Modern China Research Articles

The Influence of “Using the Temple Property for Schools” Movement on the Organization of Han Buddhist Monastic Education in Modern China

Under the influence of “Using the Temple Property for Schools”(UTPSs) movement, the monastic education of Han Buddhism 漢傳佛教僧教育 in modern China, as a whole, has gradually moved towards the mode of Buddhist colleges, through the establishment of the Buddhist Educational Affairs Public Office (BEAPO) 佛教學務公所, the Institution of Monastic Education (IME) 僧教育會, and the institution of Buddhist education 佛教教育機構 with international outlook and has become the prototype of the educational institution of Han Buddhism in contemporary China. The attempts to run schools during the period of the BEAPO at the late Qing Dynasty objectively stimulated the awakening of the consciousness of the Buddhist community to establish schools and to promote education 辦學興教 and became the precursor of the rise of the wave of monastic education after the Xinhai Revolution, especially since the 1920s. The goal of “uniting the national Buddhism” proposed by the BEAPO became the direction for the development of subsequent Buddhist organizations. The BEAPO also accumulated experiences for the construction of later Buddhist organizations and stimulated the awakening of the monks’ sense of subjectivity. The organizational structure and many ideas of the BEAPO were later inherited by the IME; most of the contents of the constitution of it were also inherited and improved by the IME. As a Buddhist organization, the BEAPO made positive efforts to reconcile the tensions between monks and laypeople under the context of UTPS at that time. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Han Buddhist community focused on interacting with secular society, and the practice of Buddhist education reflected the awakening of self-consciousness to “establish schools to promote education”. In terms of the school operation mode, the diversified curriculum and modernized academic system reflect the characteristic of a balance between internal and external studies. During this period, the establishment of Buddhist educational institutions with an international outlook provided a guarantee of talent for the path of the “universalization” of Han Buddhism, as well as provided continuity for the sustainable development of it. Under the influence of the two UTPS movements, the tortuous development of Han Buddhist monastic education in modern China is, in fact, the epitome of the situation of the whole Chinese Buddhism in modern society. At the same time, it also reflects the proactive adaptation of Chinese Buddhism, in modern times, to external pressures and its self-remodeling in the struggle for survival space.

Wearing Many Hats: Chinese Muslim General Bai Chongxi and the Chinese Muslim Association during the War of Resistance

Abstract Bai Chongxi’s illustrious military career needs no introduction for military historians. What is less recognized is his influence on the development and integration of Chinese Muslims into the KMT’s national agenda during the War of Resistance. Bai leveraged his military positions to advance the aims of Chinese Muslims through his participation in the first national association for Chinese Muslims. By putting Bai’s military successes and failures during the War of Resistance into conversation with his efforts to mobilize Muslims, we see how his efforts were central to state making and nation building beyond the battlefield. In the ongoing reassessment of the Republican Era, showcasing the contributions of top generals like Bai off the battlefield presents an alternative narrative to the ongoing rehabilitation of the KMT. Bai’s influence furthers our understanding of KMT leaders in the making of modern China beyond the often-solitary focus on Chiang Kai-shek’s particular vision for the Chinese nation.

Printing Technology in Rural Society: Rethinking the Rise of Print Culture Through Chinese Genealogies, 1450–1644

This article re-examines the rise of print culture in early modern China by exploring the adoption of printing technology for publishing family genealogies. While genealogies had primarily been produced as manuscripts for centuries, in the mid-to-late Ming, elites in Southern China’s Huizhou prefecture began advocating for printed versions. This transition mirrored broader trends in Ming print culture, where printing technology was increasingly applied beyond traditional texts to a wide range of genres. Unlike scholars who have examined this shift from script to print as a precondition for other developments, I explore the process by which the print medium itself became desirable. By investigating the distinctive use of print in creating genealogies, this study underscores the diverse developmental paths of print culture in early modern China, illustrating the key role genealogies played in reshaping social relations within local communities.

Challenges and Strategies for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Modern China

Intangible cultural heritage encompasses a nation’s traditional culture and wisdom, offering a profound reflection of the lives and thoughts of its predecessors. This heritage manifests in diverse forms, including artistic performances, music, handicrafts, and festivals. Despite its cultural significance, the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage face numerous challenges in modern society. These challenges are exacerbated by rapid urbanization, globalization, and the decline of traditional practices. Previous studies have predominantly explored these issues from cultural and historical perspectives, often overlooking the critical economic factors that influence heritage preservation. This article seeks to fill this gap by examining the difficulties and problems faced by intangible cultural heritage through a comprehensive lens that includes cultural, economic, and social aspects. By analyzing these multifaceted challenges, we aim to uncover the underlying economic dynamics that hinder effective heritage preservation. Moreover, this research will propose innovative solutions to address economic challenges and enhance the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Ultimately, this article aims to provide new perspectives and positive impacts on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, highlighting the importance of an economic approach to its preservation and transmission to future generations.

Research on Chinese Universities' Communication Work for Global Southern Z-Generation Youth under the Theory of "The Bias of Communication" —A Case Study Based on Z University's Communication with Africa

At present, the significant role of strengthening international communication efforts towards the Global South is increasingly highlighted, with communication work targeting Z-Generation youth being a top priority in promoting the construction of international communication capabilities. The rise and development of the Theory of The Bias of Communication holds certain contemporary value. In the new era, China's communication work towards the Global Southern Z-Generation youth should apply this theory critically, which is specifically manifested in facing China's modernization development strategy and the concept of a community with a shared future, emphasizing the status of communication media and the renewal of new media, and promoting the shift from media dominance to content as king. Faced with challenges such as China's international communication capacity does not match the level of its comprehensive national strength and the disadvantages of “time-biased” and “space-biased” media in a late-developing context, based on the practical experience of Z University's communication work with African Z-Generation youth, Chinese universities' international communication work for Global Southern Z-Generation youth should create a fluid channel for the transformation of time and space on the basis of balancing time and space, thereby actively responding to national strategic needs. It should undertake the mission of the times to tell Chinese stories and spread Chinese voices, and build an international communication discourse system with Chinese characteristics, becoming an important position for comprehensively improving international communication efficiency.

Research on Strategies for High-Quality Development of Digital Economy Innovation in the Context of High-Level Opening-Up: A Case Study of Wenzhou, Zhejiang

n the context of high-level opening-up, the digital economy has become a key driver of economic growth and industrial upgrading, emerging as a central issue in China's modern economic development. This study explores the significance of digital economy innovation in this context and addresses the challenges it faces, such as the need for technological advancement, incomplete legal frameworks, and a shortage of relevant talent. Strategies to enhance technological innovation, improve legal systems, and streng1hen the cultivation and attraction of digital economy talent are proposed. The feasibility of these strategies is validated through a case study of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, providing insights for the development of China's digital economy in the new era.

The visual construction of the people’s country and the Chinese nation: political aesthetics in the Ethno-documentaries of New China

This paper discusses the political positioning of the people and the cultural image of the Chinese nation through the lens of the Social-historical Scientific Documentary Films of China’s ethnic minorities (hereafter referred to as “the Ethno-documentaries”) by restoring the problem to the site of the investigation of humanities and social sciences and the General Surveys on (Folk) Arts in the early years of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s. Through detailed analysis of specific Ethno-documentary films, this paper explores how the social sciences conducted its “Social and Historical Investigation of China’s Ethnic Minorities” via the medium of film to convey the advanced social concepts and ideological work of the new regime through the historical narrative of art and politics. This study highlights three key points. First, the “Chinese nation” as a modern political concept dates its origins back to the 1920s with the emergence of the “National Heritage Reorganization Movement” and the “Doubting Antiquity School.” However, it was only through the medium of the Ethno-documentaries that this concept was visually and aurally represented in films for the first time, which draws our attention to the fact that the entry point for understanding modern China lies in discerning the relationship between culture and politics. Second, when discussing the relationship between culture and politics, this study juxtaposes the Ethno-documentaries and “art for workers-peasants-soldiers,” which developed during the same period. These two forms of art focus respectively on national history and the suffering of the lower classes of society, and it is this intertextual nature of the historical narrative that jointly anchors the cultural and historical view of New China. Lastly, historical view is the core of the humanities, social sciences, and art disciplines in New China. Previous studies have mainly attributed certain phenomena to the “politicization” or “pan-politicization” of a particular historical period due to disciplinary barriers and cultural trauma and have stopped discussing such topics in depth. In contrast, the significance of the political aesthetics in the Ethno-documentaries is to have transformed classical Chinese artistic language into a modern one to represent the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. It also raises a question of re-sinicization of many modern political issues that have persisted until now: How do today’s Chinese art works vividly depict the prosperity of this country and its hardworking and courageous people?

Research on the Integration of Lingnan Culture into “Four Histories” Education for Hong Kong Youth

This study focuses on Hong Kong youth, recognizing them as a vital subject within the context of “four histories” education. From the perspective of the integration of Lingnan culture, it explores the rich resources of Lingnan culture, innovates the narrative system, and explores the path of positive guidance in history education. Responding to the demands of the times, it seeks to alleviate the pressing concerns of Hong Kong society, help Hong Kong youth break down prejudices, gain a comprehensive understanding of China, grasp the development context of modern China, recognize historical trends, undertake national responsibilities, and take on the mission of the times.

Biographies and Revisionist Histories in Modern China

Abstract Born and raised in the British Caribbean island colony of Trinidad, Eugene Chen was one of China’s foremost foreign ministers during the early twentieth century, defending his nation’s interests despite its military weakness and political disunity. Relying primarily on newspapers and what he calls the “Eugene Chen Papers,” sourced from Eugene Chen’s grandson in Hong Kong, Walton Look Lai reveals Eugene Chen’s multiple identities, first as “Sun Yat-sen’s personal representative and spokesman in Shanghai,” then as “the global face and voice of the Wuhan regime,” and ultimately as “China’s ‘dynamite’ diplomat [who] challenged the British lion over the Hankow concession and won.” For many, Eugene Chen, for all his political accomplishments and connections to the most illustrious personalities in Republican Chinese history, cut a relatively obscure figure. Eugene Chen’s obscurity points to an old problem in Chinese historiography, or any historiography, for that matter. The privileging or canonization of certain historical figures at the expense of attention to others stems partly from the binary of reform and revolution held by historians when investigating the transformations of twentieth-century China or its transition from empire to nation. Walton Look Lai’s book on Eugene Chen is thus a contribution to our broader historiographical attempt to dismantle the obsolete paradigms that caricature complex historical personalities as one-dimensional persons of their times.

Analysis Of Current Situation, Risk Causes and Countermeasures of Real Estate Finance--Taking Jiangsu Province as An Example

The real estate industry is not only an important engine of economic growth, but also a cornerstone of social stability and personal life. As a major economic province in China, Jiangsu Province is rich in natural resources and has a strong economic base. It is an important demonstration area for China's modernization and comprehensive development and plays an important role in promoting China's economic growth, scientific and technological innovation and social progress. In the economic structure of Jiangsu Province, the real estate market occupies a pivotal position, which not only contributes greatly to the local financial income, but also has a far-reaching impact on employment, consumption, investment and other aspects. The development of the real estate market in Jiangsu Province has an important impact on the national real estate market, thus this paper takes Jiangsu Province as the research object, discusses the credit risk of the real estate industry in Jiangsu Province from the perspectives of its status quo, risk causes, etc., and then puts forward policy recommendations to promote the sustainable development of the real estate market in Jiangsu Province.

Going Underground: The Author’s Body and the Mining Workplace in the Writing about Miners in Modern China

Abstract This article highlights the author’s body and its physical experience in labor history, by a focus on their historical implication for the emergence of writings about miners in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth century China. Miners and their workplace entered Chinese textual and pictorial representations at the turn of the twentieth century, as a result of the growing importance of the mining industry, the dissemination of new mining knowledge, and the formation of new social groups. Later in the 1920s, literary movements tied up with the revolutionary agenda under the influence of Marxism brought new conceptualizations of miners’ position in society and their relationship with intellectuals. When authors turned to write about miners in the late 1920s and early 1930s, they chose to legitimize their writing by descending into mine shafts to acquire the experience in the underground mining workplace and to incorporate the bodily experience into their writings. The mining lamp in texts and images from this period provides a prime example to illustrate how the author’s experience in the underground mine was embodied in the author’s and the miner’s corporeal visions and contributed a new way of seeing and representing miners. Drawing upon materials about miners of various genres, this article reveals the formulation of Chinese visual modernity within Chinese social interactions and brings the author’s body into labor history by calling attention to both its material presence in the workplace and its agentic power to inscribe workers.

De-risking Death-traps in Uncontrolled Industrialization: Factory Act and Industrial Health and Safety in Republican China

Abstract In Republican China, the Factory Act was first promulgated in 1929, after almost thirty years of unregulated industrialization. Little academic effort has been made to comprehend its actual implementation. Some academics have dismissed it as completely useless, while others have credited it with various enhancements in working conditions. This article focuses on workplace health and safety issues and critically evaluates the implementation of the law to scrutinize its effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) in addressing workers’ life and death matters. This article aims to reassert the Factory Act in China's modern history of industrial development. It points out that despite its inadequate enforcement, the law was significant in laying the foundation for the national institutionalization of state responsibility to systematically monitor and regulate workplace health and safety and paving the way for further safety legislation. Nevertheless, the law fell short of safeguarding workers’ rights during industrial accidents.

The Inscription of Things: Writing and Materiality in Early Modern China By Thomas Kelly. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023. 368 pp. $140.00 (cloth), $35.00 (paper), $34.99 (e-book)

The Inscription of Things: Writing and Materiality in Early Modern China By Thomas Kelly. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023. 368 pp. $140.00 (cloth), $35.00 (paper), $34.99 (e-book)

Book Theft as Social Deviance in Modern China: An Elegant Offense or the Intellectual Robin Hood

During China’s transition from pre-modern to modern society, book theft, as a form of social deviance, reflected the multifaceted cultural metaphors of books in modern Chinese social life. The shift from the notion that “common thieves do not steal books” to book theft as a representation of cultural power struggles exemplifies the media cultural transformation in modern Chinese society. Contemporary attitudes towards book theft reveal complex tensions between economic order, publishing supply and demand, social mentality, cultural capital, knowledge power, media discourse, and public opinion during this period of societal change. In this context, book theft can be seen as a dual phenomenon, embodying both a clever and sophisticated act that challenges dominant norms and values on one hand, and a form of rebellion that seeks to redistribute power and knowledge, akin to the legendary outlaw Robin Hood, on the other.

Reproductive Realities in Modern China: Birth Control and Abortion, 1911–2021 by Sarah Mellors Rodriguez (review)

Reproductive Realities in Modern China: Birth Control and Abortion, 1911–2021 by Sarah Mellors Rodriguez (review)

Birth of the Geopolitical Age: Global Frontiers and the Making of Modern China by Shellen Xiao Wu (review)

Birth of the Geopolitical Age: Global Frontiers and the Making of Modern China by Shellen Xiao Wu (review)

The Peaks and Ranges of Ecosystem Models

This response to commentaries by Micah Muscolino, Judith Shapiro, Chris Courtney, and Peter Perdue considers whether An Ecological History of Modern China is too political and not ecological enough or too ecological and not political enough; whether it is biased either in favor of or against the Chinese Communist Party regime; whether ecologically based periodization provides a valuable new perspective on the history of the People’s Republic of China; whether ecological change would be better illuminated if viewed at a different scale; and whether valid or useful history can be written primarily using scientific papers available on the internet.

The Ecological Consequences of Developmentalist Modernism

This commentary argues that Stevan Harrell’s An Ecological History of Modern China offers valuable insights into the transformation of ecosystems, which reflect the lived experiences of Chinese people. It examines some of the more contentious claims found in the book, particularly its treatment of politics. It suggests that, while Harrell downplays the importance of party politics and ideological campaigns, the ecological transformations he describes are inextricable from the turbulent political contexts in which they unfolded, from the local politics of village governance to the global politics of the Cold War. It concludes by suggesting that it is Harrell’s extensive research experience as an ethnographer that has allowed him to write such a vivid and insightful history of modern China.

Cycles, Breakthroughs, and Histories of Ecological Change: 1949 or 1972?

These reflections on Stevan Harrell’s An Ecological History of Modern China evaluate the book in relation to existing historiography of the ecological transformations that have accompanied China’s development since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). After outlining the theoretical underpinnings of Harrell’s history of modern China as a “system of social-ecological systems” and his revisionist periodization of PRC history in terms of the “adaptive cycle,” the commentary contrasts Harrell’s central arguments with those advanced in earlier studies. Interpretative differences relate to whether 1949 constituted a watershed in China’s ecological history or a continuation of longer-term environmental trends, and the significance of the PRC’s acquisition of technology for synthetic fertilizer plants after rapprochement with the United States in 1972 in making it possible for China to replenish its nutrient-depleted soils, increase agricultural productivity, and overcome environmental constraints that limited economic growth. Despite bringing unprecedented economic prosperity, as Harrell shows, that growth has decreased ecological resilience and increased vulnerability. The commentary concludes by asking how Harrell’s arguments might be reconciled with alternative understandings of modern China’s ecological and environmental history.

Managing the decline of coal in a decarbonizing China

AbstractPressures to address climate change are eroding the privileged role coal has held in China throughout its modernization. Phasing down coal requires a suite of supply‐ and demand‐side tools to both reduce production (and therefore, maintain sufficiently high prices) and shift to coal alternatives across diverse consumption sectors. This review outlines contours of the coming coal transition by documenting coal's rise in modern China, its status in key debates of today's energy system, and the range of modeling scenarios of coal's future to mid‐century. In addition, through an analysis of current efforts and impacts in four transition policy areas—supply‐side, demand‐side, employment and social impacts, and stranded assets and fiscal revenues—it identifies gaps and future recommendations. Emerging scholarship on enhancing political feasibility and fostering a “just transition” needs to move beyond global cases and address highly localized and temporally bound impacts.This article is categorized under: The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Future of Global Energy Policy and Governance > National Climate Change Policy