Book Review: Silencing Shanghai: Language and Identity in Urban China by Fang Xu

IF 2.3 3区 社会学 Q1 AREA STUDIES China Information Pub Date : 2022-06-17 DOI:10.1177/0920203X221105559e
E. Vickers
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Abstract

central pillar of the state–community interface, attempting – with some success (p. 149) – to provide a space for relatively non-political leisure activity. Another departure from the Russian education model during the first years was in the emphasis on nationalism. In the case of the Chinese elementary schools, the evidence also suggests that adoption of systematic party directives, unlike in publishing, was deferred for a few years. A tentative conclusion to take away from the study is that analysts should pay closer attention to cultural policy, contrary to strong ‘materialist’ approaches that may present the macroeconomic factors as overly determinative. For example, the market reforms of the Deng Xiaoping years, apart from Tiananmen 1989, did correlate with a limited degree of opening. But as the author points out, top–down control over all cultural domains, re-enforced with the inauguration in 2012 of the current regime, leads us to question aspects of the correlation. There is simply little evidence of a parallel democratization accompanying economic liberalization. For a centralist party, governing a oneparty state, first leaning on the Soviet model, and today on its own admittedly unique and highly productive model, based on special national ‘characteristics’, culture is too important. Art and literature are ‘fronts’ (p. 183). Parenthetically, and consistent with the economy–culture mismatch, the recent growing concentration of control within the cultural sphere has been identified as a concern in a number of full democracies. Considering this complicated and controversial question, the book makes an important contribution on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP.
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《沉默的上海:中国城市中的语言与身份》,方旭著
国家-社区界面的中心支柱,试图-取得一些成功(第149页)-为相对非政治性的休闲活动提供空间。与俄罗斯教育模式的另一个不同之处是在最初几年里对民族主义的强调。在中国小学的案例中,证据还表明,与出版不同,采用系统性的党的指示推迟了几年。从这项研究中得出的一个初步结论是,分析师应该更密切地关注文化政策,而不是强烈的“唯物主义”方法,这种方法可能会将宏观经济因素表现为过度决定性。但正如作者所指出的那样,对所有文化领域自上而下的控制,随着2012年现政权的就职而加强,使我们质疑这种相关性的各个方面。几乎没有证据表明伴随经济自由化而来的是并行的民主化。对于一个中央集权的政党来说,治理一个一党制国家,首先是依靠苏联模式,今天是基于特殊的民族“特征”,建立自己公认的独特和高效的模式,文化太重要了。艺术和文学是“前线”(第183页)。顺便说一句,与经济-文化不匹配一致的是,最近在文化领域的控制权日益集中已被确定为许多完全民主国家的一个问题。考虑到这一复杂而有争议的问题,本书在中国共产党建党100周年之际做出了重要贡献。
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来源期刊
China Information
China Information AREA STUDIES-
CiteScore
3.50
自引率
4.80%
发文量
38
期刊介绍: China Information presents timely and in-depth analyses of major developments in contemporary China and overseas Chinese communities in the areas of politics, economics, law, ecology, culture, and society, including literature and the arts. China Information pays special attention to views and areas that do not receive sufficient attention in the mainstream discourse on contemporary China. It encourages discussion and debate between different academic traditions, offers a platform to express controversial and dissenting opinions, and promotes research that is historically sensitive and contemporarily relevant.
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