Books published by Eastbridge Books

In late July, 2006, Yu Shyi-kun, chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), addressed the party's 12th congress and offered an "apology" (daoqian) for the DPP's failure "to meet the expectations of the society and people of Taiwan during the previous six years." As charges of corruption and calls for the president's resignation swirled around the embattled Chen Shui-bian administration, Yu's frank admission of failure reflected the crisis of self-confidence and pessimism that seemed to have gripped the party.In this book we discuss some of the main themes that emerged following Chen Shui-bian's election and seek to elucidate the major challenges that the administration faced as well as the policies that Chen established. This serves as a foundation for the individual chapters assessing the direction that the Chen Shui-bian administration took in regard to the major issue areas of: domestic political dynamics; socio-political "hot buttons" and foreign policy/national security. Each chapter addresses the question of how the Chen administration's first term defined, debated and impacted specific aspects of the evolving Taiwanese polity.

Arguably the first book to take a generational approach to the Chinese cinema, One Hundred Years of Chinese Cinema offers a broad picture of the evolution of Chinese cinema in its historical context, as well as thorough and insightful analyses of representative films from different generations.Haili Kong is Associate Professor of Chinese at Swarthmore College. He was the primary organizer of the Chinese Film Festival and the International Symposium on Chinese Film held at Swarthmore College in 2000.John Lent edits the journal Asian Cinema and chairs both the Asian Cinema Studies Society and the Asian Popular Culture Group of the Popular Culture Society. He has authored over 60 books and co-organized the International Symposium on Chinese Film held at Swarthmore College in 2000.

When Soong Meiling, better known to the world as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, died in October 2003, her life of over a century almost exactly paralleled America's own century of direct involvement with Asia, which began with the acquisition of the Philippines. Alone among Western Powers, the United States championed an Open Door policy toward China. The Madame's Christian family and her American education perfectly suited the American aspirations for a free and democratic China. And when Japan threatened both countries, the Madame, in perfect English, spoke directly to Americans as the heroic symbol of Chinese resistance. Never mind that she and her husband turned increasingly authoritarian and that the Guomindang was defeated by Chairman Mao Zedong's communists. And never mind that she never really connected with the vast majority of Chinese living in the countryside. Today, as China is again catching up to the West in leaps and bounds, it is almost as if Soong Meiling, ending her life after a Rip Van Winkle-like retirement in the United States, is ushering in another century, when new Open Door Americans look toward China again. Here for a new generation of general readers and scholars are thoughtful reflections on the significant impact of a major twentieth-century figure who fascinated Americans for decades and had a significant impact on American perceptions of China.

This book studies less-frequently visited aspects of the mid-20th century conflict between China and Japan. Without denying the importance of the more conventional genre of military history or the more recent efforts at analyzing the destructiveness of the War, it delves into various segments of Chinese society, including the state and the political parties, and examines the ways they mobilized their resources to fight Japanese aggression.Unique among foreign wars in modern Chinese history, the Sino-Japanese War stands out not only as the longest war fought on Chinese soil, but also the longest confrontation in the run-up to it. The process dates back to at least the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, when the Japanese firmly established a foothold on the Chinese mainland in the Northeast (Manchuria). With a base on continental China, the Japanese could more easily infiltrate, penetrate, and occupy other regions of China, purposes that colonial Taiwan could not serve as well. The War and its prologue provoked at least as many forms of resistance as there were forms of Japanese aggression. If China's military resistance was less than vigorous overall, the Chinese did mobilize often scant resources to oppose or undermine Japanese aggression with sporadic success. Besides fresh perspectives on the War, these studies further provide an important background to the contest for power after the War. To the extent that we are still living with the consequences of the War, the socio-political forces that came into existence during the period of resistance continue to have relevance.

A distinguished group of authoritative scholars, officals, and policy experts here express their first-hand insights, their ambitions, and their cautions for the future of Kazakhstan.Policy and practice are examined in detail and the results of their analysis presented on challenges ranging from introducing national self-determination, inequitable distribution of power and privilege, national identity and constitutional law, the interrelationship of corruption and authoritarianism, Kazakhstan's role in global oil politics, and the gentle art of international relations with Russia, just next door, and the United States, half a world away.Kazakhstan is a republic in Central Asia roughly the size of Western Europe and about four times larger than Texas. The country regained its independence in 1991 with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and is a leading world producer of oil and gas as well as a variety of strategic minerals. Over half the 15 million population is Christian, mostly Russian Orthodox, with the remainder largely Muslims. Ethnic Kazakhs constitute just over half the population with Russians contributing another third, followed by Ukrainians at about 5% and the remainder made up of over 100 different ethnicities.