

article focuses on the development of the American Presbyterian primary

and secondary schools for girls in the rural area of Weixian in Shandong

province. The Presbyterian station in Weixian played a leading role in

establishing primary and secondary schools for girls throughout its

mission field. Although the missionaries began with a conservative agenda

of creating good Christian households at the time, the local population

eventually embraced the schools. These girls’ schools not only trained

female students to become professional teachers but also enlightened and

empowered them in the local cultural sphere.

The EU Arms Embargo against China: Should Europe Play a Role in East Asian Security?

Frans Paul van der Putten — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:46:02 PDT

Europe and East Asia are highly interdependent through their extensive mutual trade and investment relations, but also because the European Union (EU), China, and Japan are major actors on international forums such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). While Europe has a stable regional security system – the main component of which is the EU – this is not the case in East Asia. The lack of a dependable security mechanism to deal with potential East Asian flashpoints such as the ‘Taiwan issue’ has a destabilising effect on Europe’s economic and security interests. Clearly, Europe would benefit from a strengthening of stability in East Asia. The main argument in this paper is that the EU should strive to assume a degree of responsibility for East Asian security that corresponds with its interests. The EU arms embargo against China serves as an illustration both of the need for the EU to take more responsibility for East Asian security, and of the ways in which a more activerole might be pursued.

The Unnoticed Battle against Yin's Yin : Opium Chinese Women and Protestant Missionaries in Late Qing

David J. Kang — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:44:57 PDT

Runaway Wives and their Matchmakers: Lower Class Women Networks in Beijing's Courtyard Tenements, 1928-1949

Zhao Ma — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:43:54 PDT

This article examines the formation and operation of lower class women’s

social network in the ghettoized courtyard neighborhood in early

twentieth-century Beijing. Drawing evidence from criminal case files, it

argues that courtyard tenements provided a gendered urban space within

which women formed, extended, and maintained a flexible and dynamic

web of durable relationships. Motivated largely by individual

circumstances and objectives, this neighborhood network remained

personalized, individualized, and “ego-centered” The network did not

come into existence for any type of political movements; nor did it entail

wider female solidarity. But the physical geography of the courtyard

tenements and the development of these neighborhood networks offered

lower class women some immediate protections and buffers when they

were under emotional, domestic or economic crisis. This article argues that

these interpersonal relationships forged within a complex urban space was

an important resource for women to rise themselves out of the intense state

control and economic turmoil in the tumultuous decades of reform and

revolution.

Transnationalism and Migration: Chinese Migrants in New Zealand

Raymond C.F. Chui — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:14:53 PDT

Transnational migration is an integral part of the modern world. Immigration policies, economic initiatives and international agreements of modern natiion-states have shaped the growth of transnational migration. Nation-states classify migrants into different categories for the purpose of border control; they have favoured some groups of migrants over the others. This is particularly true for New Zealand, which has maintained close connections with the United Kingdom and preferred British migrants to other peoples since the nineteenth century. New Zealand has always emphasized the economic integration of migrants into the society. Against this background, Chinese migrants arrived and developed their transnational networks across the Pacific Ocean for familiar, social and economic reasons. This paper discusses the transformation of New Zealand's immigration policies and its impact on transnational practices of Chinese migrants from the past to the present. It begins with a critical account of the early development of immigration policies in New Zealnd. Then it discusses the transnational networks of Chinese migrants in New Zealand throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The core of this study focuses on the different patterns of Chinese migration and settlement in New Zealand after the immigration reform in the 1980s and the emergence of Chinese transnational networks in the recent decades.

China's Third World Policy from the Maoist Era to the Present

Joseph Tse-Hei Lee — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:02:30 PDT

This study examines the evolution of China's Third World policy from the Maoist era to the present. The term "third World" refers to all developing and underdeveloped countries in Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. Since 1949, the People's Republic of China was mainly responding to the international pressures from the United States and the Soviet Union rather than dealing with the Third World countries per se. But after the launching of the War on Terror in 2001, the American military expansion into Iraq and Afghanistan completely changed China's diplomatic priorities. Beijing has begun to pursue an active policy of engaging many Third World countries in order to undermine the U.S.-dominated international order. This development reflects the current official rhetoric about the China's peaceful ruse, meaning that a powerful China will not threaten its Asian neighbors as the Western imperialists had done in the past.

Imaginary Neighbors: African American and Asian American Writers' Visions of China during the Cold War

Jeannie Chiu — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:02:17 PDT

China's Good Earth: From Urbanization to Rural Development under Hu Jintao 's Administration

Jessica Wade — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:02:16 PDT

This paper analyzes the recent efforts of the Chinese government to facilitate rural development. It reviews the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s previous emphasis on urban-based growth, the history behind the shift towards rural development, and the attempts by President Hu Jintao to move from extensive urban development towards sustainable rural development. It asserts, first, that much of China’s urban-based development was intentionally encouraged by the government, and second, that the CCP is now deliberately moving its investment and focus to rural-based growth. The paper justifies these findings through an exploration of the previous and current economic policies and propaganda of the CCP. This study also explores the logic behind the policy changes and the implications of the new rural development policies, combining the primary and secondary resources with fieldwork undertaken in Sichuan province. The findings help us better understand how the previous government policies have shaped China’s dualistic development and how China’s economic landscape may be drastically transformed within the decade.

From Philosopher to Cultural Icon: Reflections on Hu Mei's "Confucius" (2010)

Joseph Tse-Hei Lee et al. — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:14:45 PDT