H-ASIA

August 31, 2005

ICAS 4 Book Prizes awarded to Christopher A. Reed and Elizabeth C. Economy

(courtesy of Paul van der Velde, IIAS)

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From: Frank F. Conlon <conlon@u.washington.edu>

On Saturday, August 20, 2005 the Fourth International Convention of Asia Scholars was opened in the Friendship Hall of the Shanghai Exhibition Center.  Following the speeches of welcome and inauguration, Anand Yang, President-elect of the Association for Asian Studies and Paul van der Velde, Secretary of the International Institute of Asian Studies, presented the first ICAS Book Prizes to Christopher A. Reed and Elizabeth C. Economy.

The ICAS inaugurated the book prizes and a dissertation prize after the previous meeting in Singapore with the competition being defined as ãall scientific books published in 2003 and 2004 on topics pertaining to Asia.ä Three prizes were designated: 1. best study in the field of the Humanities 2. best study in the field of the Social Sciences 3. best PhD in the field of Asian Studies.  Categories 1 and 2 carry a prize stipend of 2500 Euros.  The best PhD thesis is guaranteed publication in the ICAS/Brill series.  Short lists of the three categories were announced during the AAS Annual Meeting in Chicago, 31 March-03 April 2005.  One stipulation was that the awardees must participate in ICAS 4 and be present in Shanghai.

As Paul van der Velde remarked at the ceremony, these prizes ãwere established with the aim to create by way of a global competition both an international focus for publications on Asia while at the same time increasing their visibility worldwide.ä

A Reading Committee reviewed 38 books (23 Humanities and 15 Social Sciences) to identify three titles in each category for the short list. Two dissertations were short-listed as well.

The Reading Committee membersâ names were not published until the day of the award ceremony.  They were chaired by Professor Anand Yang of the University of Washington and President-Elect of the [US-based] Association for Asian Studies; Dr. David Hill, professor at Murdoch University; Dr. Krishna Sen, Vice-President of the Association of Asian Studies of Australia; Dr. Guita Winkel of Leiden University; Dr. Mehdi Amineh, fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies; and Dr. Paul van der Velde, ICAS Secretary.

The following works were awarded prizes, the citation for each follows the title:

The prize for best book in the humanities was awarded to: Christopher A. Reed, _Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876-1937_ (Vancouver/ Toronto University of British Columbia Press and Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 2004), ISBN: 0774810408; 774810416 (paperbound)

ãThe work knits together cultural and technological histories in a simultaneously readable and erudite text. It is based extensively on Chinese language documents and is a response to Îwesternâ historiography of print technology and its Îconsequencesâ in late 19th and early 20th century China. Reed describes the existing print culture of China, prior to the arrival of Gutenbergâs moving letter press machine and shows how the new technologies had to be embedded into an existing print culture and technology with its own pre-existing norms. He also shows that the print-led socio-economic transformations were equally in the hands of the machinists, who moved the locus of Chinese publishing from Canton and Hong Kong to Shanghai within the space of about a generation and a half. It is a wonderfully detailed history of the press. It will appeal to a wide range of scholars of China and theorists of culture and technology.ä

Dr. Christopher A. Reed is an associate professor of Modern Chinese History in the History Department of The Ohio State University.

In the social sciences, the award was made to Elizabeth C. Economy,

_The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to Chinaâs Future_. (Ithaca NY: Cornell U Press: 2004), ISBN: 0-8014-4220-6; 0-8014-8978-4 (paperbound)

ãThe Chinese people have transformed their country from a developing nation into an economic powerhouse. Equally striking, however, has been the price that Chinaâs environment has paid for this transformation. Elizabeth C. Economy captures extraordinarily well the complex historical, systemic, political, economic, and international forces that are shaping Chinaâs environment. No other volume on this enormously important issue is as comprehensive, balanced, and incisive. The style is direct, factual, uncluttered by jargon and accessible to the non-specialist. The book concludes with scenarios for Chinaâs future.

Elizabeth C. Economy has written a well-researched analysis of the environmental degradation that has occurred in China and its implications for the rest of the world.

Dr. Elizabeth C. Economy is Director of Asian Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The PhD dissertation prize has been awarded to Sammual Kowk-Fu Wong of the University of Sheffield for ãCommunity Participation of Mainland Chinese Migrants in Hong Kong - Rethinking Agency, Institutions and Authority in Social Capital Theory,ä University of Sheffield, 2004

ãBased on fieldwork conducted in 2001-2 among poor, newly arrived mainland Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong, Wong reviews the concept of social capital to question common assumptions underlying policy prescriptions in pro-social capital programs. His well-written thesis is an original contribution that aims not so much to cast Îsocial capitalâ away as a theoretical concept as to soften its rigid use in current development strategies. His study is of wider impact than for Hong Kong immigrants alone and calls for a reconsideration of conventional understandings of development programs.ä

The next ICAS will be held in 2007 in Kuala Lumpur.  The deadline for submission of books and dissertations will be December 31, 2006.  Consult the International Institute of Asian Studies for further details.

And so, congratulations to Dr. Christopher A. Reed, Dr. Elizabeth C. Economy, and Dr. Sammual Kowk-Fu Wong for their outstanding contributions to Asian Studies.

Frank F. Conlon

Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian

     Studies & Comparative Religion

University of Washington

Seattle, WA 98195-3560      USA

Co-editor, H-ASIA

Managing Director, Bibliography of Asian Studies Online

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