The Head of State Debate: A Response to Sir David Smith and Professor David Flint

In the 1990s political leaders debated a constitutional amendment that would make Australia a republic. That debate continues to the present day. Republicans believe that becoming a republic means having an Australian as head of state instead of the Queen. Constitutional Monarchists see no need for Australia to become a republic since Australia, they argue, is already an independent nation‐state. They contend that the head of state, the Governor‐General, is an Australian citizen and has been since 1965, and that the Queen of Australia is the Sovereign. The purpose of this article is to provide a republican response to recent arguments of two leading Constitutional Monarchist, Sir David Smith and Professor David Flint.     

The Problem of Incentives: A Discussion

This article represents the greater part of a discussion, organisedat the Royal Empire Society on the 29th October, to considercertain points made by Mrs. Huxley in her recent paper on EastAfrica. The Chairman was Sir William Goodenough, Chairman ofBarclays Bank.     

Challenging The Mandate Of Heaven: Popular Protest in Modern China

Arguing that popular protest has played an unusual role in bestowing political legitimacy in China, this article traces continuities in state responses to protest movements from imperial days to the present. The author compares the government's recent handling of three different types of protest: economically motivated actions by hard-pressed workers and farmers, nationalistically inspired demonstrations by patriotic students, and (at greater length) religiously rooted resistance by zealous believers. The central authorities' tolerance toward localized strikes and tax riots, and their overt encouragement of protests against the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, contrasts sharply with the harsh and unrelenting campaign of repression that has been directed against Falun Gong adherents. Explanations for these variant state responses are sought in historically grounded assessments of the political implications of different types of popular protest.     

The Cultural Aspects of Advertising Communications in Modern China

Advertising studies allow us not only to differentiate successful from unsuccessful marketing activities, but establish the fact as well that advertising reveals specific cultural norms that somehow differ depending on global regions. Advertising studies feature a clearly pronounced interdisciplinary nature and allow us to better understand what cultural basis specific advertising texts are made on. An advertising message is oriented on both rational and emotional-affective processes among the people perceiving the message. Modern Chinese consumers live in a complex social and cultural space. The ideology of the People’s Republic of China combines traditional philosophy, socialist ideas, and technological pragmatism. In modern China, advertising costs are skyrocketing (the year-to-year increase is about 100%). Chinese visual advertising images are based on a complex mixture of global and traditional cultural values and embody different aspects of “the Great Chinese Dream.” A visual analysis of Chinese advertisements allows us to see what traditional and global values are embodied by advertisers in advertising texts in order to render such advertising messages more effectively. Generally encountered are female images, nature-related images, and images pertaining to the ancient past of China. At the same time, ancient Chinese traditions are subject to globalization. Chinese traditional female images are created in the context of trends of mass culture. Nevertheless, the keynote remains within China’s traditional values. All the while, it features no forced separation from the global culture. It is more likely that China harmoniously includes the components considered acceptable within its own worldview.     

Water Margins: Competing Paradigms in China

A global water crisis is widely predicted to occur in this century. China is both water-poor – in per capita terms one of the world's twelve most deprived (and increasingly water-polluted) countries – and, at the same time, also water-rich. This “blue gold” wealth makes China a potential water-power of “Saudi-Arabia” dimensions. While China's potential remains largely undeveloped, the country faces growing water pressures: highly uneven distribution between North and South, urbanization, population increase, degradation of the environment, and rapidly rising demands for energy, irrigation, and town water. The Three Gorges Dam project is the largest hydro-development project in the world and possibly the largest civil engineering project in history. This paper looks at less well-known development projects for the major rivers of China's South and Southwest including the Lancang (Mekong) and the Upper Yangzi. It also discusses the plans for a “Cascade” of dams on the Lancang, which will have a significant impact on Southeast Mekong riparian countries, plans to “transfer” water from the Yangzi to the North China plain, and the idea of a global “super dam” in the Tibetan Himalayas. The paper argues that the Chinese government favors the “modern” paradigm of water engineering at a time when that paradigm is being abandoned in the developed world in favor of safer, more economical, and more sustainable options.     

Revolutionary Discourse in Mao's China,by David E. Apter and Tony Saich

Abstract

As early as Edgar Snow's pioneering Red Star over China (1937), Yan'an was seen as the “defining moment” of the Chinese Communists' rise to power. Beginning in 1935, Mao Zedong set his personal imprint on the party as he successfully guided it from the disaster of the Long March to the “Congress of Victors” in 1945. This set the stage for the final showdown with Chiang Kai-shek and the hapless Nationalists in the civil war of 1946-49. With the victory of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, the experiences of Yan'an became the blueprint for the reconstruction of China along the lines first laid out in that remote and impoverished town in the northeast.     

实用主义与儒家思想的对话--评《死者的民主》

从表面上看,把实用主义和儒家思想并置,这不仅是一个时间上的错误,而且是一个空间上的错误.实用主义是一个极其现代的哲学思潮,它一般被公认为美国文化的基本价值体系,虽然现实中的美国社会与哲学意义上的实用主义并不能一一对应.而儒家思想几乎与中华文明一样古老,它虽然已不再享有往昔的荣光,却早已化为中华民族的喜怒哀乐.然而,思想史上的事件常常具有戏剧性,最古老的常常能与最现代的共鸣,东方的常常能与西方的沟通.实用主义与儒家思想的对话当属这样一种典型的文化史景观.