BEYOND THE WILLOW PALISADE: MANCHURIA AND THE HISTORY OF CHINA'S INNER ASIAN FRONTIER

Dr David Sneath is the Director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University and a lecturer in Social Anthropology. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College where he is Deputy Tutor for Advanced Students and Director of Studies in Archaeology and Anthropology. He is the Co-editor of the journal Inner Asia and his most recent book Changing Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State was published in 2000 by Oxford University Press (reviewed in Asian Affairs, June 2002). The following article is based on a lecture which he gave to the Society on 17 July, 2002.     

Russia’s image of China and Russian-Chinese relations

Views of China in today's Russia are characterized by great diversity. There are those who stand for strengthening ties with China to counterbalance the West; those who prefer Russia balancing between various power centers; and those who fear China as a growing geopolitical rival with a potential of expanding at the expense of Russian territory. Russia's government for the foreseeable future can be expected to advocate closer ties with China. However, the real question now is not whether a future Russian leadership will advocate a more hostile or more friendly course toward China, but if it will be able to support its wishes (whatever they may be) with the real resources necessary to pursue any consistent policy. Alexander Lukin received his first degree from the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations and a doctorate from Oxford University. He worked at the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Soviet Embassy to the PRC, and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. From 1990 to 1993 he was an elected deputy of the Moscow City Soviet (Council), where he chaired the Sub-Committee for Inter-Regional Relations. He is the author of Russian Democrats: A Study in Political Culture (to be published by Oxford University Press in 1999) and numerous articles on Russian and Chinese politics and Russian-Chinese relations which have been published in Russia, the PRC, the U.S., the UK, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In 1997/1998 he was a visiting research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is currently a research fellow at the Center for International Studies of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Foreign Ministry (MGIMO-University) and an Associate in Research at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University.     

Family Firms,Networks and ‘Ethnic Enterprise’: Chinese Food Industry in Britain

Chinese family enterprises in the United Kingdom have penetrated many different sectors of the economy, including restaurants, wholesaling, retailing, trading, manufacturing, property development, computer services and investment holding. Among the companies in these sectors, those involved in different segments of the food industry, as manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers, reputedly feature characteristics of Chinese culture. A majority of these enterprises, for example, function as family firms. This study explores the assertion that, among companies owned by ethnic minorities, culture strongly influences form of business development. This argument will be assessed through a focus on Chinese food-based enterprises in the UK. Two family-controlled companies, Seven Seas (Frozen Food) Ltd and Dayat Foods Packaging Ltd, were selected as case studies as they are involved in key business components of the Chinese food chain industry. Through an in-depth comparative study of the history and development of these two firms, we consider the argument that Chinese businesses have evolved well because of family ties and their inclusion in mutually-beneficial ethnically-constructed networks. Through these case studies, we provide an alternative perspective to diasporic Chinese business development which brings into question the extensive use of the concept of ethnic enterprise.

Thailand today

Mervyn Matthews, retired, was formerly Reader in Soviet Studies at the University of Surrey, Guildford. Since 1996 he has been resident for part of the year in Thailand, where he writes and pursues research interests.     

探寻曹聚仁先生早年的活动足迹:以暨南大学为中心的考察

曹聚仁是20世纪中国著名的作家、学者和记者,二三十年代和抗战胜利后曾两度任教暨南大学长达11年.其中二三十年代任教暨南大学9年的经历是曹聚仁人生历程中浓墨重彩的一笔.本文拟以曹聚仁任教暨南大学时的活动足迹为中心,探讨其与暨南大学的关系.     

FRANK LUDLOW AND THE ENGLISH SCHOOL IN TIBET, 1923–1926

Michael Rank is a graduate in Chinese from Downing College, Cambridge University. He also studied at Beijing University and Fudan University, Shanghai in the mid-1970s. He was a journalist in China in the early 1980s and visited Tibet in 1983. He is now a Chinese-English translator and freelance journalist. His interest in ornithology also drew him to Ludlow and to do research on his life.     

Launch of the centenary history of the society: 13 November 2002

Michael Rank is a graduate in Chinese from Downing College, Cambridge University. He also studied at Beijing University and Fudan University, Shanghai in the mid-1970s. He was a journalist in China in the early 1980s and visited Tibet in 1983. He is now a Chinese–English translator and freelance journalist. His interest in ornithology also drew him to Ludlow and to do research on his life.     

SIR JOHN BOWRING: THE IMPERIAL ROLE OF A LIFELONG RADICAL

Sir John Bowring was active in a number of different fields in British domestic affairs until he got into financial difficulties following the recession of the late 1840s. He then accepted from Palmerston the life-line of the post of consul in Canton, though he didn't enjoy it much. In 1854 he became governor of Hongkong, where his liberal ideas brought him into conflict with the local expatriate community. He played a key role in the events leading to the First Opium War, but perhaps his most positive achievement was the so-called Bowring treaty with Siam, which changed that country's commercial orientation for a hundred and fifty years.     

Pitchers and catchers: Politicians,bureaucrats, and policy‐making in Japan

Yasuhiro Nakasone draws on his five years as Prime Minister of Japan and over forty‐five years as a member of the Diet's Lower House to analyze some of the fundamental characteristics of Japan's policy‐making process. He asserts that Japan urgently needs to reconstruct this process, so that political decisions are entrusted to elected politicians rather than to unelected bureaucrats. But he stresses that politicians must also have the responsibility to stand up for their principles, and be willing at times to go against the popular consensus. Yasuhiro Nakasone is chairman of IIPS and a member of the House of Representatives. He was assisted in the preparation of this article by IIPS Visiting Research Fellow Philipp Schuller, a doctoral candidate at Oxford University. An earlier and partial version of this article appeared in the October 1994 issue of Intersect.     

Globalization in the 21st Century: Blessing or Threat to Developing Countries

Despite the Utopian promise of globalization and the advantages of an information society, the benefits have not been universal and inequality in the world has grown. To some extent, globalization may have exacerbated the discrepancy between the rich and the poor (at the international, national and individual levels) by its relentless progress. In this article, Ryokichi Hirono, professor emeritus at Seikei University and professor at Teikyo University, examines the impact of globalization, focussing in particular on its affect on developing countries (in terms of economics, politics and society) and the environment. He shows how in the last 40 years, the gap between developing and industrialized economies may have been gradually decreasing. Nevertheless, he concludes that as the world faces difficult times ahead, the global integration of economies may mean that the casualties will be higher for developing countries.     

Security in Asia: Roles and tasks for Japan and the US

Beyond any doubt, Japan and the United States share common security interests in Asia and must take active measures to strengthen their alliance, because their alliance is the foundation for Asia's peace and prosperity, argues Motohide Hashimoto. Hashimoto is a senior research fellow at IIPS who was seconded from the Ministry of Finance, where he is a specialist in fiscal and monetary policy. He worked at the Defense Agency's Bureau of Defense Policy from 1990–1992.     

John Parker Boyd: the yankee mughal

Ronald Rosner, a member since 1964, is the Hon. Secretary of the Society in New York, where he is a Maritime Arbitrator. While an American Foreign Service Officer, from 1961–1970, he served in Kathmandu and Karachi. He is a long-standing contributor to the Journal, regularly writing book reviews. This article is an extract from a chapter in his work-in-progress on Americans and the Raj.     

Prospects for cooperative security arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region

The concept of multilateral dialogue on Asia-Pacific security is attracting increasing support. This results from the improvement of relations among most of the major powers, the growing awareness of the problems that can best be addressed through cooperation, and the development of more realistic proposals for multilateral dialogue. The best approach to cooperative security is to utilize a combination of channels, including the ASEAN Regional Forum for discussion of region-wide and Southeast Asian issues, a parallel forum for dialogue on Northeast Asia, consideration of some security problems in APEC, and a recognized unofficial dialogue on regional strategic questions. In Spring 1994, he was a visiting professor of East Asian studies at The George Washington University and as of January 1995 he will be the new dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at GWU. He is the author ofA Fragile Relationship: The United States and China Since 1972 (Brookings, 1992).     

The Development of African Agriculture

This article was delivered as a lecture at a joint meeting withthe Royal Empire Society on the 29th October, Col. C E. Ponsonbybeing in the chair. The speaker, who should be well known toreaders as a reviewer, is a member of the department of agriculturein the University of Oxford, where he went after many years'service in Uganda.     

An Australian Empire Patriot and the Great War: Professor Sir Archibald T. Strong (1876–1930)

Archibald T. Strong, born in Melbourne, was the son of an Australian scholar who went to an academic post at Liverpool. The younger Strong received his secondary and tertiary education in England. There, he became proficient in modern European languages and literature. He initially planned a career in the law, but for health reasons returned to Australia to the Department of English at the University of Melbourne. Prior to the First World War, Strong became prominent in Melbourne literary circles and also a prolific commentator on world affairs. As an early member of the Round Table group in Australia, Strong assessed Imperial Germany as posing an existential threat to the British Empire and hence to Australia's security. The nation's future, he believed, lay in unwavering defence of the Empire. Strong evinced a distinct impatience with fellow citizens, especially on the socialist left, who failed, in his view, to understand the realities of Australia's position in the world and what was at stake in the Great War.     

Globalization and the Growth in Free Trade Agreements

In this article, Professor Shujiro Urata of the School of Social Sciences at Waseda University and of the Research Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry, gives an overview of the various types of regional trade agreements (RTAs), and examines the background to the growing trend towards regionalism in the 1990s. Focussing on the surge in free trade agreements (FTA), he explains why FTAs have become more popular than multilateral trade liberalization under the WTO. He describes the different types and characteristics of RTAs, the economic effects of FTAs including the static and dynamic effects, and their significance for the global and Japanese economies. He concludes that if Japan does not actively participate in FTAs, and instead chooses to ''cherry pick'' from the full range of agenda items, there is a danger that it will not be considered by other countries as a worthwhile FTA partner. If so, Japan will suffer the consequences of being excluded from other FTAs.     

The United Arab Emirates: economic vibrancy and US interests

Based in Tucson, Arizona, Dr J. E. Peterson is a historian and political scientist specializing in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf. He received his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University and has taught at several academic institutions in the USA and worked for the US government and various research institutes. Until 1999, he served as the Historian of the Sultan's Armed Forces in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defence in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, and he spent 2000–2001 at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. His books include The Arab Gulf States: Steps Toward Political Participation (Praeger, for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1988), Historical Dictionary of Saudi Arabia (Scarecrow Press, 1993; 2^nd ed. Scarecrow Press, 2003) and Defending Oman: A History of the Sultan's Armed Forces (forthcoming). He has written an Adelphi Paper, Saudi Arabia and the Illusion of Security (2002). His articles on ‘Saudi-American Relations after September 11’ and ‘Bahrain's First Steps Towards Reform Under Amir Hamad’ appeared in recent issues of Asian Affairs. Dr Peterson's website is www.JEPeterson.net     

Post‐war Iraq: an assessment

Sir Terence Clark is a Council Member of the Society. He retired from the Diplomatic Service after a distinguished career spent mainly in the Middle East, where he was Ambassador to Iraq and Oman. He is the author of many articles in specialist journals and co‐author of Oman in Time (2001). On 18 June 2003, Sir Terence, together with Sir Harold Walker, Chairman of the Society, spoke to the Society about the situation in Iraq as it then appeared. The following is an edited and updated version of Sir Terence's talk.     

李穑与《论语》在高丽末期的传播

高丽末期著名学者李穑入主成均馆之后,积极推广朱子学说,研读、讲授《论语》等经典。他还为国王讲授《论语》,并创作了富有特色的《论语》"经筵诗",他的其他诗文也大量引用了《论语》,理学意味很浓厚。由于李穑的这些努力,《论语》的传播随着性理学的发展而呈现出了新的面貌,其在高丽末期政治、文化生活中也发挥了积极的作用。