Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Legendary Silk Road

Legendary Silk Road

Travel to Kashgar! Josh's Top Recommendations in Xinjiang's Best Silk Road Oasis

Travel to Kashgar! Josh's Top Recommendations in Xinjiang's Best Silk Road Oasis

Karakoram Highway in HD! Adventure of a Lifetime from Kashgar (China) to Pakistan

Thursday, February 15, 2018

新年快乐 Happy 'DOG' New Year 2018 and Fortune Tales | The Story of Chinese New Year

Fortune Tales | The Story of Chinese New Year

新年快乐 Happy 'DOG' New Year 2018


A New Book: The New Frontier of the Middle East Politics and Economy by Sun Degang, Liu Zhongmin, (eds)

World Knowledge Publishing House 
August 1, 2017 
PAGES:246 pages
ISBN:9787501255603
http://en.mideast.shisu.edu.cn/65/f7/c5617a91639/page.htm

AUTHORS
Dr. Degang SUN is Professor and Deputy Director of the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, China. He was a Senior Associate Member at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and an Academic Visitor to Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (2012-2013). His research interests are great powers’ Middle East Strategy, Middle East Security and China’s Middle East Diplomacy. His most recent works are Quasi-alliance Diplomacy in Theory and Practice: An Empirical Studies of the Relations between Great Powers and the Middle East (Beijing: World Affairs, 2012); “China’s Response to the Revolts in the Arab World: A Case of Pragmatic Diplomacy”, (Mediterranean Politics, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2014, with Professor Yahia Zoubir); and “China’s Economic Diplomacy towards the Arab Countries: Challenges Ahead?” (Journal of Contemporary China with Professor Yahia Zoubir).  Zhongming Liu, Ph.D. in Laws, is the professor, Ph.D. supervisor and director of the Middle East Studies Institute (MESI) of Shanghai International Studies University, editor-in-chief of Arab World Studies which is a Chinese core journal, as well as a member of the academic committee of Shanghai International Studies University. Prior to joining the MESI, he has severed at Hebei Normal University and the Ocean University of China successively. He also performs the responsibilities of vice president at the Chinese Society of Asian and African Studies, standing director of Chinese Association of Middle East Studies, standing director of Chinese Society of World Ethno-National Studies, member of the editorial board of the journal West Asia and Africa, etc. In recent years, he has visited the U.S., UK and more than a dozen Middle East countries for academic exchanges. He has hosted many research projects on provincial and ministerial levels or above funded by National Social Science Fund and important projects of key research bases on humanities and social sciences of Ministry of Education. More than 10 of his research results have been awarded as provincial or ministerial-level outstanding scientific achievements. Liu was selected to the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University in 2006, and awarded as Shanghai “Dawn Scholar” in 2007.
CONTENTS
The Middle East “Quagmire”: Reflections on What Lies Ahead / Beenish SULTAN
Cracking Down on ISIL - A Long Way Ahead / JIANG Sheng
Will ISIS Be Killed by Low Oil Prices? / ZHOU Yimin
Religious Institution as Minority Representative: The Authoritarian Corporatism in Egypt / DUAN Jiuzhou
Arab Uprisings: Political and Social Transformation in West Asia and North Africa / Mahendra Pratap RANA
The Perspective of Saudi Arabia’s Economic Reform - Internal and External Elements / ZHOU Jiaxi & ZHANG Jianping
Say Goodbye to Oil Dependence? Key Points and Cooperative Prospects in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 / JING Danyang
The Perspective of Modernization: Iranian Women’s Employment since 1979 / HAN Jianwei
China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System in the Arab World: A New Frontier of Cooperation? / SUN Degang & WANG Yaqing
China-Egypt Diplomatic Relations and the Current Development / YU Jianhua
Moroccan-Chinese Relationship: The Interaction of “Going East” and “Going Out” Strategies / Youssef HAFTI

Monday, February 12, 2018

A Sociology of Modern China - Jean-Louis Rocca

Oxford University Press -2015
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-sociology-of-modern-china-9780190231200?cc=us&lang=en&#

Jean-Louis Rocca's admirably concise A Sociology of Modern China wears its scholarship lightly and paints an intimate and complex portrait of Chinese society, all the while avoiding clichés and simplifications. He delves into China's history and examines the country's many different social strata so as to better understand the enormous challenges and opportunities with which its people are confronted. After discussing the long march toward reform and the crises along the way - among them the 1989 protests which culminated in the events in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere - Rocca dedicates the second half of the book to the major questions facing the country (or, at the very least, its political elites) today: new forms of social stratification; the interaction between the market and the state; growing individualism; and the pressures exerted by social conflict and political change. In eschewing culturalist visions, Rocca thoroughly and successfully deconstructs received wisdom about Chinese society to reveal a thriving nation and its people.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Orthodox Thinking
Culturalist Impasses
The Impasses of Transitionalism
A Critical Reflection
1. Historical Trajectory
Before the Revolution
A Grey Page
New Solidarities: Towns and Cities
New Solidarities: The Countryside
The Tragic Failure of Totalitarianism
2. The Long March of Reforms
The Mutual Formation of the State and Market
A Marginal Capitalism (1979DS91)
The Time of Fractures (1992DS2007)
3. A New Society
The Conditions of Social Mobility
The Morphology of Chinese Society
The Dangers of Imbalances
The Ideal Class
4. A Society of Individuals in a Time of Reforms
A Society of Subjects of their Own Existence
Effects of Fashion
Social Anxiety
Sex and Marriage in the (Chinese) City
Children
5. The Political Puzzle
A Moderate Pluralism
The Internet Revolution and its Limits
Elections and Electors
A Thermidorian and Technocratic Elite
Social Protect
Intellectuals in No Man>'s Land
Creating a Middle-Class China: A Source of Conflicts
Identities and Nation
Conservative Democracy
Conclusion
Elements of Genealogy
All is Well
Modernisation is not a Gala Dinner
Conservatism and Representation

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Xi Jinping's youth: Humble beginnings in the Chinese countryside

My seven years of rural life in northern Shaanxi Province gave me something mysterious and sacred," said Chinese President #XiJinping. His humble beginnings in the Chinese countryside made him the man he is today.


President Xi Jinping delivers speech at Arab League Headquarters


‘Do It Now’: Xi Jinping’s commitment to cutting red tape

When #XiJinping was the Party Secretary of Fuzhou in the 1990s, it took forever for Taiwan businessmen to set up companies in the Chinese mainland city. Xi committed to streamlining the approval process and helped Fuzhou develop into a booming city.