The impact of culture and governance on corporate social reporting

Spectacular economic growth in China suggests the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has somehow gotten it right. A key hypothesis in both economics and political science is that the CCP's cadre evaluation system, combined with China's geography-based governing logic, has motivated local administrators to compete with one another to generate high growth. We raise a number of theoretical and empirical challenges to this claim. Using a new biographical database of Central Committee members, a previously overlooked feature of CCP reporting, and a novel Bayesian method that can estimate individual-level correlates of partially observed ranks, we find no evidence that strong growth performance was rewarded with higher party ranks at any of the postreform party congresses. Instead, factional ties with various top leaders, educational qualifications, and provincial revenue collection played substantial roles in elite ranking, suggesting that promotion systems served the immediate needs of the regime and its leaders, rather than encompassing goals such as economic growth.

https://faculty.washington.edu/cadolph/articles/ChinaRank.pdf

Getting Ahead in the Communist Party: Explaining the Advancement of Central Committee Members in China

Language endangerment has been the focus of much attention and as a result, a wide range of people are working to revitalize and maintain local languages. This book serves as a general reference guide to language revitalization, written not only for linguists and anthropologists, but also for language activists and community members who believe they should ensure the future use of their languages, despite their predicted loss. Drawing extensively on case studies, it sets out the necessary background and highlights central issues such as literacy, policy decisions, and allocation of resources. Its primary goal is to provide the essential tools for a successful language revitalization program, such as setting and achieving realistic goals, and anticipating and resolving common obstacles. Clearly written and informative, Saving Languages will be an invaluable resource for all those interested in the fate of small language communities around the globe.

Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization

Tourism development and cultural policies in China

Tourism and Indigenous Peoples is a unique text examining the role of indigenous societies in tourism and how they interact within the tourism nexus. Unlike other publications, this text focuses on the active role that indigenous peoples take in the industry, and uses international case studies and experiences to provide a global context to illustrate best practice and aid comparison. First published over ten years ago the editors, Butler and Hinch, have thoroughly revised and updated the text to bring together a new collection of contributions and case studies from recognised international authors and those with first hand experiences in this area. Divided into five main sections, the text looks at this topic under the following headings: Involvement: Uses case studies to discuss and compare such as 'campfire' programmes in east Africa, and the employment of indigenous peoples as guides, amongst other cases, Turbulence: Host guest relationships, conflicts on communities and contrasting strategies and results of tourism in indigenous villages in South Africa. Issues: Discusses issues such as authenticity, religious beliefs and managing indigenous tourism in a fragile environment. Progress: Looks at tourism education, tourism and cultural survival and examples of the policy and practice of indigenous tourism. Conclusions: Five contributions from indigenous people on North America, Australasia and Europe to discuss implications and experiences. Each section uses international case studies from, for example, Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, Namibia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and South America.

Tourism and indigenous peoples : issues and implications

First published in 1981. The overthrow of the 'gang of four' in October 1976 had profound effects in all areas of Chinese society, and probably nowhere can this be more clearly seen than in the performing arts. Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's widow, was strongly interested in the performing arts and exercised great influence over them. This book describes her influence and the effects its removal had on the arts. Although the period covered is mainly that since the death of Mao, there is also considerable reference to the years following the Cultural Revolution.

The performing arts in contemporary China

This paper analyses how the situation in China’s most northwestern province-level unit Xinjiang has affected China’s overall foreign relations since disturbances in its capital Urumqi in July 2009. Xinjiang’s most populous ethnic group is the mostly-Muslim Uighurs. The paper assumes a framework that puts a high priority on China’s facing west. Though no more important than the eastward-looking foreign policy that has dominated Western analysis, the paper sees China’s facing west perspective as deserving more attention than it has received. Russia and Central Asian countries have been positive about China’s economic aims in the region. However, friction has increased with China’s rise, Chinese authorities tending to blame Xinjiang’s disturbances on Islamism in Central Asia. China resents the USA for giving asylum to Rebiya Kadeer, president of the anti-China World Uyghur Congress. In 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed the idea of a “New Silk Road” in Central Asia for peaceful economic development. China has long espoused the “Silk Road” idea, developing its own “Silk Road Economic Belt.” Damaged due to the 2009 riots, the China-Turkey relationship has improved because of various visits and agreements since 2010. The paper balances the dominantly economic Silk Road concept against Islamist terrorism. It argues that the aims of the Silk Road and Silk Road Economic Belt are sensible and practical, with positive economic relations the main trend. However, although the Central Asian “zone of conflict” is a lesser trend, tensions are serious and long term, especially those caused by Islamism and Islamist terrorism.

/pdf/xinjiang-in-china-s-foreign-relations-part-of-a-new-silk-2uevmjzfjy.pdf

Xinjiang in China’s Foreign Relations: Part of a New Silk Road or Central Asian Zone of Conflict?

This article describes a research agenda for investigating the relationship between tourism and the Chinese Dream, informed by the G20 First East-West Dialogue on Tourism and the Chinese Dream held in late 2014 on Australia’s Gold Coast. Six themes comprise this agenda, including (1) clarification of the “Chinese Dream” construct, (2) connections between the Dream, tourism and consumers, (3) geopolitical considerations, (4) conventional Triple Bottom Line sustainability considerations, (5) tourism and nontourism systems as open states, and (6) hybrid research perspectives. All themes are permeated by an implicit seventh theme of rapid change.

Research Agenda for Tourism and the Chinese Dream Dialogues and Open Doors

Drama in the People's Republic of China

Have you ever wondered why some animals have a tail, or scales, or a huge nose ? And do you know why some animals have eyes on stalks, or ears that can swivel, or a sticky tongue ? Read the Why Do Animals Have books to find the answers and lots more besides.

Colin Mackerras

Papers

The performing arts in contemporary China

Xinjiang in China’s Foreign Relations: Part of a New Silk Road or Central Asian Zone of Conflict?

Research Agenda for Tourism and the Chinese Dream Dialogues and Open Doors

Drama in the People's Republic of China

Chinese theater : from its origins to the present day