Jens Damm Livres

The rapidly changing role of China - once an isolated pariah state, now a G-20 member and an emerging superpower in Asia and beyond - is one of the factors to be considered in any conceptualization of the current state of global affairs. The articles in this issue offer preliminary insights into the expansive topic of China's diversified economic, political and cultural interactions with the world. U.S. policies towards Tibet during the Cold War period are examined as well as current global Chinese business networks, China's foreign policy in the 21st century, and the developing relations between China and the five Central Asian states. Jens Damm is an Associate Professor at Chang Jung University, Tainan. He is currently leading a three-year research project at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Mechthild Leutner is Professor emerita of Modern Chinese History and Culture at Freie Universitaet Berlin. Niu Dayong is a Professor of the History Department, Peking University. His research is mainly focused on the interactions between China and foreign powers in recent decades.

China in a Global Context. China as a place of isolation hiding from the world behind a great wall - an image which has

The initiative and leadership for this edited volume came from the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) based in Brussels. The book discusses various questions related to the different European perspectives on Taiwan, for example, how the European Union has dealt with the unresolved status of the Republic of China on Taiwan, the ways in which Europe has been seen as a model for Taiwan’s transformation, and whether the EU model offers any lessons for cross-Strait integration. The authors, well-known specialists drawn from disciplines such as economics, political science, international law, history and cultural studies are equally interested in Taiwan’s perspectives on Europe and in the historical relationship between Taiwan and Europe.

Networks ranging from village level to transnational level have always played a crucial role in Chinese society. The contributors to this volume aim to trace the interaction between various networks which have existed from the 19th century to the present day. The articles deal with theoretical concepts, historical examples, such as non-state responses to the North China Famine (1876 - 1879), the role of missionaries in the modernization of China and disaster management, including recent inter-ethnic business competition in Hong Kong, Han settlers in Xinjiang, temple festivals in Macau and urban migrants' social networks in today's China. By drawing on new material and theoretical frameworks, these studies shed fresh light on the ways in which various forms of networks have shaped Chinese society, while at the same time questioning traditional and rigid perspectives of Chinese society based solely on networks and guanxi.

The articles in this volume look at various cultural activities in „Postmodern China“, providing new and rarely discussed insights into different spaces of „postmodernism in action“. The volume highlights postmodernity as a condition of China's reality and everyday life after her entry into the global capitalist system. Three fields of research are addressed: first, the broad area of popular music, including performance, advertising and performance venues. Second, postmodernity and literature, ranging from novels to poetry, from „traditional“ novels to anonymous internet postings, and, third, postmodern aspects related to film and the internet, focusing on transnational issues between Taiwan, Hong Kong and the PRC.

The tension between Taiwan's globalization and its ongoing identity formation is clearly visible in the economic, political and societal spheres of the island republic. Against this background, the authors of this volume deal with the following questions: To what extent has Taiwan become part of the Greater China region and - in that sense - a part of „China“? How successful have Taiwan's endeavors been to escape „China“, assert its own identity and communicate this to the international community? How does Taiwanese identity connect to its integration within „Greater China“ and beyond, that is, to its being part of a gobalized (transnational) world? The varied focus and range of the papers in this volume show that politically, the result of the debate on Taiwan's (national) identity is undecided; economically, however, Taiwan has become part of a Greater China region and cross-Strait integration would thus seem to be inevitable.