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I propose an interpretation of Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) seen through the ontology of Gilles Deleuze. Zhu Xi is one of the most prominent Chinese philosophers, the figurehead of the so-called Neo-Confucian school, and Deleuze is arguably one of the most important Western philosophers of the twentieth century. Both philosophers presented an ontology of differentiation, whose main aspects or stages I try to analyse in the paper: Deleuze's notions of the virtual, dark precursor, field of individuation, intensities and the actual; and parallel to these, Zhu Xi's notions of the veins (li 理), supreme ultimate (taiji 太極), energy (qi 氣), and things (wu 物). It is argued that a Deleuzian (re)interpretation of Zhu Xi is possible and that it may open new tools of analysis for studying Chinese philosophy as well as create a conceptual space that can bring together concepts and practices from different traditions.

Since 2003, the Chinese government has been increasing its social expenditure and initiated new social welfare programmes to provide universal social protection and meet citizens' welfare needs. This article uses the wider socio-economic and socio-political contexts to critically examine whether there is a new welfare regime on the rise in China, with a particular reference to whether the increase in social expenditure has really marked a new welfare philosophy or prompted the transformation of China into a protective welfare regime. By analysing prefecture-level data for government expenditures in education, health, social security and assistance programmes between 2003 and 2012, we show a continuation of the Chinese welfare regime in 'paternalistic welfare pragmatism' for two reasons. First, government social expenditures are set on the basis of the prefecture-level government's fiscal capacity. Second, variations of welfare programmes are associated with the dichotomy between the urban formal and informal sectors.

Since August 1966, apart from the scattered reports of a few visitors, the western world has seen nothing substantial of Buddhism in China. In this field, as in many others, the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution brought an almost total eclipse. But today Buddhism is beginning to re-emerge. There are two principal signs of this: in Peking, the Chinese Buddhist Association is starting to function again; and, throughout the country, a number of Buddhist monasteries are once more open to visitors. In addition, there are numerous minor indications: Peking University, for example, is planning a course on Chinese Philosophy which would include lectures on the history of Buddhism; Buddhist art treasures are on display in many of the recently re-opened museums; Mao Tse-tung is said to have patterned his calligraphy on that of a Buddhist monk in Hunan; and handicraft factories are once again producing ivory Kuan-yins and miniature pagodas for export.

Chinese Human Settlements Philosophy -- The Origin of Trailism of Human Settlement, Inhabitation and Travel Environment -- Three elements and Main Factors Analysis on Human Settlement, Inhabitation and Travel Environment -- The Evolution of the Human Settlement, Inhabitation and Travel Environment Theory -- The Classification and Characteristics of the Human Settlement, Inhabitation and Travel Environment Background -- Analysis and Evaluation on Activity in Human Settlement, Inhabitatin and Travel Environment -- Human Settlement, Inhabitation and Travel Environment Construction Theory and Technology.-Human Settlement, Inhabitation and Travel Environment Studies in Water-net Region -- Human Settlement, Inhabitation and Travel Environment Studies in Valley Region.

The articles assembled in this volume present an important selection of Professor Jao Tsung-i's research in the field of the early Chinese intellectual tradition, especially as it concerns the human condition. Whether his focus is on myth, religion, philosophy or morals, Jao consistently aims to describe how the series of developments broadly associated with the Axial Age unfolded in China. He is particularly interested in showing how early China had developed its own notion of transcendence as well as a system of prediction and morals that enabled man to act autonomously, without recourse to divine providence.

There has been renewed interest in the concept of friendship in contemporary philosophy. Many of the existing treatments of the topic have been limited to Western notions of friendship, yet there is a far wider perspective available to us through an examination of a more extended cultural examination of the topic. Cultures other than those in Christian Europe have had important and interesting observations to make on the nature of friendship, and in this collection there is treatment not only of Greek and Christian ideas of friendship, but also of Islamic, Jewish, Chinese, Japanese and Indian

China now attracts global attention in direct proportion to its increasing economic and geopolitical power. But for millennia, the philosophy which has shaped the soul of China is not modern Communism, or even new forms of capitalism, but rather Confucianism. And one of the most striking phenomena relating to China's ascendancy on the world stage is a burgeoning interest, throughout Asia and beyond, in the humanistic culture and values that underlie Chinese politics and finance: particularly the thought of Confucius passed on in the Analects. In this stimulating conversation, two leading think

Using indigenous knowledge of Chinese culture and philosophy, this article critiques Geert Hofstede's fifth national culture dimension, i.e. 'Confucian dynamism', also referred to as 'long-term orientation'. The basic premise on which the dimension is founded is scrutinized and the way in which this index has been constructed is assessed in detail. It is argued that there is a philosophical flaw inherent in this 'new' dimension. Given this fatal flaw and other methodological weaknesses, the usefulness of Hofstede's fifth dimension is doubted. The article concludes by calling for new visions and perspectives in our cross cultural research.

According to the author, even though, over the millennia, China brought forth the indigenous ideas of Taoism, and for a time enthusiastically embraced the imported and metamorphosized ideas of Buddhism, it was the adoption by the Han Empire (206 BC-AD 220) of Confucianism as the official state of philosophy that profoundly shaped (and continues to shape) Chinese ideas about social organization, morality, authority and political power. After looking at the historical sources of China's political culture, he concludes that this culture does not easily lend itself to democratic methods. (DÜI-Sen)

Machine generated contents note: Part I Historiography and Cultural Identity -- 1 The Authenticity of a Copy: Problems of Nineteenth-Century -- Spanish-American Historiography -- Jochen Meissner -- 2 In Search of Lost Identity: South Africa between Great Trek -- and Colonial Nationalism, 1830-1910 -- Benedikt Stuchtey -- 3 India's Connection to History: The Discipline and the -- Relation between Center and Periphery -- Michael Gottlob -- 4 Historiography on a "Continent without History": -- Anglophone West Africa, 1880s-1940s -- Andreas Eckert -- 5 Alternative National Histories in Japan: Yamaji Aizan and -- Academic Historiography -- Stefan Tanaka -- Part II Across Cultural Borders -- 6 German Historicism and Scientific History in China, -- 1900-1940 -- Q. Edward Wang -- v -- 7 Transfer and Interaction: France and Francophone African -- Historiography -- Matthias Middell -- 8 The Historical Discipline in the United States: Following the -- German Model? -- Gabriele Lingelbach -- 9 The Politics of the Republic of Learning: International -- Scientific Congresses in Europe, the Pacific Rim, and Latin -- America -- Eckhardt Fuchs -- Part III Beyond Eurocentrism: The Politics of History in a -- Global Age -- 10 History without a Center? Reflections on Eurocentrism -- Arif Dirlik -- 11 Africa and the Construction of a Grand Narrative in World -- History -- Maghan Keita -- 12 "Modernity" and "Asia" in the Study of Chinese History -- Wang Hui -- 13 Comparing Cultures in Intercultural Communication -- Jorn Riisen -- Index -- About the Contributors

As Chinese economic growth slowed and production numbers fell following the world financial crisis of 2008, the digital economy in China became a site of renewed hope both for the modernizing ambitions of the Chinese government and the entrepreneurial aspirations of its citizens. However, just as the Internet in China appeared to affirm economic opportunities, it also provided a platform for young Chinese to express anxieties about their futures. When a national debate about the lack of socioeconomic mobility took over social media in 2012, it became evident that the success of China's digital economy paradoxically depends on an online market populated by increasingly disillusioned Internet users. By examining the contradictory ability of the Chinese Internet to sustain hopes and reveal anxieties simultaneously, this dissertation explores how internet technologies mediate contemporary Chinese aspirations. This examination focuses on ethnographic research with two high-profile projects. Building on data collected during thirteen months of fieldwork as an intern at a government-supported startup cluster and as a production team member for two comedy shows financed by the online media provider Sohu, I argue that each of these projects uses the Internet to address issues of aspiration. Analyzing this process as the digital mediation of aspiration, I explore the complex ways in which Internet professionals address and negotiate aspirational possibilities and impossibilities to reach Internet audiences, customers, and entrepreneurs. This ethnography draws on and contributes to scholarship in Internet and media studies, feminist theory, philosophy, and anthropology to investigate the digital mediation of aspiration—the problematization, articulation, and materialization of aspirational issues through the Chinese Internet—in the digital economy in China. Building on data gathered through qualitative methods such as online and offline participant observation and semi-structured and biographical interviews, I analyze how ...

Cover -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Biopolitics, Othering, and the COVID‑19 Pandemic: A Critical Introduction -- COVID‑19 and Biopolitics -- COVID‑19 and the Politics of Othering -- Framing Bodies, Selves/Others, and Affects during COVID‑19 -- The Ambiguity of Biopolitics in a Pandemic World -- Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Epidemics and the (Bio)Politics of Othering -- Works Cited -- 2. Pandemics, Biopolitics and Coloniality: From Chronicles of the Indies to COVID‑19 Fictions -- The Contagious Other -- Othering in COVID‑19 Fictions -- Conclusions -- Works Cited -- 3. 'Enlightened' Colonialism, Smallpox, and the Indigenous Other in Late Eighteenth‐Century Mexico and Guatemala -- European Invasion and Demographic Crisis in New Spain -- The 1780 Smallpox Outbreak in Guatemala -- Smallpox in the Intendancy of Oaxaca (1796/97) -- State Subjects and Othering -- Works Cited -- 4. 'Civilizing the Natives' with Modern Medicine: Strategies of Othering in the Implementation of Public Hygiene in Japan‐Ruled Taiwan (1895-1945) -- The 'Hygienic Turn' and Its Impact on Japanese Colonialism -- The Redefinition of Chinese Cultural Heritage -- Institutionalizing Hygiene in Taiwan -- The Bubonic Plague as the Litmus Test of Japanese Disease Control in Taiwan -- Othering Through Sanitation -- Conclusion -- Works Cited -- 5. Fear of Contagion: Epistemology of Boundaries and Politics of Emotions in (Post)Colonial Development Discourses -- The Danger of Contagion: Epistemology of Delineation -- International Development and Health Politics and Economic Security -- International Development and Health Politics, Political Security and Colonial Amnesia -- International Development and Health Politics and Competitive Capability -- International Mission and Epidemics: Health as Religious Task.

A trenchant defense of hierarchy in different spheres of our lives, from the personal to the politicalAll complex and large-scale societies are organized along certain hierarchies, but the concept of hierarchy has become almost taboo in the modern world. Just Hierarchy contends that this stigma is a mistake. In fact, as Daniel Bell and Wang Pei show, it is neither possible nor advisable to do away with social hierarchies. Drawing their arguments from Chinese thought and culture as well as other philosophies and traditions, Bell and Wang ask which forms of hierarchy are justified and how these can serve morally desirable goals. They look at ways of promoting just forms of hierarchy while minimizing the influence of unjust ones, such as those based on race, sex, or caste.Which hierarchical relations are morally justified and why? Bell and Wang argue that it depends on the nature of the social relation and context. Different hierarchical principles ought to govern different kinds of social relations: what justifies hierarchy among intimates is different from what justifies hierarchy among citizens, countries, humans and animals, and humans and intelligent machines. Morally justified hierarchies can and should govern different spheres of our social lives, though these will be very different from the unjust hierarchies that have governed us in the past.A vigorous, systematic defense of hierarchy in the modern world, Just Hierarchy examines how hierarchical social relations can have a useful purpose, not only in personal domains but also in larger political realms

Energy transition is crucial for mitigating climate change and has over the past decades risen to become a key international policy ambition. Energy transition is a highly complex, dynamic and multi-dimensional process involving a multitude of actors and networks. Energy transition is also spatially sensitive, and therefore it is crucially linked with spatial planning. Pursuing energy transition in an urban context requires institutional designs and related planning approaches that allow for area-specific solutions. There are two important and ongoing shifts in the governance of energy transition: 1) a shift from government to governance, and 2) increased decentralisation and use of area-specific approaches. Planning for Energy Transition is particularly interested in how both these possible changes in energy governance can work out within the Chinese top-down political scheme. In response, two analytical lenses are used for studying the institutional design of Chinese urban energy governance. The first lens is that of policy implementation, with a focus on how national energy policies are impacting local energy governance. The second lens is that of integrated and collaborative strategies at a local level, with a focus on cross-sectoral working within governments and between governments and other societal stakeholders. Planning for Energy Transition highlights the value of an area-specific and associated decentralised approach to energy transition that emphasizes integration of policy and collaboration of actors and institutions into Chinese urban governance. Capitalizing on this added value, however, depends crucially on Chinese centralized-oriented energy governance for both enabling and sufficiently stimulating local willingness and ability.

Objective: The objective of the article is to studied phenomenon of international economic convergence applied to China.Research Design & Methods: The analysis methods, synthesis, economic and managerial comparativists, economic statistics, Hofstede method are used in this work.Findings: Authors have conducted comparative analysis of production and consumption within economic totalitarianism. This symbiosis of socialism and capitalism lies based on a convergent socio-economic system, the theoretical foundations of which reside at the beginning of creation.Implications & Recommendations: The changes in economic activity were tremendous at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. It has been identified that the current world experience includes de-globalization, re-industrialization, new economics and management. The conducted research will be useful for trade policy development, international economic relations with investigated countries. Contribution & Value Added: The authors carried out an analysis of the cultures of the studied countries using the Greet Hofstede method. The role of Confucianism as a religion and philosophy in the economic development of China is revealed. The Chinese governance model is investigated that consists of three elements: democracy, experimentation between local and central government, meritocracy.