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Article: The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today.
- Article from:
- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
- Article date:
- March 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Royal Anthropological Institute. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Earlier published as a special issue of Daedalus (Spring 1991) with two additional articles, this book caters for, yet manages to transcend, the current American preoccupation with China that is a curious mixture of admiration, aspiration, fear, orientalism and traditional missionary zeal. The living tree challenges students of China and the overseas Chinese to take a break from their research and contemplate afresh some of the old questions of Western sinology: what - if anything - makes Chinese culture unique; what are its competitive advantages and disadvantages compared with Western cultures; who, and for what purpose, defines Chinese culture; and, especially, what is ...