Showing papers in "The Journal of Asian Studies in 1991"
841 citations
272 citations
TL;DR: An overview of Asian American history, written by an American with Japanese roots, gives voice to Asian Americans past and present as discussed by the authors, revealing the aspirations and accomplishments of people who are often seen as foreigners in their own land.
Abstract: An overview of Asian American history, written by an American with Japanese roots, this work of popular history gives voice to Asian Americans past and present. It reveals the aspirations and accomplishments of people who are often seen as foreigners in their own land. Asian Americans are America's latest ethnic success story. Having begun to immigrate to the United States in the nineteenth century, Asian Americans today, made up of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Indians, and other nationalities, are a diverse, yet strikingly accomplished group. Until now, there has been no single overview of Asian American history.
212 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a time of Turmoil and a transition from model rule to collapse in the British Empire, and describe the Song in the South as a metaphor for the changing world of production.
Abstract: * Introduction * A Time of Turmoil * Model Rulers * Reforming into Collapse * The Song in the South * Three Doctrines * Education and Examination * Life Cycle Rituals * Exploring the World Within and Without * Transforming the Capitals * A Changing World of Production * Money and Taxes * Private Lives in the Public Sphere * Conclusion * Dynastic Rulers * Measures * Pronunciation Guide * Notes * Bibliography * Acknowledgments * Index
159 citations
TL;DR: Most previous scholarship about the civil service examination system in imperial China has emphasized the degree of social mobility such examinations permitted in a premodern society as discussed by the authors, but these a priori judgments are often expressed teleologically when tied to the "modernization narrative" that still pervades our historiography of Ming (1368-1644) and Ch'ing (1644-1911) dynasty China.
Abstract: Most previous scholarship about the civil service examination system in imperial China has emphasized the degree of social mobility such examinations permitted in a premodern society. In the same vein, historians have evaluated the examination process in late imperial China from the perspective of the modernization process in modern Europe and the United States. They have thereby successfully exposed the failure of the Confucian system to advance the specialization and training in science that are deemed essential for nation-states to progress beyond their premodern institutions and autocratic political traditions. In this article, I caution against such contemporary, ahistorical standards for political, cultural, and social formation. These a priori judgments are often expressed teleologically when tied to the “modernization narrative” that still pervades our historiography of Ming (1368–1644) and Ch'ing (1644–1911) dynasty China.
147 citations
TL;DR: The transition from import substitution to export-oriented industrial growth in South Korea was a product of four factors: pressure from the United States, dominance of the executive branch, institutional reform within the bureaucracy, and a restructuring of relations between the state and business as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In analyzing the turning point in Korea's transition in the early 1960s from a strategy of import substitution to one of export-oriented industrial growth, the authors examine not just the economics of change but the politics of economic policy and reform - the incentives facing state and business elites and the institutional context in which they operated. Their analysis shows that the transition to export-led growth in South Korea was a product of the interplay of four factors: pressure from the United States; the dominance of the executive branch; institutional reform within the bureaucracy; and a restructuring of relations between the state and business. Conclusions are drawn about the role of outside pressure in policy reform, about the importance to reform administrative capability and organization, and about the politics of policy change.
125 citations
123 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine the campaigns attacking popular religion during the first three decades of this century and analyze the modernist understanding of this historical transition in China not only among professional historians in the West, but among Chinese advocates of modernity.
Abstract: Ever since the enlightenment—the dawn of the modern era—historical understanding has been much concerned with the passage to modernity. In our present century, questions and dilemmas of the transition to modernity and the evaluation of “tradition” in the non-Western world have been central to the historical problematique the world over. I have chosen to analyze the modernist understanding of this historical transition in China not only among professional historians in the West, but among Chinese advocates of modernity. Specifically, I will examine the campaigns attacking popular religion during the first three decades of this century. As a movement advocating the establishment of a rational society, these campaigns offer a view of the understanding of this transition, not just in theory and historiography, but in practice.
113 citations
99 citations
98 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that realism must be defined negatively as a "discourse of limitations" and is of minimal utility in the Chinese search for political and cultural empowerment, and shows how hesitations about the realist model affect the fiction of four representative authors, Lu Xun, Ye Shaojun, Mao Dun, and Zhang Tianyi.
Abstract: Chinese intellectuals of the early twentieth century were attracted to realism primarily as a tool for social regeneration. Realism encouraged writers to adopt the stance of the independent cultural critic and drew into the compass of serious literature the disenfranchised "others" of Chinese society. As historical pressures forced new ideological commitments in the late twenties and thirties, however, writers grew suspicious both of the "individualism" implicit in the realist model and of the often superficial nature of the sympathies that their fiction evoked in the middle class. Anderson argues that realism must be defined negatively as a "discourse of limitations" and is of minimal utility in the Chinese search for political and cultural empowerment. He shows how hesitations about the realist model affect the fiction of four representative authors, Lu Xun, Ye Shaojun, Mao Dun, and Zhang Tianyi. He also considers the demise of critical realism in the face of a new collectivist understanding of Chinese reality.
TL;DR: This paper annotated the travel book of William of Rubruck from the definitive Latin text published by A Van den Wyngaert in 1929, and produced an annotated translation from this book.
Abstract: "William of Rubruck was a Franciscan friar who wrote the first great travel book about Asia. In 1253-55 he made the journey from the Holy Land to the court of the Great Khan Mongke at Qaraqorum in Mongolia and back again ...William was interested in all that he saw ...His account is particularly vivid because he related to the individual people he met. This is the first annotated translation to be made from the definitive Latin text published by A Van den Wyngaert in 1929, and Peter Jackson and David Morgan are to be congratulated on producing an exemplary edition. The historical introduction is comprehensive and succinct, the translation excellent and idiomatic, while the notes clarify the text and explain why important variant readings have been chosen." -- Bernard Hamilton, Times Literary Supplement
TL;DR: The pacific rim's record of impressive economic growth over the past twenty years is now well known as discussed by the authors, and this expansion has been striking in the East Asian Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs): Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Abstract: The pacific rim's record of impressive economic growth over the past twenty years is now well known. While most obvious in Japan, this expansion has been striking in the East Asian Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs): Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. But it has also occurred to varying degrees in four of the original members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. In addition to increases in overall output, each of these four economies has achieved a considerable degree of restructuring in favor of manufacturing and away from commodity production since the 1970s (e.g., Lee and Naya 1988:S134).
TL;DR: In the absence of a single unified state power enforcing conformity, there blossomed a hundred schools of thought in China as discussed by the authors and philosophical argument and rational debate flourished in China as never before or since.
Abstract: Describes the classical age of Chinese philosophy (500-200 B.C.) that coincides with the final decline of the Chou empire and the period of 'warring states' (403-221 B.C.), an exceptional era in Chinese history when there was no central authority which could claim to rule the entire civilized world. In the absence of a single unified state power enforcing conformity, there blossomed a hundred schools of thought. Philosophical argument and rational debate flourished in China as never before or since.
TL;DR: A swift-paced, absorbing account of the dangerous political maneuvers that engaged America with both China and the Soviet Union during the years between 1948 and 1972 was given by Chang.
Abstract: Winner of the 1991 Stuart L. Bernath Prize, sponsored by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. ---------- "A swift-paced, absorbing account of the dangerous political maneuvers that engaged America with both China and the Soviet Union during the years between 1948 and 1972...Chang's account is impressively documented with once-classified records...This is a scrupulously detailed history, scholarly and at the same time filled with incident, insight, and personality...Chang paints a fascinating picture."--San Francisco Chronicle
TL;DR: For example, this paper pointed out that increased access and scholarly exchange have enriched research, but they have not erased national differences in interpretation and approach, and pointed out the need for a different interpretation of history.
Abstract: China's political “opening to the West” in 1979–89 directly affected historical scholarship on Ming and Qing socioeconomic history. Some PRC scholars were able to travel abroad, others met foreign specialists at international conferences held in China, and many more were introduced to foreign scholarship through Chinese translations of articles and books published in Taiwan, Japan, Europe, and North America. Foreign scholars, also, profited from new access to archival sources for research; a few anthropologists and historians even were able to reside in the countryside and interview villagers. While increased access and scholarly exchange have enriched research, they have not erased national differences in interpretation and approach.
TL;DR: The rational-choice paradigm has been attractive to many area specialists in their efforts to arrive at explanations of social and political behavior in various parts of the world as discussed by the authors, where they attempt to explain a pattern of social behavior or an enduring social arrangement as the aggregate outcome of the goal-directed choices of large numbers of rational agents.
Abstract: The rational-choice paradigm has been attractive to many area specialists in their efforts to arrive at explanations of social and political behavior in various parts of the world. This model of explanation is simple yet powerful; we attempt to explain a pattern of social behavior or an enduring social arrangement as the aggregate outcome of the goal-directed choices of large numbers of rational agents. Why did the Nian rebellion occur? It was the result of the individual-level survival strategies of north China peasants (Perry 1980). Why did the central places of late imperial Sichuan conform to the hexagonal arrays predicted by central-place theory? Because participants—consumers, merchants, and officials—made rational decisions based on considerations of transport cost (Skinner 1964–65). Why was late imperial Chinese agriculture stagnant? Because none of the actors within the agricultural system had both the incentive and the capacity to invest in agricultural innovation (Lippit 1987).
TL;DR: For example, this paper argued that the rural economy's output per capita declined, with only modest expansion of a small, modern sector restricted to railroads and manufacturing firms, and that this modern sector declined during the great world depression of the 1930s.
Abstract: Unsurprisingly, writings on the economic history of nineteenth and twentieth century China have been confusing and full of controversy. A major question is whether the Chinese economy experienced per capita output growth, stagnated, or declined between 1870 and World War II. Studies prior to 1937 usually claimed that the rural economy's output per capita declined, with only modest expansion of a small, modern sector restricted to railroads and manufacturing firms, and that this modern sector declined during the great world depression of the 1930s (Myers 1970:13–18; Ozaki 1939; Tawney 1932). A few studies of the 1960s and 1970s generally confirmed this view (Eastman 1974:chap. 5; Paauw 1952:3–26). Various theories attempted to explain this continuing or deepening poverty in China, including some, such as Ch'en Han-seng's, that emphasized exploitation or the misdistribution of wealth (Myers 1970).
TL;DR: It would be ironic if the “culture against females” that characterizes Rajasthan had the unexpected side effect of granting females the competitive edge in choosing spouses and forcing males into marriages based on compromise.
Abstract: Rajasthan, a large, arid state in northwestern India, is widely known to have an excess of males over females. When we consider how such a high sex ratio usually affects the relative availability of potential spouses (i.e., the marriage market), it seems logical that the scarcity of females would generate a “marriage squeeze”— an asymmetry in the availability of potential spouses—against males and thereby give females an advantage in the marriage market. It would be ironic if the “culture against females” (Miller 1981:15) that characterizes Rajasthan had the unexpected side effect of granting females the competitive edge in choosing spouses and forcing males into marriages based on compromise.
TL;DR: In this paper, leading experts in economic development examine the variety of issues that arise as governments in some of the newly industrializing countries of Southeast Asia, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, grapple with this difficult process of liberalization.
Abstract: Economic growth in all developing countries is guided, and often accelerated, by generally intrusive policies implemented by governments intent on playing an active role in furthering development. As economies have grown and become more complex, however, even small market distortions are magnified, and the tendency is to rely more heavily on the market for continued growth. In this volume, leading experts in economic development examine the variety of issues that arise as governments in some of the newly industrializing countries of Southeast Asia, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, grapple with this difficult process of liberalization.
TL;DR: In this article, Mao et al. described the formation of the first guerrilla bases, the army and the "August Revolution", March - August 1945 State apparatus and the army, September 1945 - December 1946 Shaping the People's Army in the people's war, 1947-1949 Independence in the modern world, 1950-1954.
Abstract: French conquest, 1859-1939 Force of the new nation - conceptual construct, 1900-1939 Formation of the first guerrilla bases, 1940-1945 Armed propaganda, the army and the "August Revolution", March - August 1945 State apparatus and the army, September 1945 - December 1946 Shaping the People's Army in the people's war, 1947-1949 Independence in the modern world, 1950-1954.
TL;DR: In Asian Studies, the scholar works in this way both to establish some particular understanding and then to transmit that understanding to other Asianists, students, various other specialists, and the public at large as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: How to establish and transmit understanding across the boundaries of language, geography, culture, and time lies at the very heart of Asian Studies. Ours is a highly refined form of cross-cultural activity, but one that places the highest value on this understanding. To engage in this activity, individuals undergo long periods of training to master other languages, to produce, and then to present their knowledge in certain rigorously defined forms. The scholar works in this way both to establish some particular understanding and then to transmit that understanding to other Asianists, students, various other specialists, and the public at large.