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ASPAC Conference 2010 June 18 – 20, 2010 | Portland, OR relationship with the state and the CCP clearly see these organizations as taking on important responsibilities that might otherwise be done by the state. My interest is not in testing to see if these organizations fit some definition of “civil society” but rather to understand what role or potential role they do play in the transformation of the relationship between the state and society in China, in particular in the definition of a new, loyal post-communist citizen. Preliminary research suggests that although Chambers of Commerce in Wenzhou have had considerable influence, the Shequ development has lagged well behind the Hangzhou and the rest of the province. In Hangzhou, on the other hand, Chambers of Commerce seem to have captured little attention, while the Shequ building program has seen as both lively and crucial to China’s future, at least by the local press and leadership. Thus, I engage in an interpretive examination of these groups as intermediary organizations and then seek to explain the apparent differences in development between Wenzhou and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Research is based on documentary sources in Chinese and English as well as interviews in Zhejiang. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Gonzalo Paz China Goes Global: Reaching Latin America in the 21 st Century As China reaches new levels of economic development and political confidence, its presence and influence is increasing in most areas of the world. At the end of the first decade of the century, the relations between China and Latin America are now an established feature of international relations. Trade, the most visible aspect of the relations has skyrocketed during the decade. Three Free Trade Areas have been established or are being negotiated currently between China and Latin American countries (with Chile, Peru, and Costa Rica). The political relation has also been expanded: there are now regular and frequent high level visits, of head of state and government, political parties’ authorities, even military exchanges are today routinely conducted. Several “strategic partnerships” have also deepened the relations, particularly with Brazil, which is also a member of the so-called BRICs, and at the G20 (in which Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico are also members). Now China has an institutional presence in both the organization of American States (OAS) since 2004 and the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) since 2009. The United States has also monitored these changes, and keeps following this emerging relationship on a day-to-day base, trying to some extent to influence them. The goals of the paper are threefold: first, to analyze how and why this relationship has emerged in its present form; Second, to take stock of the economic and political relations between China and Latin America & the Caribbean; Third, to try to chart probable trends in coming years. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Frank Phillips and Xia Yun Confucius Classrooms: Programs, Potential, and Possibilities In 2008, St. Mary’s school was awarded the first Confucius Classroom at a K-12 school in North or South America. St. Mary’s has extended its Confucius Classroom and Chinese language and culture programs far beyond the walls of the school. The Confucius Classroom at St. Mary’s School partnered with the Southern Oregon Educational Service District to win $600,000, three-year FLAP grant from the U.S. Department of Education to teach Mandarin from grades 3-8 via interactive video conferencing. Currently, 300+ students are taking Mandarin in three southern Oregon counties with the program expected to grow to 1500. The Confucius Classroom at St. Mary’s School is also working with two local public school districts to bring fulltime Hanban teachers into middle and high school classrooms. Added to these initiatives is an array of cultural outreach programs in the community including a hands-on China Exploratorium at Science Works museum in Ashland, Oregon as well as visits by Chinese musicians and kung fu troupes from China’s Shaolin Temple. The presenters will explain how to go about applying for Confucius Classroom status and the mechanisms for obtaining funding from Hanban to help execute them. The challenges and logistics of instituting programs, selecting texts and other learning materials, and hosting teachers from China will also be covered. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 32
David Pietz Water and History on the North China Plain ASPAC Conference 2010 June 18 – 20, 2010 | Portland, OR This paper will explore how the government of the People’s Republic of China managed the Yellow River after 1949. Specifically, the paper will formulate conclusions about the environmental consequences of different hydraulic engineering projects as China pursued different developmental paradigms during the Mao and post-Mao periods. The state pursued Soviet-style central planning for much of the 1950s, Great Leap Forward decentralization and communalization between 1958-1961, a blend of state planning and mass mobilization during the 1960s and 1970s, and “market socialism” during the post-Mao era (1978-). The project will be organized around these four eras and it will examine the implications that each of these developmental approaches had on North China’s water resources. Comparative conclusions about the environmental consequences of these four developmental periods will be guided by several fundamental options that faced state and party leaders throughout the post-1949 period: 1) modern hydraulic engineering vs. traditional water conservancy and mass mobilization, 2) central vs. local planning, 3) international technical cooperation vs. self-reliance, and 4) economic development vs. environmental protection. As China migrated to and from different developmental paradigms, the fundamental goal of building “wealth and power” remained consistent. Central to all these differing modernizing approaches was the effective management of water. Flood control, transportation, irrigation, hydroelectric generation, and pollution control were water management issues that the state sought to address. The challenge of the Chinese state after 1949 has been to formulate effective institutional patterns and policies to effectively manage water to serve modernizing goals. At the same time, however, many of these institutions and policies have had unexpected consequences on the same resources they sought to maximize. The paper will suggest the potential environmental consequences of water policy choices that were made in China. Whether the issues in centralization versus decentralization, reliance on contemporary standards of hydraulic engineering versus traditional mass mobilization, or self-reliance versus international cooperation, an examination of the experience of water management in China since 1949 will point to the environmental consequences of hydraulic engineering choices. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ John Porter Cholera 1886: Poverty, Disease and Urban Governance in Meiji Osaka This paper examines the relationship between poverty, disease, and urban governance in Osaka’s largest late nineteenth-century slum, Nagomachi. Characterized throughout the nineteenth century as a principal source of urban crime and social instability, during the 1880s Nagomachi came to be identified in both popular and official discourse as a “den of squalor and disease.” Citing public health concerns, in 1886 the Osaka prefectural government unveiled a citywide slum clearance proposal, which sought the demolition of the city’s largest slums and the relocation of Osaka’s poor to a walled residential compound on the city’s periphery. Announced at the height of the deadliest cholera epidemic in Japanese history, the proposal’s primary target was Nagomachi’s built environment and the “paupers and thieves” that found shelter in its flophouses and back-alley tenements. Focusing on proposals, such as the one described above, much of the scholarship on poverty in modern Japan has characterized the relationship between the urban poor and local government primarily in terms of discrimination and social exclusion. While it is certain that efforts were undertaken during the late nineteenth century in a number of Japanese cities to segregate the poor from other parts of the urban population, this paper argues that such efforts were paralleled by a broader “civilizing” project, which aimed not to exclude the poor, but to transform them into healthy, productive and docile citizens capable of contributing to the growth and prosperity of the Japanese nation. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 33
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ABSTRACTS - oia - Portland State University

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