Remembering summer in the city: Production and consumption of yanqishui in twentieth-century Shanghai

By investigating the history of how yanqishui, originally a drink for factory heatstroke prevention, changed from welfare in the Mao years to a popular drink in post-socialist Shanghai, this article attempts to show the historical continuity of consumption in modern China and that the understanding of consumption patterns must be rooted in a local context. Using archives, local newspapers, memoirs, and interviews, the article explores the symbolic meanings of yanqishui before China’s 1978 reforms, which have left a deep impression on the Chinese masses and continuously impacted consumption thereafter. It argues that the popularity of yanqishui in contemporary Shanghai, to an extent, represents some kind of nostalgic consumption. However, instead of a nationwide sentiment, the nostalgia is sometimes local. As the biggest commercial center and then an industrial core in China’s modern history, Shanghai left people special memories on yanqishui that have greatly shaped the local consumer culture.

The Hopping Dead. Zombies in the Chinese Culture

The article examines the image of zombies in Chinese culture, the traditional perception of their appearance and internal characteristics. A wide scope of written sources served as the basis of the study: inscriptions on oracle bones, ancient fortune-telling calendars, historical treatises, chronicles and commentaries on chronicles, essays on geography and medicine, fiction of old and modern China, as well as entries and comments from the Chinese blogosphere. The authors examine how the idea of evil spirits (with a body or bodiless ones) first appeared in the religious worldview of the ancient Chinese, and trace its origin to the doctrine of existence of multiple souls in one person. The article also details the formation of the pictorial image of Chinese zombies: animated corpses covered with hair or dressed as government officials, with their arms extended forward, hopping on straight legs unable to bend their knees. As for the functional characteristics of zombies, the authors discuss not only their well-known features (e.g., cannibalism), but also their deep inner connection with water and drought. In conclusion, the authors explore the evolution of zombies in modern urban legends and demonstrate the continuity of traditional demonology that develops into modern narrative. Apart from that, the article contains a number of analogies and comparisons of the Chinese image of zombies with other nations’ mythological tradition.

Adaptation and Sinicization: Contemporary Religious Policy of the CPC Leadership

The article examines the key stages in the evolution of the ideological and political approaches of the CPC leadership to religious activity since the beginning of the 21st century. The main points of the study were the Chinese interpretations of the problems of “adaptation to a socialist society” and “Sinicization.” The author tries to identify the relationship between continuity and innovation in the religious policy of the Chinese authorities, taking into account the historical context of the ongoing changes and responses from religious circles. Based on the methods of discourse analysis, an attempt has been made to demonstrate multi-faceted complexity of the problem of “Sinicization” and to outline the contours of all-embracing balanced approach to the study of this topic. The fi rst part of the article examines the foundations of the policy of directing religion towards “conformity to socialist society” formulated under Jiang Zemin. The second part analyzes the main components of Xi Jinping’s concept of “Sinicization” of religions. Chinese believers are encouraged to interpret religious dogmas in accordance with the requirements of social progress and in the spirit of conformity with the best traditions of Chinese culture. The article examines the main directions of “Sinicization” adopted by offi cially recognized religions, covering the spheres of doctrine and liturgical practice, practical work with believers, and training programs for clergy. It is emphasized that the one-sided reduction of “Sinicization” to the state-sponsored policy of “repression” prevents researchers from looking deeper into historical and cultural aspects of the problem. It is concluded that “Sinicization” of religions will help to prevent socio-political marginalization of religions in the course of deep transformations of modern China.

Big Data and “New” Global History: Global Goods and Trade Networks in Early Modern China and Europe

This paper introduces an innovative method applied to global (economic) history using the tools of digital humanities through the design and development of the GECEM Project Database (www.gecem.eu; www.gecemdatabase.eu). This novel database goes beyond the static Excel files frequently used by conventional scholarship in early modern history studies to mine new historical data through a bottom-up process and analyse the global circulation of goods, consumer behaviour, and trade networks in early modern China and Europe. Macau and Marseille, as strategic entrepôts for the redistribution of goods, serve as the main case study. This research is framed within a polycentric approach to analyse the connectivity of south Chinese and European markets with trade zones of Spain, France, South America, and the Pacific.

Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China, Reviewed by Peter C. Perdue

Ian M. Miller's important book follows the impact of the Chinese state and economy on the forests of southern China, from the eleventh through sixteenth centuries. Besides providing a new narrative of forest history, based on the scouring of official sources, his helpful comparisons to Europe and Japan ask us to rethink how we periodize Chinese history and evaluate the success of the imperial state.

Study of Tao Xingzhi's View on Life Education

Tao Xingzhi is one of the most famous educators in modern China. The concept of life education is one of the most important components of his education ideological system. It is a comprehensive system ranging from the education content and methods to the purpose of education. The concept of "life is education" and "society are school" are its core point. The goal, content, the method of life education have been elaborated. These educational theories are still shining today, and still have important reference value for China's current educational innovation, cultural innovation and the implementation of the strategy of strengthening educational power.