Watermelon Lantern Festiual in Pinghu

Pinghu, a city in eastern Zhejiang province, is steeped in the history of watermelon cultivation for more than 1,000 years. Sweet and juicy, the watermelons produced in Pinghu were tribute to the royal court as early as the Jiajing period (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Watermelons in Pinghu were sold well in southern China for more than 50 years in the 20th century. They enjoyed popularity in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and made a name in Hong Kong and Macao.     

Writing Dreams in West Hills

West Hills in Beijing are famed not only forvarious political events in contemporary Chinabut also for its fascinating scenery and historicalinterests since ancient times. During the QingDynasty (1644-1911), the Eight Banners werestationed in the hilly area. These barracks,however, were not ordinary dorm-like sleepingquarters for soldiers. As most servicemen in theBanners had families, their garrisons were in factindividual courtyards linking one after another.Each house had a large garden…     

The paradoxes of creativity in Guangzhou,China’s wholesale market for fast fashion

ABSTRACT

In Guangzhou’s fast fashion sector, creativity operates as practices in boundary-making, which emerge in spaces within the blurred boundaries that delineate original and copy production. Using the Xi Fang Hang market as a case study, I demonstrate how the quick turnover of fast fashion commodities compels different groups of market participants to claim contesting definitions and practices of creativity. While building managers and wealthy entrepreneurs mobilise techniques of rent extraction and claim originality as rightful sources of creativity, less established migrant entrepreneurs use design copying as a tool for market survival. With limited resources and formal education in fashion and merchandising, migrants claim success in delivering the right styles and trends at the right time and in keeping their businesses afloat. Together, these competing practices constitute what I call ‘paradoxes of creativity’, dynamics that highlight creativity as a fluid cultural category that is always subject to tensions and contestations.     

Pottery Artist’s life in a Village

~~Pottery Artist’s life in a Village     

The Universal Values of Science and China’s Nobel Prize Pursuit

China does not seem to believe the existence of universally acknowledged values in science and fails to promote the observation of such values that also should be applied to every member of the scientific community and at all times. Or, there is a separation between the practice of science in China and the values represented by modern science. In this context, science, including the pursuit of the Nobel Prize, is more a pragmatic means to achieve the end of the political leadership – the national pride in this case – than an institution laden with values that govern its practices. However, it is the recognition and respect of the latter that could lead to achievement of the former, rather than the other way around.     

Photographer’s Memories of VIPs in 16 Years

~~Photographer’s Memories of VIPs in 16 Years     

When socialists marketize: the case of China’s wind power market sector

This paper analyzes China’s attempt at maintaining and stabilizing the market framing of wind power development as ‘sustainable.’ Drawing on mixed data and new directions in the social studies of marketization, the analysis focuses on the Chinese government’s responses to the ‘quality crisis’ in the wind turbine industry. Employing five types of framing – goods, marketizing agencies, market encounters, price-setting, and market design and maintenance – the paper sheds light on flexible government interventions to steer the socio-technical assemblage around wind power towards a ‘turn to quality.’ In essence, this is a study of market construction in the context of Chinese wind power experiments. The paper contributes to new directions in market studies by (1) demonstrating the importance of attending to the contested algorithmic transformation of wind resources to wind power; (2) taking market studies to a transitional and developmental context, which renders marketization prone to constant overflowing; and (3) elucidating a particular Chinese model of experimental market construction ‘through embracing overflowing.’ The paper proposes new trajectories for future market studies with a focus on non-Western contexts, to reveal the wide variety of how marketization unfolds.     

68 Years in China

At 15, Gertrude Wagner fell in love with a man at first sight in a skate ring in Vienna. That was not unusual in 1931 in Austria except that the young man was a Chinese police officer trainee named Du Chengrong. Many years later, she was to know that her life in China would be made into a movie and that many Chinese would describe her ordinary life as great and extraordinary.Du returned to China in 1934. Gertrude followed later. After a 26-day voyage starting from Italy, Gertrude arrived in China to marry     

IVIy life in China

Kim Sin is son of Kim Ku, a founding father of Korea in modern times. Kim Ku escaped to China after the September 18th incident in 1931. Hunted by Japanese special agents, Kim went into hiding in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. In 1933, Kim Ku sent for his mother and his 12-year-old son Kim Sin from Korea. Kim the junior came and spent 15 years in China. The following is Kim Sin's China story. -Editor     

China’s Research Evaluation Reform: What are the Consequences for Global Science?

Minerva - In the 1990s, China created a research evaluation system based on publications indexed in the Science Citation Index (SCI) and on the Journal Impact Factor. Such system helped the country...     

Reading against culture in Edward Said’s Culture and Imperialism

Edward Said is the literary critic most cited by American anthropologists, but there has been relatively little anthropological examination of his concept of culture. Apart from an isolated attempt by Lila Abu‐Lughod to ‘write against culture’, most anthropologists have ignored Said’s approach. In Culture and Imperialism, Said draws on Matthew Arnold’s ‘best of the best’ definition, while American anthropologists owe their holistic culture to fellow Victorian Edward Tylor. Claude Levi‐Strauss is praised by Said, but other major anthropological approaches to culture are ignored. Said assumes anthropology is on the wrong side of the colonial divide, although he holds out hope for those who are now reading the work of literary and cultural critics. In this essay I compare Said’s reading of anthropology, exemplified by Kipling’s Colonel Creighton, to the influence of Bronislaw Malinowski and Franz Boas on ethnographic method.     

Classic Landscape Art in China

Classic landscape art in China originated as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 B.C). Through the thousands of years' improvement, it has formed its own unique style, representative of traditional Chinese features and beauty.     

Maps Illustrate Changes in China

Changing China: A Geographical Appraisalis a book by Chiao-min Hsieh, Max Lu andpublished in August 2003 by Westview Press.The 496-page paperback provides a latestaccount of China in maps and graphs. Withupdated information and fair academic appraisalof unprecedented social and economic changesof the vast country, the book is applauded in thewestern world. Ten American universities andcolleges have chosen it as the textbook.As a result of contributions from adistinguished team of geograp…     

Revisiting ‘Weinberg’s Choice’: Classic Tensions in the Concept of Scientific Merit

Alvin Weinberg’s classic and much debated two articles in Minerva, “Criteria for Scientific Choice” (1963) and “Criteria for Scientific Choice II – The Two Cultures” (1964), represent two of the first and most important attempts to create a meta-discourse about priority setting in science policy, and many of the points advanced remain relevant. The goal of this paper is to elaborate on the relevance of some of Weinberg’s original arguments to priority setting today. We have singled out four issues for attention: The tension between scientific and institutional choice, the assumptions behind the triad of scientific, technological and social merit, the elusive ‘externality from size’ argument for funding promoted by Weinberg, and finally the problems involved in the idea of basic science as an ‘overhead cost’ for applied science, and applied science as an ‘overhead’ on a sectoral mission. These four issues will be elaborated from a policy perspective and connected to present day challenges for science and technology policy.     

China Celebrates Arts in Zhejiang

The 7th China Arts Festival is scheduled toraise its curtain on September 10th 2004.Anunprecedented cultural event in Zhejiangprovince,it will highlight 51 performances in agreat variety of operas from both home andabroad. After years of preparations,the host provincehas got 42 performing venues ready.The newlybuilt Hangzhou Grand Theater,made operational