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《神州交流》Chinese Cross Currents
Making sense of what is happening today often requires that we keep in mind what happened yesterday, and, concurrently, comments on current affairs are destined to fall into utter oblivion if no sound “analytical distance” is maintained. Moreover, knowledge looks pretty much like a “multi-layered crust” ( pâte feilleutée ), to use Roland Barthes' famous image. Different analytical grids have then to be mobilised to underpin the multiplicity of layers. Hence, the proper understanding of any phenomenon necessitates that it be put into context, with hindsight, and from a plurality of perspectives. We hope we have partially achieved this aim with the present issue of Chinese Cross Currents. Our World section deals with the recent changes experienced by Sino-African relations, putting them into the more general context of renewed “South-South” relations, and scrutinising their unique political and economic motives. China is home to 350 million smokers and accounts for more than one-fourth of the world annual tobacco consumption. On the other hand, China is the largest grower of tobacco in the world, producing some 1.7 trillion cigarettes annually, while tobacco is the largest source of tax revenue in the country. Yet, no effective tobacco control regulation is at present implemented in China. Our Society section offers some elements of comparison of the workings behind the adoption of smoke-free policies in the US and Europe, while, at the same time, building the case for China to adopt such policies if one only considers the economic impact of smoking on health services. Our Arts and Letters section focuses, this time, on literature and its multiple facets. One of its essays seeks to take a closer look at some transcendental aspirations made accessible by literary creativity, while a second uncovers the recurrence of Chinoiserie, or “the fanciful interpretations of Chinese styles” in different literary genres across the continents—again exploiting the exotic's oddity rather than its candidness. Our Thought and Spirituality section presents in full a lecture delivered by Pope Benedict XVI in Regensburg on faith and reason, and gives the opportunity to a leading Chinese biblical scholar to offer his comments on a text that was only made controversial because of misinterpretation. Finally, our Debates and Features section tackles the ever pressing urge to address “global challenges,” in all their guises—climate change, energy crisis, pollution, unsustainable development, etc. One of the authors believes that the value of “self-reliance” developed among certain human communities is the key, while another advocates that what we need is some kind of economic growth that focuses on enabling, empowering and enriching the poorest people on the planet without wrecking the global environment in the process. Have a pleasant read. |
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Updated Date:2010-06-02 |
