Chinese Studies from the Perspective of Globalization

This book explores the China-related theories and themes of Chinese experience, which involves theoretical and paradigmatic reconstruction, Chinese rural and peasant studies, Chinese middle class and class divisions, along with Chinese youth and culture.

Pushed by the two driving forces of globalization and social transformation since 1978 when the policies of opening up and reform were implemented, great changes have taken place in Chinese society. Chinese experience and Chinese Feeling (a term coined by the author to mean the mentality of Chinese peasants) formed in this transition represented respectively the macroscopic changes in the fields of Chinese economy and social structure, along with the microcosmic changes of Chinese values and social mentality.

Starting from the both macroscopic and microcosmic approaches, the author explores the possibility of reconstructing theories and paradigms of Chinese Studies, in which he discusses the revolution taking place in rural areas and social psychological transformation of Chinese peasants, the formation and construction of the Chinese middle class, cultural reverse and the features of contemporary youth culture.

With rapid changes taking place in Chinese society over the past 35 years, particularly with the steady increase of the GDP of the Chinese economy, China, the former backward oriental country, has attracted increasingly more attention of the world, including the western countries. All the various views concerning China, like “theory on the rise of China”, “China threat theory”, or “Theory on China Thriving Alone”, so on and so forth, be they out of the kindness or hostility, are all expressing the same fact, that is, the global influence of China has changed greatly over the past 30 years.

Apparently, the increase of this global influence of China will definitely exert multiple influences on Chinese Studies or Chinaology - the regional studies originating in the 1950s from the United States having modern China as its research object, these influences may include the relative status of the discipline, the internationalization of its research, the transformation of its research paradigm, the significance of original theories, along with the issue of academic subjectivity emerging out of the massive joining in of Chinese scholars since China's opening up and reform, etc.