Sino the Times: three spoken drama productions on the Beijing stage

Today's modern theatre in Beijing shows new talents and directions as well as problems that are part of the uncertainties of Chinese society — in what may be the most intriguing transitional period in Chinese history

Hospitality and internationalization-at-home : The intercultural experiences of ‘buddies’ at a summer school in China

Like many institutions around the world, Chinese universities have established systems of ‘local student buddies’ to ensure international students’ smooth transition to university life in China. This paper examines this underexplored form of internationalization-at-home by focusing on the experiences of Chinese buddies, appointed by a university, who host international students at a 4-week summer school. Focus groups were led with 10 buddies before and after the summer school. Focusing on the key concepts of hospitality and interculturality, and using enunciative pragmatics, the paper examines the kind of interculturality taking place between the buddies and the international students, as well as the influence of the type of hospitality performed by the buddies on intercultural encounters. Recommendations for institutions using a buddy system within internationalization-at-home conclude the paper.Peer reviewe

Using the past to legitimise the present: the portrayal of good governance in Chinese history textbooks

This article examines how Chinese middle-school history textbooks are written as a means of legitimising the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), by carefully utilising China’s past. The authors identify (or perhaps "construct") a sinified model of good governance in the textbooks that derives from the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and the subsequent practises of certain revered Chinese emperors. This model is then applied to CCP leaders in the modern-era textbooks in order to cast them as diligently upholding a time-honoured Chinese tradition of legitimate rule. In a broader context, our analysis fits within the ongoing discussions about the continuing legacy of Confucianism in contemporary China and the CCP’s efforts to locate itself within this as a way of for-tifying its own legitimacy. We also note how some of the themes of good governance contained in the textbooks are closely linked to contemporary government policies and priorities, such as anti-corruption schemes and constitutionalism. The objective in so doing is to propagate the importance of these themes to a young audience

My Book "Economic development in the context of China": its origins plus experiences in China in 1989 and their sequel

Outlines how as a result of a chance meeting with Professor Mao Yushi in Toronto, Canada in 1986 I was subsequently invited to visit China to give lectures at Nankai University in Tianjin (which I did in 1989). This visit was extended by my being awarded an Exchange Fellowship Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Humanities in conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS). This enabled me to make further contact with Mao Yushi who was Professor of American Studies at that time. Presentations of papers and academic contacts were made at various centres of learning in Wuhan, Xian and Beijing. One of the results of my visit to China was the publication of my book Economic Development in the Context of China. This was put online in 2011 by Palgrave Macmillan. The nature and genesis of this book is outlined, together with my experiences in China in 1989 and the sequel to my visit. The sequel includes subsequent visits to The University of Queensland of several Chinese economists, including Mao Yushi, my involvement in several research projects focused on China, as well as several articles dealing with Chinese economic and environmental issues. Some biographical information about Mao Yushi and Clem Tisdell is also included in this article

International Observer, Issue Fall 2, 2002

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Curating philanthropy and socialist governance: the Chinese Charity museum

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper examines the growing political importance of philanthropy in the People’s Republic of China as presented in the Chinese Charity Museum, probably the only national-level museum in the world to feature permanent exhibits focused solely on the subject of philanthropy. The paper explains why charitable practices, which purportedly flourished in pre-communist China, “disappeared” during the Mao era (1949–1976), and why philanthropy is now a government-endorsed activity. It then examines the state-prescribed role of Chinese museology and the creation of a charity museum in Nantong City, before investigating the socio-political narrative that frames the Nantong collection. It concludes that the museum’s “story” simplifies and elides the significant change in forms of philanthropic institutions and practices in contemporary China, relative to their pre-1949 precursors, but yields new insight into how the Chinese Communist Party is recasting philanthropy as an integral part of socialist culture and state-led welfare provision