The fact that Snow did not sneak into “red China" to gather information constituting the basis of his Red Start over China all alone is in many instances misunderstood even by scholars.Mao Zedong’s ...biography has been the subject of an international mountain of commentary in China and elsewhere. Biographies praising Mao and those slandering him are all based on the American journalist Edgar Snow’s (1905–1972) account in Red Star over China for the route Mao traveled from early childhood through his youth.How the “Red Star" Rose introduces the image of Mao and the biographical information made known to the world through the publication of Red Star, and with its publication the circumstances which they fundamentally undermined. Ishikawa Yoshihiro uses Mao Zedong as raw material to examine from whence and how ordinary historical information and images which we habitually use unconsciously come into being. He desires to help readers to reconsider the historicity of the generation of not only Mao’s image but of that of “historical materials."---With a title that evokes Gao Hua’s seminal study of Mao Zedong’s rise in the Chinese Communist Party, Ishikawa Yoshihiro asks two critical questions—What did the world know of Mao before the publication of Edgar Snow’s Red Star over China? How did Red Star change that understanding? With the meticulous research, careful documentation, and fair-minded judgment that characterizes all of Ishikawa’s work, he shows how little even Moscow and the Communist International knew about Mao before 1936. This study is full of unexpected insights into the origins of early visual images of Mao, the background to Snow’s historic trip to northern Shaanxi, and the evolution of the classic study that he left. In a world where balanced judgment of the rise of Mao is increasingly difficult to find, Ishikawa’s scholarship stands out as a rare model of judicious balance.—Joseph W. Esherick, Emeritus Professor, Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies, University of California, San DiegoThis book is, first, an exquisite excavation on the enabling infrastructures in the writing and publishing of one of the most iconic works in journalistic interviews in the 20th century, a text that broke through a wall of intelligence blockade to give to the world, in an autobiographical voice and with a striking image, the debut of the revolutionary Mao while holed up in a mountain base area. It is, in addition, a history of the reading of the book in multiple languages including Chinese that is indexed to the rise of the Mao cult thereafter. Ishikawa captures a moment of a past gearing up in anticipation of a future that never came. This book is a must-read for all with an interest in Mao, journalism, and the history of books.—Wen-hsin Yeh, Richard H. and Laurie C. Morrison Chair Professor in History, University of California, BerkeleyIshikawa offers a challenging reflection on how historical information and images that we take for granted come into being through the twin case studies of images of Mao Zedong before Edgar Snow’s famous biography in 1936 and then how Snow’s images of Mao were translated, and transmuted, into Chinese, Russian and Japanese. Joshua Fogel’s careful translation brings this impeccable example of Japanese sinology to the English reading public. —Timothy Cheek, Professor and Louis Cha Chair in Chinese Research, University of British Columbia
Among the most striking public health conundrums today is how little we know about the world's largest producer and consumer of cigarettes. China is home to an estimated third of the world's ...smokers—more than 300 million people who collectively consume around 40% of the world's cigarettes. The China National Tobacco Corporation and its administrative arm, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, supply an estimated 2600 billion cigarettes annually to meet this enormous demand. The rest are locally manufactured, imported, or smuggled international brands of leading transnational tobacco companies. The human cost in China from this vast tobacco market is an estimated 1·2 million deaths each year (about 12% of all deaths) and is predicted to rise to 2 million deaths by 2020.
Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established its own military force (People’s Liberation Army PLA), it has always emphasised ‘The Party Commands Gun’ (dangzhihuiqiang, µ³Ö¸»Óǹ). However, the ...high-ranking CCP leaders who hold ‘military power (junquan, ¾üȨ)’ would also use their influence in the PLA to influence or even change the direction of Chinese politics. In addition, the meaning of ‘The Party Commands Gun’ also varies by period, and the meaning of it is also quite different in different eras in the CCP party history. In this article, the author aims to analyse the connotation changes of the CCP’s political slogan ‘The Party Commands Gun’ from the perspective of historical evolution. Based on examples from the history of the CCP, the focus will be compared to the CCP’s revolutionary era, the Mao Zedong era and the post-Mao era of ‘The Party Commands Gun’. From the perspective of empirical analysis and historical evolution, the author reveals the evolution of the purpose of ‘The Party Commands Gun’ from the revolutionary era to Deng Xiaoping era.
Upon assuming office in 2016, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration revitalized the Southbound Policy (SP), rebranding it as the New Southbound Policy (NSP). While both the SP and NSP share ...a common objective — to reduce Taiwan’s heavy reliance on the Chinese market — the NSP, unlike its predecessor, places a dual emphasis on enhancing economic ties and concurrently spreading Taiwan’s soft power across the designated markets. Despite being one of the target markets under the NSP, Malaysia did not consistently experience a surge in the proportion of Taiwan’s total trade volume as a result of the policy. This paper aims to assess the performance of Taiwan-Malaysia trades in the context of NSP initiatives and elucidate how the soft power that Taiwan has implemented in Malaysia since the 1950s contributed to such an outcome. The trading outcomes between Taiwan and Malaysia indicate that Taiwan did not receive substantial support from the entities it targeted with its soft power initiatives. This suggests that the China complex within the Chinese ethnic population in Malaysia is challenging to uproot due to their historical and cultural ties with China. Keywords: New Southbound Policy, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, soft power
Resumen: Este artículo argumenta que el giro hacia la derecha de la política china en la década de 1970 fue un factor clave que contribuyó a poner fin a la era revolucionaria de la larga y global ...década de 1960, marcando el comienzo de la reacción del neoliberalismo que siguió. Este proceso de contrarrevolución en China comenzó con el acercamiento chino-estadounidense, que Mao inició en respuesta al hostil cerco de China por fuerzas soviéticas, estadounidenses e indias, a finales de la década de 1960, y terminó con el arresto de la Banda de los Cuatro, poco después de la muerte de Mao, en 1976.
After 9/11, new atheists writers criticized all the religions of the world especially Islam. They linked world's major conflicts and terrorists' attacks with religions. Their objective is to defame ...religion and through this way weaken the belief of masses on the existence of God. Moreover, they want to promote atheist ideology across the world and eradicate the role of religion in all sphere of human life. This study is an historical analysis about the common objection of new atheists that religion is the primary cause of wars and conflicts. This is qualitative research in which data is gathered through secondary sources; books, articles and online sources. The study finds that religion is not primary cause of wars and conflicts across the world. There are other economic and political factors and motives behind the wars, which are neglected by new atheists. Moreover, study explore that religion promotes peace and harmony, atheist overlook this role of religion and emphasize only to attach religion with violence and anarchy. Islam prohibits the killings of innocent people and directs to save the lives of humanity. Muslim rulers have been treating with respect and dignity with non-Muslims in their regimes. Religion is necessary part of human life, and it develop individual as well as society with strong moral values. History shows that atheist regimes of the 20th century caused more bloodshed than the rest of the nineteen century. Stalin, Tito, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot are responsible for millions of murders. Blaming religion as the sole cause of violence in the world is illogical and irrational.
What is the state of health care in China? Wei Zhang analyzes the deep institutional issues that plague China's health care system. Despite its timely and effective efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 ...crisis, the system still faces deep-seated challenges, many of which can be traced directly to the marketization of hospitals and medical care.
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