[Sarah Katchinskiy]

I find it interesting that while China attempts to keep foreign influence out, (to greater or lesser degree by way of censorship and restrictions) that same foreign influnce (via orgs like the Ford Foundation) place a value on Chinese culture and attempts to support and preserve it. Is this a concious strategy on the part of the Chinese governement, or simply accidental irony?

[Sarah Katchinskiy]

China seems to struggle regularly with the push-pull of lionizing its own cultural heritage and neglecting it by turns. Bouncing back and forth between looking outward and facing inward are patterns that China has repeated over and over since at least the medieval period. The destruction of villages and the subsequent loss of cultural memory is one face of this internal conflict. The persecution of Christians and identification of Chiristianity as a foreign religion which must be contained is another face. The government shows a seriously conservative bent, limiting the influence from outside by clamping down on churches. At the same time, ironically, tearing down villages in an attempt to modernize hastens the destruction of the culture it judges superior. 

[Sarah Katchinskiy]

I'm interested in the topic of land use and issues of territorial dispute in modern China. From the creation of land through the redirection of the river sediment to the larger projects of land reclamation happening in the South China Sea, China continues to grapple with it's natural boundaries. While from a distance China may appear to have eschewed empire building because iterations of "China" have existed in similar geographic footprints, it is clear from the demograpic diversity and geograpic size of the modern nation that empire building was plausible goal. How does this look today? Are geograpic/territorial disputes and regional power balance natural responses to the territorial limitations China faces? How does this fit in to the China dream?

The intensive cultivation of land, particularly in the eastern and south eastern river basins, and the growth in population is a familiar pattern that can also be found in the medieval period. Improvements in various technologies that dramatically increase yield lead to bursts in economic activity and urbanization. These jumps in growth of both population and economy seem to occur several times historically. I'd like to know more about the establishment of the Peoples Republic and the related population spike and the famine and reactive policies that followed. 

[Sarah Katchinskiy]

Hi everyone- I've finally found my way into the forum. 

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