Chinese vs. Western Perspectives

Understanding Contemporary China

Jinghao Zhou

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2013
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780739180464
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

China is on the rise in the globalized world. The relationship between China and the United States has become the most important global issue in the twenty-first century. It is urgent to understand what is happening in China and where China is heading. However, there are many misconceptions about China in the West, which affect Westerners' ability to objectively understand China, and, ultimately influence the making of foreign policy toward China. The author attempts to challenge the misconceptions coming from both Western societies and China, and offer an integrated picture of contemporary China through systematically examining the major aspects of contemporary Chinese society and culture with the most recent data, and presents convincing arguments in eighteen chapters for spurring mutual understanding between China and the West. The author intends this book to be an interdisciplinary and comprehensive guide to China for a general audience, and it covers a wide variety of topics, including history, family, population, Chinese women, economy, environmental issues, politics, religion, media, U.S.-China relations, and other subjects. This book demonstrates the author's extensive research and thoughtful examination of many sides of controversial issues related to China with a nice balance of Western and Chinese scholarship. This is one of the few that are authored by scholars who originate from China and have their professional career in the United States, but it is distinctive from the rest of studies on this subject in that the author is committed to examining today's China from Chinese as well as Western perspectives. This is not only a scholarly book, but also is suitable for general classes on China.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Roots of Contemporary China
• Chinese Family
• Population and Development
• The Status of Chinese Women
• Globalization and Chinese Women
• Chinese Economy
• China’s Rise and Environmental Degradation
• Chinese Political System
• Rampant Corruption and the Chinese Political System
• Traditional Chinese Religion
• Chinese Christianity in the Post-Mao Era
• Will Confucianism Be Able to Help China’s Democratization?
• Marxism and Maoism
• Media in China: The Internet and Chinese Cinema
• U.S.-China Relations
• Does China’s Rise Threaten the United States?
• Finding Common Ground for Chinese and Western Perspectives
• The Future of China: Undemocratic China Can’t Rule the World
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author