Book Launch at Harvard Coop—The China Questions—Wednesday 7 February, 7:00-8:30 PM
Join the editors and contributors to The China Questions for a book launch at the Harvard Coop’s Event Series.
DATE AND TIME
Wed, February 7, 2018
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EST
LOCATION
Harvard Coop
Cambridge, MA 02138
Join editors Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, and contributors Peter Bol, Andrew Erickson, Susan Greenhalgh, Wai-yee Li, and Karen Thornber, at the Harvard Coop to discuss the new Harvard University Press book The China Questions and the key questions it raises about China’s future.
Many books offer information about China, but few make sense of what is truly at stake. The questions addressed in this unique volume provide a window onto the challenges China faces today and the uncertainties its meteoric ascent on the global horizon has provoked.
In only a few decades, the most populous country on Earth has moved from relative isolation to center stage. Thirty-six of the world’s leading China experts—all affiliates of the renowned Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University—answer key questions about where this new superpower is headed and what makes its people and their leaders tick. They distill a lifetime of cutting-edge scholarship into short, accessible essays about Chinese identity, culture, environment, society, history, or policy.
China has already captured the world’s attention. The China Questions takes us behind media images and popular perceptions to provide insight on fundamental issues.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON EDITED VOLUME:
Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi, eds., The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).
Published to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Harvard University’s John King Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies with 36 chapters contributed by its faculty and affiliates, The China Questions presents the most important issues in the fields of China’s politics, international relations, economy, environment, society, and history and culture.
Click here to order from Harvard University Press.
For media inquiries, please contact James Evans at jamesevans [at] fas.harvard.edu.
Click here to Google Search inside the volume.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Jennifer Rudolph is Associate Professor of modern Chinese political history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Michael Szonyi is Professor of Chinese History at Harvard University.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Many books offer information about China, but few make sense of what is truly at stake. The questions addressed in this unique volume provide a window onto the challenges China faces today and the uncertainties its meteoric ascent on the global horizon has provoked.
In only a few decades, the most populous country on Earth has moved from relative isolation to center stage. Thirty of the world’s leading China experts—all affiliates of the renowned Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University—answer key questions about where this new superpower is headed and what makes its people and their leaders tick. They distill a lifetime of cutting-edge scholarship into short, accessible essays about Chinese identity, culture, environment, society, history, or policy.
Can China’s economic growth continue apace? Can China embrace the sacrifices required for a clean environment? Will Taiwan reunite with the mainland? How do the Chinese people understand their position in today’s global marketplace? How do historical setbacks and traditional values inform China’s domestic and foreign policy? Some of the essays address issues of importance to China internally, revolving around the Communist Party’s legitimacy, the end of the one-child policy, and ethnic tensions. Others focus on China’s relationship with other nations, particularly the United States. If America pulls back from its Asian commitments, how will China assert its growing strength in the Pacific region?
China has already captured the world’s attention. The China Questions takes us behind media images and popular perceptions to provide insight on fundamental issues.
BLURBS
“Rudolph and Szonyi, both associated with Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, bring together 36 short, but collectively weighty, scholarly articles on contemporary China. The articles are grouped into six categories: China’s politics, foreign relations, economy, environment, society, and history and culture. This collection is impressive for its comprehensiveness, with contributors providing numerous pointed observations.”
—Publisher’s Weekly, 2017.
- Introduction [Michael Szonyi] 1
I. POLITICS
1. Is the Chinese Communist Regime Legitimate? [Elizabeth J. Perry] 11
2. Can Fighting Corruption Save the Party? [Joseph Fewsmith] 18
3. Does Mao Still Matter? [Roderick MacFarquhar] 26
4. What Is the Source of Ethnic Tension in China? [Mark Elliott] 33
5. What Should We Know about Public Opinion in China? [Ya-Wen Lei] 43
6. What Does Longevity Mean for Leadership in China? [Arunabh Ghosh] 51
7. Can the Chinese Communist Party Learn from Chinese Emperors? [Yuhua Wang] 58
II. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
8. Will China Lead Asia? [Odd Arne Westad] 67
9. How Strong Are China’s Armed Forces? [Andrew S. Erickson] 73 (pp. 73-80)
10. What Does the Rise of China Mean for the United States? [Robert S. Ross] 81
11. Is Chinese Exceptionalism Undermining China’s Foreign Policy Interests? [Alastair Iain Johnston] 90
12. (When) Will Taiwan Reunify with the Mainland? [Steven M. Goldstein] 99
13. Can China and Japan Ever Get Along? [Ezra F. Vogel] 110
III. ECONOMY
14. Can China’s High Growth Continue? [Richard N. Cooper] 119
15. Is the Chinese Economy Headed toward a Hard Landing? [Dwight H. Perkins] 126
16. Will Urbanization Save the Chinese Economy or Destroy It? [Meg Rithmire] 133
17. Is China Keeping Its Promises on Trade? [Mark Wu] 141
18. How Do China’s New Rich Give Back? [Tony Saich] 148
19. What Can China Teach Us about Fighting Poverty? [Nara Dillon] 155
IV. ENVIRONMENT
20. Can China Address Air Pollution and Climate Change? [Michael B. McElroy] 165
21. Is There Environmental Awareness in China? [Karen Thornber] 173
V. SOCIETY
22. Why Does the End of the One-Child Policy Matter? [Susan Greenhalgh] 183
23. How Are China and Its Middle Class Handling Aging and Mental Health? [Arthur Kleinman] 191
24. How Important Is Religion in China? [James Robson] 199
25. Will There Be Another Dalai Lama? [Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp] 206
26. Does Law Matter in China? [William P. Alford] 212
27. Why Do So Many Chinese Students Come to the United States? [William C. Kirby] 219
VI. HISTORY AND CULTURE
28. Who Is Confucius in Today’s China? [Michael Puett] 231
29. Where Did the Silk Road Come From? [Rowan Flad] 237
30. Why Do Intellectuals Matter to Chinese Politics? [Peter K. Bol] 244
31. Why Do Classic Chinese Novels Matter? [Wai-yee Li] 252
32. How Have Chinese Writers Imagined China’s Future? [David Der-wei Wang] 261
33. Has Chinese Propaganda Won Hearts and Minds? [Jie Li] 268
34. Why Is It Still So Hard to Talk about the Cultural Revolution? [Xiaofei Tian] 276
35. What Is the Future of China’s Past? [Stephen Owen] 283
36. How Has the Study of China Changed in the Last Sixty Years? [Paul A. Cohen] 288
- Further Reading 297
- Acknowledgments 309
- Contributors 311
- Index 325
PRODUCT DETAILS
Hardcover
$27.95 • £22.95 • €25.00
ISBN 9780674979406
Available 12/11/2017
352 pages
5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches
4 graphs, 2 tables
RELATED SUBJECTS
History: Asia: China
Political Science: World: Asian
Social Science: Developing & Emerging Countries
Political Science: International Relations: General
FURTHER READING
- Click here and select “Further Readings” tab to access a supplementary bibliography more comprehensive than the abbreviated one in the physical volume.
- Click here to browse a selection of Harvard University Press works on the history and politics of China.
- At Boston Review, read Roderick MacFarquhar’s contribution to this volume, on the relevancy of Mao Zedong in today’s China.
