Book Review: Mum Fans: Identity, Feminism and Fan Culture in Contemporary China by Li Ye YeLi, Mum Fans: Identity, Feminism and Fan Culture in Contemporary China. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2025; xvi + 220 pp. with figures, tables, abbreviations, glossary, notes, references, appendix, index: 9781032706627, £124.00 (hbk)

近二十年来，华人世界出版了一系列不同主题、类型和价值偏向的回忆录，构成了对20世纪中国历史的复杂而多元的历史记忆，这些历史书写和历史记忆既充满了一种认同的竞争，同时也不乏互动，是华人社群构成自我理解和集体记忆极为重要的环节。因此，这些回忆录无论是对于研究20世纪中国史的历史学者，还是对于对了解这段历史感兴趣的普通读者来说，都是极有价值而值得认真予以辨析和讨论的。

This study extends Boudon’s positional theory to understand how students from different social origins make choices about university and how they interpret risks during the choice-making process in contemporary China. I draw upon empirical evidence from 71 in-depth semi-structured interviews with undergraduates from different social backgrounds and from different types of universities. The interview data confirm the relevance of Boudon’s thesis in the Chinese context; that is, individuals’ family characteristics manifest in the process of choices and strategies. Furthermore, this study provides new evidence on a pattern of class-bound conformity, which sometimes contradicts the rational course of action from students’ narratives on socioeconomic and cultural identity as well as opportunity risks associated with the quota system. When hope and chance clash, students from working-class or agricultural families reduce to internalize their socioeconomic or geographical disadvantages, come to terms with a lack of equal opportunities in a seemingly meritocratic system.

The fact that the so-called Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) are honored in the same temples and embraced by the same persons shows that purity of faith, the quest for authenticity of belief, and exclusive commitment to one God are not prominent on the Chinese religious landscape. The Confucian elements that remained in the public discourse were those that were compatible with science and technology. Confucian humanism, unlike secular humanism in the modern West, is a comprehensive and integrated vision of the human condition. The idea of the continuity of can serve as a point of departure. In this view, the human is connected with all modalities of being - minerals, plants, and animals. Confucian humanism is likely to play a major role in shaping China's cultural identity. It can either promote narrow-minded nationalism in the guise of patriotism or it can encourage an open, pluralistic, and reflexive self-understanding. Keywords:Chinese religious landscape; Confucian humanism; Confucian spirituality; contemporary China

Cultural Security in Contemporary China and Mongolia applies the term “cultural security” not exclusively to state- or institution-implemented processes, but also considers the indigenous, bottom-up, and inside-out mechanisms of establishing and maintaining communal cultural security of an ethnic group. Markers of cultural identity differ according to an inside and outside perspective and can be re-defined according to inner or outer circumstances. Importance of these markers increases when a community feels endangered in their cultural existence, or diminishes when perceived cultural identity is not questioned. The dynamics shaping cultural security are illustrated in examples of ethnic communities in the People’s Republic of China and in Mongolia.

As a member of several fan cultures, I have an interest in the processes that fan audiences use to construct and reconstruct the texts they consume. Additionally, I think of the way (written, oral, and musical) texts construct the individuals who constitute their audiences. Examining Master of Kung Fu provided the perfect combination of these two interests. —David My fascination with representations of Asians in the media began with The Destroyer book series that I read as a teen. While the character Remo at first resisted his fate, he quickly embraced his identity as the next Master of Sinanju. As a Vietnamese American growing up in a small Midwestern town, I have slowly come to my identity as an Asian American. I owe a lot of that to my current life as a Ph.D. student. My research has centered around cultural identity and representations in comics, children's literature, and Asian American magazines. These have fueled my desire to learn more about my own identity. —Kate

Consuming Sport offers a detailed consideration of how sport is experienced and engaged with in the everyday lives, social networks and consumer patterns of its followers. It examines the processes of becoming a sport fan, and the social and moral career that supporters follow as their involvement develops over a life-course. The book argues that while for many people sport matters, for many more, it does not. Though for some sport is significant in shaping their social and cultural identity, it is often consumed and experienced by others in quite mundane and everyday ways, through the media images that surround us, conversations overheard and in the clothing of people we pass by. As well as developing a new theory of sport fandom the book links this discussion to wider debates on audiences, fan cultures and consumer practices. The text argues that for far too long consideration of sport fans has focused on exceptional forms of support ignoring the myriad of ways in which sport can be experienced and consumed in everyday life.

Over the past four decades, China has undergone a rapid and comprehensive modernization process, transforming the country's economic, social, and cultural structures. This transformation reflects not only economic growth and technological innovation but also tensions between tradition and modernity in cultural identity. This study highlights how modernization shapes the cultural identities of China's urban youth through a qualitative approach, combining digital discourse analysis and in-depth interviews. Furthermore, it examines China's civilizational diplomacy as a global strategy that combines cultural hegemony, soft power, and epistemic challenges to the Western order. Using the A-DUNK framework, the study identifies three main findings: first, civilizational diplomacy displays a duality between inclusive dialogue and the centrality of Cynical morality; second, China's soft power is built through moral legitimacy that emphasizes historical continuity and civilizing values; and third, this diplomacy presents epistemic challenges that emphasize relationality and coexistence among civilizations. The discussion shows that China's approach aligns with civilizational pluralism, yet still faces tensions between inclusive rhetoric and asymmetrical practices. Normatively, the success of China's civilizational diplomacy hinges on its ability to institutionalize ethical reciprocity, transforming moral discourse into an inclusive procedural mechanism. This study contributes to an interdisciplinary understanding of Chinese modernization and diplomacy as phenomena that are not only geopolitical but also normative and epistemic, offering a model of "civilizational relationalism" that emphasizes the co-construction of meaning, legitimacy, and world order in the era of post-Western globalization. These findings open up opportunities for further research on cross-cultural reception, comparisons with other emerging powers, and the long-term evolution of civilizational diplomacy narratives.

This paper describes ordinary peoples accounts of how they deal with extramarital affairs. By looking at such personal accounts we hope to better understand the workings of moral discourse in everyday life. Rather than searching for an underlying system of consistent values or a domineering public voice we will investigate how people use competing discourses of motive to make sense of extramarital love in the contexts of their own lives and those of people around them. In doing this we also hope to provide a description of changes in Chinese moral codes and the factors that shape their use. While we must emphasize that our interviewees are special cases as all of our interviewees are or were dealing with extramarital sexuality in their own lives we also wish to emphasize that the moral discourses these individuals employed are almost all common in contemporary Chinese society. That is the personal stories people told us were not amoral accounts but rather deviant or sub- cultural uses of dominant moral discourses. We must understand how such moral values play a role in enabling deviant behaviour. (excerpt)

This chapter explores offence as a creative force within media fandom and the way in which affect circulates and creates identity in fan culture. By examining fandom as a ‘feels culture’ and the particularities of critical fandom as expressed through vidding (the creation of short, remix music videos which present an argument), the chapter shows how love and offence can coexist and spark fannish creativity. An analysis of an example vid and its surrounding metatext and reception shows how this can look in praxis.

This article investigates the fanbase of women’s football in Scotland, focusing on supporters of the Scotland Women’s National Team (SWNT). Drawing on a large-scale survey of over 2300 fans and participant observation at seven matches, the study explores the demographics, motivations, and experiences of supporters. By comparing fans of women’s football with those of men’s football, it highlights key differences in identity, values, and fan culture. Findings reveal a distinctive and diverse audience, including significant representation of women and LGBTQ+ communities, motivated by inclusivity, representation, and a welcoming matchday atmosphere. A typology of fan identities is developed, and tensions between traditional and emerging fan cultures are explored. The study argues that the growth of women’s football in Scotland depends on increased visibility, and support for underrepresented groups. By centring fans often overlooked in football research, it offers an original contribution to the sociology of sport and the study of fandom.

Following the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, the People's Republic of China gradually permitted the renewal of religious activity. Tibetans, whose traditional religious and cultural institutions had been decimated during the preceding two decades, took advantage of the decisions of 1978 to begin a Buddhist renewal that is one of the most extensive and dramatic examples of religious revitalization in contemporary China. The nature of that revival is the focus of this book. Four leading specialists in Tibetan anthropology and religion conducted case studies in the Tibet autonomous region and among the Tibetans of Sichuan and Qinghai provinces. There they observed the revival of the Buddhist heritage in monastic communities and among laypersons at popular pilgrimages and festivals. Demonstrating how that revival must contend with tensions between the Chinese state and aspirations for greater Tibetan autonomy, the authors discuss ways that Tibetan Buddhists are restructuring their religion through a complex process of social, political, and economic adaptation. Buddhism has long been the main source of Tibetans' pride in their culture and country. These essays reveal the vibrancy of that ancient religion in contemporary Tibet and also the problems that religion and Tibetan culture in general are facing in a radically altered world.

Preface 1. Introduction: The End of Tradition? Part 1. Traditions of the Modern 2. The Global Domestic: Deterritorializing Globalization 3. The End is Near: Apocalypse and Utopia in Contemporary Thought 4. Nostalgias of the Modern. Part 2. Invented Landscapes 5. Nature and Tradition at the Border: Landscaping the End of the Nation State 6. Tourism's Exclusionary Practices in Cancun, Cuba, and Southern Florida: Consumption and Protection of Traditional Environments 7. Architecture and the Production of Postcard Images: Invocations of Tradition vs. Critical Transnationalism in Curitiba. Part 3. Programmes of Tradition 8. Tradition as a Means to the End of Tradition: Italian Fascist New Towns 9. Cultural Identity and Architectural Image in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town 10. 'End of Histroy?' Reflections on the Death and Life of Walls in Contemporary China. Index.

This article explores how the prolonged and erosive deindustrialization in China's struggling state-owned enterprises (SOE), an inevitable result of the neoliberal shift in industrialization policy from socialist import-substitution industrialization to globalized export-oriented industrialization, has changed workers’ perceptions of themselves and their work. Based on in-depth interviews with workers and participant observation in one enterprise—Nanfang Steel—this study describes how what it means to be a worker has changed over two generations of SOE workers. The “glorious” identity of the worker, promoted by the state during the Maoist era, and emphatically proclaimed by elder workers despite its internal limitations and contradictions, has been dismantled by the neoliberal reform and has instead metamorphosed into a newly developed and “stigma-laden” cultural identity created by contemporary hegemonic discourse and then bitterly internalized by currently employed younger workers.

Introduction. Art and pedagogical education in China has become a strategic priority in the context of rapid socio-cultural and technological changes. National policies emphasise the role of aesthetic education in shaping personality, creativity, and cultural identity, yet numerous systemic difficulties remain. Aim. The aim of this article is to identify and analyse the key challenges that hinder the effective development of art and pedagogical education in contemporary China. Methodology. To address the research aim, this study employed a set of methods commonly used in general and comparative pedagogy. These included analytical and synthetic approaches, historical-pedagogical analysis, comparative methodology, and the interpretation of official policy documents and scholarly literature. Results. An analysis of scholarly literature and policy documents revealed one of the major problems to be a tension between preserving traditional forms of art education and introducing modern innovative practices. While dance, music, and visual arts have strong cultural roots, the integration of digital technologies, new liberal arts concepts, and global educational trends often create methodological uncertainties. Another significant challenge lies in the policy–practice gap: although government programmes set ambitious goals for comprehensive aesthetic development, in practice, art subjects are often marginalised in favour of exam-oriented disciplines, especially in secondary education. Teacher training was identified as a particularly weak link. Studies demonstrate that future art educators receive insufficient methodological preparation, contend with a lack of professional versatility, and have limited opportunities for continuous development. Teachers face difficulties in adapting to diversified curricula, while higher education institutions still struggle to update pedagogical models in line with contemporary needs. At the same time, attempts to incorporate local cultural traditions, such as opera and folk art, enrich curricula but risk causing fissures without a coherent methodological basis. Additional problems include unequal access to resources between urban and rural schools and the need to balance globalisation with the preservation of national identity. Conclusions. The conclusions confirm that the sustainable reform of art and pedagogical education in China would require a coordinated effort in curriculum design, the professionalization of teaching, the integration of technology and a careful balance of innovation with tradition. This study thus contributes to an understanding of the systemic barriers that need to be overcome to ensure the effectiveness and cultural relevance of art education in the modern era.

This article reviews three recent books on labour politics in Vietnam and China: Angie Tran’s Ties That Bind: Cultural Identity, Class and Law in Vietnam’s Labor Resistance; Jeffrey Becker’s Social Ties, Resources and Migrant Labor Contention in Contemporary China: From Peasants to Protesters, and Eli Friedman’s Insurgency Trap: Labor Politics in Post-Socialist China. These three books capture the changing patterns of labour unrest and labour institutions in Vietnam and China, which are accounted for by the social foundation of resistance as well as the political economy of capitalist development. Their main contribution to the existing literature is that they draw out the new dynamics and new venues within the state that can both enable and constrain labour resistance and struggle in these countries. However, this article also argues that these works have not adequately theorised the nature of change within the state and the role of the law in labour resistance. It therefore suggests that bringing in the law to socio-political institutions is essential to a research agenda that explores continuity and change in labour politics in Vietnam and China as transitional economies.