Early Years Of Reform Research Articles

A Study of the Translation of Mo Yan's Frog From the Perspective of Domestication and Foreignization

Mo Yan is a famous Chinese writer. He has become the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Frog is one of Mo Yan's masterpieces. His works were strongly influenced by magical realism and told the legend which took place in Gaomi, Shandong Province, during the Cultural Revolution and the early years of reform and opening up. Different countries have different cultural formation processes, which have led to creating their culture-loaded words. Culture-loaded words refer to the words, phrases, and idioms used to signify objects peculiar to specific cultures. These culture-loaded words and expressions are the direct reflections of the unique features of Chinese culture. The translator needs to avoid errors and omissions in translation, especially when translating cultural information. Based on domestication and foreignization translation strategies, this article takes Howard Goldblatt's English translation of Mo Yan's Frog as the research object to explore the translation and effect of cultural-loaded words in the novel. The translator uses foreignization and domestication strategies to explain and convey these Chinese characteristics. It achieves faithfulness to the original text and flexibly handles culture-loaded words with Chinese characteristics, ensuring the attractiveness and affinity of the translated text. The research on the English translation of the Chinese culture-loaded words in the novel is helpful for foreign readers to understand and accept the culture with Chinese characteristics.

Voices of Protest Against Industrial Pollution in Hubei, China, During the 1970s and 1980s

Abstract This article examines local official records to find voices of protest against industrial pollution in Hubei, China, during its early reform era from the 1970s to the 1980s. Archival evidence from unpublished official documents indicates that to some extent local officers responded to citizens' petitions against two main forms of industrial pollution: air pollution and soil pollution. Air pollution mostly affected urban residents but elicited more contention. Soil pollution got comparatively less exposure but caused more direct damage to impacted peasants. Both rural and urban victims of industrial pollution projected their own voices of protest typically by submitting group-authored and signed or anonymous whistle-blowing letters. Protests against pollution emerged with inter-group conflict negotiation in public or semi-public venues as well as in local investigation reports. The findings discussed here help to explain how local environmental governance evolved through increasing public awareness at subnational levels in China's early reform years.

Evaluating Impacts of the Ternary Structure Change of Population in Urban and Rural Areas on Industrial Development in China

Since the reform and opening up, the scale of migrant workers in China has been growing steadily. Its scale has rapidly increased from less than 2 million in the early years of reform to 280 million in 2017, accounting for more than 20% of China's total population. Migrant workers contribute significantly to China’s urbanization and modernization. As a factor of production, its structural changes will inevitably have a profound and far-reaching impact on economic structure changes. In our knowledge, there has no research that estimated the impacts of the urban and rural labor structural change on the detailed industries like manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail, residential service, repair and other service etc., which are most of migrant workers engaged in. We used Cobb-Douglas production function to estimate the economic growth of the detailed industries and the ridge regression method to estimate the parameters and significance of each explanatory variable in CD functions. The results show that migrant workers have significant contribution to the growth of the four industries, most to the manufacturing. However, the results revealed that the increase of migrant workers in manufacturing and service industries did not promote the development of them. The technical education and training of migrant workers should be strengthened.

Emergent voices. Exploring the lived experience of seniors with intellectual disability

ABSTRACTIn Norway, as in many European countries, there has been a major change in living conditions for people with intellectual disability over the last 30 years. State policy has changed, involving the reduction of institutional care with the aim of normalising people’s life situations and service provision. A challenge in the early years of reform was a lack of first-hand experiences. Researchers attempting to interview people with intellectual disabilities themselves about moving out of institutions concluded that this was methodologically problematic, as informants tended to answer what they thought was expected of them. While this may also reflect features of the research at that time, many of those with first-hand experiences of the reform have later confirmed that they had but a weak voice of their own. Today, their voices are stronger, and many of them provide important testimonies of the ‘true consequences’ of the reform. This article reveals some of these testimonies. Through in-depth interviews, six people with intellectual disabilities tell about their institutional lives and their present lives in the community. The strongest testimony to the reform is perhaps our informants’ ability to give words to, and reflect on, what was previously just a silent pain.

Back to the Future? The Changing Role of Government in China's Economic Development

This paper reviews the changing role of government in China’s economic development during the last four decades. It argues that China’s outstanding economic performance has been largely caused by draining three “quake lakes” created by the command economy, thus releasing a huge potential locked in by the old system. It shows that just like what happened in the early years of reform when modest policy shifts could produce big steps forward, seemingly minor policy changes could also result in big steps backward. Backtracking can be self-reinforcing and “ex post coherent”, and reforms can run into the danger of sliding “back to the future” if the right lessons of China’s 40 years of reforms are not learnt.

An imperfect modernity – Guangzhou’s CBD project

ABSTRACTModernization is a fundamental driver of Chinese governmental projects, exemplified by renewed cityscapes; however, recent modernity projects often fail to achieve stated objectives. The CBD project of Guangzhou, a typical flagship modernity project, exemplifies the contained and all-encompassing urbanism of contemporary Chinese urban planning with its exclusionary social character, distinctive features and visual signifiers. Efforts at redefining place for the modernity project increasingly encounter opposition and obstacle, as in the embedded enclave of the early reform years, Liuyun Xiaoqu. These remains of an earlier vision for modern Guangzhou are now the unintended centrepiece of the whole CBD project, increasingly difficult to dislodge. This paper examines the CBD project as an exemplar of Asian modernity to enquire how the embedded enclave of Liuyun Xiaoqu developed a symbiotic relationship with the government project. The case demonstrates the great difficulty of carrying out in toto grand modernity schemes in China, due in large measure to the power of local communities to challenge their social composition and architectural vision. The greenfield CBD development in China after 2001 becomes an increasingly standardized form of enclave even as the possibility of achieving the vision becomes increasingly difficult.

Activist Archives: Youth Culture and the Political Past in Indonesia

Activist Archives: Youth Culture and Political Past in Indonesia. By Doreen Lee. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2016. Softcover: 278pp. Almost two decades after fall of Suharto regime in May 1998, we still know very little about movement that was driving force behind Indonesia's turn to democracy. In post-Suharto era, movement lost limelight to other actors better equipped for game of politics, and thus moved ever deeper into realm of collective memory as feverish episode in history, aligned with longer history of (youth) activism in Indonesia. Yet, as Doreen Lee persuasively argues in Activist Archives, it is from edges of history that pemuda fever continues to infuse present with urgency and legitimacy (p. 3), animating culture of democracy that firmly established radical styles and ideas within political and cultural landscape of Jakarta. Remedying dearth of literature on post-New Order activism, Activist Archives offers sophisticated ethnography of Generation 98, ingeniously structured around key tropes of material and ideational spaces that activists inhabit. With keen eye for detail and paradox, Lee delves deep into micropolitics of these spaces, starting with Archive. She shows how activists' feverish drive to document, consign, and assemble signs of nationalism (p. 11) served as an authenticating to compete with state discourse, which was, however, complicated by concurrent need for secrecy, epitomized by tacit rule: Burn after reading. By highlighting social life behind documentation, Lee uncovers significant findings that many other researchers might have overlooked. A charming example is scene reconstructed from scribbles found on back of official statements used during 1997 subversion trials; it shows how two activists, waiting for their turn to testify, exchanged insolent jokes, conveying the undercurrent of youthful nonchalance and puerile lightheartedness even during gravity of subversion trial (p. 55). Youthfulness also pervades chapters on Street and Style, which show how performativity of protest and carefully cultivated look helped to make subversive symbols of left trendy and less threatening, thus creating a new model of citizenship for Indonesian youth by making political participation desirable and accessible (p. 91). In an engaging section on production and circulation of protest T-shirts, Lee further illustrates how this visual economy served purposes of collective identity as well as propaganda. But while she properly contextualizes iconography in political history, crucial differentiations in style between different activist communities, which symbolize deep fractures in post-Suharto movement, are neglected. Not all activists identified with appearances of Molotov cocktail-throwing urban warrior pictured in two illustrations (pp. 92--93). Though this image dominated protest scenes and media reports in early years of reform, it was acceptable to certain groups only, and rejected by others opposed to their mode of protest. Leaving image unproblematized risks making caricature of negotiated self-presentation, as happened with cliched image of revolutionary of 1945 that many Indonesia scholars uncritically accepted. The chapter on Violence presents more careful analysis, introducing notion of student counterviolence as dynamic practice that solidifies and simultaneously disrupts students' moral superiority over state. This is illustrated by various fascinating vignettes. But most gripping is story of former activist Iblis, who was abducted and tortured by military in 1990s. With great sensitivity, Lee recounts his sense of devastating defeat at realizing his nothingness as sacrificial scapegoat subjected to his torturers' whims. …

Everyday Power Relations in State Firms in Socialist China: A Reexamination

Drawing on interviews with 97 retirees from different cities, this article reinterprets power relations in state-owned enterprises during the Mao era, centering on an analysis of day-to-day interactions between factory cadres and workers and between the elites and the ordinary among workers. The main issues addressed in this study include how cadres exercised discretion in administrative activities that directly affected workers’ material and nonmaterial interests, such as wage raises, housing allocations, party membership, promotions, and political awards; to what extent workers developed personal dependence on their supervisors; and whether or not workers were split into two antagonistic groups of activists and nonactivists. Without denying the instances of favoritism and personal dependence in cadre-worker relations under certain circumstances, which became increasingly noticeable in the early reform years, this study underscores the constraints of formal and informal institutions on cadres and questions the validity of the clientelist model in explaining micro-political realities on the factory floor in Chinese industry before the reform era.

The Practical Way of Communist Party of China to Bring up and Assemble Young Talents in the Early Years of Reform and Opening up (1978-1989)

The Practical Way of Communist Party of China to Bring up and Assemble Young Talents in the Early Years of Reform and Opening up (1978-1989)

Allocation of capital in the post-liberalized regime: a case study of the Indian corporate sector

The paper investigates the trends in the allocation of capital in an emerging economy, India, during the post-financial liberalization regime. In contrast to the conventional wisdom that financial liberalization leads to better allocation of funds, the study could not find any obvious evidence of increase in efficiency over the reform period, especially during the early years of reform. Further, the study highlights the disturbing trend of convergence of efficiencies across various strata of firms towards a lower level over the reform period. This paper rationalizes the decline as a result of excessive capacity creation in certain industries, financed by cheap external sources of finance, without any consideration of return or demand conditions. This paper, as a policy recommendation, highlights the importance of creating appropriate institutions prior to pursuing financial liberalization in developing countries like India.

The Georgian Economy: From 'Shock Therapy' to 'Social Promotion' (Georgia and 'Laffer-Keynesian Synthesis')

The article provides an evaluation of the early years of reform measured against a ‘standard” model of economic reform, an account of recent developments under a resumed and more purposeful programme of reform, and proposals for future action to invigorate the Georgian economy. The method of ‘Social Promotion” of economic reform is developed. The combining of the Laffer Curve approach with the Keynesian approach cutting of taxes, leads to a form of Laffer-Keynesian synthesis.

Worship, Reflection, Empirical Research

In my youth, I was a worshipper of Mao Zedong. From the latter stage of the Mao Era to the early years of Reform and Opening, I began to reflect on Mao and the Communist Revolution he launched. In recent years I’ve devoted myself to empirical historical research on Mao, seeking the truth about Mao and China’s modern history.

The Transformation of Collectively Owned Enterprises and its Outcomes in China, 2001–05

Summary Previous studies have primarily focused on the relative success of collectively owned enterprises (COEs) in China during the early years of reform, but they have ignored the agency problems inherent in this type of organizational form that may be an obstacle to further improving performance in a changing environment. Drawing on agency theory and the privatization literature, we argue that the transformed COEs in the ongoing organizational transformation process may achieve better performance by reducing agency costs. We examine a sample of COEs in Chinese manufacturing industries and track their ownership statuses from 2000 to 2005. Our findings reveal that the transformed firms achieved better performance than the traditional, untransformed COEs by mitigating agency problems.

Reforming China's SOEs: An Overview

After three decades of reform, state ownership still plays a significant if diminishing role in China’s industrial sector. We survey studies that focus on the impact of reform on China’s SOEs both during the early reform years from 1979 to 1992 and during the years of privatisation and corporatisation since 1993. Most studies find evidence that reforms led to productivity growth in both periods, with both the performance gap and the formal distinction between SOEs and non-SOEs appearing to narrow since the late 1990s.

Adam Smith, Advisor on the Russian Transition

Adam Smith defeats Karl Marx: this shorthand summary of the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union was not uncommon during the early years of reform. But would Adam Smith approve of the nature of the economic transition in Russia? This essay, drawing intensively upon Smith's writings, purports to reveal the advice that Adam Smith provides to policymakers in Russia and other post-socialist transitional countries. Smith argues that: economic reform can precede and even enhance political reform; protection of private property rights and contractual enforcement are necessary for long-run growth; industrial policy is to be avoided, although existing sectoral preferences should be gradually eliminated; and, the judicial branch of government should be independent of the executive, if investment is to be promoted.

Educational Stratification by Ethnicity in China: Enrollment and Attainment in the Early Reform Years

Educational Stratification by Ethnicity in China: Enrollment and Attainment in the Early Reform Years

The Spatial Coverage of Regional Policy in Central and Eastern Europe

Regional policy is currently one of the most dynamic areas of policy making in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Neglected in favour of more urgent priorities in the early years of reform, the past five years have seen an upsurge of interest, political commitment and policy formulation and implementation in this field. In part, this reflects the progress of transition. Fundamental political and macro-economic reforms are now largely complete in most CEE countries, but the shift to a market economy is associated with new spatial patterns of economic and social inequality requiring government intervention. The greater attention to regional policy is also influenced by the prospect of EU accession. As Agenda 2000 (CEC, 1997) makes clear, candidate countries are required to have workable structures for receiving Structural and Cohesion Funds and regional development strategies in accordance with EU principles.

Comment: Controversies and Evidence in the Market Transition Debate

Despite repeated attempts to integrate competing perspectives (Szelenyi and Kostello 1996; Nee and Matthews 1996), the ongoing market transition debate has shown no signs of resolution. Instead, the 1996 AJS market transition symposium seems to have created more controversy than it settled (Nee 1996; Xie and Hannum 1996; Oberschall 1996; Parish and Michelson 1996; Walder 1996; Fligstein 1996; Szelenyi and Kostello 1996). And subsequent studies continue to reach nearly opposite conclusions (cf. Bian and Logan 1996; Gerber and Hout 1998; with Brainerd 1998; Nee and Cao, in press). When arguments become polarized, it often signals that divisions are falsely drawn (Bates 1997). Although originally made in another context, this observation is applicable here. As principals in this lively debate, we believe that clarification and reevaluation are essential for moving toward a reconciliation of competing viewpoints. In this comment we therefore identify the central issues in the controversy and provide an overall assessment of existing empirical evidence

Managing Central-Local Relations During Socialist MarketisationA Changing Role for the Chinese Communist Party

Summaries In the early years of reform, the reduction of the party's power took place alongside decentralisation; since 1993, however, party leadership has been reinforced as part of the measures to strengthen central control. While marketisation has sharpened contradictions between socialism and the market economy, a paradoxical situation has emerged in which the party organisation has been called upon to assist in the smooth management of the market economy. The key issue was how to enforce discipline among the localities and economic and financial institutions in the transition. Establishing a vertical leadership system of the party at the core of the market economy, namely, its financial system, can be seen as a modern Chinese way of resolving the contradiction between socialism and market economy.

Charting Chicago school reform: democratic localism as a lever for change

In 1989, Chicago began an experiment with radical decentralization of power and authority. This book tells the story of what happened to Chicago's elementary schools in the first four years of this reform. Implicit in this reform is the theory that expanded local democratic participation would stimulate organizational change within schools, which in turn would foster improved teaching and learning. Using this theory as a framework, the authors marshal massive quantitative and qualitative data to examine how the reform actually unfolded at the school level.With longitudinal case study data on 22 schools, survey responses from principals and teachers in 269 schools, and supplementary system-wide administrative data, the authors identify four types of school politics: strong democracy, consolidated principal power, maintenance, and adversarial. In addition, they classify school change efforts as either systemic or unfocused. Bringing these strands together, the authors determine that, in about a third of the schools, expanded local democratic participation served as a strong lever for introducing systemic change focused on improved instruction. Finally, case studies of six actively restructuring schools illustrate how under decentralization the principal's role is recast, social support for change can grow, and ideas and information from external sources are brought to bear on school change initiatives. Few studies intertwine so completely extensive narratives and rigorous quantitative analyses. The result is a complex picture of the Chicago reform that joins the politics of local control to school change.This volume is intended for scholars in the fields of urban education, public policy, sociology of education, anthropology of education, and politics of education. Comprehensive and descriptive, it is an engaging text for graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Local, state, and federal policymakers who are concerned with urban education will find new and insightful material. The book should be on reading lists and in professional development seminars for school principals who want to garner community support for change and for school community leaders who want more responsive local institutions. Finally, educators, administrators, and activists in Chicago will appreciate this detailed analysis of the early years of reform.