China Books

For centuries, various great powers have both exploited and benefited Taiwan, their designs for this island frequently clashing with the desire of local inhabitants to control their own destiny. Such conflicts have shaped Taiwan’s multiple, and frequently contradictory, identities. Denny Roy contends that Taiwan’s political history is best understood as a continuous struggle for security. Eschewing the usual emphasis on the high politics of the recent era, he offers a comprehensive narrative of the island’s political history from the first Chinese settlements to the Chen Shui-bian presidency. Roy covers the political system constructed by the KMT during the Cold War, the opposition breakthrough, the presidency of Lee Teng-hui, and the DPP presidential victory in March 2000. Roy’s approach allows him to integrate his understanding of Taiwan’s domestic politics with its foreign affairs—particularly the relations with mainland China. He reveals how the interplay between political forces within and the influence of foreign countries from without has shaped Taiwan. His is a balanced account, incorporating up-to-date coverage and presenting many indigenous voices. Taiwan: A Political History illuminates the origins of the island’s often-troubled domestic and international political situation. Denny Roy is a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. His previous books include China’s Foreign Relations. (ISBN:0801488052) (For this item please quote stock ID 20041) ISBN: 0801488052

Despite Taiwan's rise as an economic force in the world, modernity has not led to a Weberian process of disenchantment or curbed religiosity. To the contrary, other factors - social, economic, political - have stimulated religion. How and why this has happened are central issues in this book. One part of Taiwan's flourishing religious culture is the elaborate and colourful procession of local gods accompanied by troupes of musicians and dancers. Among them are performers with outlandishly painted faces portraying underworld generals who serve the gods and punish the living. Through their performances, these troupes claim to exorcise harmful forces from the community. In conducting fieldwork among these troupes, Donald Sutton confronted their claims to a long history - when all evidence indicated that the troupes had been insignificant until the 1970s - and their assertions of devotion to tradition given the diversity of performances. Concentrating on the stylistic variations in performances, the author describes the troupes as organizations shaped by the 'market forces' of supply and demand in the culture of religious festivals. By focusing on performances as the nexus of market and art, he shows how bodily performance is the site where religious statements are made and the power of the gods made visible. (ISBN:0674010973) (For this item please quote stock ID 20203) ISBN: 0674010973

This book brings together a group of experts on Taiwan who attempt to analyse change on this dynamic island during the whole of the 20th century. Thus, in contrast to many works on Taiwan, the nine papers show just how important the Japanese colonial antecedents were to the formation of today’s Taiwan and help us to understand the complexity of the problems this island will face in the 21st century. The work of the various authors, many of them young Taiwanese, also show clearly that a simple divide of Taiwan’s 20th century history with the retrocession to Chinese rule in 1945 is not adequate for understanding the development of this island. Contents: >1. Aspects of the Taiwanese landscape in the 20th century (Richard Louis Edmonds) >2. Transforming Taiwan’s economic structure in the 20th century (Cheng Tun-jen) >3. Taiwan in the 20th century: model or victim? >4. Development in a small Asian economy (Christopher Howe) >5. Taiwan’s social changes in the patterns of social solidarity in the 20th century (Dung-sheng Chen) >6. Constructing a native consciousness: Taiwan literature in the 20th century (Angelina C. Yee) >7. Political development in 20th-century Taiwan: state-building, regime transformation & the construction of national identity (Yun-han Chu & Jih-wen Lin) >8. Taiwan in Japan’s security considerations (Soeya Yoshihide) >9. An uncertain relationship: the United States, Taiwan & the Taiwan Relations Act (Steven Goldstein) >10. Taiwan & South-East Asia: the limits to pragmatic diplomacy (Michael Leifer) (ISBN:0521003431) (For this item please quote stock ID 20382) ISBN: 0521003431

This book brings together a group of experts on Taiwan who attempt to analyse change on this dynamic island during the whole of the twentieth century. Thus in contrast to many works on Taiwan, this book shows just how important the Japanese colonial antecedents were to the formation of today’s Taiwan and helps us to understand the complexity of the problems this island will face in the twenty-first century. Key Features: >New approach to Taiwanese Studies which addresses the contrast between pre-1945 & post-1945 >Combined Taiwanese & international authorship >Multi-disciplinary approach to the topic Contents: >1. Aspects of the Taiwanese landscape in the twentieth century (Richard Louis Edmonds) >2. Transforming Taiwan’s economic structure in the twentieth century (Cheng Tun-jen) >3. Taiwan in the twentieth century: model or victim? >4. Development in a small Asian economy (Christopher Howe) >5. Taiwan’s social changes in the patterns of social solidarity in the twentieth century (Dung-sheng Chen) >6. Constructing a native consciousness: Taiwan literature in the twentieth century (Angelina C. Yee) >7. Political development in twentieth-century Taiwan: state-building, regime transformation & the construction of national identity (Yun-han Chu & Jih-wen Lin) >8. Taiwan in Japan’s security considerations (Soeya Yoshihide) >9. An uncertain relationship: the United States, Taiwan & the Taiwan Relations Act (Steven Goldstein) >10. Taiwan & South-East Asia: the limits to pragmatic diplomacy (Michael Leifer) (ISBN:0521003431) (For this item please quote stock ID 20396) ISBN: 0521003431

This is the first comprehensive study of the traditional Chinese craft of paper sculpture documents; the construction in bamboo and paper of human figures, figures of gods, buildings and other objects all intended to be ritually burnt. The book documents this ancient craft as it exists today in Taiwan. The fascinating fundamentals of the craft, the tools and materials, as well as the techniques used to construct houses and human figures, never investigated before, are described and illustrated in detail. The written material is augmented by many colour photographs showing the objects and the men and women who make them. Although the tradition of burning objects as part of religious ceremonies is still strong, the traditional paper and bamboo objects are being replaced more and more by plastic components and whole reprinted cardboard counterparts. The resulting changes in the personal, business and especially the creative and artistic side are therefore also addressed. (ISBN:0804734550) (For this item please quote stock ID 22916) ISBN: 0804734550

Peking Opera & Politics in Taiwan tells the peculiar story of an art caught in a sea of overtly ideological ebbs and fiows. Nancy Guy demonstrates the potential significance of the political environment for an art form's development, ranging from determining the smallest performative details (such as how a melody can or cannot be composed) to whether a tradition ultimately thrives or withers away. When Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists retreated to Taiwan in 1949, they brought Peking opera performers with them to strengthen their authority through a symbolically important art. Valuing mainland Chinese culture above Taiwanese culture, the Nationalists generously supported Peking opera to the virtual exclusion of local performing traditions, despite their wider popularity. Later, as Taiwan turned toward democracy, the island's own 'indigenous' products became more highly valued and Peking opera found itself on a tenuous footing. Finally, in 1995, all of its opera troupes and schools (formerly supported by the Ministry of Defence) were dismantled. Nancy Guy investigates the mechanisms through which Peking Opera was perpetuated, controlled, and ultimately disempowered, and explores the artistic and political consequences of the state's involvement as its primary patron. Her study provides a unique perspective on the interplay between ideology and power within Taiwan's dynamic society. Nancy Guy is an associate professor of music at the University of California, San Diego. (ISBN:0252029739) (For this item please quote stock ID 24619) ISBN: 0252029739

The most comprehensive and up-to-date study presently available of the dynamic island republic of Taiwan. Drawing on a broad range of documentary sources and on-site research, a group of writers including many of the world's leading specialists on Taiwanese affairs provide in-depth and expert analysis. Readership: Students and researchers in Asian Studies. Contents: Exploring the Complexities of Contemporary Taiwan (David Shambaugh); The Enduring Influence of the Republic of China on Taiwan Today (Ralph N.Clough); A New Chinese Civilization: The Evolution of the Republic of China on Taiwan (Ramon H. Myers); Taiwan Society at the Fin de Siècle (Thomas B. Gold); Cultural Identity & the Politics of Recognition in Contemporary Taiwan (Tu Weiming); Building Democracy in Taiwan (Hung-mao Tien & Yun-han Chu); The Taiwan Economy: The Transition to Maturity & the Political Economy of its Changing International Status (Christopher Howe); Charting Taiwan's Technological Future: The Impact of Globalisation & Regionalisation (Denis Fred Simon); Taiwan's Environment Today (Richard Louis Edmonds); Taiwan's Mainland Policy: Normalization, Yes; Reunification, Later (Jean-Pierre Cabestan); Taiwans's Security: Maintaining Deterrence amid Political Accountability (David Shambaugh); The International Standing of the Republic of China on Taiwan (Michael Yahuda); America in Taiwan's Post Cold War Foreign Relations (Thomas W. Robinson) (For this item please quote stock ID 12515) ISBN: 9780198293057

~In discussions of postcolonial nationhood and cultural identity, Taiwan is often overlooked. Yet the island ? with its complex history of colonisation ? presents a particularly fascinating case of the struggle to define a 'nation'. While the mainland Chinese government has been unequivocal in its resistance to Taiwanese independence, on the island government control has gradually passed from mainland Chinese immigrants to the Taiwanese themselves. Two decades of democratisation and the arrival of consumer culture have made the island a truly global space. Envisioning Taiwan sorts through these complexities, skillfully weaving together history and cultural analysis to give both a picture of Taiwanese identity and a lesson on the usefulness and the limits of contemporary cultural theory.

~Yip traces a distinctly Taiwanese sense of self vis-à-vis China, Japan, and the West through two of the island's most important cultural movements: the hsiang-t'u (or 'nativist') literature of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Taiwanese New Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s.

~At the heart of the book are close readings of the work of the hsian-t'u writer Hwang Chun-ming and the New Cinema filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. Key figures in Taiwan's assertion of a national identity separate and distinct from China, both artists portray the richness and complexity of daily life on the island. Through Hwang's and Hou's work and their respective artistic movements, Yip explores 'the imagining of a nation' on the local, national, and global levels. In the process, she exposes a perceptible shift away from traditional models of cultural authenticity toward a more fluid, postmodern hybridity ? an evolution that reflects both Taiwan's peculiar multicultural reality and broader trends in global culture.

~'A splendid book on Taiwan, its culture, and its unique situation in the world' - Frederic Jameson, Duke University

~'June Yip forcefully argues why and how modern Taiwanese literature and cinema matter for our understanding of an array of modern and postmodern issues ranging from national identity to cultural politics and from an indigenous search for roots to global circulation of cultural and economic capital' - David Der-wei Wang, author of The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, & Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China.

~June Yip is an independent scholar living in Los Angeles. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and an M.A. in Cinema Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she has taught Chinese film. (For this item please quote stock ID 23535) ISBN: 9780822333678

Taiwan's export-led industrial development is often presented as a model of how state intervention promotes growth. Others see the same experience as a model of a private enterprise market at work. This study demonstrates that Taiwan policy-makers varied their approach to development as circumstances changed. Export promotion of labor-intensive industries, which predominated in the 1960s, was supplemented by efforts to promote import-substituting heavy industries in the 1970s. In the early 1980s there was a fundamental change in the economic environment as Taiwan's government reduced its active intervention in the economy and created a foundation for development based on information and other high-technology products. Taiwan's economy continued to prosper in the 1990s because policies and systems changed along with conditions. (For this item please quote stock ID 18623) ISBN: 9780674002531

[Indent] Drawing on a wide range of Chinese historical and contemporary texts, Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism addresses diverse subjects including nationalist literature; language ideology; the crafting of a national history; the impact of Japanese colonialism and the increasingly strained relationship between China and Taiwan. This book is essential reading for all scholars of the history, culture and politics of Taiwan. (For this item please quote stock ID 21672) ISBN: 9780415226486

[Indent] The Minor Arts of Daily Life is an account of the many ways in which contemporary Taiwanese approach their ordinary existence and activities. It presents a wide range of aspects of day-to-day living to convey something of the world as experienced by the Taiwanese themselves. 'Offers highly focused but penetrating analyses of different aspects of everyday life in Taiwan particularly that associated with the vibrant and complex popular culture of the island ... Each of the essays in this volume takes a specific cultural phenomenon, from baseball teams to Amway sales, as a small window into a place where people live and reveal their believable, if often flawed, humanity' - Joseph Allen, University of Minnesota. A powerful, well-written, and well-designed book that addresses the hidden realities of Taiwanese life' - Murray Rubenstein, City University of New York Contributors: Alice Chu, Chien-Juh Gu, David Jordan, Paul Katz, Chin-Ju Lin, Andrew Morris, Marc Moskowitz, Scott Simon, Shuenn-Der Yu. David Jordan is professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. (For this item please quote stock ID 22692) ISBN: 9780824828004

Not only are SMEs the dominant form of enterprise in Taiwan, but they have also played very important and unique roles throughout the history of Taiwan's process of economic development. Those wishing to gain a complete understanding of the factors leading to Taiwan's success in economic development, must first of all have a good understanding of the functions of SMEs in Taiwan. This book successfully achieves exactly this aim: it provides an in-depth discussion of the functions of SMEs in Taiwan in the process of this island nation's economic development. (For this item please quote stock ID 25313) ISBN: 9789812181176

A study of university dissidents in Taiwan during the turbulent early seventies. (For this item please quote stock ID 8303) ISBN: 9780892640287

When Valleys Turned Blood Red tells the story of colonial policies and their tragic impact on local communities. Of the numerous acts of armed and unarmed resistance that occurred in colonial Taiwan, one uprising in particular underscored the successes and failures of 50 years of Japanese rule (1895–1945): the insurgency that swept through the rural southern town of Ta-pa-ni and its environs during the summer of 1915. The Ta-pa-ni Incident was the largest single act of Han Chinese armed resistance during the 50 years of Taiwan’s colonial era. More than a thousand villagers and Japanese were killed during the fierce fighting and thousands more were later arrested and made to stand trial. Many Taiwanese were subsequently executed or died during long years of imprisonment. Based on detailed archival research, interviews with survivors, painstaking demographic analysis, and a thorough reading of secondary scholarship in all of the relevant languages, Paul Katz examines the significance of the Ta-pa-ni Incident by focusing on what Paul Cohen terms history’s 'three keys': event, experience, and myth. Katz provides a vivid description of events surrounding the uprising as well as the ways in which it has been mythologised over time. His primary emphasis, however, is on the experiences of the men and women who were caught up in the flow of history. As a result, the book’s analytical framework centres on the individual and family backgrounds of participants and the socioeconomic and religious factors underlying their decision to join the uprising. In addition, Katz explores the impact of the Ta-pa-ni Incident on subsequent Japanese colonial policy. 'Paul Katz tells a gripping story, successfully rendering the human drama behind the tragic Incident. Anyone interested in Japan’s colonial past, Taiwanese history, or Chinese rural society and religion would greatly benefit from his meticulous study' — Meir Shahar, Tel Aviv University. (For this item please quote stock ID 24927) ISBN: 9780824829155