China in and beyond the Headlines [Paperback]

In the third volume of this popular series, leading experts provide fascinating and unexpected insights into critical issues of culture, economy, politics, and society in today's China. This world, outside the reach of state control and either misunderstood or unreported in Western media, gains clarity and dimension from the fresh insights of a prominent group of activists, investigative journalists, lawyers, scholars, and travelers, who share a common interest in lessening the profound information gap between China and the rest of the world. In sixteen new essays, they address such key topics as civil society, consumerism, environmental adversity, ethnic tension, the Internet, legal reform, new media and social networking, nationalist tourism, sex and popular culture, as well the costs of urban gigantism to portray the complexity of life in contemporary Chinaand how, increasingly, it speaks to the everyday experience of Americans.

Contributions by: David Bandurski, Susan D. Blum, Timothy Cheek, Gady Epstein, Andrew S. Erickson, Lionel M. Jensen, John Kamm, Wenquing Kang, Katherine Palmer Kaup, Travis Klingberg, Orion A. Lewis, Benjamin L. Liebman, Jonathan S. Noble, Tim Oakes, Jessica C. Teets, Alex L. Wang, and Timothy B. Weston.

In these high-quality scholarly essays, specialists from various fields investigate the most critical issues that China is facing and making a great effort to deal with. They include China's relationships with the US and other countries, human rights issues, social welfare reform, a sharp rich-poor division, rapidly growing popular culture, emerging consumerism and tourism, rapid urbanization, economic development and environmental protection, intellectuals of different ideologies, the establishment of alc*