Qing Cao – författare

This book examines China’s identity transformations with a focus on self-perceptions and their representations and communication in the mass media. By considering the internal dynamics of change, it explores the emerging multifaceted ‘China brand’.

With its growing economic clout, China has taken a proactive stance in shaping global economic and strategic order through ambitious programmes such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. However, as a developing country, China is at pains to manage its own transformations while trying to carve out an international identity. Arguably, China’s unique sense of history and identities may lead to a ‘contested modernity’ or ‘multiple modernities’; radically different from the prevalent classical theories of modernisation and convergence of industrial societies. To understand China’s trajectory of future development has been a major issue in international affairs. This book is concerned with how China’s hybridised identities are articulated, and intertwined with situational, institutional, and societal dynamics – and how they are interwoven with China’s international outlook which converges with or diverges from China’s historical assumptions and beliefs.

This book will be of interest to those studying China’s identity in the media; situated at the juncture of past, present, and future, and between China and the wider world. The chapters in this book were originally published in Critical Arts.

This book examines China’s identity transformations with a focus on self-perceptions and their representations and communication in the mass media. By considering the internal dynamics of change, it explores the emerging multifaceted ‘China brand’.

With its growing economic clout, China has taken a proactive stance in shaping global economic and strategic order through ambitious programmes such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. However, as a developing country, China is at pains to manage its own transformations while trying to carve out an international identity. Arguably, China’s unique sense of history and identities may lead to a ‘contested modernity’ or ‘multiple modernities’; radically different from the prevalent classical theories of modernisation and convergence of industrial societies. To understand China’s trajectory of future development has been a major issue in international affairs. This book is concerned with how China’s hybridised identities are articulated, and intertwined with situational, institutional, and societal dynamics – and how they are interwoven with China’s international outlook which converges with or diverges from China’s historical assumptions and beliefs.

This book will be of interest to those studying China’s identity in the media; situated at the juncture of past, present, and future, and between China and the wider world. The chapters in this book were originally published in Critical Arts.

The Language of Nation-State Building in Late Qing China investigates the linguistic and intellectual roots of China’s modern transformation by presenting a systematic study of the interplay between language innovation and socio-political upheavals in the final decade of the Qing Dynasty.

This book examines the formations, internal tensions, and promotion of such macroconcepts as ‘nation people’ (guomin 国民), nation (minzu 民族), society (qun 群), state (guojia 国家) and revolution (gemin 革命) as novel ideas borrowed from Europe but mediated through Meiji Japan. Using corpus-based discourse analysis of the full-text corpus (4.2 million words) of the two most influential periodicals, Xinmin Congbao (新民丛报) and Minbao (民报), this book scrutinises the multi-faceted formulations of these concepts and their impact. It underscores the adaptation and appropriation of European post-enlightenment values to the socio-political conditions of late Qing society.

The analysis centres on the epic debate (1905-7) between these two periodicals that offered two distinctive visions of future China. Comparable to the great eighteenth-century debate between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine on the French Revolution, the Chinese debate has hitherto attracted little scholarly attention outside China. Yet it not only turned the tidal wave of public opinion against the Manchu monarchy and contributed to its downfall in 1911; it has also given rise to a radical undercurrent of intellectual thinking whose ramifications have been keenly felt throughout twentieth-century China. This book represents the first study in English on this press debate that contributes significantly to the intellectual foundation of modern China.

This book will be useful and relevant to academics, postgraduate students and final year undergraduate students in the field of Chinese studies, and anyone interested in the role of language in shaping modern intellectual history.

The Language of Nation-State Building in Late Qing China investigates the linguistic and intellectual roots of China’s modern transformation by presenting a systematic study of the interplay between language innovation and socio-political upheavals in the final decade of the Qing Dynasty.

This book examines the formations, internal tensions, and promotion of such macroconcepts as ‘nation people’ (guomin 国民), nation (minzu 民族), society (qun 群), state (guojia 国家) and revolution (gemin 革命) as novel ideas borrowed from Europe but mediated through Meiji Japan. Using corpus-based discourse analysis of the full-text corpus (4.2 million words) of the two most influential periodicals, Xinmin Congbao (新民丛报) and Minbao (民报), this book scrutinises the multi-faceted formulations of these concepts and their impact. It underscores the adaptation and appropriation of European post-enlightenment values to the socio-political conditions of late Qing society.

The analysis centres on the epic debate (1905-7) between these two periodicals that offered two distinctive visions of future China. Comparable to the great eighteenth-century debate between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine on the French Revolution, the Chinese debate has hitherto attracted little scholarly attention outside China. Yet it not only turned the tidal wave of public opinion against the Manchu monarchy and contributed to its downfall in 1911; it has also given rise to a radical undercurrent of intellectual thinking whose ramifications have been keenly felt throughout twentieth-century China. This book represents the first study in English on this press debate that contributes significantly to the intellectual foundation of modern China.

This book will be useful and relevant to academics, postgraduate students and final year undergraduate students in the field of Chinese studies, and anyone interested in the role of language in shaping modern intellectual history.

The contradictions of modernisation run through the whole of modern Chinese history. The abundance of manufactured goods being sold in the west attests to China’s industrial revolution, but this capitalist vision of ''utopia'' sits uneasily with traditional Chinese values. It is also in conflict with the socialism that has been the bedrock of Chinese society since the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949.

Utopia and Modernity in China examines the conflicts inherent in China''s attempt to achieve a ''utopia'' by advancing production and technology. Through the lenses of literature, arts, law, the press and the environment, the contributors interrogate the contradictions of modernisation in Chinese society and its fundamental challenges.

By unpicking both China''s vision of utopia and its realities and the increasing tension between traditional Chinese values and those of the west, this book offers a unique insight into the cultural forces that are part of reshaping today’s China.