Chinese Interpretation Research Articles

7th curriculum Chinese writing textbook Problem point of Chinese poem interpretation

7th curriculum Chinese writing textbook Problem point of Chinese poem interpretation

The Chinese People's Liberation Army and Space Warfare

Space warfare will be an integrated part of battle planning by the Chinese People's Liberation Army in any future conflict with the United States. The People's Liberation Army has carefully absorbed and is reacting to what the American armed forces have published on space warfare and counter-space operations. Chinese strategists and legal scholars are engaged in an internal debate on how traditional ideas of sovereignty and the laws of war apply in space. One authoritative volume explored the importance of ensuring that the People's Liberation Army sets out legal justifications for military actions in advance of any conflict. Chinese scholars believe that many of the concepts surrounding the conduct of war on the “common seas” apply in space. Also, there is disagreement between the United States and China on the American position on outer space. The United States treats “peaceful uses” to mean “non-aggressive,” whereas the Chinese interpretation is that to be peaceful uses, it must be “non-military.”

Shakespeare in China (review)

Reviewed by: Shakespeare in China Alexander C. Y. Huang (bio) Shakespeare in China. By Murray Levith. London: Continuum, 2004. xv + 156 pp. Cloth, $ 80.00, Paper, $ 22.99. As a new publisher in the field, Continuum has produced a growing list in cutting-edge Shakespeare studies in the past few years, including a handsomely designed new series entitled "Shakespeare Now!" (Douglas Bruster's [End Page 110] To Be or Not to Be and Lukas Erne's Shakespeare's Modern Collaborators, among others). Although it is not part of the Shakespeare Now! series, Shakespeare in China by Murray Levith (author of Shakespeare's Italian Settings and Plays) shares the compact format with volumes in that series. It provides students and teachers a basic historical overview of twentieth-century stage adaptations of Shakespeare's plays in mainland China, with a personal touch—accounts of the author's trip to China and photographs of the author and Chinese scholars (74 and 59). In our times, China, like Shakespeare, has become a major international presence. As cross-cultural collaborations and dialogues, Chinese interpretations of Shakespeare are becoming increasingly difficult for Shakespeareans to ignore. The unique dynamics between Chinese and Shakespearean modes of signification provide rich opportunities to explore a wide range of questions for audiences interested in provocative and bold re-imaginings of Shakespeare and for scholars interested in Shakespeare's currency in our world. Although the appropriation of Shakespeare has been the cornerstone of postcolonial criticism that focuses on such locations as India, Africa, and the Caribbean, the history of Shakespeare in East Asia where the local cultures have a more ambiguous relation to the European West is less known by teachers and students of Shakespeare. Ironically, the marginalization of the field does not result from the lack of critical attention per se, but from an overflow of "reports" without theoretical reflection that make Asian interpretations into predictably exotic objects that are never positioned to be properly known. Levith's Shakespeare in China is aimed at a general Anglophone readership and is similar in structure to John Pemble's Shakespeare Goes to Paris: How the Bard Conquered France (2005) and Li Ruru's Shashibiya: Staging Shakespeare in China (2003). In the preface, Levith contrasts the idea that Shakespeare is "a socioeconomic export product from an imperialist West bent on the . . . exploitation [or] depreciation . . . of unique local cultures" with the possibility that "various peoples [such as] the Han Chinese have happily . . . adapted Shakespeare to . . . serve their own particular ends" (xiii). Chapter 1 rehearses the early history of Shakespeare in mainland China up to 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, and concentrates on translation and criticism. Chapter 2, titled "Shakespeare and Mao," pursues Mao Zedong's Marxist-inflected literary utilitarianism and how the tendency has negatively influenced the already complicated process of cross-cultural interpretation. Levith discusses the role of Mao's influential "Talks at the Yenan [should be Yan'an]" in Chinese interpretations of Shakespeare between 1949 and 1966. Chapter 3 contains Levith's musings about the Cultural Revolution and Shakespeare, including observations on [End Page 111] the similarities between Henry V and Taking Tiger Mountain, a Chinese revolutionary model play (52), Chinese anti-Westernism, as well as American journalists Lois Wheeler Snow's and Edgar Snow's relationships with the Chinese government during and after the times of political crackdown (42; 48–49; 51–54). Readers may benefit from a more systematic account of how these erratic events relate to the topic of this chapter. Chapter 4 records the revived mainland Chinese interest in Shakespeare after the Cultural Revolution, a well-known story. Levith notes that even after the revolution, Chinese Shakespeare criticism still tended to follow the same "tired and dogmatic models of Marxist criticism" (86) and remained unsophisticated. Levith seems to follow a tired critical paradigm. He quotes He Qixin, a mainland Chinese scholar, at length and agrees with He's judgment that Chinese criticism of Shakespeare "very often miss[es] the essence and dramatic power of the plays" (87). A better course would have been to analyze such misreadings and take readers beyond the facts to understand the many historical and cultural questions in Shakespeare's...

Of Interest and Distrust: Understanding China's Policy Towards Japan

Chinese relations with Japan are characterised by the contradiction of deep distrust on one hand and important interests on the other. This article elaborates upon this contradiction in an attempt to shed light on possible future developments in the bilateral relationship. It applies a perceptual approach in its analysis which is mainly based on the publications of Chinese analysts and interpretations of Chinese public opinion. The article begins with a survey of approaches to understanding Chinese foreign policy and an assessment of the influence of Chinese analysts and public opinion. It then investigates Chinese interests and distrust in Japan and concludes with a discussion of the “history issue”.

Chinese Cultural Construction of Harmony: Implications for an Ongoing Dialogue on Sustainability

Sustainable development has now become a general policy goal around the world. However, this concept is open to interpretation depending on different socio-cultural, economic and political circumstances. This is mainly because we are now living in a world that is characterised by heterogeneous rather than homogeneous frames of reference, motives and interests, institutional settings and agendas. This paper provides a brief Chinese cultural context of the sustainability discourse. It is argued that social and cultural considerations will be crucial on the way towards the achievement of sustainable development. Chinese interpretation of sustainability has reflected the significant influence from the country’s unique cultural and philosophical heritage. Although the concept of sustainable development still remains ambiguous and lacks consistency in its use, it has allowed peoples with different backgrounds and often conflicting interests to reach some common ground upon which concrete policies can be developed and implemented toward a sustainable future. To achieve the goal of sustainable development, it is proposed that one of the priorities at the current stage is to maintain cultural diversity and promote inter- and trans-cultural communications.

A Chinese perspective on Lisbon Strategy

The Chinese interpretations of the Lisbon Strategy fall mainly into two different aspects: one focuses on the more or less neo-liberal orientation of the Lisbon Strategy, the other tries to assess the implications of this orientation toward the norms of national social welfare states. This article focuses on one of the main tool deployed by the Lisbon Strategy, i.e., the “innovation”, discussed its definitions, contents, practices and constraints. The article concludes that the direction of the Lisbon Strategy is more important than the quantitative goals it has set up to achieve, and China can in many ways learn from European experiences reviewed in designing and implementing the Lisbon Strategy.

Reconstructing Islam

During the sixteenth century when Islam was already established in China, Chinese Muslims began to critically examine their understanding of Islamic knowledge and how to transmit it to future generations. Traditional tutelage based on purely Arabic and Persian sources generally evaded a Muslim population that, for the most part, could no longer read the available rare Islamic texts. The subsequent reconstruction of Islamic knowledge and education emphasized the intersections between the Chinese and the Muslim communities’ cultural and religious heritages. The new specialized educational system, “scripture hall education” (jingtang jiaoyu), utilized Chinese as the language of instruction and incorporated aspects of traditional Chinese literati education in collaboration with newly retrieved Islamic sources from the Muslim heartland. The ensuing standardization and organization of curriculum and pedagogical techniques enabled peripatetic students to replicate this system throughout China. It also allowed the religious community’s leaders to direct the discourse concerning Islam and disseminate a specific interpretation of religious knowledge. This is most clearly displayed through the Han Kitab, the canonized corpus of Chinese Islamic texts written, approximately, during 1600-1750. This literature articulated Islamic principles through the lexicon of literary Chinese and replicated the ideology highlighted by the educational network. This paper analyzes why Islamic knowledge was lost and traces how the new educational system transformed the indigenous Islamic discourse, articulated through the Han Kitab literature, to reflect a distinctive Chinese Muslim interpretation of the faith.

Reconstructing Islam

During the sixteenth century when Islam was already established in China, Chinese Muslims began to critically examine their understanding of Islamic knowledge and how to transmit it to future generations. Traditional tutelage based on purely Arabic and Persian sources generally evaded a Muslim population that, for the most part, could no longer read the available rare Islamic texts. The subsequent reconstruction of Islamic knowledge and education emphasized the intersections between the Chinese and the Muslim communities’ cultural and religious heritages. The new specialized educational system, “scripture hall education” (jingtang jiaoyu), utilized Chinese as the language of instruction and incorporated aspects of traditional Chinese literati education in collaboration with newly retrieved Islamic sources from the Muslim heartland. The ensuing standardization and organization of curriculum and pedagogical techniques enabled peripatetic students to replicate this system throughout China. It also allowed the religious community’s leaders to direct the discourse concerning Islam and disseminate a specific interpretation of religious knowledge. This is most clearly displayed through the Han Kitab, the canonized corpus of Chinese Islamic texts written, approximately, during 1600-1750. This literature articulated Islamic principles through the lexicon of literary Chinese and replicated the ideology highlighted by the educational network. This paper analyzes why Islamic knowledge was lost and traces how the new educational system transformed the indigenous Islamic discourse, articulated through the Han Kitab literature, to reflect a distinctive Chinese Muslim interpretation of the faith.

Meaning of family reunification as interpreted by young Chinese immigrants

This paper is a narrative analysis of young Chinese immigrants' subjective interpretation of their family reunification in Hong Kong. The major objectives of the study were to understand what family reunification actually meant to them and how it affected their subsequent adjustment. It also tried to examine the similarities and differences in the experience and interpretation of family reunification among young immigrants who had different levels of adjustment. Participants in this study included 45 immigrants, aged between 12 and 17. Research findings show that family reunification was their long-cherished wish and the main reason for their migration. It was not only their primary concern before coming to Hong Kong but also the stance from which separation with close relatives in their native place and the subsequent hardships as a new comer in the competitive host society were justified. Reunification of the family and harmonious and caring relationship among family members had been the source of comfort and support for those who had successful adjustment. However, for those who did not experience warmth and concern from family members, the disillusionment with a happy family reunification and the experience of distant or even conflictive family relationship had not only created in them a sense of alienation but also resulted in poor adjustment in the new environment.

Zwischen Heil und Heilung: Zur fruhen Tradition des Yangsheng in China (review)

Stephan Stein's dissertation on "nourishing life" yang sheng techniques of early Chinese imperial times falls into two parts. First he overviews, and repeats with approval, previous scholarship. He then introduces some ancient textual materials on sexual and gymnastic body techniques found in the Han tombs of Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan, both of which were closed in the beginning of the second century B.C. The excerpt translations of these manuscript texts rely heavily on modern Chinese interpretation, consciously avoid difficult passages, and allow for only a bird's-eye approach to the contents.

Ecological economics in China: origins, dilemmas and prospects

This paper is a first step towards articulating a Chinese version of ecological economics. Over the last decade ecological economics has attracted increasing attention in the West. Similarly, since the early 1980s scholars in China have undertaken specific research on existing ecological economic issues in accordance with Chinese political, economic, socio-cultural and ecological conditions. However, this endeavor is hardly known in the West and little attention has been given so far to the potential role of Chinese attitudes in the international ecological economics movement. This paper is designed to make up for that neglect and attempts to address the following questions: What social and cultural traditions are required for Chinese ecological economics to operate? What are the political and institutional implications of ecological economics in China? Will Chinese ecological economists feel comfortable in a society where open debate is viewed as unacceptable behavior? In order to clarify the Chinese interpretation of ecological economics and its impact on the policy-making process, a preliminary overview of its emerging background, evolutionary history, key viewpoints and theories, nature and policy influence is presented. Three major intellectual sources of Chinese ecological economics are identified and the theoretical applications are emphasized. Then, some theoretical and practical issues that may arise in future research are discussed, along with implications of Chinese ecological economics for the international community. In addition to biophysical functions and ecological conditions, socio-political structures and processes need to be explicitly addressed in extending the research agenda of ecological economics.

Chinese Painting and Cultural Interpretation: Chiang Yee's Travel Writing During the Cold War Era

On June 11, 1956, Chiang Yee was led into the Sanders Theater of Harvard University, where he began delivering his Phi Beta Kappa oration, entitled “The Chinese Painter”:The word “Chinese” in my title conveys a reference both to the birthplace of the painter and to the type of work to be expected from him; but while that is what I mean, I wish to point out that the word has not the same significance today as it would have had fifty to a hundred years ago. Then a “Chinese” painter was a painter absolutely and exclusively Chinese, differing fundamentally from the painters of all other nations and races. When I speak of a Chinese painter of today, I mean one who is basically Chinese but not exclusively so in his creation. He is not, and should not be, isolated from or independent of the rest of the world, for he has his part to play in the cultural evolution of the world. (242)

Chinese Perceptions of the Scandinavian Social Policy Model

This paper highlights the stereotypical images characteristic of Chinese social research on the Scandinavian model. How do Chinese commentators explain the development of the Scandinavian social policy model and how do they assess it? Is it deemed morally sound and sustainable? Reasons for the contrasts of interpretation between Chinese and Scandinavian authors are categorized along two dimensions. There are “missing elements”, typically the notions of social solidarity and social citizenship, which tend to be ignored by Chinese writers though underscored by Scandinavian writers. There are also “added elements”, generated from Chinese contexts, which affect Chinese interpretations of the Scandinavian model. The study argues that since each welfare regime type is possessed of its own normative codes, supported by its own particular social order, it is necessary to decode such elements—especially cultural notions of welfare—to appreciate the points of view being expressed.

Chinese Perceptions of U.S. Power and Strategy

C hinese writings on U.S. foreign policy and Sino-American relations are characterized by a strikingly frequent use of the term strategy. Such an intense focus on strategic analysis reflects the dominance of the realist paradigm in Chinese international thinking. From this approach, the state (here, the United States) is viewed as a unitary actor rationally calculating every move under a master plan to ensure security and maximize power. In the true spirit of structural realism, only great powers matter in international relations. The United States is the sole hegemon and exercises the greatest power over China. U.S. global strategy guides both its foreign policy and its dealings with China. Thus, Chinese interpretations of U.S. global strategy ultimately motivate Beijing's external behavior and reactions to the United States.

Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching (review)

Reviewed by: Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching Jonathan R. Herman Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching. Edited by Livia Kohn and Michael LaFargue. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. Pp. xii + 330. Modern scholarship on the Tao Te Ching has tended to focus on questions of authorship and the intended meaning of the text, often working from both the unquestioned assumption that matters of origination are of primary historical importance and the quasi-theological bias that the original textual meaning is somehow the "right" or authoritative one. But the role of the Tao Te Ching in Chinese history and culture, as well as that of its purported author, is a much more complex affair. The text has been the subject of more than seven hundred commentaries and has been appropriated by vast networks of scholars, government officials, self-conscious religious communities, and laypeople, while Lao Tzu himself has undergone a fascinating history of deification and aesthetic representation. With Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, editors Livia Kohn and Michael LaFargue take steps toward filling in some of the complicated (and much overlooked) post-canonical history by assembling essays on subjects ranging from the ritual uses of the text to modern hermeneutic experiments. The volume includes nine new essays, as well as three older ones reprinted or translated from earlier sources. The book is organized in four sections—"Ancient Myths," "Chinese Interpretations," "Modern Readings," and "Critical Methods"—although there is noticeable [End Page 625] overlap among the parts. The twelve essays are of varying quality and of varying use for different readers. Some of the material is highly technical and presupposes a sinological audience, while other material rehearses data that should already be familiar to scholars of ancient Chinese philosophy but may be tremendously useful to those who are interested in the text but lacking the scholarly background. One case of the latter is Julia Hardy's "Influential Western Interpretations of the Tao-te-ching," which does not especially break new ground but is a wonderful historical synopsis of Western scholarship on the text, as it meticulously identifies the key interpretive voices and sorts out their positions. Hardy gives only brief attention to the earliest eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scholarship—omitting, for example, any mention of Victor von Strauss' 1870 German rendition—which might actually have been most edifying for specialists. LaFargue and Julian Pas' "On Translating the Tao-te-ching" is essentially a primer on hermeneutic problems relevant to the text that serves as an intelligent corrective to the uncoordinated body of Taoist materials available to novice readers. What may be most clear from several of the essays taken in tandem is that the popular Western "mystical" reading of the text not only is one of many historical interpretations but is also very much heir to Wang Pi's intellectual lineage. In "A Tale of Two Commentaries: Ho-shang-kung and Wang Pi on the Lao-tzu," Alan K. L. Chan notes how such standard tenets as the spiritualized metaphysical understanding of Tao, the relationship between nonbeing and creativity, and the identification of naturalness and nonaction with spontaneity originate with Wang Pi but are nowhere to be found in the earlier Ho-shang-kung reading. The latter employs typical Han dynasty correlative cosmological interpretive methods, referring to naturalness as the preservation of energies in the physical body and to "the One" not as an abstract metaphysical oneness but as "the original substance of life itself, energy in its most pure and potent form" (p. 93). According to Isabel Robinet's "Later Commen-taries: Textual Polysemy and Syncretistic Interpretations," the panoply of text interpretations falls into roughly three categories—"technical or specialist readings," "philosophical exegeses," and "inner alchemy interpretations," which she then proceeds to divide further into "philological" and "ideological" readings. This is all further complicated when one considers the Tao Te Ching not as a strictly philosophical text but as a collection of polemical aphorisms, as LaFargue does in "Recovering the Tao-te-ching's Original Meaning: Some Remarks on Historical Hermeneutics," or as a ritual, liturgical or meditative aid, as Kohn does in "The Tao-te-ching in Ritual." Lao-tzu and the...

China's America Watchers: Changing Attitudes Towards the United States

The People's Republic of China (PRC) has hundreds of analysts who interpret American policy for a Chinese audience. Some hold positions in government ministries, but many are in semi-official research institutes. These “America watchers” advise Chinese policy-makers and write internal papers which circulate among the top leadership. By influencing how China's leaders view the United States, they indirectly help shape policy. This article describes the community of America watchers and examines the theoretical orientations they use to understand international relations and to think about the United States. By surveying Chinese interpretations of Sino-U.S. relations during the 1990s, it seeks to evaluate how well China's America watchers understand the United States and assess their influence on Chinese foreign policy.

Russia in Asia and Asians in Russia

Russia in Asia and Asians in Russia Elizabeth Wishnick (bio) Figures * Click for larger view View full resolution Map 1. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Chinese Traders at a Khabarovsk Market Discomfort with the presence of Asian migrants on Russian territory belies Russia’s commitment to play an active role in Asia. In 1992, Russian policymakers outlined a foreign policy with a dual emphasis on Asia and the West, yet this strategy has proved difficult to implement. Russia may be a power in the Pacific, but it is not yet a Pacific power because of self-imposed limitations on its integration in Asia. 1 Russia’s vast easternmost regions, comprising the Russian Far East, 2 constitute a predominantly European foothold in northeast Asia. Since the 1930s, a series of conflicts have resulted in the separation of the Russian Far East from the economic life of the rest of the Pacific Rim. Even with the improvement of Russian-Chinese relations and the end of the Cold War, political will to end Russia’s artificial separation from Asia proved no match for adverse economic and demographic trends in the Russian Far East. Economic decline and population outflow from Russia’s eastern peripheries compounded fears of an uncontrolled influx of Chinese economic migrants and of Koreans returning from exile in Central Asia. These changes led policymakers in Moscow and the Russian border regions to institute new visa rules and controls on the use of foreign workers, especially Chinese and Koreans. Regional officials seek to promote the economic integration of the Russian Far East with the Pacific Rim but fear the social, economic, and political consequences of necessary steps in that direction, especially large-scale reliance on Asian migrant labor. [End Page 87] More so than their Moscow counterparts, who view the expansion of Sino-Russian economic relations as a key component of their Asia policy, regional policymakers see a trade-off between a more open labor market and the possible loss of political and economic control over Russia’s peripheries to China. The resolution of this issue will have important implications for the economy of the Russian Far East as well as for Russia’s role in Asia in the next century. Although the lack of investment funds on both sides of the Sino-Russian border has proven to be the greatest obstacle to regional economic cooperation, 3 the concern in the Russian border regions about being dominated economically and demographically by China has complicated the efforts of policymakers in Moscow and Beijing to take advantage of existing opportunities in trade and labor exchanges. Past Encounters and Contemporary Concerns The history of Russian encounters with Asians in the last century has left a legacy of mistrust that continues to shape public attitudes. In particular, differing historical narratives regarding the Sino-Russian border have contributed to Russian suspicions about Chinese illegal immigration. In the Russian version of events, by signing the treaties of Aigun (1858) and Peking (1860), the Qing dynasty freely ceded territory north of the Amur River and east of the Ussuri River to the Russian empire. The Chinese assert that a weakened Qing regime had no choice but to accede to territorial demands by its stronger Russian neighbor. These territorial issues figured prominently in the Sino-Soviet dispute during the 1960s and, although Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev pledged to “close the past and open the future” in their 1989 summit meeting normalizing relations, the Chinese interpretation of border history leads some contemporary Russian analysts to fear that a stronger China would renew claims on Russia’s eastern territories. 4 Until the Stalin era, the lands bordering on Manchuria and Korea were host to thousands of Chinese and Koreans, as well as a less numerous Japanese population. 5 Despite an undercurrent of distrust of resident Asians, Russians tolerated their presence because of their predominant role in agriculture, retail trade, and small business. Stalin’s concern about the possibility of infiltration by Japanese spies led to the expulsion from the Russian Far East of some 19,000 of 25,000 Chinese and the exile of 135,000 of 165,000 [End Page 88] Koreans to Central Asia in...

Chinese American Literature Beyond the Horizon

Chinese American Literature Beyond the Horizon Hardy C. Wilcoxon (bio) Although Asian American texts are receiving attention that is ever more theoretically sophisticated and subtle, perhaps especially in metacritical analysis of discourse about them, little has been done to analyze how Asians in Asia respond to such texts. Despite the centrality, for example, of visions and interpretations of China and Chinese culture in the constructions of Asian American identity in Chinese American texts, not one of the 210 items of “secondary” and general scholarship about Chinese American literature listed in Asian American Literature: An Annotated Bibliography concerns Chinese views of these American literary representations; and in the seven years since that bibliography has been published, only the single, special issue of Melus devoted to “Asian Perspectives” has taken up the subject. 1 The present essay in “reader-response” criticism aims to give Chinese in Hong Kong a voice in response to works of Chinese American literature—particularly The Woman Warrior, M. Butterfly, and The Joy Luck Club—and to draw Chinese American interpretations of Chinese culture and native Chinese interpretations into mutually illuminating relations. An underlying project will be to suggest how in a native Chinese context, no less than in the United States, “contemporary readings of Asian American texts are usually positioned in an ideological and politically charged subtext,” as Shirley Geok-lin Lim has argued in one of the metacritical analyses to which I have alluded. These subtexts “cover gender, race, ethnic and class interests, and . . . intersect in multiple combinations.” 2 The nature and influences of these subtexts differ in a native Chinese context, however. To articulate these differences, the central concept in Jauss’s theory of reception—“horizons of expectation”—has been helpful, for with it Jauss suggests that both within a work of literature and intrinsic to an interpretive community that encounters it are backgrounds of assumptions about literature and life that foreground anything new or “other” that becomes inscribed within them. This foregrounding can disturb complacency or defeat expectations; and coming to terms with novelty and alterity, for both writers and readers, involves taking (or refusing) the opportunity “to measure and to broaden the horizon of one’s own experience vis-à-vis the other.” 3 Although many of the patterns of [End Page 313] response revealed by the current analysis might very well represent attitudes of Chinese on the mainland as well, no Asian cultural monolith or hegemony is here supposed. On the contrary, the particularly fascinating twist in the analysis, suggestive of much genuine, individual pathos, is that especially in Hong Kong, the colonial, soon to be postcolonial nature of the territory forces a great many people into an ambivalent, at times uncertain relation to their “Chineseness,” which strongly influences their reading. The readers in question are a group of seventy English majors at The Chinese University of Hong Kong: fifty fourth-year students—or about two-thirds of the entire fourth-year class—who had elected to take a course in “The Asian American Experience,” which was the first of its kind ever to be offered in Hong Kong; and twenty first-year students in a “Writing about Language and Literature” course with whom I reread some of the same texts. Like virtually all university students in Hong Kong, these have come up through the Anglo-Chinese stream of the school system, in which, beyond primary school, they study all of their school subjects (except Chinese) in English. Of the seventy in question, only a few were born in mainland China; virtually all call themselves “British” on the dotted lines of official forms; and about one in ten have in fact acquired foreign passports that will enable them to settle overseas, at least before the British flag comes down at Government House in the summer of 1997 and Hong Kong is handed over to what most local people perceive to be a very uncertain future under the control of the People’s Republic. All of these students, however, are native speakers of Cantonese who are proud of their language, their city, which is ninety-eight percent Chinese, and, for the most part, their culture. That all but one of them are women certainly...

Chinese Biblical Interpretation in the Eyes of a Chinese Christian

Chinese Biblical Interpretation in the Eyes of a Chinese Christian

Chinese Biblical Interpretation Since Mid-Century

Chinese Biblical Interpretation Since Mid-Century