This book launch seminar initially called ‘Academic Symposium on Contemporary China’, has been renamed ‘Academic Activities on Global Economic Imbalances and China’s Economic Development’, with a focus on China in comparison with other global economies. Below are details of the event and list of launched books:

Time: 16:00 – 16:50
Venue: Piccadilly Room
Chair: Xie Shouguang, President of the Social Science Academic Press (SSAP)
Speakers:

• Mr Wu Shulin, vice Minister of the General Administration of Press and Publication of China (GAPP)
• Professor Li Yang, vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)

Panellists:

• Prof Li Yang, vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)
• Prof Li Peilin, Director of the Institute of Sociology, CASS
• Prof Zhang Yuyan, Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics, CASS
• Prof Gao Peiyong, Director of the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics, CASS

Organiser: Social Science Academic Press (SSAP)
Co-organizers: Paths International;
China in Comparative Perspective Network, LSE
Language: Chinese & English with interpretation

Programme

16:00-16:02 Opening, by the chair
16:02-16:08 Greeting, by Wu Shulin, vice-Minister, General Administration of Press and Publication of China
16:08-16:10 New book release
16:10-16:30 ‘Global Economic Imbalances and China’s Economic Development, by Li Yang, vice President of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
16:30-16:50 Panel discussion: Li Yang, Li Peilin, Zhang Yuyan, Gao Peiyong

New book titles

1. Annual Report on China’s Financial Development, editor Li Yang, Wang Guogang, eds., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Paths International Cooperation Publishing
2. BRICS and the Global Transformation, Li Yang ed., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Paths International
3. The Chinese Society: Change and Transformation , LI Peilin, ed., co-published by the Social Science Academic Press (SSAP) and Routledge.
4. Chinese Perspective on Society, Li Peilin ed., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and Brill
5. China’s Climate Change Policies, Wang Weiguang, Guoguang Zheng,Pan Jiahua eds., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Earth Scan
6. Budgeting the Carbon published for Equity and the Sustainability, Pan Jiahua ed., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Paths International
7. Annual Report on International Politics and Security, Li Shenming, Zhang Yuyan. eds., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Paths International

Notes

1. Paths International promoted the collabration with the Social Science Academic Press (SSAP) and donated 30 books to the participants. They are 10 copies of each as follows (the rest of books are in print):

• Annual Report on International Politics and Security, Li Shenming, Zhang Yuyan. eds., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Paths International
• Annual Report on China’s Financial Development, editor Li Yang, Wang Guogang, eds., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Paths International Cooperation Publishing
• BRICs and the Global Transformation, Li Yang ed., co-published by Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and the Paths International

2. CCPN co-organised thisevent. Dr Xiangqun Chang acted as the chair at this seminar due to Mr Xie Shouguang’s failure in obtaining a visa in time.

3. Xie Shouguang’s latest views on ‘Chinese social sceince go globlal’. On the 13th April 2012, Xinhua Net published an interview with Xie Shouguang, the President of Social Science Academic Press, in the 2012 London Book Fair together with Xie’s inscription: ‘Carefully crafted international academic disseminating platform, to promote contemporary Chinese academic work to go to the world’.

Special promotion

The Chinese Society: Change and Transformation , launched at the 2012 London Book Fair, co-published by the Social Science Academic Press (SSAP) and Routledge. It was originally published in Chinese as China Society ((《中国社会》, ed. Li Peilin,  published by China Social Science Press in 2011.  The authors are a group of the best Chinese sociologists, nearly half of the contributors are CCPN’s Academic Advisory Committee members, e.g., Li Peilin, Li Qiang, Zhou Xiaohong and Guan Xinping.

This page promotes the new book which focuses on Chinese society, together with other related books, because the better understanding of them is helpful for doing comparative studies of other countries and regions.  Below is the info about the book:

The Chinese Society: Change and Transformation
Edited by: LI Peilin
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Routledge (November 11, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0415502470
ISBN-13: 978-0415502474

Editor of this book

Li Peilin is Professor and Director of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Editor-in-chief of Sociological Studies; President of the Chinese Sociological Association (CSA). He has published more than two dozen books and edited volumes, including some in foreign languages, e.g.  co-author with Laurence Roulleau-Berger, European and Chinese Sociologies: A New Dialogue, Brill (2011),  one of co-editors of the La nouvelle sociologie chinoise (New Chinese Sociology), Paris, CNRS Editions (2008); and one of the editors of Social Change in the Age of Globalization, Brill (2006), one of co-editors of The China Society Yearbook, Volume 1-5 (2006-11).

Book Description

There is growing interest in social transformation in contemporary China, with much work published on the subject. This book is different from other books in that it presents an overview of the work of Chinese sociologists on how Chinese society is changing. It reports on a great deal of original research by leading, outstanding Chinese scholars, including extensive fieldwork and large-scale social change survey data, and covers comprehensively the full range of aspects of the subject. It assesses developments since the beginning of reform in China, and provides, overall, a comprehensive understanding of China’s social development and of the likely impact of future social changes on China.

Contents

Introduction (Li Peilin)
1. Chinese Society and China Experiences (Li Peilin)
2. Marriage and Family (Yang Shanhua)
3. Lineage and Family (Zhang Xiaojun)
4. Ethnicities and Ethnic Relations (Hao Shiyuan)
5. Social Mentality and Contemporary Changes (Zhou Xiaohong)
6. Demographic Transition and Economic and Social Development (Cai Fang)
7. The Political System and Reform in China (Yang Dali)
8. Urbanization and Urban-Rural Relations (Cai He)
9. Social Stratification and Institutional Change (Li Qiang)
10. Migrant Workers and Social Mobility (Li Chunling)
11. Anti-Poverty and Social Policies (Guan Xinping)

Chinese social sciences go aboard

The ‘China goes abroad’ phenomena started from the late 1970s along with the implementing of an open door policy. As a strategic policy China’s ‘Go Out Policy’ or China Going Global Strategy was initiated in 1999 by the Chinese government to promote Chinese investments abroad.  Over the last decade the global investment from China has expanded in all fields. In particular, in 2006 the national ‘Eleventh Five-Year Plan’ put forward the ‘Chinese culture going out strategy’. ‘Chinese social sciences go aboard’ is one of the recent trends.

In 2007 the Social Science Academic Press (SSAP) signed an agreement with Brill for publishing a series of Chinese social scientific yearbooks. SSAP has published more than 100 yearbooks on different topics since. The cooperation with Brill will publish English versions of some series of yearbooks. This represents an important step of Chinese Social Sciences going global. China.com.cn organised an interview between Mr Pabbruwe, the President of Brill, Netherlands and Mr Xie Shouguang, the President of the CCAP. So far the English versions of yearbook series have been published by Brill as follows: The China Environment Yearbook (Vol 1-5); The China Society Yearbook (Vol 1-5); The China Economy Yearbook (Vol 1-5); The China Legal Development Yearbook (vol 1-5);  The China Educational Development Yearbook (Vol 1-3); The China Population and Labor Yearbook (Vol 1-3). In addition, the SSAP also has collaborations with Routledge, Earth Scan, and the Paths International. See a list of new books, co-published with the above mentioned companies, to be launched at the 2012 London Book Fair, at the bottom of this page.

Another example of Chinese social science go global came from Shanghai. Fudan-IAS carried out a project for publishing a Series on Developing China from 2009, edited by Deng Zhenglai (one of CCPN’s Academic Advisory Committee members), published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. They are collections of the best Chinese social scientists’ work on different topics: e.g. China’s Economy: Rural and Agricultural Development; State and Civil Society: The Chinese Perspective; and Globalization and Localization: The Chinese Perspective . Professor Deng Zhenglai is Dean of the Fudan-IAS, as well as the CCPN’s Academic Advisory Committee member. CCPN has specifically introduced LSE and IAS inside and outside China.

On the topic of studying Chinese society, there is a volume called Understanding Chinese Society, published by Routledge in Oct 2011, edted by Xiaowei Zang, Dean of School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, UK; he is also a CCPN Academic Advisory Committee member. It was written by a team of contributors from the UK, China, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong,  for anyone who is studying or interested in Chinese Society, Chinese Studies and Asian sociology.

Based on LSE’s motto ‘to understand the causes of things’ for the betterment of society CCPN held an international conference entitled ‘Understanding China and Engaging with Chinese People’ to commemorate the 100th birth of Professor Fei Xiaotong. The conference proceedings are becoming essay collections due to many scholars having made contributions, but who were unable to attend the conference. We also invited some related contributions. The contributors came from China, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, UK, USA and Canada. The volume Understanding China and Engaging with Chinese People, — The 100th Anniversary of the birth of Professor Fei Xiaotong is edited by Stephan Feuchtwang, Xiangqun Chang, Kent Deng, Daming Zhou. Its Chinese  version with simplified characters will be published by the Social Science Press of China, the Chinese version with traditional characters and English version will be published by Airiti Press in 2012.

Compared with the above essay collections there was a single authored monograph with an in-depth empirical study and theoretical analysis available in both English and Chinese in 2008: Guanxi or Li shang wanglai ? — Reciprocity, Social Support Networks, & Social Creativity in a Chinese Village, by Xiangqun Chang. When Liaoning People’s Publishing House approached Li Qiang, one of the above authors of The Chinese Society, for publishing it in both Chinese and English versions, he wrote, ‘the publication of Guanxi or Li shang wanglai? in both Chinese and English versions, during the period of deepening reform of the Chinese cultural system, marks the transition of “Made in China” from material to cultural, specifically as regards forthcoming developments in social science.’ However, the publication of the English version of Guanxi or Li shang wanglai failed a censorship check and therefore only its Chinese version has been published in 2009. Both the English and Chinese versions (in traditional characters) were therefore published in Taiwan in 2010.

Over the past few generations there has been a huge amount of work produced by Chinese social scientists who were trained in different disciplines either in China or in the West or both, e.g. Fei Xiaotong (a large amount of his late work has not yet been translated into English), the famous sociologist, anthropologist, social activist and senior Chinese political leader and LSE’s Honorary Fellow; or Lin Yifu, who was Professor in Economics of Peking University, now the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank. In March 2012 the LSE Council approved Justin Yifu Lin, to be an Honorary Doctor of Science and (Economics). CCPN promotes their work because they can be seen as fine examples of Chinese scholars’ work. It is hoped that, based on their work, together with other Chinese social scientific work on China, to forge general analytic concepts and make methodological contributions to human knowledge.

However, due to language barriers the majority of Chinese academic work of merit has not been well appreciated by the Western social sciences. In 2010 the National Social Science Fund for Translating China’s Academic Work to Go Abroad was established. The programme is for translating Chinese philosophical and social scientific outstanding academic work into foreign languages in order to be published by authoritative publishers outside China and enter mainstream communication channels globally. The purpose of doing this is to promote understanding of contemporary China and traditional Chinese culture, engage academic exchanges and dialogue with non-Chinese scholars, and enhance the international influence of Chinese philosophy and social sciences.

There are similarities as well as differences in ways of thinking and working on social scientific topics between Chinese and non-Chinese scholars. Some of the  differences can be demonstrated in CCPN’s banner. Methodologically, it would be interesting to explore further this point.

On the 13th April 2012, Xinhua Net published an interview with Xie Shouguang, the President of Social Science Academic Press, in the 2012 London Book Fair together with Xie’s inscription: ‘Carefully crafted international academic disseminating platform, to promote contemporary Chinese academic work to go to the world’.