Bare Sticks and Social Unrest: A Mutant Palm Critique

Dave at The Mutant Palm has posted a critique of the “guang’gun goin’ to hell” narrative that pops up every so often. The short form of that story is that sex-selection in family planning, exacerbated by the One Child Policy, is creating a bachelor bomb (a generation of guang’gun 光棍 or ‘bare sticks’) that will mean years of social unrest in the PRC.

Dave and I disagree slightly on the guang’gun issue, I’m more pessimistic than he is, but I agree with him that this has been overblown by the mainstream media and the historical parallels with the demographic pressures in the turbulent decades of the 19th century, while instructive, are hardly exact.

I wrote a seminar paper on this subject in 2006, and if I can dig it up out of my archive I’ll post it online. In the meantime, check out Dave’s very thoughtful post. (Mainland link here.)——————Kudos also to Dave for his ongoing series exploring the recently opened NYT archives for snippets of historical China analysis. Fascinating stuff from the “The More Things Change…” desk.

October 30th, 2007

Jottings from the Granite Studio: The Red Sox, win! Again.

And so a moment I thought I would never live to see has happened twice this decade…the Red Sox have won the World Series. Unfortunately with my teaching and my research schedule I had to watch most of the games on the Internet rebroadcast…except for game 4, for which Wu Ming spilled the beans over email. No matter. I never get tired of the phrase “Boston Red Sox, World Champions.” Research progresses. Slowly, inexorably, but moving forward, though we are midway through the semester here in Beijing and with the World Series over, it’s time to get cracking on paper grading because I’m giving midterms this week and my grading load will only grow as we approach Thanksgiving. I know people complain that it’s getting colder, but really…if it were up to me, every day would be this temperature. Frankly, I see no reason why it needs to be above 70 degrees ever unless there is a large body of water and a beach involved. Does anyone else take a special pleasure in holding up the “Army” (the ones with the 军 license plates) cars as they try to squeeze regally through pedestrian and bike lanes? With every honk of

October 30th, 2007

Morning Tea: Diversity Now in Beijing…Red Sox in the World Series, papers to remain ungraded for two weeks…50,000 served?

It has been a busy week here. YJ is finally finished covering the 17th Party Congress (she claims to have won the office pool on the leadership selections). Personally, I’ll just be glad when we can get through breakfast and/or dinner without listening to CCTV news droning on with lists of names.

Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao….Wu Yi, ‘nuuuuuu’…….Galadan ‘meeennnngg–zzuuu’……

For those not closely tuned to CCTV every morning and night, when the names of women or minority delegates are read, the announcer must demonstrate “diversity now!” by following the name with the appropriate category. How would this work on CNN? Are we really that far off?

“Hilary Clinton….woman.”“Barack Obama…black dude.”

It’s also customary for the ethnic minority delegates to attend the meetings dressed in traditional, ceremonial garb while Han delegates wear business suits. Could you imagine Ben Nighthorse Campbell‘s first days in Washington if the US Senate played by CCP rules? I’m trying very hard not to.——————————————-Better news still, the Red Sox are in the World Series which, like an autumnal groundhog seeing its shadow, means two more weeks of slowed research productivity and postponed paper grading.

It’s strange, I’m really psyched that the Sox are in the playoffs, but

October 22nd, 2007

Bad History: The Nation and the unobserved rise and decline of Empire

Of all the hoary myths that pervade US media writing on China, one that irks historians quite a bit is the hoary chestnut of an inert, uncompromising China being “opened” by the dynamic, technologically and politically advanced West in the 19th century.

Prefacing his review in this week’s The Nation, foreign policy author John Feffer compares the American government of 2007 with the days of the Jiaqing Emperor (r. 1796-1825), when the weaknesses of the Qing state were becoming all too apparent.

The article itself is a pastiche of recent publications on China, with a dollop of Yellow Peril to balance for flavor, warning Americans that we should not get too comfy in our place as the world’s preeminent power. I can accept Feffer’s larger point–about American obtuseness and arrogance–though his choice of language (“In place of opium, there are the distracting pleasures of Chinese goods for sale at Wal-Mart”) is unfortunate.

Contemporary China hands will no doubt have much to say about Feffer’s analysis of today’s China and its potential as an eater of worlds, but I’d like to take a moment to set the record straight on Feffer’s description of Chinese history.

“The

October 20th, 2007

The burdens of History

Professor Tao Dongfeng, of Capital Normal University in Beijing has an op-ed piece posted today on UPI Asia. Professor Tao argues:

In my opinion, the fundamental problem of China’s education system now is a warped understanding of the purpose of study, of the concept of education and of ideas about human beings and society. These produce an unreasonable program of study. Due to the historic lag in China’s process of modernization, as well as the emphasis on economics and development that are prevalent in the modern world, these have taken precedence in the education system. China claims to focus on both the spiritual and material aspects of modernization, and emphasizes “overall development” of students as an educational goal.

However, in practice, there is an emphasis on some subjects while others are neglected. There is a pragmatic trend in education that stresses technology and examination scores. This results in a one-sided focus and also the mechanization of educational methods. The problem of middle and primary schools are therefore the over-emphasis on these points, and the imbalance in education.

One can sympathize with his lament. It’s been said before. The Qing official Chen Hongmou (1696-1771) was one of the most

October 19th, 2007
 
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