Semi-academic books on Chinese society

[roddy]

I've recently read a couple of relatively academic but still fairly accessible books on China. I thought I'd list them and see if anyone had any other suggestions. Anything China relevant is welcome, but I'm thinking of things somewhere halfway between overblown "The imminent implosion of China and why the West is doomed anyway" books and actual academic journal articles.

Anyway, specific books were...

The Power of the Internet in China (can't be bothered setting up affiliate links but if you're going to buy it I might)

I got this before hearing the author speak in London, intending to read it so I could ask intelligent questions. I got put off by the introduction ("Multi-interactionism: An analytical approach") and ended up reading it after hearing him speak, but never mind.

Basically he looks at online activism in China as the interaction of state, market, culture, NGOs, and those overseas. There's plenty of interesting stuff on, eg, Hepatitis-B campaigners, how the Shanxi kiln slaves scandal broke (slowly, until it hit the forums), etc. Unfortunately it's too old to cover microblogging except in an afterword.

The other one was...

Changing Media, Changing China

Which I came to via the above book and Amazon's amazing algorithms. I found this more readable, and some chapter contributors are known names - David Bandurski at the China Media Project, Hu Shuli formerly of Caijing, Xiao Qiang of China Digital Times.

Looking through the contents page I particularly remember the chapters on the courts (judge: "We don't care what the media say. But the Party does, and then they tell us what to do), nationalism (where it's argued that the hard line on Japan is much more the people wagging the government than I would have otherwise said) and the military press (which has an interest in pumping up foreign military prowess in order to increase support for its own budget).

Anything else in the same vein? I have this as a possibility, although I have a couple of non-China related books to get through first (on online community management )

[roddy]

And I've just had this recommended:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0470828536/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[fanglu]

The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa was very interesting.

Changing Media, Changing China

I liked this too

[roddy]

That actually looks quite useful, wish-listed it.

[roddy]

Another off-site recommendation (you know there are people who aren't active members here? Shocking)

http://www.amazon.co...ords=deep china

See also Gato's three links here. I've read the third one and it's good.

[icebear]

This article got a lot of traction in my LinkedIn network when it came out - I haven't gotten around to reading it, so can't vouch for its quality, but it certainly is on topic. And I like that it has a built in "Read later on Kindle" button! (I will)

http://www.aeonmagazine.com/living-together/james-palmer-chinese-youth/

[Ruben von Zwack]

It's a quite distrubing article. I hope he is exaggerating

[roddy]

Just had The Geography of Thought delivered, which I wish-listed via Gato's post linked above (took me a year, Gato but I do pay attention). Looks interesting, but it might be a while before i get round to reading it. Anyone else made any purchases?

[gato]

Thanks, Roddy. Maybe I should read it, too

[roddy]

Thought I'd add in Sidney Rittenberg's memoirs, The Man Who Stayed Behind, as recommended by tooironic. They do look interesting. Not sure if I should be listing memoirs here though. 

 

I'm working through Geography of Thought - it's maybe a little too pop-sci for me, and I'd appreciate some more detail on some of the studies referred to, but still interesting. It's good to see evidence for some of the old 'Westerners are X and Chinese are Y' cliches, although I'm dubious about some of the priming stuff, given recent controversy. Was reviewed recently on HackingChinese. 

[character]

At the end of each Sinica podcast, the hosts and guests give recommendations, which are most often semi-academic books on China.

[roddy]

Wrote up a little something on the Geography of Thought. 

 

Next I need to finish idly leafing through Yip's Lexicon while thinking how interesting it might be if I read it, then read Link's Anatomy of Chinese. 

[Guest realmayo]

Skip Yip, think Link!