Peking University, May 2, 2018: Based on Peking University Global Fellowship, Peking University Press published in April 2018 “College Top Scholars Series". The first series are: Anthropology in the Contemporary World; Thinking is a Way of Life - Reconsideration of Modern Chinese Ideological History; History, Memory and Writing; Great Power Coordinator and Rebel - Perry Anderson's speech in China; The Rise and Expansion of Information Capitalism - The Internet and Nixon Era.
College Top Scholars Series
The "College Top Scholars Series" arranges and publishes the lecturing content and important works of invited scholars in the “Peking University Global Fellowship” program. The series present their academic achievements in full aspects and the clash and crash process of ideas in Peking University. It aims to record Peking University’s progresses towards” world-class university”. The solid footprint in the process also left behind a series of classic works to commemorate the 120th anniversary of Peking University. The publication of this series of books was strongly supported by the Kwang-Hua Education Foundation, Peking University's Office of International Relations and the Education Foundation.
Peking University is known for its excellent tradition of extensive faculty and talents, and many of them are academic masters in world-class standards. In 2012, Peking University set up the “Great College” program to attract and bring together a group of top-notch scholars from all over the world to upgrade the level of overseas intelligence introduced by Peking University, and to fundamentally strengthen Peking University, which increased the comprehensive competitiveness of Peking University to be among the world-class universities.
Among the scholars invited to the "Great College" program, there are not only Nobel Prize winner in the field of natural sciences, the Fields Prize winner, the Turing Prize winner, but also the important thinkers and representative scholars in the fields of humanities and social sciences.
I Anthropology in the Contemporary World
What is the contemporary world? How shall anthropology find its one position in this world and provide a better understanding of the world to people? Professor Parkin discussed how to treat the crises of the contemporary world from the perspective of anthropology, how to reconcile universal and special binary opposition of anthropology, and the linguistic turn in anthropology in the new era, and how to understand the material rejuvenation of material consumerism and religion in the world.
II Thinking is a Way of Life - Reconsideration of Modern Chinese Ideological History
This book is a new work by Professor Wang Fansen to discuss the modern Chinese ideological history. He believes that thought and life are intertwined, and the spectrum of thoughts presented by different groups of people is mixed. Research on the history of ideas should be devoted to portraying the complexity of history. In this way, Wang Fansen explores the modern Chinese people's feelings of existence, their temperament, and their attitude towards life. He flexibly uses materials from ideology, life, and politics to interpret the changes from “new people” to “new man” and the rise of “ism”. New issues such as "future" and "disappearance of people" in modern thoughts present a rich and nuanced spiritual world in the great changes of modern China.
III. History, Memory and Writing
"History, Memory and Writing" is an editorial selection of Patrick Gerry, an outstanding expert on European medieval history. His dissertation covers the major aspects of his academic career in the past half century, involving ethnic consciousness, social changes, cultural structure, and historical memory. There are many important fields such as the application of history, nationalism and the application of genetic technology.
IV. Great Power Coordinator and Rebel - Perry Anderson's speech in China
This book includes lectures of Dr. Perry Anderson. He was invited by Peking University to deliver a series of speeches and discussions in the " Peking University Global Fellowship" progarmm. The book centered on the hegemonic mechanism and the resistance movement in the international system. It involves a series of themes such as the concept of hegemony, the coordinating mechanism of powerful countries, internationalism, international law, and populism against neo-liberalism. Through this book, Perry Anderson not only systematically teased out his important theories, but also made a sobering and calm analysis of the current international order.
V. The Rise and Expansion of Information Capitalism - The Internet and Nixon Era
This book shows the history of the development of information capitalism with rich historical data. Different from previous studies on telecom consumers and suppliers, The Rise and Expansion of Information Capitalism - The Times of the Internet and the Nixon describes a pivotal role of the US government and large commercial users in the political economy of the global information industry through detailed archives. The postal services, telegraphs, telephones, as well as the computer networks and the establishment of US information capitalism resulted from the US government's flexible use of policy measures to institutionalize the most cutting-edge information activities and safeguard the profit-making industry.
Written by: Lu Linlin
Edited by: Wang Chengsiou
Sourse: PKU News (Chinese)
