Within the Limits of Human Nature: Reflections on Technology and Humanities

(by HE Huai-hong)

Abstract:Nowadays, the serious imbalance between technology and humanities and that between the capability to control things and the ability of self-control reminds us to think over the ignored issue of human nature. The major risk that human beings face today may come from humankind itself. Human nature means not only ideal possibilities but also limits to feasibility, which determines the scope of what human beings can expect and what we can do. Human nature can be good and human beings are moving towards good. Is it possible, however, for the humankind to achieve universal and infinite perfection? Infinite progress in a single direction has formed a modern “myth”, which has prompted high and new technology to go beyond the scope within human control and the moral domain that human can bear. Hence, we shall consider an approach of periodic improvement and sustainable balance. We may accept primary universal moral norms to restrict our behaviors. We may also regulate our pursuit of values, eventually converting from the simple pursuit for the ability to control things or satisfy our material desire to the spiritual enrichment and development.

Keywords:technology, humanities, human nature, progress

“Control” and “Assistance” Based on the Data-intelligent Technology: The Significance of Laozi for Social Management Today

(by LI Quan-min)

Abstract:In a social system, there exist modes of heter-organization and self-organization, in both of which the data-intelligent technology may play an important role. In accordance with the idea that “the Dao follows nature (ziran)”, the mode of self-organization can promote social harmony and free development of individuals better under normal social conditions. The data-intelligent technology will be a powerful means to realize “non-action” (wuwei).

Keywords:data-intelligent technology, heter-organization, self-organization,ziran,wuwei

The “Being” in the Human World: The Theme and Implication of “In the Human World” inZhuangzi

(by YANG Guo-rong)

Abstract:In human communication, the use of speech is inevitable. Zhuangzi first notices the negative impact of speech and knowledge in this process. “Speech” and “knowledge” may cause “division” among humans and hence how to build reasonable relationships through communication becomes an issue we cannot ignore. Regarding “internally upright but externally adaptable” as the general principle, Zhuangzi distinguishes three aspects in communication: “being a follower of the ways of Heaven”, “being a follower of the ways of man” and “being a follower of the ways of the ancients”. Meanwhile, he attaches importance to the self-enhancement of individuals. The self is conceived as the starting point of human communication, which is involved with the understanding and cultivation of the self. In the elaboration of the “fasting of the mind-heart” (xinzhai), Zhuangzi probes deeply into the self, advocating “allowing your ears and eyes to open inward and thereby placing yourself beyond your mind’s understanding consciousness”. Living in the world, human beings involve with the “usefulness” in the broad sense. In Zhuangzi’s view, “usefulness” can be divided into two types: the “usefulness” for others and that for the self. What is useless for others might be worthy for the self. Adopting the metaphor of a tree, Zhuangzi regards the “uselessness” for others and the society as the premise of realizing the inward value of man. In spite of its negative aspect, this theory shows its concern about the self.

Keywords:Human World, being together, fasting of the mind-heart, usefulness of the useless

Overcoming the Dualistic Paradigm of Righteousness and Profit

(by LIU Jing-fang)

Abstract:In a period of social transformation, more and more people feel the inadequacy of the traditional distinction between righteousness and profit in dealing with issues concerning profit and morality. This paper argues that the crux lies in the dualism of the traditional paradigm and suggests to put righteousness and profit together with Dao so as to form a tripartite paradigm of Dao-righteousness-profit. Such a paradigm examines things from the perspective of Dao, shedding new light on righteousness, profit and their relationship. The new perspective from Dao will help overcome the limits of the traditional distinction between righteousness and profit and facilitate its modern transformation.

Keywords:dualistic paradigm of righteousness and profit, paradigm of Dao-righteousness-profit, distinction between righteousness and profit, examination of righteousness from the perspective of Dao, examining profit from the perspective of Dao

Clarifying the Tiles of Ancient Verses “YangchunBaixue” and “XialiBaren”: On the Rising of New Types of Verses and Their Regional Characteristics in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period

(by XU Yuan)

Abstract:It is generally believed that the phrases of “xialibaren”, “yang’exielu” and “yangchunbaixue” from SONG Yu’s “Answers to the Questions of the King of Chu” in theSelectedLiteraryWorks(Wenxuan) refer to the titles of six verses, that is, “Xiali”, “Baren”, “Yang’e”, “Xielu”, “Yangchun” and “Baixue”. Based on the new and old unearthed materials, it can be concluded that they are actually the titles of three ancient verses, that is, “XialiBaren”, “Yang’eXielu” and “YangchunBaixue”. The traditional misunderstanding is due to the special habit of citing the names of these verses in the Han and Wei Dynasties. Clarifying the titles of ancient verses plays an important role in re-understanding the new folklore music in the Warring States Period, which also help us realize the comprehensive reform of the traditional music represented byTheBookofPoetry(ShiJing) in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Keywords：ancient verses, “Answers to the Questions of the King of Chu”,“XialiBaren”,“YangeXielu”,“YangchunBaixue”

Flashpoint: The Issue of Reduction of U.S. Troops in South Korea and U.S.-ROK Relation(1948—1979)

(by LIANG Zhi)

Abstract:U.S. forces in South Korea is one of the most important issues for the U.S.-ROK alliance from the cold war period to the post-cold war era. The disarmament or withdrawal of U.S. forces in South Korea is most controversial. During over three decades after World War II, this triggered many controversies or even crises of confidence. It reflects the difference of strategic perception between the U.S. and South Korea: the U.S. often decided or proposed to reduce or withdraw the troops from South Korea based on multilateral considerations for global, Asian, and Korean Peninsula affairs; on the contrary, South Korea frequently viewed this as the signs of the decline of U.S.’ security commitment for South Korea or U.S.’ anti-communist determination in Asia and even worldwide. South Korea had no power of veto for the reduction or withdrawal of U.S. forces in South Korea in most cases. The primary reason for the failure of U.S. forces reduction or withdrawal is the disputes among different departments in Washington. Until now, the difference of strategic perception and the asymmetry of discourse right is still one of the basic features of the U.S.-ROK alliance.

Keywords:the cold war, U.S.-ROK alliance, U.S. forces in South Korea, strategic perception, discourse right

Nuclear Inspection and the Eisenhower Nuclear Test Ban Talks during 1957—1960

(by LIU Zi-kui)

Abstract:Nuclear inspection was the most controversial and discussed issue in the Eisenhower nuclear test ban talks. It was also the main obstacle and challenge in achieving a nuclear test ban agreement in this period. Although nuclear inspection was an essential element of a nuclear disarmament agreement, the Eisenhower Government combined the ban of nuclear test with the cold war against the Soviet Union. Thus, nuclear inspection was highly politicized and alienated as a means of opening the door of Soviet society and an excuse for the U.S. to continue nuclear test. It became an instrument for fulfilling its strategic military, political and diplomatic demands and an attractive grasp of the cold war. The Soviet Union also took the ban of nuclear test as a means of the cold war against the U. S., insisting that nuclear inspection was unnecessary despite of some flexibility. Because of the inability to find out common ground, the talks were often mired in mutual recriminations, leading to ongoing disruptions and to a final failure due to the U-2 aircraft incident.

Keywords:Eisenhower, Khrushchev, nuclear test ban talks, nuclear inspection

Eisenhower Administration and American Nuclear Deployment in Italy

(by CHEN Bo)

Abstract:After Eisenhower came to power, he began to deploy nuclear weapons abroad on a large scale with the strategy of “massive retaliation”. Unlike the cases with Germany and France, negotiations between the U.S. and Italy on atomic stockpile went smoothly, and the first nuclear components were stored in 1956. However, the storage did not dampen Italy’s enthusiasm for nuclear weapons. On the one hand, it actively promoted cooperation with Germany and France in the research and development of nuclear weapons. On the other hand, it urged the U.S. to deploy the IRMB. Italy’s favorable domestic public opinion also provided conditions for the U.S. and Italy to finally reach a missile deployment agreement.

Keywords:U.S., Italy, nuclear weapon

From “Folkloristics of One Country” to “Folkloristics of the World”

(by GAO Bing-zhong)

Abstract:“Folklore” in modern folkloristics is a collective concept based on mutual negotiation within the academic community of folklore studies, and this negotiation is also a process of academic construction. At the same time, this academic construction also determines that it can be reconstructed in a new academic context. While modern folkloristics presupposes that folkloristics should be “folkloristics of one country”, the Japanese academic circle advocates “folkloristic of the world”, which responses to the new reality of folklore life and folkloristics under globalization and thereby has become a new enterprise. However, we should also realize that new academic ethics is required in the co-operation and academic communication to pursue “folkloristic of the world” that shall go beyond any “hegemony”.

Keywords:folklore, negotiation, folkloristics of one country, folkloristics of the world

The Necessity to Objectify “Nostalgia” and “Authenticity” in Modern Folkloristics

(by ZHOU Xing)

Abstract:Chinese folkloristics, with a history of more than 100 years, is meeting a new opportunity for development in the 21stcentury. Meanwhile, the existing traditional concepts, paradigms and methodologies of folkloristics seem to be incapable of confronting the enormous diversity of the common people’s life and culture today. Therefore, “modern folkloristics” has become a significant academic topic in recent years. Comparing traditional folkloristics with modern folkloristics to summarize the basic characteristics of modern folkloristics, this paper claims that the growth of modern folkloristics in China must objectify “nostalgia” and “authenticity”.

Keywords:traditional folklore, modern folklore, nostalgia, authenticity

How Is Modern Folkloristics Possible?

(by XU Gan-li)

Abstract:The research targets and theoretical methods of traditional folkloristics are limited in the modern context. Conforming to the development of times, Chinese folkloristics needs to construct new theories and methods to deal with the influence of urbanization, modernization and globalization as well as the new changes of contemporary folklore. This is the urgent task for the transformation of folkloristics. The significant changes of people’s lifestyle in the age of science, technology and information call for the birth of modern folkloristics, which may not understand itself as a discipline, but new research on modernity. Modern folkloristics shall study the urban society of modernity and the lifestyle of the new social groups in the city.

Keywords:modern folkloristics, discipline transformation, city

Several Key Terms in the Modern Turning of Folkloristics

(by LI Xiang-zhen)

Abstract:The modern turning of folkloristics is essentially to shift the folkloristic perspective from the past to the present. This shift is not only a realistic demand for a convincing academic explanation for the life revolution due to social transformation, but also a way of self-salvation for folkloristics when facing disciplinary crisis. Modernity-oriented folkloristics needs to redefine the overall problem consciousness of modern folkloristics by reinterpreting the academic key terms closely related to modernity such as tradition, urbanization, internet technology, globalization, and everyday life. At the same time, modern folkloristics shall truly embrace everyday life at the most realistic level and give professional and profound explanations by fundamentally reversing the situation in which “survivals” are overemphasized in the past.

Keywords:folkloristics, modernity, key term, everyday life

The Road to “New Urban Folkloristics”: Starting from Japanese Urban Folkloristics and Its Problems

(by Nakamura Takashi)

Abstract:From the 1970s to 1990s, urban folkloristics was a hot topic in the field of Japanese folkloristics. It attempts to investigate traditional cities, urban sacrificial rites, urban legends, apartment blocks and residential areas, etc. on the one hand and explore the urban life of ordinary people from the perspective of personal history and individual experience on the other. Such attempts are still significant today. In today’s society, the dual structure of urban and rural areas has broken up, and the phenomena such as globalization and informatization have been in full swing. However, this does not mean that folklorists can turn a blind eye to urban space, urban society and the life of urban people. On the contrary, it is necessary for us to go beyond the previous research paradigms and to explore new paradigms, theories and methods by discussing the folkloric urban studies, so as to explore the direction and problems of modern folkloristics. In this sense, cities are the “l(fā)aboratories” for the development and transformation of folkloristics, and also the key to the shift to modern folkloristics.

Keywords:urban folkloristics, Japan, modern folkloristics

Folklore as a Social Hot Spot and a Public Opinion Topic: An Approach to Contemporary Folkloristics

(by DENG Miao)

Abstract:A hot spot of folklore demonstrates to a great extent social changes in contemporary China. The publicity, collectivity and super space-time nature of folklore, the external environment change and the change of folklore itself are important reasons that cause folklore to become a social hot spot and a public opinion topic. A hot spot of folklore reflects the conflict of ideas between folk tradition and contemporary society, which is an important embodiment of human development in contemporary Chinese society. It is an important choice for folkloristic to meet the social challenges by studying hot spots of folklore, breaking through the disciplinary boundaries of folkloristics and improving the academic explanatory power of folkloristics for China’s social reality.

Keywords:social hot spot, public opinion topic, folkloristics, cultural conflict

Upholding the Principle of Taking Public Property Rights as the Main Body: Theory, Necessity and Functions

(by LI Zheng-tu)

Abstract:The government’s choice of the principle of property rights is not random, but the result of the dialectical unity of objective and subjective conditions, in which objective ones include productivity, the ownership of economy and property rights and the subjective ones the principle of productivity, the ownership of economy and the principle of property rights that the government adhere to. According to this theoretical frame and the author’s previous related research, we can confirm that the Chinese government’s adherence to the principle of taking public property rights as the main body in the new era is not only based on the basic principles of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, but also the inherence and development of the Chinese government’s continuous adherence to the principle of taking public property rights as the main body since the reform and opening-up. Therefore, the Chinese government’s adherence to this principle is theoretically reasonable, logically inevitable and practically effective. In addition, it has economic functions such as resolving the main contradictions in the socialist society with Chinese characteristics, perfecting the basic economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, strengthening, optimizing and expanding the state-owned economy, capital and enterprises, and ensuring the sustained, stable and healthy development of the non-public economy. Hence, we can conclude that deducing the idea that the “ownership system is neutral” from the awareness that “competition is neutral” is lack of logical necessity, though the “competition is neutral” as a principle has been become one of the key ideas in China’s governance and administration at present; the claim that the “ownership system is neutral” is a false judgment in terms of both practice and theory.

Keywords:principle of taking public property rights as the main body, government, the new era, basic economic system, the major principles of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics

Environmental Regulation, Technological Innovation and the Performance of Heavily Polluting Enterprises

(by YANG Rong & PENG An-qi)

Abstract:Taking heavily polluting enterprises during 2012 to 2018 in China as a research object, this paper studies the relationship among environmental regulation, technological innovation and enterprise performance. The results show that environmental regulation has a positive impact on enterprise performance, and environmental regulation affects enterprise performance by promoting technological innovation, which plays an intermediary role in the relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise performance. Environmental regulation plays a more significant role in promoting the performance of environmental protection priority enterprises and environmental protection oriented enterprises than that of efficiency priority enterprises and efficiency oriented enterprises, and technological innovation plays an intermediary role in the impact of environmental regulation on the performance of the first two types of enterprises. Technological innovation and enterprise performance are significantly positively correlated, and environmental regulation has a positive impact on the performance of environmental protection oriented enterprises. The above conclusions have certain guiding significance for the government to formulate environmental policies and enterprises to carry out innovation activities and improve enterprise performance in the face of environmental regulations.

Keywords:environmental regulation, technological innovation, corporate performance, heavily polluting enterprises

Analyst Coverage, Cash Flow Risk and Stock Price Crash

(by PEI Ping, FU Shun & ZHU Hong-bing)

Abstract:The risk of stock price collapse is the “obstacle” to the steady operation of China’s capital market, which has been widely concerned by the academic circle and others. However, few studies on stock price collapse have been done from the perspective of corporate cash flow risk. Taking A-share non-financial listed companies from 2002 to 2015 as samples, this paper empirically tests the impact of cash flow risk on stock price collapse by using a dual fixed effect model. The results show that cash flow risk has a significant positive relationship with stock price collapse risk, that is, the higher the company’s cash flow risk, the greater the stock price collapse. There is also a significant positive relationship between analyst coverage and stock price collapse risk, that is, the more analyst coverage, the greater the risk of stock price collapse. Analyst coverage reinforces the positive relationship between cash flow risk and stock price collapse, indicating that analysts do not play a role in alleviating information asymmetry. The conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests. The above conclusions not only reveal new factors of stock price collapse from the perspective of cash flow risk, but also provide empirical evidence for understanding the role of analysts in the capital market.

Keywords:analyst coverage, cash flow risk, stock price collapse, A-share listed companies

Employees’ Cultural Value Orientation，Cross-cultural Interaction Capability and Innovation Performance: An Empirical Study Based on Multinational R&D Enterprises in Shanghai

(by YI Ling-feng, LIU Si-ting, SONG Jie & LI Teng)

Abstract:Cultural difference is an important factor affecting the performance of multinational enterprises. Based on a survey of 157 employees of multinational R&D enterprises in Shanghai, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of cultural value orientation differences of employees on individual innovation performance. The result shows that employees’ cultural value orientation has a significant impact on their innovation performance. Specifically, low power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, flexible culture and long-term cultural value orientation have positive effects on employees’ innovation performance. Furthermore, the layered stepwise regression method is used to examine the moderating effect of the cross-cultural interaction capability of the employees on the relationship between the cultural value orientation of the employees and their innovation performance. It shows that the cross-cultural interaction capability can significantly moderate the relationship of low power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, long-term orientation cultural value orientation and employees’ innovation performance in a positive way. The above-mentioned study can theoretically enrich the empirical research on the differences in the cultural value orientation and management of employees in the Chinese cultural context. In practice, it can provide management enlightenment for the internationalization of Chinese R&D enterprises and the development of multinational R&D enterprises under the background of the rapid economic and social development in China and the construction of Shanghai as a global scientific and technological innovation center.

Keywords:employees’ cultural value orientation, cross-cultural interaction capability, innovation performance, multinational R&D enterprises