This edited volume explores social, economic, political, and cultural practices generated by African, Asian, and Oceanic individuals and groups within the context and aftermath of German colonialism. The volume contributes to current debates on transnational and intercultural processes while highlighting the ways in which the colonial period is embedded in larger processes of globalization.
Since 1978, the changes brought on by China's reforms have had an inevitable and significant impact on the development of literature, the arts, and the whole spectrum of culture. As well, contemporary Chinese films have reflected this transition towards commercialization and internationalization, which has included constant changes in cultural policies and the economic conditions for film production. The articles in this collection argue that contemporary Chinese films display a profound shift in identity construction. They explore Chinese identities related to class, nation, and gender, and they highlight aspects of individual identity. All of these are marked by contradiction, tension, multiple versions, changes over time, and other evidence of contingency and construction. The book draws attention to uncertain and unpredictable qualities of "Chineseness" which are often torn between past and present, but are also increasingly comprised of local, national, and global elements. (Series: Chinese History and Society / Berliner China-Hefte - Vol. 40)
In a groundbreaking work, Klaus Muhlhahn offers a comprehensive examination of the criminal justice system in modern China, an institution deeply rooted in politics, society, and culture. Based on unprecedented research in Chinese archives and incorporating prisoner testimonies, witness reports, and interviews, this book is essential reading for understanding modern China.
“Chronicles reforms, revolutions, and wars through the lens of institutions, often rebutting Western impressions...[And] warns against thinking of China’s economic success as proof of a unique path without contextualizing it in historical specifics.” —New Yorker “This thoughtful, probing interpretation is a worthy successor to the famous histories of Fairbank and Spence and will be read by all students and scholars of modern China.” —William C. Kirby, coauthor of Can China Lead? It is tempting to attribute the rise of China’s to recent changes in political leadership and economic policy. But China has had a long history of creative adaptation and it would be a mistake to think that its current trajectory began with Deng Xiaoping. In the mid-eighteenth century, when the Qing Empire reached the height of its power, China dominated a third of the world’s population. Then, as the Opium Wars threatened the nation’s sovereignty and the Taiping Rebellion ripped the country apart, China found itself verging on free fall. In the twentieth century China managed a surprising recovery, rapidly undergoing profound economic and social change, buttressed by technological progress. A dynamic story of crisis and recovery, failures and triumphs, Making China Modern explores the versatility and resourcefulness that has guaranteed China’s survival in the past, and is now fueling its future.
Von der Qing-Dynastie bis zur Gegenwart
Interaktionen zwischen China und Deutschland, 1897-1914
Die 1897 vom Deutschen Reich in einem Handstreich besetzte Kolonie Kiautschou in China entwickelte sich zu einem Ort des Kontaktes, des Zusammenstoßes und des erzwungenen Zusammenlebens zwischen sozialen Gruppen zweier verschiedener Gesellschaften. Die komplexen Interaktionen zwischen verschiedenen deutschen und chinesischen sozialen Gruppen in Kiautschou sind Gegenstand der vorliegenden Arbeit. Das vorliegende Buch ist die erste systematische Studie zur Kolonie Kiautschou in deutscher Sprache.
In einzigartiger Weise bewegt sich die Geschichte der Volksrepublik China in einem Spannungsfeld zwischen Kommunismus, Kapitalismus und Tradition. Dabei hat das Land einen rasanten Aufstieg vom kommunistischen Entwicklungsland zur einer der größten globalen Wirtschaftsmächte durchlaufen. Das Lehrbuch bietet einen anschaulichen, leicht verständlichen Überblick über die wechselhafte Geschichte Chinas von 1949 bis zur Gegenwart, führt in die Forschungsdebatten zur Innen- und Außenpolitik sowie zur Entwicklung von Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft und Kultur ein und enthält eine ausführliche Bibliographie.
The contributors to this volume criticize and move beyond the limiting conventional assumption that European Imperialism was met with cultural ignorance and conservative Sino-centrism by China in the late 19th and early 20th century. Based on well-researched case studies, the articles closely examine the historical processes involved in the exchange and transmission of ideas, knowledge and technologies between China and Europe. By drawing on new archival materials and theoretical frameworks, these studies shed fresh light on how Western knowledge about China was produced through often contentious negotiations and power struggles and how such knowledge was then deployed to reconstruct a new treaty-based international order between China and the West after 1842. The articles also deal with the less well-known processes of knowledge acquisition and technological utilization in the opposite direction: the transmission of Western technology, science, and expertise for the purpose of strengthening the imperial Chinese government so that the latter could sustain its rule over the large empire. Together, the articles underscore not the inevitable rise and fall of Western imperialism in China, but rather the active and contingent process of the making and unmaking of both Western and Chinese empires.