| China's reform and opening-up is a great experiment in human history.In the past 40 years since reform and opening-up,China has undergone earth-shaking changes and made remarkable achievements in political,economic and cultural fields etc.At the same time,in the process of the rapid transformation and transition of the overall Chinese society,some contradictions and problems such as environmental pollution,the large gap between rich and poor,and official corruption have emerged.Both the great achievements and emerging problems in China greatly have inspired the overseas scholars' interest and enthusiasm in the study of China,they pay close attention to the process of the reform and development of China,and try hard to uncover every “Chinese Wonder” through document study and field research,telling diversified stories of China.Among them,The China Quarterly is the first foreign authoritative academic journal dedicated to the study of contemporary China,which pays constant attention to the reform and development of China since 1978 for 40 years.It has published 880 articles on this topic,which is an important channel to understand the “image of China” in the eyes of overseas scholars since 1978.This dissertation conducts a case study on The China Quarterly,systematically reviewing and analyzing the related articles on the theme of “China's reform and development” which got most attention from overseas scholars since 1978.This dissertation combines the macro-analysis and micro-analysis.On the one hand,it gets an overview of The China Quarterly's study of China's forty years' reform and development,through summarizing the overall course of research and scholars' focus and representative viewpoints.On the other hand,it reviews and analyzes the specific research issues,theoretical perspectives and methodology of The China Quarterly,not only introducing different views,but also exploring the connotations and logic behind these views,and analyzing their values and limitations.In the research of China's reform and development since 1978,The China quarterly concentrates on the political,economic and social fields,which is also the focus of this dissertation.The thesis firstly makes a systematic review and introduction of the founding and operation of The China Quarterly,the research emphases and topic preferences of the former chief editors since 1978,and the Special Issues under the guidance of different editors.Besides,it also summarizes the research overview and themes of The China Quarterly during the past 40 years.Then,the thesis reviews the specific research contents in the political,economic and social fields in The China Quarterly.In terms of the political field,this dissertation mainly reviews and analyzes the papers related to the Communist Party of China's(CPC)adjustment and transformation,the development of China's democratic politics,the future course of the CPC and the prospect of China's political changes.With the development of reform and opening-up,overseas scholars' evaluation of the CPC and the path of China's political development gradually changes from the “negative pessimism” theory and “democratic transformation” theory dominated by the 1980 s and 1990 s to the recognition of the CPC's active adaptation and transformation,and an understanding attitude towards the development of democratic politics in China.In terms of the economic field,this dissertation focuses on the reform and development of China's rural economy,China's integration into the global economy,as well as the achievements,challenges and prospects of China's economic reform.In the late 1980 s and early 1990 s,the passive and negative attitudes towards China's economic development prospects took the upper hand,believing that the limitations of the reform confine the economic development.With the sustained and steady growth of China's economy,scholars gradually changed their previous judgement,no longer regarding free market and privatization as the only factors in promoting the development of China's economy,and they increasingly accepted and recognized China's way of gradual reform metorpharically described as “crossing the river by feeling the stones”.In terms of social areas,The China quarterly analyzes the changing relations of the state and society from the angle of ever-growing social organizations,and adopts a variety of social science theories and paradigms to explore social contradictions and resistance during the transition period.Besides,it also conducts in-depth discussions on livelihood issues and social governance such as environmental pollution,unfair income distribution,the gap between rich and poor,and social security which emerged after the reform and opening-up.In the research of the state-society relations,scholars gradually changed their judgement before the reform and opening-up that China's state-society relations are highly integrated and China is a “strong country,weak society” in which the state governs everything.In the study of livelihood issues in China,overseas scholars have steadily changed their attitudes from initial serious doubts about the Chinese government's governance capacity to full recognition of some governance measures and reform achievements.Based on the above research,this dissertation finds that The China quarterly's focus on China's reform and development process,and the “China image” in the eyes of overseas scholars have changed through different periods from 1978 to 2018.In general,The China quarterly has become more and more objective and rational in understanding China.Most overseas scholars can fully recognize the achievements of China's reform and opening-up over the past 40 years in a rigorous and realistic manner and conduct in-depth analysis of the existing contradictions and problems.Some constructive comments and suggestions have also been provided,which is beneficial to more deeply understanding and reflecting on China's reform and practice since 1978,and expanding the research ideas and horizons of domestic academic circles.Of course,there are also some scholars who have made some misinterpretations and misjudgments on China's development,due to difficulty in getting rid of the influence of the “western centralism” and ideological prejudice,lack of understanding of the Chinese history and culture,and excessive reliance on western theories to find out the reality of China.This thesis has also made objective judgments and responses to those parts.The China quarterly has been continuously published for 60 years since 1960.Thousands of articles and book reviews published by The China quarterly add up to an important historical database of overseas contemporary Chinese studies.Therefore,we should pay constant attention to the achievements and trends of The China Quarterly's research on contemporary China,strengthen the dialogue and exchanges between domestic and overseas scholars,promote the theorization and internalization of contemporary China studies,as well as contribute to the construction of a discourse system that not only conforms to China's reality but also integrates China and foreign countries. |
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