Cover Story

Globalization and the Market Economy in Film and Culture By Alex Zhang
[January 28, 2010 | 0 Comments]

As the city gains diversity but loses its own national identity, its individuals lose their own sense of identity. As the market economy influences the city to adopt the impersonal exchange model, the individuals become increasingly alienated from their fellow citizens.

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“Japan’s Bout with History: Kawabata and Absences in the Canon”
[February 25, 2010 | Arts & Culture, National Focus: Japan]

In awarding Japan its first Nobel Prize in Literature, the Committee brought worldwide attention to the works of Japan’s premier modern writer and also to the classical works of Japan that he incorporated into his writings; works that they stated would help to “preserve a genuinely national tradition of style.”



What Taiwan’s Closer Ties with China Mean to Me
[December 23, 2009 | Blog, National Focus: China]

I’m going to be frank—I don’t have any elaborate theories lined up, and I’m hesitant to offer any kind of bold predictions. Instead, I hope to offer a perspective or two from my own experiences.



Representations of the Beijing Olympics
[August 31, 2009 | Arts & Culture, National Focus: China, Pending, Political Science]

How did American newspapers portray the Beijing Olympics before and after the IOC’s decision? More specifically, did they cover the Olympics in a positive, negative, mixed, or neutral light, and why?



Perspectives of Culture: Chinese Film Culture in America and American Film Culture in China
[February 8, 2009 | Arts & Culture]

When most Americans think of Chinese cinema, they think of movies like Ang Lee’s 2000 martial arts epic “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.” Indeed, “Crouching Tiger” is one of the most successful international movies at the US box office [...]



A Book Review of Social States: China in International Institutions 1980-2000
[February 8, 2009 | Political Science]

In Social States, Alastair Iain Johnston sets out to investigate two related questions: 1) whether realpolitik state preferences and practices are a function of material conditions or realpolitik norms (198) and 2) why Chinese foreign policymakers, in a threateningly “unipolar” environment of [...]



Understanding the Taiwan Crisis: Foreign Policy or Domestic Issue?
[January 12, 2009 | Political Science]

As prominent political scientists often state, a country’s foreign policy is strongly linked to its domestic policy. Taking this simple idea, no other crisis in the history of the world complicates and yet reinforces it much like the current Taiwan Crisis [...]



Democracy in China: Is It Possible? Why and Why Not?
[January 12, 2009 | National Focus: China]

A decades old question of democratization in China has been revived by its resurgence as a world power under the non-democratic leadership of the CCP [...]