In Pursuit of the Great Peace: Han Dynasty Classicism and the Making of Early Medieval Literati Culture

This dissertation is focused on communities of people in the Han dynasty (205 B.C.-A.D. 220) who possessed the knowledge of a corpus of texts: the Five Classics. Previously scholars have understood the popularity of this corpus in the Han society as a result of stiff ideology and imperial propaganda. However, this approach fails to explain why the imperial government considered them effective to convey propaganda in the first place. It does not capture the diverse range of ideas in classicism. This dissertation concentrates on Han classicists and treats them as scholars who constantly competed for attention in intellectual communities and solved problems with innovative solutions that were plausible to their contemporaries. This approach explains the nature of the apocryphal texts, which scholars have previously referred to as shallow and pseudo-scientific. It also reveals the root of the Scripture of the Great Peace in Han classicism and apocryphal texts. This dissertation explores how the study of the classics increasingly came to shape the literati culture and communities of the Han Empire and Early Medieval China. It shows that classicism led to innovations in solving crises of the empire as well as envisioning an ideal empire. The popularity of classicism gave birth to a peripatetic and epistolary scholarly culture marked by the use of calligraphy and poetry in the social life of newly mobile teachers and disciples throughout imperial China. These men strove to be erudite advisors to the destined emperor who would work to achieve the Great Peace, the utopian goal of a human society fully in accordance with Heaven

Reaching beyond ourselves: Celebrating 40 years of CALA (1973 - 2013)

The CALA 40th Anniversary Issue, Reaching Beyond Ourselves: Celebrating 40 Years of CALA (1973-2013), is without doubt a unique collection of the Chinese American Librarians Association’s (CALA) history. It contains pictures, biographies, citations and messages from the presidents of the CALA since its very beginning in 1973, obtained from historical CALA newsletters and the presidents themselves. It records the major events in a timeline format including the establishment of the association, the merge of CALA and CLA, the California based Chinese Librarians Association, the annual conference programs and the new initiatives. It collects personal contemplations, messages and greetings from a variety of people, including CALA members and its leaders, ALA leaders, government officials, and Chinese libraries and librarian associations. It documents the effort in finding and archiving some of the CALA historical materials. It reports the endeavors of some major initiatives such as the CALA 21st Century Librarian Seminar Series and the “Think Globally, Act Globally” US-China Librarian Collaboration project. It contains a special article on Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee and the special Chinese collections in the Library of Congress; and a first-hand report on the CALA 40th Anniversary Celebration and Awards Banquet. It also includes information on the seven CALA chapters, a glimpse into CALA’s 1980 and 2013 membership and the Chinese Librarians Summer Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It concludes with a collection of pictures taken at the 40th Anniversary annual program and banquet. This publication documents the history of a professional organization and celebrates creativity, diversity and global outreach. Its presentation is pleasant to the eyes of the general public and will be a valuable source for the librarians and researchers

The constitution and mobilization of soft power in the people's republic of China

This thesis asks the central question of how soft power has been constituted and mobilized by the People's Republic of China (PRC). It also investigates what factors have shaped the constitution and mobilisation of China's soft power in PRC's international engagement. This study argues that soft power derives from the mobilization and promotion of non-material power sources. It treats soft power not as a static quality but as multifaceted and dynamic. In PRC's case, there is both change and continuity of state government's efforts to attract targeted audiences through the mobilization and promotion of non-material dimensions of power at different historical moments. Change and continuity of China's soft power is rooted in this country's evolving perceptions of its national identity and role in the international system. In supporting this argument, the thesis examines the promotion of non-material sources of power in PRC's international engagement at two key historical moments: Maoist China in the first half of the 1960s; and China during the hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games. In both cases, this thesis demonstrates that sources of China's soft power has been purposefully chosen and promoted by the PRC in its interaction with foreign countries. The thesis thereafter compares and contrasts the two case studies with respect to international context, purposes, components, tools, and targeted audience of China's soft power. It concludes by reflecting on change and continuity of China's soft power and provides an explanation of such change and continuity. This study of China's soft power aims to make two main contributions. In terms of its theoretical contribution, this thesis suggests that soft power is not a static attribute of a state. A state's sense of identity may shape how it seeks to cultivate, interpret and mobilize the non-material sources of power. How an actor seeks to represent itself on the world stage can shape the way it chooses to interpret, cultivate, mobilize and project its non-material sources of power. The articulation and promotion of its "chosen" sources of soft power are both derivative of and reproductive of that representation. In terms of the study of China's soft power, this thesis provides a deeper understanding of China's soft power. It demonstrates that soft power is not something "new" to China. It has, however, been understood and used differently over time according to China's sense of its own identity and its role in the global community. This is closely related to its perceptions of its role in relation to others in the international system and the way in which it seeks to project this role

Exploring Written Artefacts

This collection, presented to Michael Friedrich in honour of his academic career at of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, traces key concepts that scholars associated with the Centre have developed and refined for the systematic study of manuscript cultures. At the same time, the contributions showcase the possibilities of expanding the traditional subject of ‘manuscripts’ to the larger perspective of ‘written artefacts’

Exploring Written Artefacts

This collection, presented to Michael Friedrich in honour of his academic career at of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, traces key concepts that scholars associated with the Centre have developed and refined for the systematic study of manuscript cultures. At the same time, the contributions showcase the possibilities of expanding the traditional subject of ‘manuscripts’ to the larger perspective of ‘written artefacts’