Posted on 11/9/2017 9:00 AM By Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
Official state media reports in China frequently speak of how the Communist Party-led government has “lifted 700 million people out of poverty” since implementing economic reforms in the late 1970s. Yet there are still millions of people in the country who struggle to maintain long-term employment and constantly teeter on the edge of a financial cliff.
Dibao, or the Minimum Livelihood Guarantee, is a government program intended to help its recipients step back from the edge of that cliff. By distributing cash payments to those who qualify, Dibao is meant to provide China’s poorest citizens with the funds to cover their basic expenses during periods of un- or under-employment. First implemented in Shanghai in 1993, Dibao was expanded to all urban areas in 1999 but has only been available to rural residents since 2007; there are now approximately 60 million people receiving welfare payments through the program.
AAS Member Qin Gao, a professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work ...
Posted on 11/7/2017 9:00 AM By #AsiaNow
As reported in mid-August, representatives of the Chinese government asked Cambridge University Press (CUP) to remove from its Chinese website 315 China Quarterly articles on so-called “sensitive” topics (Taiwan, the Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen, etc.). At that time, CUP also conveyed to the Association for Asian Studies a Chinese request that 100 Journal of Asian Studies articles be blocked in China. Under pressure, CUP reversed its decision and lifted the block of the China Quarterly articles before any JAS articles were affected. AAS has issued a statement in strong defense of academic freedom. Since then, AAS officers and staff have continued monitoring the situation. There are no new updates concerning our Journal of Asian Studies, which remains fully accessible to AAS members in China.
However, other publications have been affected by censorship in China, and this episode has prompted many members of the academic community to discuss academic integrity, scholarly labor, and possible respo ...
Posted on 9/28/2017 12:00 PM By Maura Elizabeth Cunningham
After a devastating earthquake hit China’s southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008, thousands of volunteers left their homes in other parts of the country and traveled to Sichuan to help victims of the quake. This outpouring of assistance surprised many Chinese, who for years had lamented about a perceived moral vacuum and lack of compassion in their society. As Emory University sociologist Bin Xu explains in his new book, The Politics of Compassion: The Sichuan Earthquake and Civic Engagement in China (Stanford University Press), the 2008 earthquake threw a spotlight on civic engagement in the country, bringing non-governmental organizations and social networks that had previously been little-known onto the national stage.
Xu has spent years investigating the dimensions of this civic engagement, first joining the volunteers as a participant-observer and subsequently conducting interviews with those who stepped forward to assist in Sichuan’s recovery from the earthquake. In The Politi ...
Posted on 9/3/2017 1:45 PM By #AsiaNow
On August 18, 2017, the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) was informed that Chinese authorities had requested Cambridge University Press (CUP) remove 94 Journal of Asian Studies (JAS) articles and book reviews from its website in the People’s Republic of China.*
The AAS and CUP refused that request, and no JAS articles or book reviews have been blocked in China. In the interest of transparency, below is a PDF of the complete list that AAS received from CUP of the “sensitive” JAS pieces as identified by Chinese authorities and organized chronologically (oldest to newest).
List of JAS articles identified for blocking in China (PDF)
Although we have removed author names, the AAS has made every effort to contact the authors of these works and inform them of their presence on this list. If any authors of the articles or book reviews listed here have questions or concerns, we ask them to contact AAS Digital Media Manager Maura Cunningham at mcunningham@asian-studies.org for as ...
Posted on 8/31/2017 11:48 AM By #AsiaNow
Over the past 10 days, there has been widespread coverage of the Chinese government’s request that Cambridge University Press (CUP) prevent its website in China from displaying 100 Journal of Asian Studies (JAS) articles on topics deemed “sensitive” by the Chinese state. The AAS and CUP both refused that request, and no JAS articles have been blocked in China.
Here, we’ve assembled a reading round-up of all the news stories that reported on this still-ongoing situation.
If you haven’t done so yet, please check out our posts here at #AsiaNow covering the situation:
AAS Statement on Cambridge University Press Censorship in China
Frequently Asked Questions about the Journal of Asian Studies and Censorship in China
A Summary Explanation of the Journal of Asian Studies Articles That Were Not Censored
News articles reporting on the JAS censorship request:
Ben Bland, “Cambridge University Press Makes U-Turn on China Censorship.” Financial Times, August 21, 2017.
J ...