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Routledge Contemporary China Series

About the Book Series

The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality work by both new and established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of contemporary China.

273 Series Titles


Hui Muslims in the Shaping of Modern China Education, Frontier Politics, and Nation-State

Hui Muslims in the Shaping of Modern China: Education, Frontier Politics, and Nation-State

1st Edition

By Bin Chen
November 04, 2025

Chen examines the Chinese Nationalist government's distinctive support for private Muslim teachers schools between the 1920s and 1940s, and explores the complex relationship between these institutions and the Chinese state during the Republican period.  In 1933, the government issued the Teachers ...

Ancestor Worship in the Diaspora Chinese and China Universes The Making of a Collaborative Cultural Basin

Ancestor Worship in the Diaspora Chinese and China Universes: The Making of a Collaborative Cultural Basin

1st Edition

By Khun Eng Kuah
September 29, 2025

Kuah explores the centrality of ancestors and ancestor worship of the Chinese in the Diaspora Chinese and China universes. Building on the original work and book on “Rebuilding the Ancestral Village: Singaporeans in China”, this book goes beyond the premise of remaking the ancestral home. Ancestor ...

Chinese Diasporic Writers and Artists Reimagining Identity and the Self Beyond and Without China

Chinese Diasporic Writers and Artists: Reimagining Identity and the Self Beyond and Without China

1st Edition

Edited By Kwok-kan Tam, Lily Li
September 10, 2025

This book presents new and original essays that capture the enigmatic and intriguing personal and imagined worlds of Chinese writers and artists in diaspora in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Including chapters on artist-writers such as Gao Xingjian, Dai Sijie, Ha Jin and Hong Ying, Tyrus...

The Transformational Role of Dramaturgy in China’s Performing Arts Proactive Engagement with Multi-Stakeholders

The Transformational Role of Dramaturgy in China’s Performing Arts: Proactive Engagement with Multi-Stakeholders

1st Edition

By Ting Zhang
August 11, 2025

A pioneering examination of a field in its early stages, Zhang delves into a detailed exploration of the evolving role of dramaturgy in contemporary Chinese theatre, bridging the gap between established Western theories and the unique practices emerging in the Chinese theatre scene, and offering ...

How Australia is Studied in China

How Australia is Studied in China

1st Edition

Edited By Richard Hu, Diane Hu
July 31, 2025

China has arguably the largest community of Australian studies in the world. However, not much is known about this phenomenon, including its emergence, rationale, interests, influences, and the implications for strategic Australia-China engagement in a region of increasing challenge and uncertainty...

China's State Ideology and the Three Gorges Dam The Political Theodicy of Development

China's State Ideology and the Three Gorges Dam: The Political Theodicy of Development

1st Edition

By Yuen-ching Bellette Lee
June 13, 2025

This book uses the case of the Three Gorges Dam project to explore the Chinese state’s use of ideology, namely the political theodicy of development, as a governing tactic in the reform era. Presenting observations from fieldwork collected after the dam’s completion, it reveals communities who not ...

Chinese Social Networks in an Age of Digitalization Liquid Guanxi

Chinese Social Networks in an Age of Digitalization: Liquid Guanxi

1st Edition

By Anson Au
May 06, 2025

Chinese Social Networks in an Age of Digitalization investigates the impact of digital media on the traditional Chinese model of social interaction, trust-building, and social capital, known as guanxi. Guanxi is a system of cultural and psychological rules of networking that orders every ...

Heritage Conservation and China's Belt and Road Initiative

Heritage Conservation and China's Belt and Road Initiative

1st Edition

Edited By Victor C. M. Chan, Yew-Foong Hui, Desmond Hui, Kazem Vafadari
April 14, 2025

This book explores how China’s Belt and Road Initiative through promoting a non-Western-centred geopolitical narrative is affecting the conservation and management of Belt and Road heritage sites. Considering the dynamics between academics, heritage professionals, and government officials, the ...

The Geopolitics of China's Belt and Road Initiative

The Geopolitics of China's Belt and Road Initiative

1st Edition

By Theodor Tudoroiu
April 14, 2025

This book argues that China’s Belt and Road Initiative should be seen more as a geopolitical project and less as a global economic project, with China aiming to bring about a new Chinese-led international order. It contends that China’s international approach has two personas – an aggressive one, ...

Heritage, Homemaking, and Identity Formation in Migrant Workers An Ethnographic Study of Yi Migrants in Shenzhen

Heritage, Homemaking, and Identity Formation in Migrant Workers: An Ethnographic Study of Yi Migrants in Shenzhen

1st Edition

By Junmin Liu
April 10, 2025

Liu explores the experiences of Yi migrant workers in Shenzhen, China, investigating how their cultural heritage influences their search for identity and a sense of belonging. This book uncovers the intricate relationship between heritage and homemaking, examining how Yi migrants engage in their ...

Politics of Economic Inequality in China Unbalanced Responsiveness

Politics of Economic Inequality in China: Unbalanced Responsiveness

1st Edition

By Shuai Jin
December 18, 2024

This book applies a novel theory of ‘unbalanced responsiveness’ to the issue of economic inequality in China to better understand the relationship between authoritarian regimes and their citizens. The book highlights how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has responded to dissatisfaction over ...

Social Disciplining and Civilising Processes in China The Politics of Morality and the Morality of Politics

Social Disciplining and Civilising Processes in China: The Politics of Morality and the Morality of Politics

1st Edition

By Thomas Heberer
December 18, 2024

This book argues that a major part of the Chinese government’s road map, formulated in 2017, to modernise China comprehensively by 2049 is the process of social disciplining. It contends that the Chinese state sees that modernisation and modernity encompass not only economic and ...

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