Last week we introduced nine new SciTech and business books authored or edited by HKUST faculty and researchers. In this post, we feature the eleven new books in the fields of humanities and social sciences.
The name of the HKUST member is noted by an asterisk and linked to their scholar profile.
Power for a Price: The Purchase of Official Appointments in Qing China
By Lawrence Zhang*
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The Qing dynasty office purchase system (juanna), which allowed individuals to pay for appointments in the government, was regarded in traditional Chinese historiography as an inherently corrupt and anti-meritocratic practice. It enabled participants to become civil and military officials while avoiding the competitive government-run examination systems.
Lawrence Zhang’s groundbreaking study of a broad selection of new archival and other printed evidence—including a list of over 10,900 purchasers of offices from 1798 and narratives of purchase—contradicts this widely held assessment and investigates how observers and critics of the system, past and present, have informed this questionable negative view. The author argues that, rather than seeing office purchase as a last resort for those who failed to obtain official appointments via other means, it was a preferred method for wealthy and well-connected individuals to leverage their social capital to the fullest extent. Office purchase was thus not only a useful device that raised funds for the state, but also a political tool that, through literal investments in their positions and their potential to secure status and power, tied the interests of official elites ever more closely to those of the state.
Evolutionary Governance in China: State-Society Relations Under Authoritarianism
Edited by Szu-chien Hsu, Kellee S. Tsai*, Chun-chih Chang
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The People’s Republic of China has experienced numerous challenges and undergone tremendous structural changes over the past four decades. The party-state now faces a fundamental tension in its pursuit of social stability and regime durability. Repressive state strategies enable the Chinese Communist Party to maintain its monopoly on political power, yet the quality of governance and regime legitimacy are enhanced when the state adopts more inclusive modes of engagement with society.
Based on a dynamic typology of state–society relations, this volume adopts an evolutionary framework to examine how the Chinese state relates with non-state actors across several fields of governance. Drawing on original fieldwork, the authors identify areas in which state–society interactions have shifted over time, ranging from more constructive engagement to protracted conflict. This evolutionary approach provides nuanced insight into the circumstances wherein the party-state exerts its coercive power versus engaging in more flexible responses or policy adaptations.
Sensing China: Modern Transformations of Sensory Culture
Edited by Shengqing Wu*, Xuelei Huang
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Bringing together 12 chapters by literary scholars and historians, this book critically interrogates the deeply rooted meanings that the senses have coded in Chinese culture and society. Built on an exploration of the sensorium in early Chinese thought and late imperial literature, this book reveals the sensory manifestations of societal change and cultural transformation in China from the nineteenth century to the present day.
Regnum Chinae: The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735
By Marco Caboara*
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This study reproduces and describes, for the first time, all the maps of China printed in Europe between 1584 and 1735, unravelling the origin of each individual map, their different printing, issues and publication dates. It also tells, for each, the unique story that made possible these visions from another world, stories marked by scholarly breakthroughs, obsession, missionary zeal, commercial sagacity and greed.
AI Literacy in K-16 Classrooms
By Davy Tsz Kit Ng, Jac Ka Lok Leung*, Maggie Jiahong Su, Iris Heung Yue Yim, Maggie Shen Qiao, Samuel Kai Wah Chu
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The primary purpose of this book is to respond to the need to conceptualize the emerging term “AI literacy” and investigate how to teach and learn AI in K-16 education settings. This book examines different aspects of learning artefacts, pedagogies, content knowledge and assessment methods of AI literacy education, from theoretical discussions to practical recommendations for curriculum and instructional design.
Proceedings of the Meaning in Life International Conference 2022 – Cultivating, Promoting, and Enhancing Meaning in Life Across Cultures and Life Span (MIL 2022)
By Alex Chi-Keung Chan, Michael F. Steger, Raymond Chi-Fai Chui, Nicolson Yat-Fan Siu*, Susanna Chung Ping Wong Ip, Bess Yin-Hung Lam
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Conference proceeding of the Meaning in Life (MIL) International Conference 2022 “Cultivating, Promoting, and Enhancing Meaning in Life Across Cultures and Life Span” held on 22-25 June 2022 at the Hong Kong Shue Yan University.
刘宗周及其慎独哲学
黄敏浩*著
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本書主要論述了明末大儒劉宗周其慎獨哲學，反映了晚明心學，乃儒學的心性之學的精神與面貌。全書先述了劉宗周的生平、修養及思想發展，再通過對他的主靜、中和、理氣、心性、信仰等觀念以及《人譜》的分析，指出其慎獨真理背後的意涵，實可以“盡心即性”一義來成就。
香港廟宇 (上下卷)
廖迪生*編著 華人廟宇委員會策劃
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香港廟宇數目眾多，各地方社會修建廟宇，供奉神明，為民間宗教活動之基礎，亦是香港珍貴的文化傳統。華人廟宇委員會聯同香港科技大學華南研究中心，出版《香港廟宇》書冊，中心主任廖迪生教授與其研究團隊着力研究香港一〇八組廟宇，再以深入淺出的文字，配合廟宇及儀式活動照片，介紹及分析多采多姿的香港廟宇及民間宗教活動。
聊齋本紀
閻連科著
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閻連科致敬中國古典文學之作，盡寫妖異下潛藏的真實。閻連科承蒲松齡《聊齋志異》文氣，最幻惑纏繞、多重映照，穿梭於古今、真實與虛幻、故事與故事之間的問鼎之作。華麗神異的角色、顛覆閱讀體驗的敘事，一個故事的終結，是另一個故事的起始。
聊齋的帷幔
閻連科著
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《聊齋志異》是一部供人閱讀的故事集，是最富有民間想像的偉大小說和講述。閻連科以東、西方的名著縱橫參照，從《聊齋》故事中最為人熟知的「狐狸」一族悠悠說起，談非人、神異，再至人世、日常，下看地府鬼魂，上探宗教與神，看蒲松齡無盡地書寫人和人世之困絕同時，書寫非人對「人和人的生活」之嚮往。
投考公務員題解EASY PASS 中文運用 (第四版)
袁穎音; 黃樂怡*; 林皓賢; 陳慧中著
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220條精選試題，助你密集操練並掌握答題技巧，熟能生巧。4大試題類型 : 閱讀理解、字詞辨識、句子辨識、詞句運用，詳盡解題。精編三份模擬試卷，計時預習，培養考試心態及答題速度，提升實戰經驗。囊括公務員入職試概覽，政府職系招聘條件及考生常見問題，讓你輕鬆應試。
Contact us for any questions: lbrs@ust.hk.
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- HKUST Research
Tags: humanities, new books, social sciences, staff pubilcations
published September 20, 2023