Books in the Routledge Contemporary China Series series

China's economic development since the 1970s has been marred by an obvious gap between the country's 'haves' and its 'have-nots'. This work includes essays which trace the causes of this inequality, using data including surveys, interviews, official statistics and fieldwork. It exposes the malfunctioning of China's intergovernmental fiscal system.

Explores the transformation and multifaceted nature of US-China relations, including how the political elite in both countries have defined their strategic objectives in response to China's rise and managed their relations accordingly. It provides an analysis on the policy adjustments and covers the important issue areas such as security.

Successfully bringing together a wide range of research and evidence, this book discusses issues related to the growing unemployment problem in China. It examines problems of particular cities, appraises the government response, and assesses the prospects going forward.

This is the first book which undertakes a systematic analysis of rent seeking activities in China. Using case studies from across economics sectors the contributors discuss the occurrence of the phenomenon, what range of activities are related to rent seeking practices and, more importantly, how rent seeking shapes political and economic development.

China's rise as a major trading power has prompted debate about the nature of that country's involvement in the liberal international economic order. This book sheds light on this question. It explores the trade policymaking process in China by looking at: China's WTO accession negotiation; China's bilateral trade disputes; and other aspects.

This book sheds new light on disruptive innovations both from and for the bottom of the pyramid in China and India, from the point of view of local entrepreneurs and international firms seeking to operate their businesses there. It covers both the theoretical and practical implications of disruptive innovation using conceptual frameworks alongside detailed case studies, whilst also providing a comparison of conditions and strategic options in India and China.

data base (lecturer in East Asia Studies at the Open University of Catalonia, Spain)

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the economy hotel sector in China. It covers macro-level social-cultural, economic, environmental, geographic and development issues, alongside micro-level consideration of the budget hotel companies¿ innovative management and marketing procedures, business expansion strategies, general hotel management and operation issues, as well as an analysis of some leading entrepreneurs in the sector, and in-depth case studies examining the most successful economy hotel companies in China.

In recent decades, Chinese cities have experienced profound social, economic and spatial transformations. In particular, Chinese cities have witnessed the largest housing boom in history and unprecedented housing privatization. This book shows how Chinäs spectacular housing success is not shared by all social groups, with rapidly rising housing inequality, and residential segregation increasingly prevalent in previously homogeneous Chinese cities.

Comparatizing Taiwan examines Taiwan¿s many relationalities, material as well as symbolic, over a significant historical and geographical span, and views Taiwan in relation to other islands, cultures, or nations. Through an examination of socio-cultural phenomena in Taiwan, it situates Taiwan globally, comparatively, and relationally to bring out the richness of Taiwan as such, and offers a model for studying small nations elsewhere. This truly interdisciplinary book will be welcomed by students and scholars interested in Taiwan studies, Sinophone studies, comparative cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and literary studies.

China is currently afflicted by enormous environmental problems. This book, drawing on ancient and modern Chinese environmental thinking, considers what it is that makes an environment a desirable place for living. The book emphasises ideas of beauty, and discusses how these ideas can be applied in natural, agricultural and urban environments in order to produce desirable environments. The book argues that environment is both a product of nature and of human beings, and as such is potentially alterable by culture. The book explores the three aspects of environmental beauty whereby such alteration might be beneficially made: integrated and holistic; ecological and man-made; and authentic and everyday. This book addresses environmental issues by distinctively suggesting that an aesthetic approach inspired from ancient Chinese tradition could help us overcome the many problems that human beings have created at local and global levels. Although its main focus is the traditional and current contexts of the People''s Republic of China, the book transcends national borders. A typical example is the ancient Chinese thought system and cultural practice of Feng Shui (風水) that sought to negotiate how the natural environment and human constructions can cohabit without destructing each other. The author evokes that sought-after harmony through the powerful image of gardens of life whose environmental beauty can be found in traditional Chinese gardens and palaces as well as historically and culturally preserved cities.

This book sheds light on the social imagination of nature and environment in contemporary China. It demonstrates how the urgent debate on how to create an ecologically sustainable future for the worldΓÇÖs most populous country is shaped by its complex engagement with religious traditions, competing visions of modernity and globalization, and by engagement with minority nationalities who live in areas of outstanding natural beauty on ChinaΓÇÖs physical and social margins. The book develops a comprehensive understanding of contemporary China that goes beyond the tradition/ modernity dichotomy, and illuminates the diversity of narratives and worldviews that inform contemporary Chinese understandings of and engagements with nature and environment.

This book examines why entertainment television is politically and culturally significant in China and how Chinese television relates to the state and society. Further, it explores media regulation and censorship, asks what popular televisual texts tell us about the unsettled and reconfigured relations between commercial television, audiences and the state? An interdisciplinary study of the television industry this book covers a number of important issues in China today, such as censorship, nationalism, consumerism, social justice and the central and local authorities.

This book analyses how decentralized policy making and conflicting rules and incentives have encouraged local level policy experimentation across Chinäs cities and villages. Most often out of necessity or expediency in the face of governance challenges associated with rapid economic reform and slow political reform, this pattern has remained relatively constant since 1978. The contributors to this book examine how local-level institutions solve governance challenges, such as rural development, enterprise reform, providing social services, and grappling with a lack of transparency.

This book presents an illuminating and comprehensive summary record of contrasting and competing expert forecasts and judgements about the major issues confronting China within four principal domains - political, economic, environmental and international. Considering the principal forecasting methods available to experts, Roger Irvine comments critically on the degree of success achieved in using those methods and emphasises the confusion created by the polarisation of opinion and by the failure of many experts to accept the high degree of uncertainty that characterises most of the key issues.

This book explores how far existing networks of overseas Chinese and new flows of migrants act as drivers of economic relations between China and the host countries. It considers migration, trade, flow of capital, and foreign direct investment, includes both skilled and unskilled migrants, and outlines the complex different waves of migration flows. It includes detailed case studies, based on extensive original research, on the position in a range of European countries, and concludes with policy-oriented analysis and with an overall assessment of how far the Chinese diaspora matters in stimulating increased bilateral economic activity and stronger bilateral economic relationships.