Cornell University East Asia Program Research Articles

Representing Lives in China: Forms of Biography in the Ming-Qing Period 1368–1911 ed. by Ihor Pidhainy, Roger Des Forges and Grace S. Fong

Reviewed by: Representing Lives in China: Forms of Biography in the Ming-Qing Period 1368–1911 ed. by Ihor Pidhainy, Roger Des Forges and Grace S. Fong Elena Suet-Ying Chiu (bio) Ihor Pidhainy, Roger Des Forges, and Grace S. Fong, editors. Representing Lives in China: Forms of Biography in the Ming-Qing Period 1368–1911. Cornell East Asian Series, 191. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2019. x, 461 pp. Hardcover $125, isbn 978-19-39-16101-7. Paperback $35, isbn 978-19-39-16191-8. In Representing Lives in China: Forms of Biography in the Ming-Qing Period 1368–1911, editors Ihor Pidhainy, Roger V. Des Forges, and Grace S. Fong bring together contributors to explore biographical constructions and reconstructions in China from the thirteenth century to the twenty-first century. This volume covers a wide array of topics ranging from biographical accounts of the empresses in the Yuan (1271–1368) to the reception of Li Yan 李岩/巖 (d. 1644), a renowned advisor to the commoner rebel Li Zicheng 李自成 (1605? –1645); Yue Fei’s 岳飛 (1103–1142) descendants’ contribution to elevating his position to a superhero; the biographical writings and life stories of the Ming erudite literati; representations of fathers and sons in the Ming History (Mingshi 明史) and in painting; women biographers in the Qing dynasty (1644–1911); and social phenomena such as surname restoration petitions in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Responding to an increasing number of scholarly works pertaining to the lives of the rulers, scholars, officials, writers, elite women, and even revolutionaries in Chinese history published in recent years, this volume showcases a collective effort to exhibit the richness and significance of life representations in China based on a variety of source material. Representing Lives in China opens with an introduction that reviews studies of biographical literature in China followed by eleven chapters divided according to “three analytical questions” clearly presented in the introduction (p. 11). The first part, “Searching for the Subjects,” includes the first four chapters and provides close readings of selected life stories and biographical accounts while discovering what “extant stories and biographies tell us about how the Chinese subjects actually lived their lives in those earlier times and places” (italics in original). The second part, “Understanding the Authors,” chapters 5 through 7, focuses on life stories in various media and explores how contemporary and later Chinese authors depicted people’s lives in prose, art, and poetry. Finally, the third part, “Following the Texts,” comprises the last four chapters and explores how the Chinese texts were “created, published, revised, and transmitted over time and space” (italics in original). The three questions guide the reader to the thematic focus of each part of the volume while effectively connecting the three parts by centering on chosen texts and other artistic works. The editors not only organized the chapters in a logical manner but also paid attention to women’s roles in the biographical accounts, which is reiterated in the [End Page 306] conclusion (p. 357) of the volume. For example, in chapter 1, George Q. Zhao presents a study of the Mongol ruler Khubilai Khan’s 忽必烈 (r. 1260–1294) two empresses—namely, Chabi 察必 (d. 1281) and Nanbi 南必—based on the standard Yuan History (Yuanshi 元史). Although some steppe women played important roles in politics in Chinese history, according to Zhao the sharp contrast between Chabi and Nanbi in official history has proven that their public personae were reconstructed by the historians depending on when they became Khubilai’s companions and whether they were involved in political conflicts. As Zhao has convincingly demonstrated, the brief information about Nanbi and the fact that the Yuan History presents a much less positive image of Nanbi than of Chabi urge researchers to pay critical attention to what is absent in the historical records and find the reasons for the silence or gaps. Zhao’s chapter provides an excellent example of a close reading of the formal male-authored biographies of the empresses, whereas Yi Jo-Lan’s “From Female Martyrs to Worthy Mothers: The Shift in Exemplary Women’s Biographies in the Ming-Qing Dynastic Histories” focuses on the changing factors in the categorization of women’s biographies and...

China's Chaplin: Comic Stories and Farces by Xu Zhuodai

Reviewed by: China's Chaplin: Comic Stories and Farces by Xu Zhuodai Zheyu Wei (bio) Xu Zhuodai. China's Chaplin: Comic Stories and Farces by Xu Zhuodai. Translated and with an Introduction by Christopher Rea. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2019. 263 pp. Paperback $65.00, isbn 978-1-939161-94-9. The studies on literature of Republican China had been much focused on the activists of the New Culture Movement until in the 1980s Chih-Tsing Hsia, followed by other literary critics, drew people's attention to non-revolutionary writers. Since then the significance of the popular literature of the Republican era has eventually been recognized in the field of modern Chinese literary studies. The Mandarin-Butterfly School 鸳鸯蝴蝶派 of the period, once popular for their romantic portrayal of the petty bourgeoisie in the colonial city of Shanghai, also became appreciated by the public again. Nonetheless, the width of the relevant research is comparably narrow, which makes Christopher Rea's new book timely and inspiring. In China's Chaplin Rea introduces the ingenious writer Xu Zhuodai 徐卓呆 (1880–1958) and offers the translation of five stories and six farces by Xu. Rea has been working on modern Chinese literature for a long time. And in [End Page 69] recent years, with his monograph The Age of Irreverance: A New History of Laughter in China (2015), Rea focused on the idea of humor 幽 默 and how it evolved from the 1890s to the 1930s in Chinese society. Rea's research recognizes the significance of Xu as a writer and a practitioner. Usually in modern Chinese literary history research, Xu Zhuodai is considered as one of the representative figures of the Mandarin-Butterfly School, but he was much more than that. A distinctive Shanghai-style 海派 intellectual, Xu was multitalented and productive: Xu wrote novellas, jokes and even advice columns for the general public. He wrote for the stage (for both spoken drama and the traditional comedy form huajixi 滑稽戏) and the screen, and he acted in and directed plays and films. He translated Japanese stories and plays. He ran film companies and also the first physical education school in China. Xu's life and achievements in Republican and World-War-II Shanghai reflect the dynamics of urban China in the first half of the twentieth century. Rea has put his appreciation and understanding of Xu into informative writings and sparkling translations in China's Chaplin. Rea offers the reader a general introduction to Xu Zhuodai, summarizing Xu's life story and the reasons why this man was so talented and funny. Rea highlights great success in Xu's writing, theatre, film and other creative careers and critically evaluates Xu's contribution to the those fields. Rea sharply notices Xu's endeavor to portray the rapidly growing cosmopolitan city of Shanghai as a "funny" place, a stage where people from different social classes and cultural backgrounds met and interacted. However, this funny place was full of trickery, and therefore everyone was urged to adapt to the changing and conflicting world so as to laugh at others rather than be laughed at. Following the introduction, Rea translates five stories by Xu, showing the richness and cleverness of Xu's comic imagination. For instance, "Plagarist in Western Dress" and "Appendum: Expose Plagarism!", in which Xu ingeniously appropriates an excerpt from Dream of the Red Chamber into an American slavery story, show Xu's satire of Shanghai's cultural production. Meanwhile by "The Unofficial Story of Li Ah Mao," from which the character became not only a fiction series but also a film franchise, Xu illustrates his creativity and vigorous ethos in making jokes about marketing, the excessive enthusiasm of the commercial city. In general, Rea's mastery of Chinese language and knowledge of slang in Shanghai dialect helped him finish the high-quality translation. For clarification, in the appendix Rea attaches a list of joke names, offering the translator's notes including the original names by Xu and the possible implications (puns, equivocation, etc.). The six farces, selected and beautifully rendered in dramatic language by Rea, not only showcase Xu's talents in creating funny and sarcastic moments on the stage, but also offer the...

Another Stage: Kanze Nobumitsu and the Late Muromachi Noh Theater by Lim Beng Choo (review)

Reviewed by: Another Stage: Kanze Nobumitsu and the Late Muromachi Noh Theater by Lim Beng Choo Eric C. Rath ANOTHER STAGE: KANZE NOBUMITSU AND THE LATE MUROMACHI NOH THEATER. by Lim Beng Choo. Cornell East Asia Series. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2012. 241 pp. $39.00. With most scholarship on nō theater focusing on the playwrights and theoreticians Zeami Motokiyo (1363–1443) and Konparu Zenchiku (1405–1470?), performers less than a century after these giants have not received sufficient attention. To begin to remedy this, Lim Beng Choo’s Another Stage profiles actor, musician, and playwright Kanze Kojirō Nobumitsu (1435 or 1450–1516) to understand his contributions in the latter half of the Muromachi period (1336–1573). Lim provides thoughtful readings of Nobumitsu’s plays, which are his most lasting achievements. After a brief introduction that locates Nobumitsu within a historical overview of the development of nō theater, Lim lays out a three-part study. Part 1 provides a discussion of Nobumitsu’s life in two chapters. The first chapter is a translation of a biographical source, which the second chapter references in sketching out the highlights of Nobumitsu’s career. Part 2 follows with three chapters each devoted to a different style of Nobumitsu’s plays. Part 3 examines the “lively” and “spectacular” furyū style synonymous with Nobumitsu and other late Muromachi-period playwrights (p. xxiv). The book lacks a separate conclusion but provides five appendices that include a catalog of Nobumitsu’s plays with brief synopses of his extant works, a chronology of his life, and an explanation of the role categories in nō plays such as waki and shite. Chapter 1 undertakes an analysis of the Kanze Kojirō Portrait Inscription (Kanze Kojirō Nobumitsu gazōsan), an intriguing source rare in the history of nō theater. Zen monk Keijō Shūrin (1429–1518) authored this lengthy dedicatory verse around 1488 for a painting of Nobumitsu that is now lost. Lim affirms that the inscription is evidence that Nobumitsu and his father, On’ami (1398–1467), for whom a similar inscription survives, had reached a level of status and wealth that would allow their visages to be painted and their contributions valorized in writing. Contrary to the terse and rather formulaic verses for On’ami’s portrait, Nobumitsu’s inscription is detailed and includes a history of nō theatre that traces the art back to sacred Buddhist and [End Page 631] Shinto prototypes. Lim compares these origin stories to similar accounts in Zeami’s writings to conclude that nō had become part of the cultural world of the elite in Nobumitsu’s time. Lim does not consider the audience for Nobumitsu’s portrait inscription, the reasons for its creation, or the work’s historical reception. For the latter, I had to refer to her article on which the chapter was based to learn the specifics about the “various historical texts” in which the inscription appears (p. 3). According to this article, the earliest extant copy is by scholar Hayashi Razan (1583–1657), who apparently worked from another copy or the original belonging to the Kanze family (Lim 2000: 569). Razan, a prominent Neo-Confucian intellectual, demonstrated a keen interest in history, including the genealogy of performing arts; he also penned a short treatise on knife ceremonies (shikibōchō) of professional chefs. Razan’s duplication of the document suggests its importance for the Kanze lineage in the late seventeenth century. One wonders why Nobumitsu commissioned this inscription (and portrait) and how and when he meant it to be displayed. Elsewhere Lim explains away Nobumitsu’s lack of interest in creating secret artistic writings like his predecessor Zeami, stating that by Nobumitsu’s time the “function of secret treatises—to transmit secret strategies to outdo other competitors—was no longer important” (p. 44). But secret writings clearly had other purposes beyond what Lim allows because Nobumitsu wrote two, and after his lifetime an increasingly wide variety of nō performers from musicians to kyōgen actors authored secret texts. One reason for this heightened activity in creating secret writings was that such treatises within nō and other arts such as cooking, the tea ceremony, and flower arrangement symbolized the...

The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study & Complete Translation by Scott Cook (review)

critical analysis of the text. Indeed, as we are very much aware today, there are important gaps between the man Confucius and the text of the ZY edited some two hundred years later. There are also important gaps between the text of the ZY and its interpretation by Zhu Xi. Therefore the reader should be reminded that the strong coherence between the man Confucius, the text of the ZY, the commentary of Zhu Xi, and the commentary of Arghiresco is mostly a hermeneutical construction. Confucius would have certainly been bewildered by the sayings and meanings attributed to him in the ZY during the Han dynasty, or in its Song and modern commentaries. Frequently, Arghiresco explains the Neo-Confucian Zhongyong in dialogue with Western philosophy, and this approach is similar to what Tu Wei-ming presented under the title Centrality and Commonality.5 Like Tu, Arghiresco strives to expound the inner logic of the text, but their translation differs in some key points. For example, Arghiresco translates cheng with natural correctness (rectitude naturelle), while Tu follows the traditional translation as sincerity. The Buddhist influence on Zhu Xi’s commentary of the ZY is evoked very briefly and could have benefited from a more developed exposition. However, the Taoist influence on the ZY itself, underscored by Qian Mu 錢穆, is treated more systematically.6 Arghiresco’s empathic reading shows little critical distance from NeoConfucianism , especially concerning its political conservatism, since she suggests that positions in society reflect the moral order, and that any mismatch could be corrected through the examination system! Many important notions of the ZY, such as Shangdi 上帝, are not developed adequately (only a brief footnote), arguably because Zhu Xi did not do so. The work is quite lengthy (395 pages) with many repetitions, but perhaps it is intended as a process of internalization. This important book will surely find a wide audience among scholars and students of Neo-Confucianism and of the interpretative tradition of the Classics. THIERRY MEYNARD Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China SCOTT COOK, The Bamboo Texts of Guodian: A Study & Complete Translation. 2 vols. Cornell East Asia Series, vols. 164 & 165. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2012. xviii, ix, 1200 pp. Vol. 1: US$69 (pb), ISBN 978-1933947 -64-8; vol. 2: US$69 (pb), ISBN 978-1-933947-65-5 The long-awaited publication of this magnum opus by Scott Cook, one of the leading scholars in the fields of early Chinese philosophy and the study of excavated manuscripts, is a major event in the study of early China and a cause for celebration. Cook, in Asia better known under his Chinese name Gu Shikao 顧史 5 Tu Wei-ming, An Essay on Confucian Religiousness: A Revised and Enlarged Edition of Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Chung-yung (Honolulu, University of Hawai‘i Press, 1989). 6 Qian Mu 錢穆, Zhuzi Xinxuean 朱子新學案, 5 vols. (Taipei: Sanmin Shuju, 1971). 216 BOOK REVIEWS 考, which also appears on the book cover, presents us with a comprehensive study and translation of the entire corpus of the Guodian 郭店 manuscripts. The great significance of this work is owing not only to its scholarly quality but also to the special importance of its subject matter. The cache of bamboo manuscripts discovered in 1993 in the modestly sized tomb number one of Guodian in Hubei 湖北, is exceptional in several respects. The 731 slips bearing a total of over 13,000 characters form the largest corpus of Warring States prose text recovered so far in a controlled archaeological excavation. It is theoretically surpassed in volume by the find in tomb no. 36 of Cili 慈利 Shibancun 石板村, Hunan 湖南, excavated in 1987. However, those ca. 800–1000 slips with approximately 20,000 characters are so badly damaged that the text, apparently mostly historical narratives, could not be reconstructed as yet, so the Shibancun manuscripts have remained unpublished. Another exceptional feature of the Guodian find, dated to the end of the fourth century BCE, lies in the content of its texts. While the greater part of early Chinese manuscripts found in one particular tomb is usually of a technical nature—be it tomb inventories, administrative documents, divinatory, legal, military, or medical texts—the manuscripts recovered from the Guodian...

Stateless Subjects: Chinese Martial Arts Literature and Postcolonial History, by Petrus Liu. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2012. x + 264 pp. US$49.00 (hardcover), US$39.00 (paperback).

<i>Stateless Subjects: Chinese Martial Arts Literature and Postcolonial History</i>, by Petrus Liu. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2012. x + 264 pp. US$49.00 (hardcover), US$39.00 (paperback).

On The Eve of the Uprising and Other Stories from Colonial Korea. Translated by Sunyoung Park and Jefferson J.A. Gatrall. Cornell East Asia Series No. 149. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2010. xvii, 284 pp. $35.00 (cloth); $29.00 (paper). - A Moment's Grace: Stories from Korea in Transition. Translated by John Holstein. Cornell East Asia Series No. 148.

On The Eve of the Uprising and Other Stories from Colonial Korea. Translated by Sunyoung Park and Jefferson J.A. Gatrall. Cornell East Asia Series No. 149. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2010. xvii, 284 pp. $35.00 (cloth); $29.00 (paper). - A Moment's Grace: Stories from Korea in Transition. Translated by John Holstein. Cornell East Asia Series No. 148.

Metaphorical Circuit: Negotiations Between Literature and Science in 20th Century Japan. By Joseph A. Murphy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2004. 238 pp. $27.00 (paper).

Metaphorical Circuit: Negotiations Between Literature and Science in 20th Century Japan. By Joseph A. Murphy. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2004. 238 pp. $27.00 (paper). - Volume 65 Issue 3

Inventing Nanjing Road: Commercial Culture in Shanghai, 1900–1945. Edited by Sherman Cochran. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program. 268 pp. $23.80 (cloth); $14.45 (paper).

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

SHERMAN COCHRAN (ed.): Inventing Nanjing Road: commercial culture in Shanghai, 1900–1945. (Cornell East Asia Series, 103.) 252 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1999. $28, $17 (paper).

SHERMAN COCHRAN (ed.): <i>Inventing Nanjing Road: commercial culture in Shanghai, 1900–1945</i>. (Cornell East Asia Series, 103.) 252 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1999. $28, $17 (paper).

&lt;sc&gt;S. A. Thornton&lt;/sc&gt;. &lt;italic&gt;Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan: The Case of the Yugyō-Ha (1300–1700)&lt;/italic&gt;. (Cornell East Asia Series, Number 102.) Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program. 1999. Pp. xvi, 290. Cloth $28.00, Paper $17.00

Journal Article S. A. Thornton. Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan: The Case of the Yugyō-Ha (1300–1700). (Cornell East Asia Series, Number 102.) Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program. 1999. Pp. xvi, 290. Cloth $28.00, Paper $17.00 Get access Thornton S. A.. Charisma and Community Formation in Medieval Japan: The Case of the Yugyō-Ha (1300–1700). (Cornell East Asia Series, Number 102.) Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program. 1999. Pp. xvi, 290. Cloth $28.00, Paper $17.00. Paul Varley Paul Varley University of Hawai'i Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 106, Issue 1, February 2001, Pages 146–147, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/106.1.146 Published: 01 February 2001

Strike Hard! Anti-Crime Campaigns and Chinese Criminal Justice, 1979–1985. By Harold M. Tanner. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1999. x, 253 pp. $28.00 (cloth), $17.00 (paper).

Strike Hard! Anti-Crime Campaigns and Chinese Criminal Justice, 1979–1985. By Harold M. Tanner. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1999. x, 253 pp. $28.00 (cloth), $17.00 (paper).

Reviews of Books

Reviews of Books

The Shadow of Arms. By Hwang Suk-Young. Translated by Chun Kyung-ja with a foreword by Paik Nak-Chung. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University East Asia Program, 1994. 512 pp. $32.00 (cloth); $20.00 (paper).

The Shadow of Arms. By Hwang Suk-Young. Translated by Chun Kyung-ja with a foreword by Paik Nak-Chung. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University East Asia Program, 1994. 512 pp. 20.00 (paper). - Volume 55 Issue 1

Wang Wen-Hsing: Backed against the sea. Transl. by Edward Gunn. (Cornell East Asia Series, no. 67.) 131 pp. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1993.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

The Shadow of Arms. By Hwang Suk-Young. Translated by Chun Kyung-Ja, with a foreword by Paik Nak-Chung. Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University East Asia Program, 1994. 512 pp. $32.00 (cloth); $20.00 (paper).

The Shadow of Arms. By Hwang Suk-Young. Translated by Chun Kyung-Ja, with a foreword by Paik Nak-Chung. Cornell East Asia Series, Cornell University East Asia Program, 1994. 512 pp. $32.00 (cloth); $20.00 (paper).

From Yalta to Panmunjom: Truman's Diplomacy and the Four Powers, 1945-1953 (review)

Reviews 143 Hua Qingzhao. From Yalta to Panmunjom: Truman's Diplomacy and the Four Powers, 1945-1953. Foreword by John Toland. Cornell East Asia Series. Ithaca, NewYork: Cornell University East Asia Program, Cornell University, 1993. vii, 267 pp. Paperback $15.00. John Toland himselfis a skilled practitioner of the exciting craft ofproducing transcultural diplomatic history. For that reason I took special note of his effusive praise of Hua Qingzhao's From Yalta to Panmunjom. However, even tributes like "painstaking," "diligence," "new," "solid," and "illuminating" did not prepare me for Hua's riveting account of Truman's eight years from 1945 to 1953. Hua is a born storyteller. The cast of characters is given vitality by Hua's capacity to come up with a gesture, an eccentricity, or arrangment of words Aiat results in enhancing his story line with Aie Aioughts and deeds of real people. He confers depth and sharpness on his writing by placing events within historical context. Lest I be charged with extravagance, let me hasten to mention complaints. Hua's book has no index and no bibliography, and his footnotes offer insufficient critical evaluation to be of help to readers who might want to make efficient use of Hua's resources for research of their own. Is Hua's book a textbook for diplomats? Implicit in his narrative is an evaluation of the practice of diplomacy byAmericans, Chinese (from both the CCP and the KMT), British, and Russians. His guideline would seem to be that all diplomats should remember history—their own country's and also that of their adversaries . They should avoid extremes in setting goals for themselves, in choosing tactics, and in renderingjudgment as to the result of their efforts. Diplomats should respect the "system" but be alert to the need for its reform. Hua's book does not aspire to be such a manual. Instead, it is a modest exploration of available source materials by a student who seems to have been guided, from the outset, by two convictions. The first is that the Cold War did not begin with any particular event or even any particular issue. The Cold War was inevitable because of the inescapable rivalry of two superpowers whose interests and capabilities were global. Their insistence upon retaining mutually endowed powers of veto was embodied in the charter of the United Nations. All other countries thereafter were obliged to limit their options by accepting, to some extent, subordination to the merciless requirements of this confrontation of"morality" and "ideology" on a global scale. _ u TT ¦ u Hua's second conviction draws a bead, uniquely, on the United States. Hua© 1994 by Universityn ' ofHawai'iPressPuts ? mis waY: Despite its first Amendment, the U.S. Government seems to feel that it has the right to decide what non-Americans around the globe should say and believe. 144 China Review International: Vol. 1, No. 2, Fall 1994 Once Americans believe that others should adopt American values, understanding of other nations becomes impossible, and ignorance and insensitivity must lead to disastrous decisions on the part of the U.S. Hua shapes his story as a Chinese. However, his research materials are to an overwhelming degree American. My review of his highly instructive footnotes shows that perhaps as much as ninety percent of his information is based upon American documentation. That may, in one sense, be a pity. Nevertheless, the telling of Hua's story actually demonstrates the richness of accessible American research materials. It also confirms the extreme difficulty of preserving in perpetual secrecy anything done by Americans. Using Chinese records, Hua, in his chapter about the fighting of Aie war in Korea, demonstrates Aieir very great value. The enriched color of that one chapter should be enough to cause readers to hope that Hua is young enough and energetic enough to come back to this book after another decade or two to direct his impressive analytic skills to a treatment of Chinese, Korean , and Russian participation, as he has done so productively throughout this book using American materials and dealing with American participants. Each of Hua's chapters invites careful rereading in the company of other students of the time and events he...

The Role of Central Banking in China's Economic Reforms (review)

Reviews 135 Carsten Holz. The Role ofCentral Banking in China's Economic Reforms Cornell EastAsia Series, no. 59. Ithaca, NewYork: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1992. xiii, 220 pp. This is a timelybook for specialists on China's economy. Despite its many shortcomings , it may well be an indispensable book for those who focus on China's monetary policy and financial system. The author displays an uncanny foresight when he motivates the book by asking in the preface (apparently written in mid-1992): "Is overheating and subsequent clamp-down an inevitable phenomenon in the Chinese economy?" and then in the last sentence of the book: With a reformist tide rising in the PRC in 1992 it would not be astonishing ifbefore long a more reform-oriented team were to take over the leadership of the PBC [reviewer's note: People's Bank of China] and, parallel to the changes in the real economy, once more set out to modernize central banking. At the time of this review (September 1993), China is indeed going through its fourth episode of"overheating and subsequent clampdown" since reform began in 1979, and indeed a "more reform-oriented team" has "taken over the leadership ofthe PBC ... (to) set out to modernize central banking." When Vice Premier Zhu Rongji took over the governorship ofthe central bank in early July, for the first time the People's Bank of China is headed by an official who is apparently committed to monetary and financial reform and is endowed with sufficient political clout to overcome resistance from all levels of the government. Monetary and financial reform in China is long overdue. Since 1978, reform has transformed the nation from a rigidly controlled and centrally planned economy to the vibrant and increasingly market-oriented economy it is today. It has brought prosperity and an improved standard ofliving to hundreds of millions ofpeople in that country. Its success provides a sharp contrast to the disastrous outcomes ofreform in virtually all the other formerly centrally planned economies. Yet, as this book's author correctly points out, China's success in economic copyright1994reform has beenlimited to its real economy: in agricultural prices, foreign trade, by Universityoftownship and village industries, private andjoint-venture enterprises, and so on. Hawai'i PressThe essence ofthe reform in the real economyhas been the gradual removal of 136 China Review International: Vol. ?, No. ?, Spring 1994 state controls that had strangled productive incentives. In contrast, little of that has occurred in the financial sector. Banks continue to serve as the handmaiden of the government. Loans are allocated according to central planning, as they were before the reform. Unlike before the reform, however, because decentralization ofpolitical power has increasingly led to regional economic fragmentation, bank loans are also directed by local government officials to support local industries , often in disregard for the soundness of the loans and the loan limits proscribed in the national credit planning as well. Under these circumstances, the waste of the population's savings has been enormous, and the central bank's control of the nation's money supply has become increasingly ineffective. At long last, the Chinese authorities are getting ready to undertake the arduous task ofmonetary and financial reform. Reform has been made necessary by the general recognition that long-run economic progress requires a more market -oriented financial system, but the task has been made more arduous by the powerful vested interests at various levels of the government and by enterprises that have thrived under the present chaotic system. As the drama of China's monetary and financial reform unfolds, those who are interested in the Chinese economy in general and its monetary policy and financial system in particular will find this book a useful background reading, focused as it is on central banking, to supplement the much more comprehensive World Bank study, China: Financial Sector Policies and Institutional Development (Washington, D.C., 1990). After a briefintroduction, which provides a broad-brushed sketch of the structure of China's financial system, the book is divided into two parts plus a concluding chapter. Part 1 introduces the organizational structure of the People's Bank of China, and then, in the subsequent chapters, describes the central...

To Achieve Wealth and Security: The Qing Imperial State and the Economy, 1644–1911. Edited by Jane Kate Leonard and John R. Watt. Cornell East Asian series, No. 56. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1992. xii, 189 pp. $10.00.

To Achieve Wealth and Security: The Qing Imperial State and the Economy, 1644–1911. Edited by Jane Kate Leonard and John R. Watt. Cornell East Asian series, No. 56. Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1992. xii, 189 pp. $10.00. - Volume 53 Issue 1

Deathsong of the River: A Reader's Guide to the Chinese TV Series Heshang. By Su Xiaokang and Wang Luxiang. Introduced, translated and annotated by Richard W. Bodman and Pin P. Wan. [Ithaca, New York: Cornell University East Asia Program, East Asia Series No. 54, 1991. 349 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0 939657 54 6.

Deathsong of the River: A Reader's Guide to the Chinese TV Series Heshang. By Su Xiaokang and Wang Luxiang. Introduced, translated and annotated by Richard W. Bodman and Pin P. Wan. [Ithaca, New York: Cornell University East Asia Program, East Asia Series No. 54, 1991. 349 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0 939657 54 6.

Deathsong of the River: A Reader's Guide to the Chinese TV Series “He Shang.”. By Su Xiaokang Wang Luxiang. et al. Translated by Richard W. Bodman and Pin P. Wan Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1991. xi, 349 pp. $15.00.

Deathsong of the River: A Reader's Guide to the Chinese TV Series “He Shang.”. By Su Xiaokang Wang Luxiang. et al. Translated by Richard W. Bodman and Pin P. Wan Ithaca: Cornell University East Asia Program, 1991. xi, 349 pp. $15.00.