Re-negotiations of the "China Factor" in Contemporary Hong Kong Genre Cinema

International Law and the Extraordinary Interaction Between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan

Between Flexibility and Reliability

An examination of Soviet nostalgia—nostalgia for the times when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) had a close relationship with the Soviet Union, as it appears in contemporary discourses that reimagine the Soviet Union, is essential to understand the quotidian aspect and cultural history of the PRC in the 1950s, as well as cultural attitudes in contemporary China. Wang Meng’s In Remembrance of the Soviet Union (2007) and Feng Jicai’s Listening to Russia (2005) are characterized by nostalgia for the lost Soviet Union, which exerted a strong influence on the PRC during the 1950s. In contemporary China, where the market economy is the dominant mode of production, Wang and Feng’s Soviet nostalgia is a gesture of yearning for a type of historical temporality that has seemingly been lost. Their works express the desire to reclaim the historical past of the 1950s, which they portray as having been completely erased by the developmental logic of late-capitalism—the authentic cultural experiences in the 1950s, especially the everyday life along with the revolutionary ideals are rendered unreal within the post-revolutionary logic. The concept of Soviet “ji” (祭, “remembrance”) provides a theoretical framework through which to understand the way in which the phenomenon of Chinese nostalgia has the potential to shift contemporary social reality.

Exhibitions have always been at the heart of the modern art world. They are contested sites, where the joint forces of the art objects, their social agents, and institutional spaces temporarily intersect and provide a visual arrangement to specific audiences, whose interpretations feed back into the discourse on art. From this perspective, “contemporary Chinese art,” both as phenomenon and discursive category referring to specific dimensions of artistic production in China post-1979, was mediated through various exhibitions that took place in the People’s Republic of China. After 1989, exhibitions of artworks from the PRC in European and North American museums significantly contributed to the broadening of Western knowledge about this artistic production. Since then, the two strains of exhibition activities grew while becoming increasingly entangled and the discursive category of “contemporary Chinese art” has gone global. This paper reviews the beginnings of this complex process by investigating the conditions that configured the first large group exhibition of contemporary Chinese art from the PRC in Europe after 1979: the travelling group show China Avantgarde, which opened in Berlin in early 1993. The first part of the paper explores the wider historical conditions that impacted on the exhibition by contextualizing the event in relation to two important, if very different forerunners: the 1989 shows Zhongguo xiandai yishu zhan. China/Avantgarde in Beijing and Magiciens de la terre in Paris.Yet the important entanglements between the respective curatorial concepts, affiliated art discourses, and the agents involved are also analysed. Constituting a specific network of mediators, mediating factors, and mediating institutions, these forerunners influenced the making of China Avantgarde in Berlin three years later. The second part of the paper discusses the Berlin exhibition in detail. It argues that the title reflects the contested use of the discursive categories “avant-garde” and “modern art” in Beijing and Berlin at the time, which helped translate and thereby shape a certain image of contemporary Chinese art beyond the actual artworks on display. Of paricular interes are the concerns of the European curators, who had to overcome various political, logistic, as well as conceptual challenges when selecting artists and artworks. Examining the catalogue as an instance where diverging strategies of how to present artworks from thePRC become visible, the paper argues that China Avantgarde was not so much a clear-cut, singular, and–by now–canonical event, but formed as well as informed a complex canonizing process that is still relevant today.

PART ONE HERE AND NOW Crisis Subversive Strategies in Chinese Avant-garde Art Mary Bittner Wiseman Political Pop Art and the crisis of originality Yi Ying Contemporary Art in China: 'Anxiety of Influence' and the Creative Triumph of Cai Guo-Qiang Laurie Adams Working It Out Image-Fabrication and Contemporary Photography in China Wang Chunchen Chinese Contemporary Art: From De-Chineseness to Re-Chineseness Liu Yuedi Chinese without Chineseness: Chinese Contemporary Art from Cultural Symbol to International Style Peng Feng Calligraphic Expression and Contemporary Chinese Art: Xu Bing's pioneer experiment Liu Yuedi Through the Body The Political Body in Chinese Art Curtis L. Carter Gendered Bodies in Contemporary Chinese Art Mary Bittner Wiseman The Second Sex and Contemporary Chinese Women's Art: A Case Study on Chen Lingyang's Work He Jinli Expression Extreme and History Trauma in Women Body Art in China: The Case of He Chengyao Eva Kit Wah Man PART TWO HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY Classical Metaphysics in Chinese Art Abraham Kaplan Water and Stone: On the Role of Expression in Chinese Art Mary Bittner Wiseman Natural Beauty and Literati Strokes: Shi Tao, Merleau-Ponty and the Practice of Painting David A. Brubaker Paths to the Middle: A Tentative Theory for Chinese Contemporary Art Peng Feng Recent History Current State of Chinese Art Wang Chunchen Avant-garde in Chinese Art Curtis L. Carter Post-colonial and Contemporary Art Trends in Taiwan Pan Fan Experimental Painting and Painting Theories in Colonial Hong Kong (1940-1980): Reflections on Cultural Identity Eva Kit Wah Man East and West The Shape of Artistic Pasts: East and West Arthur C. Danto How to Misunderstand Chinese Art: Seven Examples David Carrier Art and Globalization: Then and Now Noel Carroll Concept, Body and Nature: After the End of Art and the Rebirth of Chinese Aesthetics Liu Yuedi

民進黨是目前台灣最大的在野黨，於1986年成立，從創立至執政，期間歷經14年的成長與蛻變。在2000年拿到執政權，2008年又歷經政黨輪替淪為在野黨，在台灣的民主政治下，政黨輪替應該會是一個常態，一個成立14年就能拿到執政權的年輕政黨，其中歷經的政黨政策與歷屆黨主席的執政方向，民進黨的黨職及公職也是透過黨內民主所產生，是台灣第一個推行黨內民主的政黨，民進黨的初選制度也是台灣第一個推動黨員投票與民意調查推選出政黨提名的候選人。 年輕創新與本土草根性是民進黨的特色，由地方到中央的組織架構讓所有中下階層都有機會參與政治的政黨，並在2000總統大選擊敗年執政多年的國民黨，相信民主進步黨是能夠改變台灣未來的一個政黨，從而在平等互惠下創造全新的兩岸關係。民進黨是一個台灣本土的政黨，早期爭人權及參政權，第二階段顧台灣護主權，到第三階段爭取社會的公平正義以及福利教育資源的平等，當然在兩岸議題上與國民黨有著不同的見解。 本文想探討民進黨自1988年李登輝繼任總統後，至一位政壇新星蔡英文出現在對陸政策上的演變。在兩岸軍事對立的年代，雙方互不往來，幾乎無任何互動產生，因此在台灣方面無制定大陸政策之需要性，惟中共不斷對台灣實施統戰策略，台灣方面曾被動做過部分「大陸政策」，如「三民主義統一中國」及「不接觸、不談判、不妥協」之「三不政策」等，但亦僅止於口號上的宣示；1987年台灣開放大陸探親後，兩岸展開熱烈交流，台灣方面在制定「大陸政策」上，由被動的應對轉為積極面對，雖然兩岸關係有著一百八十度的轉變，但往往因為執政者的主客觀因素影響，使兩岸關係一直處於「官冷民熱」的現象。尤其李登輝執政後期的「特殊國與國」等諸多爭議性議題，迫使中共官方片面中斷兩岸協商；另一方面，中共對於陳水扁及民進黨台獨論述的疑慮，造成陳水扁主政下的兩岸關係，官方管道始終無法恢復，但雙方民間交流，並未因官方管道中斷而有所停滯，反而更加緊密、頻繁，因此一股來自民間的力量，促使執政者的大陸政策方針制定，越發顯得重要。陳水扁執政期間，同時在國際上受到美國與中共的牽制，又必須面臨國內在野黨的箝制情況下，大陸政策如何產生，而「國內因素」是否正是影響台灣大陸政策的最主要因素，亦值得深入探討。 民進黨在2008年歷經政黨輪替淪為在野黨後，民進黨有可能又再次成為執政黨，然而不論那一黨執政，中國政策都是各黨所必須積極面對的重要議題，不論是執政黨或在野黨任何論點或政策的形成，相當程度都會受到當時時空環境背景的影響，中國政策更是如此，並且直接影響到兩岸的關係。然而中國一向對民進黨的中國政策多有疑慮，但是面對民進黨的再次執政，卻也不得不去正視，畢竟台灣是一個民主的國家，經由民主選舉產生的政黨輪替，是先進民主國家的常態，而蔡英文從學者轉變成為民進黨的黨主席，在2008-2012年擔任民進黨主席任內提出的“十年政綱”及其中國政策的形成與走向，也將直接或間接影響國家發展，職此，如何深入瞭解民進黨於政黨輪替後的中國政策，期望能夠在尋求探討民進黨如何在兩岸關係中發展和平穩定的雙邊關係有所助益。

Introduction: Exploring for Constitutionalism in 21st Century China S.Balme & M.W.Dowdle PART I: CONSTITUTIONALISM AS ENVISIONING THE STATE 'Judicial Politics' as State-Building Z.Suli Of Constitutions and Constitutionalism: Trying to Build a New Political Order in China, 1908-1949 X.Xiao-Planes Epistrophy: Chinese Constitutionalism and the 1950s G.D.Tiffert Middle Income Blues: The East Asian Model and Implications for Constitutional Development in China R.P.Peerenboom PART II: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A 'POLITICAL JURISPRUDENCE' China's Constitutional Research and Teaching: A State of the Art T.Zhiwei Western Constitutional Ideas and Constitutional Discourse in China, 1978-2005 Y.Xingzhong 'To Take the Law as the Public': The Diversification of Society and Legal Discourse in Contemporary China J.Weidong PART III: TRANSMITTING CONSTITUTIONALISM: 'JUDICIAL POWER' AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM Administrative Law as a Mechanism for Political Control in Contemporary China H.Xin Access to Justice and Constitutionalism in China F.Hualing Ordinary Justice and Popular Constitutionalism in China S.Balme Beyond 'Judicial Power': Courts and Constitutionalism in Modern China M.W.Dowdle PART IV: TOWARDS A POPULAR CONSTITUTIONALISM Citizens Engage the Constitution: The Sun Zhigang Incident and Constitutional Review Proposals in the People's Republic of China K.J.Hand Rights Activism in China: The Case of Lawyer Gao Zhisheng E.Pils Epilogue: The Past as Preface: Constitutionalism in the Late Ming Virtual Constitutionalism in the Late Ming Dynasty P.Will

The western feminist literary criticism was introduced into China around about 1983, which had great influence on the feminist literary theory and literature in China. This article explores the influence and significance of contemporary feminist writing in China. The influence of the French feminist literary criticism on the contemporary female writing in China is in the perspective of private space / internal perspective / narcissism. The most influential and obvious controversy is caused by the West Soviet influence. This article focuses on this. However, as Anglo-American women's literary criticism tends to influence the contemporary female writing in China in terms of public space / external perspective / self-examination and self-reliance, China does not have as large a feminist movement as Anglo-American, but instead liberates its own national liberation. Therefore, this influence is more indirect. This article focuses on the guiding significance of the British and American feminist literary criticism on contemporary Chinese women's writing.

Strengthening of Transparency and Anticipation in Legislation for the Stable Conducting of Business Activity in the People’s republic of China The aim of this article is a presentation of an interesting topic dealing with the enhancing of transparency and predictability in legislation for the stable conducting of business activity in the People’s republic of China. This proves about a great legislative activity in this country. This analysis shows, that this issue has a complex character and therefore the author has decided to consider selected issues connected with this legislative problem. Following issues are considered: trade relations between China and the European Union, the law of the People’s republic of China dealing with enterprises with foreign capital and the contemporary arbitration law of China. Basing on these examples, the author presents, that the transparency and predictability in legislation has very positive influence for conducting of business activity in China and also between China and many countries interested in trade relations with this big actor of the world’s economy. Therefore, by analyzing of these selected aspects it is important to stress, that enhancing of transparency and predictability in Chinese legislation has proved about the authenticates of the capital market in this country. This is an effect of development of this country in the economic area of civilization. Presently, there is ongoing discussion and intensive works dealing with creation of the useful legal rules for the corporative framework with the participation of the representatives of enterprises, lawyers and foreign experts. It is very true especially in the trade relations between China and the European Union in the case of establishing of a clear and transparent legal rules for conducting of business activity in frames of a new created international treaty. In this area, there are a lot of legal achievements in the revision of the existing legal rules, especially their useful implementation concerning of the enterprises with foreign capital or analysed arbitration law. In this complex situation many Chinese politicians and economists postulate for buying of new technologies from different parts of industry and for development of existing and new created areas of economy basing on the rules of international trade law, with the acceptance of the legal standards of the countries interested in conducting of business activity with China.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, contemporary art from China has displayed a recurrent engagement with urban ruins. Painting, performance, film, and photography have turned the rubble of demolition and construction works, an outcome of the vast urban development programs of the past few decades, into a powerful symbol of China's contemporary milieu. Critical and academic approaches to contemporary Chinese art have rightly inquired about the meaning of these ruins, in a process that has also reevaluated the place of these images in the representational traditions of China. Starting with these academic perspectives, this paper situates images of ruination in contemporary Chinese art in dialogue with transnational debates on the meaning and epistemology of the ruin, to argue for an essential element of constructedness in the representations of ruins. Photographic series by Wang Qingsong, Jiang Pengyi, and Yang Yongliang are analyzed as examples of an active appropriation of the process of ruin creation from a critical stance. Recycling urban wasteful rubble into an aesthetic object, these photo artists generate alternative visions of urban development and its consequent demolition and contribute to the negotiation of the meaning of the ruin.

With the impending expiration of the Kyoto Protocol, the negotiations toward a new agreement to reduce the global emission of greenhouse gasses have become a leading factor in contemporary international relations. Amidst these negotiations a central focus has been on the potential actions of the People’s Republic of China, with the country’s recent development making its signature crucial to any future agreement. To best understand China’s past and potential future actions at multilateral environmental negotiations, this paper has looked to the domestic factors influencing China’s foreign actions. This paper has adopted a theoretical framework in which the Chinese Communist Party’s process of legitimation is held as a major factor in determining its diplomatic actions and statements. Several recent theories on Chinese governance have established that in lieu of institutions capable of legitimating the leadership’s rule, their legitimacy has been maintained primarily through the continued reproduction of outputs demanded by the populace. These include general demands such as sustained economic growth and the development of national pride along with more specific ones including improved environmental protection. The government’s continued focus on these outputs has become central to China’s policy process, with the CCP adopting a pragmatic approach to decision making more responsive to these bottom-up pressures that is having an increasing effect on the country’s foreign actions. The results of this study show a pattern of bottom-up influence on China’s actions and statements during the three cases of Montreal, Kyoto, and Copenhagen, with the influence of the populace’s demands for economic development, national pride, and environmental development evident in each case. This evidence provides support to established theories that hold the CCP’s process of domestic legitimation to be a primary factor in China’s contemporary multilateral environmental negotiation.

Neo-Confucianism – Whether China can Become a Liberal Democracy? Along with the rapid development of Chinese economy people are more interested in what will be the Chinese contribution to the reconstruction of the world culture. This article presents Neo-Confucian intellectual project and contemporary problems of Neo-Confucian political philosophy. Confucianism is a very important part of Chinese culture. For the most of Chinese history Confucianism has been associated with an immutable hierarchy of authority and unquestioned obedience. At the time of Hundred Days Reform of 1898 and during the May Four Period Confucianism was criticised. During this period the beginning of Chinese liberalism can be noticed. Chinese liberal thought was identified with anti-Confucianism, science, democracy, liberty, progress and the vernacular movement. The New Culture intellectuals of the early twentieth century blamed Confucianism for Chinese weaknesses. In the People’s Republic of China Confucianism was replaced by Maoism as a new official state ideology. Nowadays, we can see again a return to the Confucian philosophy. The revival of Confucianism in China and other Chinese-speaking countries appears in the form of Neo-Confucianism. In contemporary China we can see a discussion about Neo-Confucian relevance and its possible advantages over political liberalism – the dominant philosophy in the West today. The question is whether Neo-Confucianism can offer “the third-way” or “the Chinese way” of development in the global era.

Political Leadership: The Case of China The essence of the debate revolves around the topic concerning the leadership in the People’s Republic of China and its constitutional basis. The paper examines some questions. What is the meaning of the leadership? How has the institution of the leadership in China’s history been created? Why China is so interesting? What are the characteristics of the political system of this state? What is the contemporary political system and the position of the leader? The importance of the leadership conception is presented in the article. The history of Chinese statehood is addressed in the article, as well. The revolution stirred up by Mao Zedong in the 20th century is analyzed as having a significant impact on the issue of leadership in the contemporary China. Then, an evolution of the system currently in force is noticed. Furthermore, the Author attempts to analyze the constitutional basis of the institution of the PRC Chairman. At the end, the Author attempts to characterize the model of governance in China.

This research aims to examine the lived experiences of Money Boys (MBs), male-to-male prostitutes, in the People’s Republic of China, by asking, as a result of their experience, if issues of class and sexuality should be critically inspected in today’s Chinese culture, and whether new gendered/classed subjects are being generated. Based on the fieldwork that I researched in Shanghai, this thesis uses the analytical lens of “value/s” by interrogating how specific values are produced through new political economic apparatus—namely neo-liberalism and its relationship to traditional and socialist values. The thesis asks why some values have become significant to the forms of cultural and economic exchange performed by Money Boys. Using participant observation and in-depth interviews obtained in a brothel, bars and cruising parks, the data makes visible the ways in which different values are put into effect by the Money Boys by accessing resources from their working class backgrounds and bodies. Specifically the thesis shows how Money Boys problematise emergent Chinese homosexual identity which is currently normalised by urban citizens and the State. It also shows how Money Boys redefine the concept of cosmopolitanism to describe how they imagine and shape their future. Taken as a whole, this research proposes that there is an urgent need to reconsider how Chinese society is configured through the contemporary formation of material struggles, including the rural and urban polarisation and class relations of the newly rich and migrant poor. It demonstrates that materiality organises the ways in which values are redistributed and performed differently by different classed/gendered subjects. Money Boys, and their lived experiences, offer a critical way to illuminate how performing value in today’s China is a dynamic, contested process and how sex work complicates value formation through the sexualised body.

The main purpose of this paper is to introduce two contemporary issues with regard to international finance as well as comment on the fashionable perspectives on these two issues. The first part of this paper discusses about “the Debate on the Appreciation of Renminbi .” The Renminbi exchange rate problem has become a highlighted issue on the world’s political and economic stage. From the media outlets, many experts have offered various comments and insights regarding this topic. However, up until now, very few systematic studies or reviews have been performed on these reports. This paper begins by analyzing the market’s view of whether or not the Renminbi will appreciate, and the underlying problems surrounding the currency. The second topic addresses the various assessments of why the Renminbi should appreciate. These include---China’s trade surplus, impact of China’s low-priced export strategy on the United State’s unemployment problem, the changing competitive status between China and Europe, the large influx in China’s money supply caused by drastic increases of its foreign exchange reserves, and the increasing burden of interest rate payments due to sterilization. This paper states that except for the analysis that a fixed exchange rate regime may cause China to lose its independent monetary policy stance, the other viewpoints are not strong or persuasive enough in explaining why the currency should appreciate. In addition, this study also analyzes the reasons from the other side of the argument in advocating why the Renminbi should be kept from appreciating. This encompasses China’s unemployment problems, capital loss of the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) foreign assets denominated in Renminbi, the private financial structure, and the possibility of experiencing the same serious recession and other ramifications caused by the rapid appreciation of the Japanese Yen after the Plaza Accord. This paper has discovered that with the unemployment problems associated with low-skilled labor along China’s southeast coastal areas being not too serious, the biggest challenge for the Renminbi in not appreciating, lies in the possible massive transfer of China’s rural residents to urban areas. As for capital loss of the PBOC’s foreign assets denominated in Renminbi, and the Japanese experience, they are not convincing enough to serve as concrete reasons for China’s currency to not appreciate. Finally, except for the fact that the adoption of a fixed exchange rate regime will cause China to lose its control over its domestic monetary policy, this research is capable of counter arguing the fashionable perspectives on whether or not the Renminbi should appreciate. Because the main pressure on the Renminbi to appreciate comes from the United States and major European countries, this issue shouldn’t be regarded as a pure economic problem, but a complicated entanglement of political, diplomatic, and economic associations, where a delicate balance should be struck. The second part of this paper is “ Issue of New Bretton Woods Regime.”, mainly discusses of the scenario of global current account imbalances, the concepts of New Bretton Woods regime as well as its sustainability. We draw the conclusions as follow. First, New Bretton Woods system (BW2) is composed of two facts: one is the undervalued currencies and the sequential current account surpluses run by East Asia (led by China) after Asian Financial Crisis; the other is the overvalued US dollar in company with the tremendous current account deficit of the US. Second, by purchasing vast dollar-denominated assets bolstered by the accumulation of foreign reserves, the East Asian countries provide low-cost external financing for the US, which reflects the descending long-term rate of US T-bonds, contributing to the soaring dollar asset prices. Third, with the low long-term rate and the flattened yield curve, resources flow out of tradable sectors into interest-sensitive sectors, which in turn lead to the internal distortion in US. Fourth, East Asian countries (especially China) have encountered with significant financing burden, and that may further bring about the problem of higher inflation, bubbles of asset prices and the capital loss of foreign assets in financial system. Finally, with the deficiency of a substantial and powerful institute, it is difficult for members among BW2 to share responsibility for financing for US and collaborate in an appropriate way. In addition, these countries also have incentives to free ride and opt out of the cheap dollar financing cartel. In summary, for the lack of an international coordinating mechanism, we conclude that BW2 is destined to unravel in the long run. In case that all members among BW2 (including the US and East Asian countries) fail to adjust these circumstances of imbalance, they will confront with the situation of severe depression of US dollar and hovering US long-term rate, which may go a step further to evolve a worldwide recession.