At a time when the discussion of Marxism has disappeared from China scholarship almost completely, the publication of a study that takes Chinese Marxism seriously is to be welcomed, especially as the study is by a scholar who holds this Marxism in great esteem. It is also an important historical reminder against the ideological forgetfulness of the present. It is too bad, then, that the study is guided not by a self-reflexiveness that comes with an appreciation of historical complexity and political wisdom, but a self-righteous dogmatism that substitutes tendentious interpretation for careful consideration of evidence. For all Chan's political professions, the study seems to be driven more by academic one-upmanship than by any serious theoretical and historical engagement that might contribute to furthering the political causes of the theory it upholds.

Chan's thesis can be summarized easily. “Sinologists,” beginning with Benjamin Schwartz in the United States, and under his dominating influence, have all missed the point about both Marxism and Chinese Marxism, first by declaring Marxism to be irrelevant to a peasant society such as China, and secondly, by therefore attributing the appeals of Marxism to the mediation of Lenin's interpretation of Marxism and the influence on Chinese radicals of the Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union. Against these “arguments,” he posits that:

This book aims to analyse the rise of modern Chinese literature from the perspective of cultural production. With selected literary communities and publications from the 1910s to the 1930s as points of reference, the book argues that the emergence of Chinese “new literature” hinged not so much on avant-garde thoughts and texts as on a re-configuration of contextual, and sometimes conventional, “relations.” Whereas the extant paradigm sees the literary field from the May Fourth period to the eve of the second Sino-Japanese War as one characterized by gestures such as individualism and iconoclasm, Hockx points to the fact that this field was no less marked by a call for communal solidarity, and a reinstatement of the traditions thought to have been overthrown.

Hockx's case in point is the paradoxical situation that, their searches for selfhood notwithstanding, among modern Chinese writers and literati it has been fashionable to join societies or cliques, as if only group bonding could support personal confidence. In so doing they unwittingly maintained forms of social gathering characteristic of premodern Chinese literature. Meanwhile, these new literary groups capitalized on the modern medium of literary journal, through which they were able to solidify their textual and contextual relationships, and cultivate their “styles.”

An enjoyable overview of the world of pop, rock and politics in Beijing, accessible for students of Chinese culture and popular music studies. This is an area that has been exceptionally well covered in the literature, and Baranovitch's claim to originality lies mainly in his focus on ethnicity and gender. The overview of the development of pop from 1978–97 does a useful job of drawing together the various strands, though most of this is very familiar from the writings of Geremie Barmé, Andrew Jones et al. We begin with the introduction of Gangtai (Hong Kong and Taiwan pop) to the mainland, led by Deng Lijun whose ‘coquettish nasal slides,’ Baranovitch rightly suggests, were more truly subversive in China in 1978 than any of the subsequent rock and punk styles. Baranovitch chronicles the rise of the xibeifeng, the Shaanbei folk-infused rock style, linking it into the xungun roots movement and Tiananmen. An interesting section on qiuge or ‘prison songs,’ popular in 1988, explores somewhat less well-known territory. We follow the rise of the commercial, the karaoke craze and Mao fever, and the co-option of at least some of the rebellious rockers by the state. Baranovitch enthusiastically reveals the significance of music in the political arena, and its ability to prefigure, even shape the political.

This book may seem to be two books in one. In the first, we are given a cogent, superbly researched description of the creation of the Nationalist Army, of its later history in the reunification of China (1926–1937) and then of its fate during the War of Resistance (1937–1945). In the second book, a European scholar undermines one of the icons of the US presence in China, Joseph Stilwell, the salty, profane commander of US forces in China during the War, whose scathing denunciations of Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists set the stage for holding Chiang's incompetence and Nationalist corruption responsible for the Communist victory in China.

At first glance the second story might seem a sidebar to the larger topic of the book – war and nationalism in China. But it turns out to be integral to Western academic understanding of modern China. Views of the War of Resistance were so conditioned by Stilwell and his protagonists (what van de Ven calls the Stilwell–White paradigm, referring to Theodore White whose writings made Stilwell a hero) to accept that the Nationalists were the authors of their own downfall that there has been no room for an examination of where the Nationalists were seriously weakened – on the battlefields fighting the Japanese invaders.

Paul Cohen's Discovering History on China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past, which critically analysed a number of common approaches to the history of modern China, was a very welcome contribution to critical methodology when it appeared in 1984, although the book has aged rather rapidly with the rise of cultural studies over the last 20 years. Readers who benefited from Cohen's arguments in favour of a more ‘China-centered approach’ will be forgiven for thinking that this might be a much needed revision of Discovering History in China. Despite a promising title, however, we are offered instead a sampling of the author's writings to date. The volume reprints excerpts from several of his previous books, starting as far back as his study of Wang Tao published in 1974 and also including a chapter from his 1984 study on American writings on modern China, and presents several talks based on his important study of the Boxer rebellion which were originally delivered in China. The collection also contains a discussion of 1949 as a watershed date, originally given at a workshop held at Harvard University in 1994, and an article on ‘national humiliation’ published as recently as 2002.

While collections of articles previously published in hard-to-find journals can be a welcome addition to the field, this compendium no doubt targets the student who wishes to have a handy introduction to the career of Paul Cohen, and a helpful introductory essay in which the author reflects on how his thinking has changed over half a century of active scholarship, as well as a brief chapter in which his earlier work is revisited, no doubt facilitate this goal. Whether or not a compendium which includes work published several decades ago can still offer “fresh ways of approaching the Chinese past,” as the book description promises, is no doubt a matter of perspective, although readers in Europe may find the constant use of terms like ‘the West,’ on occasion 12 times a page, a tad tiring, all the more as this often appears to mean ‘America’–a world on its own. America-bound as China Unbound may be, the volume will nonetheless be read with profit by students from a variety of backgrounds, in particular if they are interested in the craft of historical inquiry as practiced by an important historian of modern China.

The central government's Open Up the West campaign has failed to reach one of its primary objectives in Sichuan: to diminish the large developmental gap between poor and affluent regions. In fact, most investment flows, policy initiatives and infrastructure projects initiated under the campaign concentrate on localities in or adjacent to the Sichuan basin, therefore widening the gap between Sichuan's poor western mountain regions and affluent basin cities. Notwithstanding this deficiency, significant effects have resulted from the campaign's initiation. First, the campaign is facilitating central government approval for large-scale environmental protection and infrastructure projects, thereby quickening the national integration of Sichuan's economy and society. Secondly, it is prodding government and business leaders to ameliorate the investment climate and regulatory structure. As a result of these two effects, the campaign is accelerating processes of economic reform, urbanization and globalization already under way. It is putting in place the infrastructure for accelerated capital accumulation, thus extending capitalist development from China's seaboard towards the interior.

Fairbrother's Toward Critical Patriotism is a timely publication in the “Hong Kong Culture and Society” series: political squabbles and conflicts over the idea of patriotism in the context of the national security legislation in Hong Kong are inflamed following the spectacular mass demonstration by 500,000 people on 1 July 2003. As the author points out, patriotism and nationalism are relatively recent historical phenomena in China. In mainland China, Marxist-Leninism became the guiding ideology after 1949. Yet, from the early 1980s, in the face of a legitimacy crisis, the leadership shifted toward patriotism as a unifying and justificatory ideology while professing ultimate objectives in line with Marxist principles. In Hong Kong, civic education had been de-emphasized under the ideology of de-politicization by the colonial government until the handover in the 1990s. The book rejects the typical characterization of Hong Kong students as simply having a weak sense of patriotism and nationalism, and of mainland students as patriotic dupes under the state and presents a more nuanced analysis.

Few Asians reject the basic hallmarks of modernity: a market economy, some form of democracy, some type of rule of law, and some human rights. At the same time, many Asians and for that matter non-Asians – including, we are told, the contributors to Confucianism and the Modern World ndash; “are somewhat disenchanted with Western-style liberal modernity” (p. 24).

The editors are well aware that Confucianism must be adapted to modernity if it is to remain relevant. They are also well aware that is it necessary to move beyond the often frustratingly abstract assertions about the compatibility or incompatibility of Confucianism with capitalism, democracy, rule of law and human rights. Accordingly, they organize the book into sections that correspond roughly to the first three topics, human rights having been discussed at length elsewhere.

The section on democracy contains Hahm Chaihark's exploration of li (rites, propriety) as a constitutional norm; Jongryn Mo's invocation of the censorate as a possible mechanism for administrative accountability; Wang Juntao's historical account of prominent intellectuals who supported aspects of Confucianism and democracy; Chang Yun-shik's discussion of mutual help and democracy in Korea; David Hall and Roger Ames's account of a pragmatic Confucian democracy; and Geir Helgesen's call for an updated Confucian moral education to offset the existential insecurity individuals feel in this era of globalization.

This article examines the formation of the Open Up the West policy from the 1980s to the present. Focusing on the dynamic interaction between central party-state and provincial-level players, it analyses the various ideological and pragmatic factors that have shaped the policy over time. The campaign to Open Up the West is decribed as a “soft policy” to highlight a very diffuse decision-making process which has produced a highly diverse set of agendas and instruments. Due to the amorphous nature of the policy, the article finds, its realization depends to a great extent on the specific interpretations and arrangements of the provincial jurisdictions involved.

In June 1999 in the ancient city of Xi'an, Comrade Jiang Zemin made the appeal to the whole party and the people of the whole country on the great development of the western region. Three years have gone by, and the roads have become passable, the lights have become lit, the mountains have become green, the rivers have become clear and the travelling traders have become abundant. One after another, wonderful stories about the homeland of the western region have been circulated and sung.

Following his Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (1994) and the Shorter Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (2000), the Columbia History of Chinese Literature intends to complement these two widely used readers. Edited by Victor H. Mair, the 55 chapters of this single-volume history of Chinese literature are chronologically arranged with thematic chapters interspersed. Indeed, a closer look at the chapters reveals that the book at hand follows the traditional dictum of wen shi zhe bu fenjia, i.e. that literature, history and philosophy should not be separated but regarded as one field of studies. Hence the scope of this history goes far beyond the scope of what is traditionally subsumed under the heading of literature. In addition to the topics (all genres and periods of poetry, prose, fiction, and drama) that one expects in a book of this sort, wit and humour, proverbs and rhetoric, historical and philosophical writings, classical exegesis, literary theory and criticism, traditional fiction commentary, as well as popular culture, the impact of religion upon literature, the role of women, and the relationship with non-Chinese languages and peoples (ethnic minorities, Korea, Japan, Vietnam) feature as topics of individual chapters.

Most of the chapters are written by leading specialists in those areas and are highly informative as well as concisely presented. Moreover, a number of chapters are thought-provoking enough to inspire questions that may lead towards a more focused research on hitherto neglected or less well-documented topics. In this sense, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature may also be perceived as a potential major impetus for further developments in the study of pre-modern and modern Chinese literature and related fields. Since the volume aims at bringing the riches of China's literary tradition into focus for a general readership, the majority of chapters can probably be best described as outlines of specific developments that should encourage readers to consult more specialized publications.

This book project began in 1991 when Patricia Laurence, a scholar of Virginia Woolf, encountered a collection of unpublished letters and papers belonging to some members of the Bloomsbury Group and to Ling Shuhua, a renowned modern Chinese woman writer. Although some scholars have read and responded to the materials Laurence used in this book, her expansive coverage, freely traversing the boundaries of time, nation and artistic genres, is exceptional.

The work deals mainly with the intercultural communications between Chinese and British intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century, particularly those between the modernist literary ‘communities’ of the Crescent Moon Group and Bloomsbury. The work is the outcome of the author's dedicated research on the subject over ten years, ever since her discovery of the letters, which motivated her to learn the Chinese language and to attend lectures and seminars in modern Chinese literature.

At the turn of the century, the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region moved from a phase of accelerated integration by the centre, which typified the decade of the 1990s, to a phase of consolidation of the advances made during this period. The intertwined dimensions of state building and nation building embedded in the campaign to Open Up the West respond to the long-term strategic goal of placating the threat of ethno-nationalist unrest. This “staged development” of Xinjiang reflects in essence a classic process of peripheral territorial integration by the central state. Yet, the dynamics of penetration and resistance between the centre and what still remains an indigenous periphery can be expected to generate at the same time both increased sinicization and increased ethno-national unrest.

Leaving China is, in part, a study of the televisual and filmic representation of Chinese emigration. The book is partly autobiographical, since it draws on the author's own lived experience as a China-born scholar established abroad. The author, born in the PRC, is now based in Australia, but as the list of acknowledgements indicates, she is imbricated in a global network of China-related academics. The other strand of Wanning Sun's research is imaginary travel and virtual migration: the Chinese spectator's consumption of a filmed elsewhere – especially the elsewhere inhabited by émigré Chinese.

This is a book about recent migration from the PRC and Chinese perceptions of emigration. Leaving China does not attempt to address the history of the older diaspora of the 19th and 20th centuries, for instance, the now forgotten communities whose story is told in the Chinese-Australian writer Brian Castro's book Birds of Passage (Allen & Unwin, 1983). In the parts of the book that focus on lived migratory experience, Sun is concerned more with people like herself, her generation, and her class.

The separation of Chongqing from Sichuan and its promotion to a municipality directly subordinated to central government, as well as its inclusion in the area for the campaign to Open Up the West, have helped Chongqing position itself well ahead of many other inland Chinese industrial cities. Increased central funding has helped Chongqing to survive the social, political and economic consequences of the large-scale relocation programme attached to the Three Gorges Reservoir area and the dramatic restructure of state-owned industries. The future of Chongqing, however, depends on how long the current proactive fiscal policy of the central government will last and how quickly Chongqing can establish sustained economic development under socialist market conditions.

This book analyses the evolution of the tax system and economic development in Taiwan over four decades, and argues that three crucial factors – prudent public sector expenditure, an effective revenue system and a set of export-oriented trade policies – contributed to the achievement of macroeconomic stability and growth in Taiwan from 1955 to 1995. It is divided into seven broad themes: evolution of the tax system; various stages of Taiwan's economic development; assessment of tax incentive policies in relation to investment, savings and economic growth; the evolution of Taiwan's trade policies; the correlation between tax policies and other macroeconomic variables; innovation and pragmatism in the inland tax administration; and the management of transaction costs with respect to the trade administration.

The authors argue that like many other countries, Taiwan experienced hyperinflation and fiscal crisis after the Second World War. In order to solve the difficulties, instead of relying on foreign borrowing or using domestic private savings to finance itself, the Taiwanese government effectively limited public spending, which not only pushed inflation rates down but also created a stable macroeconomic environment. In addition, the operation of the tax system played a significant role in promoting economic development. For instance, instead of emphasizing the importance of income tax as a main tool for raising revenues, the government introduced state-run monopolies in alcoholic beverages and tobacco in 1950 and enforced the value-added tax system in 1986, providing a solid foundation for the revenue system. The authors find trade and macroeconomic policies, rather than income tax policies or subsidized finance measures, to be the main determinants in successful industrialization. On this basis, the authors conclude that the trade policies and tax administrative systems in Taiwan have been pragmatic and innovative, resulting in lower compliance costs and improved effectiveness and thereby making a direct contribution to the country's rate of economic growth.

The campaign to Open Up the West that started in 2000 has been presented as a major state project of nation-building directed at the interior provincial-level jurisdictions in order to encourage endogenous economic growth, to reduce socio-economic inequalities, and to ensure social and political stability in non-Han areas of the PRC. Despite appearances to the contrary it is more of an adjustment to the PRC's regional development policy than a radical change, not least because of debate and imprecision about its goals, processes and finance. Its impact is perhaps best viewed from provincial and local perspectives. These stress not only the importance of the west's varied social and economic ecology, but also the significance of the sub-provincial as a focus for analysis.

Any historian with a serious interest in China's modern economic history will be grateful for Thomas Lyons's study of the trade statistics produced by the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. Those wishing to use the Customs' statistics will find it indispensable. By means of a detailed demonstration of how to reconstruct statistics for the Fujian tea trade between 1862 and 1948, Lyons shows all the pitfalls and dangers of using Customs data, and how to deal with them.

Lyons, who has published on Fujian's and China's economic history in the past, constructs his study as a test of the tea trade statistics used by Robert Gardella and Chen Ciyu. He convincingly demonstrates that both made errors, which in the case of Gardella were of relatively minor consequence but in that of Chen of a much more serious nature. But his study is not a pedantic exercise in cliometric propriety. Rather, Lyons provides us with a sourcebook to the statistical publications of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service. He sets out in brief form the Service's organizational history and its bureaucratic structures. He then explains the Maritime Customs Service's accounts, the statistics it produced, and their dangers. He finally applies the lessons learned to a reconstruction of the Fujian tea trade.

Xinjiang: China's Muslim Far Northwest is, as the preface notes, primarily a work of synthesis. The author gathers together an impressive amount of documentary data from a range of sources, including domestic Chinese and world news media, Han Chinese scholarship, and, to a lesser extent, reports by Uighur émigré organizations. These data are employed to illustrate patterns of separatist opposition and state reaction in Xinjiang, particularly since the 1990 Baren riots, identified as the ‘turning point’ in regional state-minority relations. In this, the book might be characterized as the extension of Dillon's earlier paper “Xinjiang: ethnicity, separatism and control in Chinese Central Asia’ (1995).

Part one, an introduction to Xinjiang, is the section that most closely approaches the stated goal of providing an updated ‘survey of breadth and depth’ in the style of Owen Lattimore's celebrated Pivot of Asia (1950). In it, the author sketches a broad outline of Xinjiang's geography, history, ethnic make-up, and economy. As he forewarns, the result of his attempt to cover such a wealth of topics may disappoint the specialist. It nonetheless provides a timely snapshot of a rapidly developing society and political economy in a region of growing strategic importance; this is likely to be of interest to non-specialists from a wide range of disciplines.