| China Perspectives' editorial team wishes you a happy New Year of the Snake! This month, we continue to bring you scientific insights on the political, social and economic current affairs of contemporary China.
Specifically, we invite you to discover Meng and Kan's article about new agricultural operators, published in our last issue and exceptionally already in open-access. We also present you an old article on Macao on the occasion of the 25th birthday of its retrocession, as well as a 2008 issue which echo the journal's two latest issues on China’s borderlands, and an article about China and environnement - among other subjects.
Wishing you a good reading. |
|
JUST OUT - In Open access
|
|
New Agricultural Operators and the Local Politics of Land Transfer in China (Ling Meng, Karita Kan) |
|
Under the policy agenda of agricultural modernisation, Chinese government has promoted the large-scale transfer of rural land from smallholders to new agricultural operators (NAOs) such as agribusinesses, family farms, and professional cooperatives. However, there are important local variations that have not been yet explored. Using case studies in Shandong province, Meng and Kan examine how and why patterns of land transfer and management differ.
|
|
🗞 MENG, Ling, and Karita KAN, 2024, "New Agricultural Operators and the Local Politics of Land Transfer in China," China Perspectives 139.
|
|
Chinese hongbao in the digital era |
|
Paywalled article / 8 pages |
|
Chinese New Year equals "hongbao," referring to these New Year red packets including monetary gifts that are given under specific rules (by older people to younger ones, by married people to unmarried ones, or by employed people to unemployed ones). In 2015, WeChat introduced its electronic version in China - the e-hongbao, which Louis and Vandana discuss in their article (China Perspectives 136). They argue that this new format has altered the ritualistic meaning of the hongbao, originally characterised by filial piety, benevolence, and social harmony. It now links the hongbao to economic practices and highlights the individualisation of Chinese society. |
|
🗞 LOUIS, Augustin-Jean, and Saxena VANDANA, 2024, “Digitalising Chinese New Year Red Packets: Changing Practices and Meanings,” China Perspectives 136. |
|
Food safety once again in question in China after a "saliva oil" scandal in Sichuan |
|
In open access / 11 pages |
|
Recently, a Sichuan hotpot restaurant has been punished by the local government for creating “saliva oil” by recycling the leftover chilli oil soups of diners and mixing the brew with new oil to serve the next customers. China’s Food Safety Law, which first came into effect in 2009, actually bans the reuse of leftover food ingredients, after mainland reporters revealed some vendors’ illicit practice of recycling “gutter oil” obtained from restaurant garbage disposals and selling it back to restaurants. To historicize issues of food safety in China, we invite you to read Bian Yongmin's 2004 article (China Perspectives 53). Since China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, food imports and exports have increased, and disputes about food safety have arisen between China and its trading partners. The government has faced pressure from consumer demand for safe food after a number of scandals, prompting him to react. |
|
🗞 BIAN, Yongmin, 2004, “The Challenges for Food Safety in China,” China Perspectives 53. |
|
Chinese astronauts break the world record for the longest single spacewalk, now ahead of the Americans |
|
In open access / 11 pages |
|
Last December, Chinese astronauts have broken the world record for the longest single spacewalk, set more than two decades ago by the US space programme. The Shenzhou-19 crew members completed an unprecedented 9-hour spacewalk, installing space protection devices and conducting maintenance outside Tiangong space station. On this occasion, we invite you to rediscover the article "China’s Outer Space Programme: Diplomacy of Competition or Co-operation?" published in 2006 (China Perspectives 63). It looks at China’s outer space programme and its implications, in a context where the high-level technological capability of China add to its power and bargaining capacity at international level.
|
|
🗞PANTHAMAKKADA ACUTHAN, Jayan, "China’s Outer Space Programme: Diplomacy of Competition or Co-operation?," China Perspectives 63.
|
|
Macao celebrates its 25th anniversary of handover to China |
|
In open access / 11 pages |
|
On the 20th of December, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the retrocession, President Xi Jinping attended the inauguration of Sam Hou Fai, Macau’s new chief executive and its first leader born in Mainland China. After 442 years of Portuguese domination, Macao's economy has undergone rapid development, stimulated by Chinese economic growth. This territory of 687,000 inhabitants is the only place in Chinawhere casinos are allowed, now surpassing Las Vegas in terms of gambling revenues, thanks to two decades of spending by Chinese tourists. Three years prior to the retrocession, Jacques Seurre wrote an assessment of the territory’s situation, which provides a good historical insight on Macao. In a constant comparison with Hong Kong, which was just about to go through its own handover, Seurre looked into the political, institutional, and economic environments of the then Portuguese-administered region. At that time, Macao was experiencing a decline in manufacturing, while gambling already accounted for 30% of its GDP. |
|
🗞 SEURRE, Jacques, 1996, “Macau 1996: The Die is Cast,” China Perspectives 4. |
|
Hong Kong tourism set as a priority China's borderlands, a long history of migrations
|
|
In open access / 14 pages |
|
In the wake of the release of our two latest issues on China’s borderlands, guest edited by Tianlong You, we invite you to revisit an older issue of China Perspectives ("China and its Continental Borders," 2008), which deals with similar topics, while studying different geographical areas. Notably, Olga Alexeeva's article, looked at the long history of migrations from China to the Russian Far East, starting around the 1860s before ceasing completely due to the Russian Revolution. The phenomenon restarted after 1991 and the collapse of the USSR. The author reviewed public policies changes and local reactions (e.g., xenophobia), as well as the provinces of origin and evolving activities of Chinese migrants, from trading and catering to agriculture and construction. The special feature also includes an article by then CEFC director Jean-François Huchet (INALCO), focusing on the China-India frontier, dealing with the two countries’ border dispute, among other issues. |
|
🗞 ALEXEEVA, Olga, 2008, “Chinese Migration in the Russian Far East: A Historical and Sociodemographic Analysis,” China Perspectives 75.
|
|
🗞 HUCHET, Jean-François, 2008, “Between Geostrategic Rivalry and Economic Competition: Emergence of a Pragmatic India-China Relationship,” China Perspectives 75.
|
|
Desertification in China and green Great Wall |
|
In open access / 2 pages |
|
In the 1970s, China was losing about 1,500 square kilometres of land to deserts each year thanks to deforestation and overgrazing of grasslands. So in 1978 officials started to plant trees in arid areas across northern China. These desert-taming projects are due to be completed by 2050, when it will have formed an “unbreakable green Great Wall”, according to government plans. In his book review published in China Perspectives 135, Frédéric Keck comments Jerry Zee's work, Continent in Dust: Experiments in a Chinese Weather System. Following debates on the “anthropocene” and the “capitalocene,” the author provides with a ground-breaking ethnographic analysis on the management of dust storms and air quality in China, from the works of Chinese engineers to ex-herders enticed to cultivate specific plants, on through the works of Beijing artists and a Californian geochemist. |
|
🗞 KECK, Frédéric, "ZEE, Jerry C. 2023. Continent in Dust: Experiments in a Chinese Weather System. Berkeley: University of California Press," China Perspectives 135. |
|
LATEST ISSUE to discover: |
|
Want to submit an article or guest-edit a special feature in China Perspectives? Check out our requirements here.
|
|
And follow us on our social media to be updated on our events and publications! |
|
CEFC - HONG KONG Rm. 3029, Academic Building, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
|
|
| |
|
|
