China: Promise or Threat?: A Comparison of Cultures

by Horst J. Helle

Overview

In China: Promise or Threat? Helle compares the cultures of China and the West through both private and public spheres. He argues that, for China, the private sphere of family life is well-defined and regulated, where as behavior in public relating to matters of government and law is less so. In contrast, in his view, the West inverts this arrangement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608468393
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Series:	Studies in Critical Social Sciences
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Horst J. Helle held full professorships at the RWTH Aachen University, the University of Vienna, and the University of Munich. He worked at universities in other countries, including a year at the University of Chicago and, since 1996, in mainland China.

Table of Contents

Foreword: A Fascination with China, by David Fasenfest
Preface
Introduction: The Goal of this Book

1. Familism: A Threat to the Environment
The “Public Sphere:” Rights without Obligations
Two types of Personal Association
Personalization of the Law

2. Exchanges of Threats: The Opium Wars
International Relations: Britain
Russia, Japan, and Germany
The Chinese Experience: Threat and Disappointment
Why Did China not Defend herself?

3. China and the US: A Balance of Power?
Why follow Thucydides?
Promises and Threats Based on Economic Interests
Real and Imagined Military Threats

4. Religions: Core Components of Cultures
The Task at Hand: What is a Religion?
Shared Origins of Contemporary Religions
Governmental Interference with Religious Affairs

5. Religious Vitality in Contemporary China
Types of Atheism in Party Politics
Ancestor Worship: The Religion of China

6. Max Weber’s View of Religion in China

7. Daoism: China’s Native Religion
The Fundamentals of Daoism
Nature and Life Everlasting in Daoism
Daoism as seen by Confucians and Buddhists

8. Oracle-Bones: The Mandate of Heaven
How to Change – forward or backward?
The Splendid Age of the Oracle Bones

9. Confucius: Recapture the Lost Splendour
The Heavenly Mandate Shared by Relatives
Finding Options for the Future
The Party or the Family as “Church” in China?

10. The West: Individualism at its Limits
The Western Family as Tragedy
Cultural Evolution of Kinship in the West

11. China: The Kinship Society
Granet and the Analects: Evolution of Kinship in China
Fei Xiaotong: Field Work on Types of Family Life
Altruism and Selfishness: A precarious Balance

12. China: A Threatening Promise to the West
Summaries of the Chapters
Concluding Queries about Threats and Promises

Bibliography
Index