Table of Content

15 November 2014, Volume 31 Issue 6

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Articles

Top Layer Designing and Implementation Strategies

XU Cuan

2014, 31(6):  1-12. 

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 For many years, China’s judicial reform made no substantial progress. Currently, it is still impossible to achieve fundamental judicial reform without initiatives in political reform. However, promoting the rule of law could be a most appropriate point of departure for the political reform. The move entails low cost and low risk. Besides, it’s easy to reach consensus and most unlikely to trigger social disturbance. Judicial reform is the most crucial step towards establishing the rule of law. And judicial independence, as the crux of judicial reform, is the prerequisite for  ensuring judicial justice and also the guide line for the rule of law. Judicial independence is the bottom line and a underlying principle that all have to respect. In fact, how well a country is ruled by law can be measured by the degree of its judicial independence. It is crucial for us to remove some misunderstandings in China, and reiterate the importance of judicial independence. Then, we can then proceed to talk about strategies for promoting judicial reform.

On Several Questions Regarding Seizing the Two  Opportunities of Political Reform

WANG Tie-Yang

2014, 31(6):  12-21. 

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It’s necessary to define a proper time range for the political system reform, in which historical opportunities for reform would surface. This is a time when all the opportunities for reform might be easily missed, but it is also a critical period for grasping these opportunities. In view of the demands of social development, the political system reform could proceed in two steps: first, implementing the political reform of neoauthoritarianism; and second, carrying out a systematical democratic reform. The reform of neoauthoritarianism is not merely an official enterprise, but is increasingly becoming a common cause for the people. Citizen participation are needed in all these endeavors, including constructing the community selfgovernance system and democracy at the grassroots level, the corporate governance in public institutions, cultivating a civil society, developing civil freedom, practicing social supervision, constructing a new relationship between the limited government and an increasingly active society, promoting legislative and judiciary democracy, and enhancing consociational democracy. All of these reforms are central to the neoauthoritarian reform. As a necessary transition to democratic reform, the neoauthoritarian reform, by its very nature, requires cooperation between the government and the people for mutual progress. Only when both the government and the people seize the opportunity for neoauthoritarian reform, can this reform be complete and secure a good transition to modernization and democratization.

Questioning the “Effectiveness” of China’s Crime Prevention Theory

YUE Beng

2014, 31(6):  22-31. 

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 For a long time, research in the theory and strategy of crime prevention have been rather marginal in the filed of criminology in China. In recent years, as criminology continues to develop, the effectiveness of “crime prevention” has become a research subject of heated discussion. In the history of criminology, the effectiveness of the theory and its ability to generate useful theoretical tools are always of crucial importance to the development of crime management model. Research in the theory and strategy of crime prevention shows that even in the international circles of criminal studies, “theoretic studies of crime prevention and crime control are less clarifying or consistent as research in the causes of crime”. In the 21st century, China’s criminology is forced to address many urgent issues regarding the theory and strategy of crime prevention. Looking into the effectiveness of crime prevention theory is to seek to answer the question “what is effective” in criminology. The theory and knowledge thus derived will benefit the criminal studies and eventually enhance crime prevention.

Development of the Private Film Industry in Mainland China since 1980s

CHEN Xi-He, XIAN Jia

2014, 31(6):  32-47. 

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 Since 1980s, along with Mainland China’s opening and reform, China’s film industry has prospered, though not without its twists and turns. The private film sector has achieved even greater growth and become an indispensible part of China’s film industry today both in terms of economic scales and industrial structure. Different from Hollywood which depends on a marketoriented system, the private film industry in Mainland China operates inside the political and economic structure of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Its growth in over 30 years is closely related with China’s macro policies and related industry policies. Under the influence of both capital and policy, the private film industry in mainland China has gone through four stages of development: before 1993the prereform stage; from 1993 to 2001icebreaking and development; from 2001 (after entering WTO) to recent yearsfast growth and current new capital era.

The Rural and the Cosmopolitan: Imperial Gaze and Self Representation——On two “Cultural Films” produced by Manchou Film Association

LI Dao-Xin

2014, 31(6):  48-58. 

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Glorious Happy Land and North China at Dawn are two important “Cultural Movies” made in 1937 by Manchou Film Association. An indepth analysis of the two short documentaries reveals that Manchou Film Association had a part to play in Japan’s “invasion” and “domination” of Manchuria. On the other hand, the analysis also brings to light ambiguous ideological and cultural symptoms of the Puppet Regime which was set up by the Japanese invaders and served as a tool of control and domination. The article argues that in these two movies, Manchou Film Association clearly preached the “Manchou concept” and advocated the policies pursued by the Kwantung Army in North China. In addition, Manchou Film Association, with its manipulation of the imperial gaze at the rural Other and the representation of the cosmopolitan Self, helped to create an imperial “continental illusion” and thus collaborated in Japan’s colonial domination and expansion. In the two movies, the perfect juxtaposition of the imperial gaze and self representation demonstrates exactly the hypocrisy and falsehood of such ideas as “JapanManchou as an united whole” and “peace in the east Asia” as advocated by the Japanese invaders in their “state policy movies”.

Chinese Films: Artistic Legacy and Civic Enlightenment

XUE Feng

2014, 31(6):  59-68. 

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What exactly constitutes the tradition of Chinese films in the past hundred years? Leo Oufan Lee defines it as “Social Realism” or “Critical Realism”. However, this view leaves aside another main thread in the history of Chinese films, namely, “romance of popular culture”. Indeed, romance films, as a major component of the romance of popular culture, often constitute the mainstream of Chinese films. By drawing on that rich legacy, Xie Jin, an influential film director, has developed a new variety of romance films in the style of “improved realism” rather than of the old “critical realism”. Viewed in the context of China’s culture and thoughts of the second half of the 20th century, Xie Jin’s films have been instrumental in educating and enlightening Chinese citizens for a civil society. From 1980s to the present, the creation of such high quality films as Hibiscus Town, Farewell My Concubine, Lifetimes Living, Lust, Caution, and 1942, shows both the vitality of “emotional experience” and “improved realism” and the vigor of “artistic legacy” and “civic enlightenment” in the contemporary world.

Mengchuang’s Ci Poetics and the Bifurcated Trend of the Cipoetry Style——Original title: The Cipoetics in the Late Song Dynastry and the Historical Value of Mengchuang

SUN Gong, SUN Long-Fei

2014, 31(6):  69-82. 

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 This article is to evaluate the Cipoetry of the Song Dynasty from the perspective of the Cipoetics developed in that period. In the late Song period, scholars divided Cipoems into two categories: the heroic and the elegant. They disapproved the heroic ones that broke the rules of meter, rhythm or rhyme; for those written in regular meter or rhyme patterns, they would depreciate them as well if they were written in excessively flowery and ornate style. Wu mengchuang, a poet of the Shoulv (formalruleabiding) group, heralded the trend of Cipoetics in the Song, in particular the late Song dynasty. Both his statement of four criteria for Cipoetry and his pioneering and experimental Cipoetry creation reflected the bifurcated trend of “continuing the Southern Song style while learning from the northern style”. Thanks to his efforts, the Shoulv group, with its Cipoetics and its Cipoetry style, acquired a unique position in the history of Cipoetry.

Aesthetic Construction of the Female Body During the May Fourth Period——Investigating the Woman Magazine in the 1920s

CHENG E-Li

2014, 31(6):  83-92. 

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 The “natural” female body has always been constituted by the spirit of the times. The May Fourth period, an age for the construction of modern individuals, also marks the beginning of the liberation of Chinese women. An investigation of the Women Magazine, a central forum for public opinions of this period, demonstrates that the female body, including both the body parts like hair and breasts and its trappings like clothing and ornaments, became a focus of attention among different circles and also a locus of power where multiple discourses vied for domination. Hence, a new aesthetics of the female body gradually emerged during this period. At the same time, the cultural construction of the female body by the mainstream discourse of the May Fourth movement, as an intellectual current of modernity, has greatly inspired the new vernacular literature in its literary imagination and narration of the woman.

Zhu Shan Tang Notes On Poetry and Its Value in Poetics

HOU Rong-Chuan

2014, 31(6):  93-100. 

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 Zhu Shan Tang Notes on Classical Poetry, composed by Chen Ting in the Ming Dynasty, is a threevolume book which is generally believed to have been lost. However, on the basis of what is recorded in the Shuinan Manuscript and the Transcriptions of Notes on Poetry by Yang Chunxian, one can roughly restore the original look of this book. In the time around Emperor Zhengde’s rule (1506—1521), there was a shift from the “Song style” to the “revived ancient style” in both Chen Ting’s poetics and poetic creation, which makes this book an important material for reception studies of the literary trends in the Ming Dynasty.

Sociological Approach to Translation: Problems and Future

FU Jing-Min

2014, 31(6):  101-111. 

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 Translation studies continuously draws on contemporary sociology and makes much progress. However, as a important branch of translation studies, sociological approach to translation studies has much work to undertake. Based on the reflection upon the brief history of sociological approach to translation studies, this paper analyzes its nature and name, exploring its demarcation and approaches in light of structuralfunctionalism of sociology. The author argues that translation studies should take sociological theories as critical referential and outline its own research frame.

Return to the State: Transition from Sociology to Politics in the Study of Public Incidents

WANG Xiang-Min

2014, 31(6):  112-123. 

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 As China enters a transitional stage in institution building, negotiations and bargaining that occur in institution building often erupt into public incidents. Reviewing the current theoretical framework of studies on these public incidents would enable us to define the position and space for such discussions in the field of China’s political studies. A shift from sociology to politics is observable in the research approach in this field in both China and the West, showing that the study of public incidents has been subsumed again into the concept of the state. However, this return to the state is differently construed in China and in the West.

Multisubject Assessment Model: Development of Major Policy Social Stability Risk Assessment Mechanism

ZHANG Yu-Lei

2014, 31(6):  124-132. 

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 Perfecting major policy social stability risk assessment mechanism is an important link in modernizing state governance and the governance system. The multisubject assessment model involves three parties, namely, the government, the interestrelated party, and the third party. It is the choice for major policy social stability risk assessment because it can strengthen the subjects’ independence and ensure democracy of the process and reliability of the result. However, to establish a multisubject assessment model for major policy social stability risk assessment, we have to first confront a number of challenges, including the autistic tendency of the government, the lack of awareness in stability risk assessment among other parties, incapacity of the parties to conduct the assessment, and the absence of system guarantee. The multisubject assessment model can be more effectively developed through reshaping the conception of government governance, strengthening the consciousness of assessment among the other subjects, improving the assessment competence of various parties, and perfecting the system of assessment.


Exporting China’s Traditional Ocean Culture: a Language Perspective——Based on the Development of Shanghai in the Modern Times

HUANG Bi-Rong

2014, 31(6):  133-140. 

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 The 21st century is an age of Ocean. It is of great importance to study how to export and disseminate traditional Chinese ocean culture and thus reshape China’s cultural image as a strong marine power. Language is a vehicle of culture and a bridge for cultural communication. Unfortunately, as the tidal waves of cultural fusion swept the world, the western ocean culture has gained a dominant position and China’s traditional ocean culture has lost its voice since the early modern times. Under the circumstances, Shanghai has borrowed and adapted the linguistic and cultural elements of western countries, and thereby created Chinese Pidgin English and carved a unique path for development. Shanghai’s experience suggests that in the context of globalization, we can capitalize on the current “Chinese mania” and export our traditional ocean culture to the Englishspeaking world via the medium of the Chinese language so that it can earn its place in the global culture. The dissemination of China’s traditional ocean culture via the vehicle of language is a new research subject that demands our urgent scholarly attention.