Chinese Foreign Policy in African Energy Engagement and the WTO: A Realpolitik Perspective

Despite signs of China’s increasing involvement in global affairs and institutions, which some scholars have perceived as ‘integration’ into the status quo, there are still areas of Chinese foreign policy which are seemingly characterised by a traditional realpolitik mentality. This essay, using a realpolitik framework, examines two key areas: that of energy security, focusing particularly on Sino-African oil policy, and that of China’s engagement with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Specific studies of Sudan and the TRIPS Agreement respectively support the proposition that key aspects of Chinese foreign policy are still dominated by a realpolitik philosophy. It is clear that China’s foreign policy should not be generalised as purely ‘integrative’, when there may exist even further key elements which are likewise realpolitik-orientated

The Essence of Non-duality in Zhu Ziqing's “Wenzhou de Zongji”

Though seldom translated, Zhu Ziqing's essays have been included in every Chinese school syllabus and almost every anthology of modern Chinese prose since the 1930s. While he first made his name as a poet, his essays are often esteemed for their effective use of poetic prose and the vivid imagery that his writing employs. The essay of focus, “Wenzhou de Zongji” [Traces of Wenzhou], was published in his first collection of essays and poetry, Zongji [Tracks and Traces] in 1924. The paper first provides some contextual material for “Wenzhou de Zongji”: a brief biography of Zhu Ziqing; an exposition on the Chinese literary essay genre, sanwen; a history of translation theory in China; and a reflection on the translation theory I adopted for this essay. Finally, before analyzing the essay itself, my translation of the essay is offered. Through the analysis, I dissect the non-duality within the essay's content and style

The Creation of China's Rural-Urban Divide

This paper analyzes how the implementation of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) household registration (hukou) system in the 1950s has created material resource disparities between the urban and rural sectors that have persisted in the market reform economy. It examines hukou founding documents, urban population management laws, and pilot solutions to address structural inequities. It concludes with an analysis of current provincial and national government solutions seeking to bridge the rural-urban economic gap, notably the need to reform the hukou instrument to increase equitability and social stability. Although previous scholars have linked the PRC’s household registration laws to its socialist modernization economic platform, this project contributes to the field by linking that body of research with current scholarship on present-day welfare inequities in the Chinese state

Textual Authenticity and Timeline of the Laozi through the Guodian Bamboo Strips

Discovery of the Guodian segments of the Dao De Jing provided important insights of the composition of the Dao De Jing. For given chapters that appeared in the Guodian edition, comparing texts that are missing in the Guodian version, but are present in the Wangbi and Mawangdui version suggests a particular scenario for the composition of the Dao De Jing. I hypothesize that there are three stages to the formation and transmission of the Dao De Jing. First, the Guodian text, only a third of the received length, is compiled with other raw material texts of equal weighting through horizontal transmission to form a prototype of the received edition. Then textual corruptions that are medium and small in size are vertically transmitted onto received texts in the second and third stages of textual transmission

The “Motivation Hierarchy:” Japan’s Motivations for Imperialism in Late Meiji

Through the construction of a "motivation hierarchy" this work illustrates the relations between the motives that shaped Japan’s imperialism in the late 1800s. Despite a large number of differing scholarly works asserting a singular overarching theme for Japan’s imperialism, it is my assertion that Japan’s imperialism was poly-causal, with motives building on and strengthening each other. This momentum would result in Japan’s acquisition of the Korean peninsula by the early 1900s. By examining the relations among Japan’s imperialistic motives, we may reach a more thorough understanding of Japan’s imperialism past to present

Propagandizing Songs: A Historical Analysis of How Chairman Mao Reconstructed Music Before and During the Cultural Revolution

Abstract: Chairman Mao Zedong utilized Chinese music as propaganda to mobilize the Chinese people to carry out his revolutionary agenda for a new China. From the Yan’an Rectification Movement (1942-1944) to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Chairman Mao consistently pushed for a new China based on his personal interpretation of Marxism. By applying a historical approach, one can see how Mao’s reign over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before and during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution changed Chinese music, and how Chinese music was affected by the changing of leadership over the course of Mao’s career

Yu and Qing as Raw Materials of Love: Rethinking Desire and Sentiment in Ming-Qing Novels

Through literature, authors attempt to both elucidate and more profoundly understand the nature of the world around them, simultaneously expressing and refining their own beliefs and perceptions. For this reason, literature is an important vehicle to understanding the nature of human inquiry and the questions occupying the minds of authors and their contemporaries. The Plum in the Golden Vase and The Story of the Stone are two late imperial Chinese masterworks involving the interplay of the sexual and the social, the psychological and the relational. Through these works, the novels’ authors both critique and question social reality, human nature, and their ties to moral responsibility. Our examination endeavors to better understand the novelists’ perspectives through consideration of philosophical and social developments leading up to and during China’s late imperial period. While relying on a firm grounding in Chinese thought, this examination also considers insight drawn from the Catholic philosophical tradition. This intercultural perspective is justified by the universal nature of the questions at stake (despite specifically cultural manifestations and variations in form), as well as certain similarities between the Neo-Confucian and Catholic outlooks. Through this investigation, we are able to identify sentiment and desire as primary agents acting as both ingredients of and impediments to virtuous love