Representation Of China Research Articles

Examining Representation of the Non-Local

This article examines how the United Kingdom’s media represents contemporary China. Using the context of the Beijing Olympics, the article examines the UK media’s representation of China through the prisms of ideology, history and geopolitics. Using Content Analysis, the inquiry examines news reports on the Olympics published in the UK’s ‘national newspapers’ (as classified by Lexis Nexis) between 9 May 2008 and 8 August 2008, the three-month period immediately preceding the games. The article finds the UK media’s narrative on China prejudiced by ideological differences, biases traceable to historical presuppositions, and anxieties emanating from China’s resurgence on the world stage.

National Theatre of China's Romeo and Juliet and Its Rituals

This paper explores the “Chinese-ness” of this brand new production of Romeo and Juliet by the National Theatre of China, from a ritual perspective. Three main areas were discussed. Firstly, this play has got several religious connotations. The absence of religion in this play’s setting is relevant to China’s current high percentage of atheists. Despite that, several religions, such as Buddhism, Daoism and Christianity, are mentioned in this play. Secondly, the play has also incorporated several Chinese culture and traditions. The use of bicycles as one of the main props can be linked to the cultural significance of bicycles in China. The play also incorporated other cultural and traditional elements such as wedding customaries in China, Xinjiang dance, as well as the Chinese tongue twisters. Finally, the play has incorporated multiple Brechtian moments. Perhaps the Brechtian moments can lead audience to think about the current religious and cultural developments in modern China.

Case Study of Colonial Building Restoration in China: Astor House Hotel Protective Restoration Project

Astor House Hotel is China's earliest foreign-related hotel, a national key historical relic preservation unit, and one of the last remaining examples of colonial architectures in Tianjin. The early architectural form of the old building was a typical representation of Tianjin's British concession, with a high degree of international popularity. The remarkable historical evolution of the hotel over the past 150 years made this restoration project important, and the construction research and design, being extremely complex, aroused the great attention of the government, cultural relic protection agency, academic circle, non-governmental organizations, and the public. Thus, the protective restoration objectives, methods, and processes were of high sensitivity. The restoration design took into comprehensive consideration various factors, focusing on the hotel's historical value and symbolic significance as a typical representation of China's earliest foreign-related hotel and early colonial buildings. Based on multidimensional historical research on the hotel, The design restored the appearance of the hotel's old building to the state of the original period. The restoration project also used proper technology to enhance the security of the old building. The hotel's historical and cultural value and aesthetic significance was enhanced comprehensively through spatial representation, functional improvement, and rational organization of the cultural relic exhibition.

“Prejudice against prejudices”: China and the Limits of Whig Liberalism

This essay takes a critical look at the representation of China in the influential early nineteenth-century periodical the Edinburgh Review at an historically pivotal moment in relations between Britain and China and in the changing understanding and image of China in the West. Beginning with the Edinburgh's commitment to travel writing and self-conscious policy of cosmopolitanism and tolerance, the article reads the Macartney mission of 1793–1794 and its public representations in the context of Britain's historical relationship with China and of the conflicted history of China's reputation in the West. Finally, it exposes a limitation or blind spot in the Edinburgh's liberal ideology, suggesting the significance of this blind spot for the rhetorical and ethical method of the Edinburgh and for nineteenth-century British liberalism more generally, and the difficulties it faced accommodating foreign customs and values in a period of imperial expansion.

Relationship between occupational stress and coping strategy among operating theatre nurses in China: a questionnaire survey

To explore the relationship between occupational stress and coping strategies among operating theatre nurses in China. Studies on occupational stress and burnout in nurses are common, but there is a dearth of research on the coping strategies of operating theatre nurses. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a typical operating theatre in China. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 70 nurses. The data were analysed using correlation and regression methods. Nurses reported high stress levels in the workload and time pressure subscales. Female nurses' occupational stress was positively correlated with designation and negatively correlated with operation sets per day and night shifts. Nurses preferred self-control as a coping strategy. Active coping was positively related to resource and environmental problems, and passive coping was positively related to workload and time pressure, and to interpersonal relationship and management issues. Nursing managers could reduce operating theatre nurses' passive coping by decreasing the stressors of workload and time pressure, and interpersonal relationships and management problems. Nursing managers could employ more nurses to reduce nurses' workload and occupational stress. In addition, managers should consider fortifying nurses' active coping strategies and training nurses in problem-solving skills.

‘Threatening’ China and US security: the international politics of identity

AbstractChina's increasing capabilities are a central focus of modern day US security concerns. The International Relations literature is a key forum for analyses of the so-called ‘China threat’ and yet it remains relatively quiet on the role of ideas in the construction and perpetuation of the dangers that country is understood to present. This article reveals that throughout history ‘threats’ from China towards the United States, rather than objectively verifiable phenomena, have always been social constructions of American design and thus more than calculations of material forces. Specifically, it argues that powerful and pervasive American representations of China have been repeatedly and purposefully responsible for creating a threatening identity. It also demonstrates that these representations have enabled and justified US China policies which themselves have reaffirmed the identities of both China and the United States, protecting the latter when seemingly threatened by the former. Three case studies from across the full duration of Sino-American relations expose the centrality of ideas to historical and contemporary understandings of China ‘threats’, and to the American foreign policies formulated in response.

Representations of China in British Children’s Fiction, 1851–1911 by Shih-Wen Chen (review)

Reviewed by: Representations of China in British Children’s Fiction, 1851–1911 by Shih-Wen Chen Erica Hateley (bio) Shih-Wen Chen. Representations of China in British Children’s Fiction, 1851–1911. Ashgate Studies in Childhood, 1700 to the Present. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2013. 218 pp. Hardcover £55.00, isbn 978-1-4094-4735-1. During a recent conversation with my Anglo-Australian father, he recalled a story encountered in the 1950s and 1960s classrooms of his youth. A staple resource in those classrooms was the Victorian Readers, and if my father is anything to go by, it seems that the comic stories included in these state-authorized anthologies were enjoyed and remembered by students far more than any other genre.1 In the course of recounting Henry Lawson’s short story “The Loaded Dog” (1901), my father had suddenly remembered another story, the title of which he could not recall, but which he knew he and his friends had found hilarious. After some searching, I found the story my father remembered: Edward Dyson’s “A Golden Shanty” (1898), the racism of which is so overt as to beggar belief. Dyson’s story and its inclusion in state-mandated education of mid-twentieth century Australia may seem at some remove from the materials discussed in Shih-Wen Chen’s Representations of China in British Children’s Fiction, 1851–1911, but this conversation with my father reminded me how close, in both space and time, my own Anglophone, British Commonwealth culture remains to those fictions of the nineteenth century that shaped and continue to shape cultural and cross-cultural meaning and understanding. It reminded me how pervasive and potent are the images and ideas consumed in childhood. Chen takes as her subject the ways in which China and Chinese characters were depicted in children’s books addressed to an implied British child readership a century ago. In addition to shedding light on a historical phase of transition in literary culture, Chen’s work has the capacity to speak to contemporary modes of cultural representation and analysis. The volume is organized by chapters discussing [End Page 64] travelogues by Anne Bowman and William Dalton, the emergence and development of the popular character Ching-Ching, representations of the Taiping Rebellion, and literary depictions of the Boxer Uprising. Chen addresses a range of genres for young readers and engages with children’s literature across her focus period. In so doing, she offers an important contribution both to children’s literature studies and to Anglophone China studies. To the degree that a national culture is defined as much by what it is not as what it may be—that is, to the degree that Said’s influential account of Orientalism (1978) retains utility as an account of defining the self through defining the other—attending to the representations of China and Chineseness in nineteenth-century British children’s literature offers insights into the popular practices of “the East made known, and therefore less fearsome, to the Western reading public” at a time when a newly literate population simultaneously proved the cultural ascendancy of the British Empire and posed a threat to its internal cohesion.2 It is in the management of a literate population that imperial politics retain and extend an imaginative potency. In Britain, the long nineteenth century witnessed two major cultural shifts that inform Representations of China. The first is the emergence of widespread literacy; the other is the development of children’s literature as a social and economic force for educating the newly literate population. These two narratives of mass literacy and children’s literature are well known to scholars of British cultural history, not least because literature for young people is widely recognized as a tool of social education as much as an object of pleasure. In the tensions between education and entertainment that characterize much popular culture, and children’s texts in particular, the fault lines of a nation’s culture—real and desired—can be traced. Chen identifies a range of contexts as relevant to her study, including political, economic, and martial histories and conflicts in Sino-British relations; an explosion of information and literacy in Britain...

Research on the Inheritance of Inlay Silver Lacquer Furniture

Inlay silver lacquer Furniture is the concrete representation of China's outstanding traditional culture, which has a good enlightenment for the modern furniture design. Firstly, it introduced the history of inlay silver lacquer, and then it analyzed in detail the artistic features of inlay silver lacquer furniture. Furthermore, it put forward the effective method—"high-ranking customization" and constructed the framework of "high-ranking customization" for inlay silver furniture to inherit and innovate traditional inlay silver furniture, The application of which can satisfy the personalized needs of modern people for furniture.

“In Far Cathay”: Representations of China in The Boy’s Own Paper, 1879–1914

This paper considers how “knowledge” of China was presented for Victorian and Edwardian children in The Boy’s Own Paper (BOP) between 1879 and 1914. It considers how genre affects the representation of China in the BOP by comparing travel narratives and adventure stories. First, it focuses on non-fiction about China, examining the rhetorical strategies employed by the authors of travel narratives. The travellers express confidence in their ability to survey the land and present readers with the idea that China is abundant in resources awaiting British discovery. Second, the article discusses adventure stories about opium and piracy written during a period when the tension between the British and the Chinese was particularly fraught over these issues. While the authors of the adventure stories created a strong contrast between the Chinese as villains and the British as heroes, the BOP travel writers provide contradictory statements within their narratives, reflecting an ambivalence about China and the Chinese. However, because the BOP contributors sought to instil a sense of patriotism, to inspire their readers to serve the British Empire, both the non-fiction travel narratives and the fictional adventure stories related to China were published not only to entertain readers with exotic facts and thrilling stories, but more importantly, to persuade them of the necessity of British intervention.

Citizens' Representations of China's Golden Weeks

For over a decade Chinese tourism policy has constrained the holiday periods for its citizens to a limited number of well-defined Golden Weeks. This study explores the representations of 450 Chinese residents from five popular tourist regions in these holiday periods. The study is embedded in the framework of social representations theory underpinned by an emic approach to this topical issue. More specifically, the researchers employed an open-ended survey in Mandarin, eliciting the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the structured holiday periods. Many positive features of each individual Golden Week were identified, while some problems resulting from congestion were also highlighted. A common and hegemonic social representation was revealed and presented using the treemaps approach. A range of key managerial interventions are required for improving the periods as travel opportunities both within and outside China.

China as Humanist Exemplum

This essay addresses the “demand for humanism, with a nod toward Asia” within current theory and global intellectual political culture. I argue that using humanism as a way to understand China (a habit inside and especially outside the PRC) keeps us within the orientalist tradition; it is also at odds with China's attempted/failed/ongoing revolution and trajectory since 1949. I offer an interdisciplinary analysis of area studies and other representations of China, especially in regard to Tiananmen and the Cultural Revolution. I then contrast this with current intellectual debates in China as well as with an older Maoist or revolutionary discourse. The resurgence or “demand” for humanism is rendered as part of an intellectual and political backlash or depoliticization.

Modernity and media portrayals of China

China’s image in the Western media has long been a contentious issue. Many previous studies have focused on what images are constructed but few have examined how those images are generated. This article aims to address this issue by exploring cultural foundations of Western representations of China. The article falls into three parts. Part one traces configurations of modernity discourse, focusing on liberal humanism and industrialism as two important dimensions in reporting Chinese affairs. Part Two examines historical trajectories of Western images of China, highlighting different mix of the two versions of modernity at crucial historical junctures. Part three explores conceptual and methodological issues in relation to Western reporting of China. Based on structuralist narrative theories, an analytical model is proposed that is illustrated with specific examples. The article concludes with a critical assessment of current situations of Western reporting of China.

Conventional Counterforce Strike: An Option for Damage Limitation in Conflicts with Nuclear-Armed Adversaries?

China and some other nuclear-armed countries have become concerned about the development and deployment of U.S. conventional global strike systems that may permit damage limitation operations against the nuclear forces of adversaries. This article argues that a counterforce strike is more likely to target tactical nuclear forces than intercontinental ballistic missiles and provides an analysis of the probability that U.S. conventional strikes might destroy China's theater nuclear forces which include DF-3A, DF-4, DF-21, DF-31 missiles, Type 094 nuclear submarines, and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers. The results indicate that China's strategy of building robust underground facilities may effectively protect its nuclear forces from preemptive strikes making it unlikely that a U.S. conventional strike could destroy a meaningful part of China's theater nuclear forces. This study also assesses the potential capabilities of future conventional prompt global strike systems, points out problems with the strategy of damage limitation, and proposes that the United States consider improving strategic stability in its relationship with China rather than threatening a preemptive strike.

‘Were it worth knowing’: what Rebecca Kinsman can and cannot say about the Chinese in Macao

This essay accepts that discourses (in the Foucauldian sense) shape what we know and can know about the world, but this process is extraordinarily complex. The 1840s can be viewed as a time of particularly significant ideological shifts in imperial and colonial attitudes towards China. Critics have often highlighted a transition in colonial representations of China from Romantic ‘Orientalism’, which tends to exoticise alterity as distant or alien from the observing self, to the later Victorian imperial gaze (so well described in Pratt's Imperial Eyes), which tends to ‘incorporate, in an ethnographic gesture, otherness in a framework of familiarity and sameness’ (Kuehn, 79). The essay does not view this general trend as a strictly linear process, however, and contends that a range of approaches to alterity were available to, and often employed by, Anglo-American writers of the time. With the above in mind, I investigate the way in which various competing nineteenth-century tropes interact with Quaker ideology to mould Kinsman's representations of the Chinese in Macao in some of her letters during the mid-1840s.

Tricks of the stage

A restored imperial theatre in China reveals how Western techniques of visual perspective brought by the Jesuits were adopted by an eighteenth-century Chinese emperor, explains Martin Kemp.

Representing China: Lin Yutang vs. American “China Hands” in the 1940s

AbstractIn the 1930s and 1940s, American representations of China were divided between pro-Nationalist groups, notably Henry Luce's media enterprise, and a host of “China Hands” accused of being pro-Communist. Though these “China Hands” came from diff erent professions – journalists (Edgar Snow, Theodore White), academics (Owen Lattimore, John Fairbank), political activists (Agnes Smedley) – they formed a distinct group of American liberal cosmopolitan intellectuals. They achieved their cultural capital through their writings on China as “China experts.” Unlike their predecessors, they were Progressive liberals who allied themselves with the cause of China's modernization. But their vision ran against that of a Chinese cosmopolitan intellectual – Lin Yutang. With the initial support of Pearl Buck, Lin became the most well-known liberal intellectual from China and the self-styled cultural and political spokesman on U.S.-China relations in the 1940s America. Lin's debate with the “China Hands” over American representation of China spelled the end of his “American success.” By revisiting this debate, I do not want to re-invoke the issue of “Who Lost China?” Instead, this article maps out a critical terrain for understanding and questioning liberal cosmopolitan diff erence over American representations of China.

Tao of downfall: the failures of high-profile entrepreneurs in the Chinese economic reform

Through historical reviews and case studies, this research seeks to understand why some initially successful entrepreneurs failed in the economic boom of past decades. Among various factors contributed to their downfalls are a unique political and business environment, fragile financial systems, traditional cultural influences and personal characteristics. Notwithstanding that these factors should be further tested through empirical studies, those high-profile entrepreneurs are oblivious but essential actors in the grand theatre of China's economic transformation and their failures have contributed to the swift development of the Chinese entrepreneurship over the last 30 years.

American Media Representations of China's Traditions and Modernity

Most research on the touristic representations of peripheral countries has focused on former colonies of past imperial Western powers. This study attempts to extend colonialism and tourism studies by examining the American tourist gaze upon China, a country with a history of resistance to Western colonialism and dominance. A total of 60 travel articles published between 2000 and 2005 in six major American newspapers were analyzed. The emergent themes were interpreted within the framework of their colonial ideological underpinnings. The analysis revealed that China was represented in three major themes. While many descriptions were similar to other markedly colonial representations of oriental destinations, some were derogatory and imbued with ideological bias. These findings extend the study of colonialism in tourism as they show that conflicting political ideologies may overshadow the tourism media's tendency to praise destinations. Moreover, this study reinforces previous assertions that tourism reflects the dynamic power relations between nations as the complex representation reported here may arguably reflect the nature of contemporary US–China relations.

Theatre Reform as Censorship: Censoring Traditional Theatre in China in the Early 1950s

Shortly after the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government pushed through a reform campaign aimed at the repertoire, artists, and organization of traditional Chinese theatre collectively known as xiqu (sung drama). This reform caused such an extensive shortage of performable plays by the mid-1950s that the government briefly relaxed its repertoire policies, although the basic tenet of the censorship was not rescinded until the 1980s. For a performance-based and actor-centered theatre like xiqu, where plays serve as carriers of performative conventions and techniques, this three-decade gap resulted in the loss of many scripts and their performance techniques. This article traces the genesis of xiqu reform and examines the various measures of censorship, which range from outright bans to script examination and revision to public-pressure campaigns. Next, it focuses on the reform of organizations and the censorship of performance styles. Finally, the article examines the reform’s immediate impact on xiqu repertoire and the livelihood of xiqu artists, which triggered the first brief easing of the bans during 1956–57. The analysis focuses on the interstitial spaces between various levels of authorities, as well as between the authorities and theatre artists, between xiqu’s archival and performance memories, and between reform and censorship.

A multi‐regional representation of China's agricultural sectors

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline a version of SinoTERM, a multi‐regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of China that has been updated and disaggregated further to enhance the agricultural detail. A version of the model is publicly available and will be useful to CGE modelers studying Chinese agricultural issues (www.monash.edu.au/policy/sinoterm.htm).Design/methodology/approachThe paper outlines data sources for building SinoTERM. It contains a CGE application to agriculture in China. Unlike the national input‐output table published by the National Bureau of Statistics, the master database of SinoTERM contains many agricultural sectors.FindingsCGE models that represent a nation as a single economy may offer rich insights into winners and losers from particular policy scenarios. Multi‐regional analysis takes this a step further by comparing outcomes for regions in which particular industries are a relatively large part of the economy.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper builds on the first SinoTERM paper in several ways. First, the database is disaggregated further to represent tea, sugar cane and silkworms as individual sectors in the CGE database. Second, given the extraordinary economic growth in China, the national and regional database has been updated to 2006 using data from the 2007 yearbook. Third, the paper contains an application to agriculture: it examines the impacts of productivity growth in different agricultural sectors in China.Originality/valueThe regional CGE model used in this application could be used to explore many other policy issues concerning agriculture in China.