JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY (HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES)

浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版)


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	JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY 2024 Vol.54 Number 1
	2024, Vol.54 Num.1
	Online: 2024-02-21

	Article

Article

	5	Fu Jiajia, Zhang Guoqing

		Cosmopolitanism and Beyond: Global Justice from the View of China ^Hot!
		Since the 1980s, economic globalization has been accelerating, international relations have become closer, and competition among major powers has become more intense. Global justice is a hot topic in the academic circles, and cosmopolitanism is one important perspective within this discourse. The world today is characterized by institutional diversity, cultural diversity and value diversity. Different peoples and nations have different national and individual interests, which are often in conflict with each other. Due to the absence of a world government above national sovereignty, the feasibility of cosmopolitanism is questionable. Cosmopolitanism does not challenge the basic assumptions of capitalist states but abstracts capitalism from the real world, without deeply reflecting on the logic of the world economy dominated by transnational capital. This theory may appear idealistic but it is substantively dangerous in ideology, as it harbors the liberal presumption of “human rights above sovereignty” and represents another version of Western universal values. Of course, the issue of justice exists on a global scale. We need a more reasonable theory of global justice. However, it is not a cosmopolitanism but rather an international pluralism.In recent years, the Chinese government and people have confronted the common challenges faced by human society and put forward the “common values of humanity” and the concept of “a human community with a shared future”, establishing a political conception that is oriented towards the world and the future in line with the characteristics of globalization and global governance. This conception of global justice replaces the idea of “globalized liberal justice value” and has achieved a profound transformation in the understanding of the humanity itself. The Chinese perspective on global justice includes a series of viewpoints proposed by China to respond to globalization and global governance. It differs significantly from cosmopolitanism and overcomes its shortcomings.The conception of global justice in the Chinese perspective expresses a cautious optimism towards globalization. As a rising powerful developing country, China advocates for peaceful development and win-win cooperation, seeks to resolve international disputes through consultation, jointly addresses human challenges, pursues common values of the humanity, and builds a community with a shared future for mankind. We recognize the moral importance of nation-states, respect national sovereignty and core interests, and urge sovereign states to assume the prior responsibility of the interests of their own people. Global justice should be rooted in the common values derived from the local experiences of each country rather than any forms of universal values. It should be based on the common interests of each country and the overall interests of the humanity rather than being a political guise for any individual country to safeguard unilateral interests or interfere in other countries’ internal affairs. Global justice responds to the common concerns of the humanity and strives for broader national cooperation and political mobilization.Under the guidance of the common values of the humanity, we will reconstruct the blueprint for global justice. Firstly, the common values of the humanity criticize the idea of universal values. We need to distinguish the pursuit of a good life by the peoples of the Western countries from universal values. We also need to view the achievements of the Western countries in pursuing human values dialectically, engage in dialogues in the field of global justice, and strive to establish a global justice consensus that includes the Western countries and their people. Secondly, common values of the humanity acknowledge that different nations have different social systems and ideologies, and respect the different modernization paths of different nations. It guides the people of all countries to form an effective mechanism for consultation and cooperation in dealing with values, interests, and concerns at different levels. Finally, it also recognizes the core position of basic human rights. All modern democratic countries acknowledge that every citizen enjoys equal basic human rights, and China is no exception. However, we must be vigilant against the idea of “human rights above sovereignty”. Global justice is not an international political tool to subvert the regimes of other countries. The achievement of global justice generally cannot come at the expense of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. Even if global justice is the goal of development for the human society, the maintenance of the integrity and independence of sovereign states remains unshakable. Of course, it is necessary to criticize and condemn those government regimes that significantly violate human rights. Global justice is not being inactive in the face of worldwide human rights challenges.There are many controversies over human values. We are willing to engage in dialogues with the Western world to accurately convey our true thoughts. We also have strong theoretical confidence in addressing common challenges and outlining a new blueprint for a global justice based on the common values of the humanity. The Chinese perspective on global justice respects the sovereignty and core interests of independent nations, acknowledges the differences in democratic development among countries, respects the basic human rights of citizens, recognizes the common values of the humanity, respects the history, culture and traditions of all countries, acknowledges the diversity in lifestyles, values and social political systems of different countries. It upholds the overall interests of mankind, responds to the common concerns of mankind and provides a theoretical basis for addressing the numerous challenges faced by mankind in the 21st Century. The realization of this new blueprint will benefit not only the East but also the West and the entire world.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 5-20 [Abstract] ( 29 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 801KB] ( 86 )

	21	Wang Xin

		The Other Modernization: China in the Eye of Western Modernity ^Hot!
		Modernization is a global process. It’s a goal pursued by every country and region in the modern times. This modernization process inevitably presents a wide range of diversity as the world culture differs. In the last hundred years, with the increasingly frequent communication between the East and the West, debates on how to achieve modernization arise in China, such as debates on objects and debates on the system. In fact, they are all debates on the merits of culture and the paths of modernization underneath. Ever since the concept of modernization entered China, the binary opposition between China and the West has been inherent, especially the orientalism argument. The Western modernity development was established in the duality of modernity versus tradition, the West versus the East. Western society judged China with Western reality as the standard. Since the First Opium War, the West has been constantly making China realize its backwardness and stagnation, using military power. With the gradual collapse of China’s traditional tributary system, Chinese intellectuals had a certain cultural identity with the West and believed that the East should learn from the West. For China, the May 4th New Culture Movement was an experiment of modernization entering Chinese society in the 20th Century. The experiment, however, placed Chinese intellectuals in the midst of an unusually exclusive cultural confrontation. In the process of pursuing modernization, China accepted that the West versus the East equals modernity versus tradition. Chinese culture did not stand on its own conceptual basis during self-reflection, whereas completed reflection in the process of learning from the West. Thus, the historical task of realizing China’s modernization through cultural reflection on this basis seemed impossible. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, as its comprehensive power improves, the concept of neo-orientalism has arisen under the influence of the Western ethnic racism. The neo-orientalism is more about taking China as a rival in order to contain its development. It is obvious that from the past Orientalism to the present neo-orientalism, the goal of the West has remained the same, although the presentation style and the context of time and space have changed a lot.As a matter of fact, modernization should not be the only one single way to achieve. There should be a Western modernization plan as well as a Chinese plan. China’s modernization integrates traditional Chinese culture, the excellent Western ideological achievements and Marxist ideological resources. The socialism with Chinese characteristics redefines the concept and character of modernization. It is a pathway neither Western nor Chinese traditional, but surpassing the West, in achieving national prosperity. In the course of China’s modernization, the important initiative of building up a human community with a shared future provides a Chinese solution to the duality between China and the West. The human community with a shared future initiative provides a new paradigm for world communication. It rejects the zero-sum game of the Westphalian system and, instead, achieves a win-win situation in the process of mutual benefit, common prosperity and integrated development.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 21-31 [Abstract] ( 26 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 720KB] ( 48 )

	32	Zhang Bairong

		Civilization Narrative and World Significance of the Belt and Road Initiative ^Hot!
		As a major initiative to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, the Belt and Road Initiative has become a popular international cooperation platform and a unique narrative carrier for China to create a new form of human civilization. Previous relevant research mainly expounded from an empirical perspective on how to jointly build the Belt and Road with high quality as a proposition for economic cooperation and regional international trade. As an important tool to enhance international recognition and build up China’s discourse system, strategic narrative needs to be combined with relevant researches to deepen the research on the Belt and Road Initiative. 2023 is the tenth anniversary of the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. Facing international doubts and slanders, the Belt and Road Initiative needs to be raised to the level of a realistic national strategy of civilization narrative and world significance. Also, it is necessary to enhance the international recognition of the new form of human civilization to respond to the concerns of the international community and counter the counter-narrative effectively. Based on the Marxist view of civilization, the Belt and Road Initiative advocates connectivity to promote the historical progress of civilization, equal cooperation to maintain the diverse pattern of civilization, and human happiness to highlight the value of civilization. In the ten years of cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative has built up a community with a shared future for mankind as its mission, gradually formed a Belt and Road civilization narrative system with rich connotations, and enriched the content narrative of new forms of human civilization including: a material civilization with “common development” as the priority, a political civilization with the principle of “co-consultation, joint construction and sharing”, and a spiritual civilization with the purpose of “civilization exchanges and mutual learning”, the promotion of social civilization of “inclusiveness, tolerance and balance”, and the pursuit of ecological civilization of “harmonious coexistence between man and nature”. The construction of the Belt and Road Initiative has not only achieved important results, but also encountered difficulties and challenges. In recent years, some countries have intentionally spread hostile narratives about the Belt and Road, disrupting healthy interactions among countries along the initiative. Facing new changes of the international situation, we must build the Belt and Road civilization narrative system actively with a community with a shared future for mankind effectively, and expand new ideas for the development of material civilization, political civilization, spiritual civilization, social civilization, and ecological civilization from an international perspective. The Belt and Road civilization narrative is of great global significance. It not only helps late-developing countries break the bottleneck of marginalization and build up a more just and reasonable global governance system, but also opens up new paths in promoting the development of civilizations in the current multi-cultural context, which responds to the various fallacies surrounding the Belt and Road Initiative.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 32-41 [Abstract] ( 31 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 726KB] ( 147 )

	42	Luo Weidong, Wang Qixuan, Xu Bin

		Belief Correction and Investment Contest: The Dual Mechanisms of Information Effects on Educational Investments ^Hot!
		The home Internet enables parents to better communicate with the schools and comprehend their children’s educational performance. Additionally, the home Internet enables parents to acquire outside educational information that may be contrasted with their children’s academic performance. Through two mechanisms, belief correction and investment contest, the educational information parents acquire through the home Internet will have an impact on their decisions regarding investments in their children’s education. On the one hand, the educational information made available by the Internet can help parents form more accurate beliefs in terms of their children’s abilities and make educational decisions that are better suited to their children’s needs; on the other hand, the Internet intensifies interpersonal comparisons, makes clear the rewards of competition in education, and so encourages all parents to increase their investments in their children’s education, resulting in investment contests.In this paper, we investigate whether the use of the home Internet will have an impact on parents’ investments in their children’s education and whether the acquisition of the home Internet affects educational investments through two mechanisms: belief correction and investment contest. We use PSM-DID estimates and an instrumental variable strategy to perform empirical researches on the population of middle school students using data from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). The parental investments in their children’s education, including whether or not their children take extracurricular tutoring classes, the cost of extracurricular tutoring classes in logarithmic form, and whether or not parents check on their children’s homework, are the explanatory variables for our empirical study. Whether the Internet has been installed in students’ homes is the explanatory variable of interest in this paper. We control the individual and family characteristics of students, the characteristics of the school where the students attend, school fixed effect and semester fixed effect, as well as city/county-semester fixed effect in various econometric models to varying degrees. We cluster standard errors at the city/county level.We find that parents of Internet-connected households invest more in their children’s education than parents of non-Internet-connected households. Even after taking possible selection biases into account using PSM-DID and instrumental variable estimates, the acquisition of the home Internet still has statistically significant effects on parents’ educational investments. We further explore the mechanisms through which the home Internet affects educational investments. We find that the acquisition of the home Internet does strengthen the connection between parents and schools, allowing parents to acquire more comparable information in terms of their children’s academic ranks. We also find that parents of high-ranking children frequently underestimate their children’s academic rankings, while parents of low-ranking children overestimate their children’s academic rankings. The acquisition of the home Internet has increased the beliefs of parents of high-ranking students in their children’s academic rankings, reduced the beliefs of parents of low-ranking students in their children’s academic rankings, and to some extent corrected the biases of parents’ initial beliefs, which reflects the belief correcting mechanism of educational information affecting educational investments. The acquisition of the home Internet also increases parents’ assurance that their children need to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher, reflecting the investment contest mechanism of educational information affecting educational investments.Our paper may contribute to the existing literature as follows. Firstly, previous empirical investigations have largely failed in identifying the numerous mechanisms through which educational information affects educational outcomes. We find two mechanisms through which the home Internet, as an information channel, affects Chinese family educational investments for the first time in a nationally representative sample of China: belief correction and the investment contest. Secondly, unlike researches that examine the overall impact of information provision on educational outcomes, and researches that simply examine the relationship between beliefs and educational decisions or the effects of information shocks on belief updating, we investigate the mechanisms through which information affects educational decisions, providing empirical evidence for the theoretical clue of information provision, belief updating, and decision adjustments.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 42-60 [Abstract] ( 31 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 1190KB] ( 102 )

	61	Jin Xuejun, Shi Yunhui, Wu Peng

		Does Local Financial Institutions Promote the Efficiency of Financial Resource Allocation? ^Hot!
		As local financial institutions with the characteristics of “localization”, city commercial banks (CCBs) have indeed played an important role in the allocation of regional financial resources since their establishment in China. Previous studies suggest that CCBs would perform better than large banks, such as state-owned banks and joint-share banks, since CCBs are smaller, flexible and have local information advantages. However, since their establishment, CCBs have been facing the problems of high default rates and increasing non-performing assets, which even triggered off several regional financial risk crises. In that case, questions arise: whether the entry of CCBs optimized the allocation of financial resources or exacerbated the mismatch of financial resources? What is the mechanism behind its influence?To answer the above questions, this study introduces the first deregulation on city commercial bank entry and exploits a staggered difference-in-difference regression model. We first manually collect a list of cities that established CCBs during 1998 and 2007. Among them, 55 cities established a CCB (experimental group), and 146 cities did not establish a CCB (control group).Referring to Toni and White, we then estimate the extent of financial resource mismatch on city-industrial level over the sample period using the China Industrial Enterprises Database for 1999-2007. The descriptive statistics show that after subgrouping, the mean values of the control group and experimental group are 0.746 and 0.707 respectively, indicating there is a significant difference in the efficiency of financial resource allocation between the experimental and the control groups.The benchmark regression results show that the entry of CCBs significantly exacerbated the extent of financial resource mismatch. The results still hold after a variety of robustness tests. In the heterogeneity analysis, we find that the negative impact is mainly concentrated in the central and western regions where the development of the financial market is more backward in China, as well as in the capital-dependent industries. Further analysis shows that the entry of CCBs increased access to credit for local firms but also caused more credit resource flows to lower efficient state-owned firms. After taking local government intervention into account, we find that as the degree of local government intervention increased, the negative impact strengthened, with more credit resources being allocated to firms affiliated with the local government, leading to inefficient allocation.This study makes contributions to the existing literature focusing on bank deregulation. Contrary to the majority of studies that the entry of banks leads to increased regional competition and improves the efficiency of credit resource allocation, this study argues that local banking markets that receive more government intervention can cause an inefficient allocation of financial resources. Additionally, this study also provides an important theoretical basis and practical experience for promoting the development of local financial institutions and enhancing the efficiency of regional financial resource allocation in developing countries like China.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 61-79 [Abstract] ( 30 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 1269KB] ( 116 )

	80	Yu Xiaofen, Zhang Jinyuan, Zhang Yanjiang

		Impacts of GMTZ Policy on Scarcity of Admission Places of Good Public Junior Middle Schools: Evidence from Housing Price ^Hot!
		It has been a long-standing challenge to improve the coordination between government and society in better providing public goods. The basic education (elementary and junior middle schools) provision is one typical example. At the end of the last century, to promote the development of private schools to address the shortage of basic public education, the Chinese government gave out several important privileges. For example, private schools could start admissions much earlier than public schools and set specific admission requirements on students, and rejection by private schools did not influence a student’s admission by public schools. Private schools could also admit students across districts without being limited by school zones and charge much higher tuition fees. With these privileges, private schools gained rapid development and a much better reputation for education quality than public schools. That generated new problems: (1) characterized by high tuition fees and high admission requirements on students or even on parents, good private schools could only benefit the rich, which added to education inequality; (2) good private schools could admit the best students and take away the best teachers, which largely harmed the education quality and thus the reputation of public schools.To address the above problems, the Chinese government issued in June 2019 a policy that removes most of the privileges of private schools. Specifically, the policy requires a student to choose between a public and a private junior middle school in his first round of admission application and requires a private school to admit students within the administrative district where it is registered (hereafter the GMTZ policy). As a result, the GMTZ policy raises the risk for a student to apply for good private school; in the meantime, it raises the chances of students within the administrative districts that have abundant good private schools.This study focuses on the GMTZ policy in terms of junior middle schools in Hangzhou and investigates how the policy changes the housing price premiums associated with the right to be admitted by the public junior middle school of good education achievements (hereafter, good public school premium) to reveal how the GMTZ policy impacts the scarcity of admission places of good public junior middle schools.Applying a DID model and DDD model, we reach four findings based on the records of pre-owned housing. First, we demonstrate that the GMTZ policy significantly adds to the scarcity of admission places of good public junior middle schools and raises the housing price premiums associated with good public junior middle schools by 153,500 yuan. Second, we find that the closer a residential area is to high-quality private junior middle schools, the more substantial the housing price premium is raised by the GMTZ policy. This implies that the GMTZ policy reduces the substitution of a good private school with a good public school. The logic is that before the implementation of the GMTZ policy, good private school is more attractive for students located in an area that is closer to the school because of the convenience of commuting to the school, and private school has stronger substitution to good public schools and thus inhibits the good public school premium; after the GMTZ, the risk of being admitted by the private school is substantially raised, and thus, the substitution effect is largely removed, and the good public school premium is boosted. Third, in the administrative district where admission places of good private junior middle schools are relatively increased by the GMTZ policy, the good public school premiums are less raised. This implies that the GMTZ policy raises the substation of good private schools to good public schools by raising accessibility to good private schools, and thus, good public school premiums are relatively inhibited. The second and third findings demonstrate that the mechanism of how the GMTZ policy adds to the scarcity of admission places of good public junior middle schools is that it reduces the substitution of good private schools with good public schools. Finally, we also find that the GMTZ policy motivates high-income families which prefer high housing quality to shift from quality private schools to chasing quality public schools, and that reveals the behavioral foundation of the substitution mechanism. Robustness tests, including parallel trend tests and different levels of sensitivity tests, are conducted, and consistent results are obtained.This study makes the following three major contributions. First, it contributes to the literature in studying education-related policies by revealing how a policy changes the substitution effect of private schools for public schools and thus changes the scarcity of public education. Second, this paper is one of the initial studies to investigate education and housing price problems from the perspective of government-society coordination in providing public goods, which has important implications for improving the coordination mechanism between governments and the society in the provision of public goods. Third, it further discusses the micro behavioral fundamentals of how an education policy triggers the sorting of residents.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 80-98 [Abstract] ( 21 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 1618KB] ( 55 )

	99	Zhao Yun

		A Study of the Construction Models of World Cultural Heritage Value Interpretation and Spatial Expression ^Hot!
		Over the last 50 years, the world heritage endeavor has developed and achieved remarkable influence and accomplishments. It has protected the shared heritage of humanity and transformed the way we value and safeguard heritage. However, the world heritage system continues to face numerous questions and challenges from both the academia and society. Critical heritage studies and cultural heritage spatial production researches have provided theoretical tools and insights for addressing these questions and challenges, as well as for understanding and resolving specific issues. This paper attempts to integrate the theoretical tools and research findings of critical heritage studies and cultural heritage spatial production researches, focusing on the overall world cultural heritage system to reveal its development characteristics and patterns.The world cultural heritage system features coexisting cultural and spatial processes, with value interpretation and spatial expression constituting the essence of these two processes. Value interpretation serves as the mainstream discourse and active mechanism, while spatial expression operates as the covert discourse and passive mechanism. Together they form the basic means of reproducing and regenerating the significance and spatiality of world cultural heritage. There are three stages of world cultural heritage practice: tentative listing, nomination, and management and monitoring, each corresponding to different cultural processes. These stages encompass the initial identification of world heritage, subsequent re-identification and integration of rationalization processes, and the enhancement of heritage identity and broadening of its influence through rationalization. A layered evolution from spiritual space to physical and social spaces also occurs in spatial terms.Although value interpretation discourse occupies the mainstream in official expressions, it is inseparable from spatial discourse. This paper examines the driving and restraining factors of the world cultural heritage system’s development from the perspectives of cultural processes and spatial production, constructing a double movement model of value interpretation and spatial expression. This model provides a theoretical framework for studying the genesis and development mechanisms of the world cultural heritage system and offers a comprehensive, dialectical analysis and approaches to addressing various manifest or latent issues within the system.In the double movement model of the world cultural heritage system, the first movement is value interpretation, which promotes the system through identity formation and rationalization mechanisms. The ideal practice of value interpretation is to adjust top-down rules into a shared representational system, achieving inter-subjective meaning-making and pursuing collective achievement to the greatest extent. As a cultural process, it generally presents characteristics of inequality in specific rules, sharing of collective outcomes, coexistence of authority in temporal cross-sections, and negotiation from a diachronic perspective. The second movement is spatial expression, which constrains the direction and speed of the value interpretation movement and keeps the world cultural heritage system dynamic. Compared with the cultural processes driven by value interpretation practice, the spatial processes of world cultural heritage involve more complex relationships and diverse demands among international organizations, states, areas, experts, and other stakeholders. Spatial attributes continuously accumulate as the practice progresses, producing and reproducing world cultural heritage spaces. Due to the presence of the second movement, the gap between “top-down rules” and “shared representational systems” in value interpretation becomes apparent through spatial practice and representations of space, forming multiple tensions in representational spaces.From the perspective of the development mechanisms and dynamics of the world cultural heritage system, when the movements of value interpretation and spatial expression are aligned, they promote the progress of the system and the sustainable development of heritage sites. When these movements are not aligned, they constrain the development of the world cultural heritage system and heritage sites. Overemphasizing the driving role of value interpretation while neglecting the restraining role of spatial expression can provoke resistance from social spatial production to meaning construction, leading to difficulties in the system’s development. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the spatial attributes of world cultural heritage, deepen our understanding of the spatial production of world cultural heritage in different dimensions, and connect value interpretation with spatial expression, promoting their coordination.Based on our understanding of the production and reproduction mechanisms of world cultural heritage, we can engage in this field with a more proactive attitude and aspiration. Building on China’s extensive world cultural heritage practice over the last 40 years, we can conduct in-depth researches into identity and rationalization mechanisms in the value interpretation practice of world cultural heritage, draw on these experiences to form a Chinese discourse system, and incorporate it into international dialogues. Meanwhile, we can construct a compatibility mechanism for world cultural heritage value interpretation and spatial expression as a means to explore new spatial features of world cultural heritage, contributing Chinese solutions to the sustainable development of the world cultural heritage system.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 99-111 [Abstract] ( 21 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 1115KB] ( 98 )

	112	Zhang Rouran, Wang Jianing

		A Study of the Recognition of the Integration of Cultural and Natural Values of World Heritage from the Tourist's Perspective: A Case Study of Guilin Karst ^Hot!
		Since the implementation of the “Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage” in 1972, UNESCO’s World Heritage program has adopted a standardized process, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) respectively assessing the cultural and natural values of the heritage sites nominated by the signatory nations. When local governments in China apply for World Heritage status, their primary consideration is to select the appropriate “Outstanding Universal Value （OUV）” to ensure a successful nomination. This approach has resulted in some heritage sites’ value being inadequately articulated in the nomination documents, particularly for the natural heritage sites where cultural value is often overlooked, which can be detrimental to the subsequent protection, management, and presentation efforts.In recent years, UNESCO has been actively exploring the integrated cultural and natural value of World Heritage, launching the “Culture-Nature Journey” project in collaboration with ICOMMOS and IUCN. Drawing upon global case studies, the project seeks to uncover diverse stakeholder perspectives on the concept of integrated value, thereby addressing a gap in the existing World Heritage evaluation criteria.This research uses the heritage reflection study as an analytical framework, examining the perspectives of both ancient and modern tourists. Taking Guilin Karst, a World Natural Heritage site, as an example, this study has analyzed the texts of ancient and modern tourist poems and contemporary online travel logs. The findings reveal that tourists are not only the experiencers of Guilin’s landscape culture but also the creators of its value. Their personal experiences and understandings affirm and shape the cultural and natural value of Guilin. In the Chinese cultural context, the natural beauty and cultural value of Guilin’s landscape integrate and complement each other, forming an inseparable unity.The discourse of the tourists provides a fresh perspective to reexamine the cultural and natural value of heritage, showcasing the wisdom of Chinese tourists. The present study offers three key insights. Firstly, the value of a heritage site is not static but it develops over time. Contemporary tourists enrich and deepen the value of Guilin’s heritage through their experiences. They not only understand and agree with the “Outstanding Universal Value” of Guilin Karst, a World Natural Heritage site, but also attribute profound cultural connotations to it. To them, “Guilin” symbolizes “the culture of Guilin’s landscapes” and “Guilin’s landscapes are the finest under heaven”, not merely the “Karst landscape” or “Guilin Karst World Natural Heritage”. The Guilin they perceive is a perfect fusion of natural beauty, history, culture, social and aesthetic value, with the “Outstanding Universal Value” of the World Natural Heritage being only a part of it. Hence, from the perspective of the Chinese tourists, the values of nature and culture are intertwined and inseparable. The cultural values that emerge from Guilin’s natural landscape, which are overlooked during the heritage nomination and assessment processes, exemplify the most significant difference between public and authoritative discourses.Secondly, the ten “Outstanding Universal Value” criteria established by the Operational Guidelines should be re-evaluated in a globally diversified context. For instance, this study believes that the current criteria (vii) for assessing World Natural Heritage, “to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty”, is inadequate as it treats aesthetic value as a pure natural value assessment criterion. Guilin Karst’s inclusion in the World Heritage List fulfills criterion (vii) for natural heritage, but the aesthetic value of Guilin’s landscapes, as viewed by tourists, is a clear manifestation of the blend of traditional Chinese aesthetics and natural landscapes—a cultural attribute rather than purely natural. Therefore, criterion (vii) of the “Outstanding Universal Value” should be redefined to serve as a bridge to assess both natural and cultural values.Thirdly, the value of heritage is not singular; it stems from various global contexts—natural, social, and cultural. However, the “Outstanding Universal Value” of the Convention is built upon Western universal values. This may lead to overlooking the differential attributes of cross-regional heritage during the nomination and management of World Heritage, as the OUV, as a unified assessment criterion, may fail in fully comprehending and incorporating local characteristics and values. In the face of the Western value-dominated criteria and rules for World Cultural Heritage nomination, China faces certain challenges. Firstly, due to differences in Western and local perceptions and cognitions, international experts may understand the functional attributes of the heritage, but struggle to comprehend its deep cultural meanings and ethnic emotional value. Secondly, the spiritual aspect of cultural heritage is harder to grasp than the material cultural layer. Lastly, experts evaluating heritage, influenced by Western culture, may have a limited understanding of the heritage value born from traditional Chinese culture, or even hold biases.Since China became a signatory to the Convention in 1985, up until the beginning of the 21st Century, China has been nominating World Heritage sites based on existing international rules, seeking recognition from IUCN and ICOMOS to successfully list the sites on the World Heritage List. However, with China’s deepening participation in global cultural governance in recent years, and UNESCO’s promotion of diversified heritage values, China has started to incorporate its unique values into World Heritage nomination and management practices, thereby influencing the formulation of UNESCO World Heritage project rules. Through a comparison of ancient and modern tourists’ views, this study finds that Chinese tourists have been able to appreciate the profound cultural and natural value of Guilin’s landscapes while experiencing them since ancient times. The bottom-up observations of tourists have enriched the value of Guilin as a World Heritage site in a more democratic way.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 112-128 [Abstract] ( 32 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 13581KB] ( 101 )

	129	Liu Huimei, Chen Xian

		Leisure’s Nature of Freedom in Modern Society ^Hot!
		In our modern society, leisure and leisure choices are abundant. Some scholars, therefore, argue that there is an expansion of freedom in leisure. Individual desires give rise to a flourishing leisure industry and various leisure opportunities, and leisure means freedom. Others contend that one cannot escape the constraints of social structures. Factors such as class, economic status, and race firmly differentiate individual leisure choices and leisure remains a socially constructed symbol in the modern society. These two views represent the debate of the modern “leisure paradox” of whether leisure is free or constrained. It should be noted though: in the former case, the prevalence of consumerism has transformed the freedom of leisure into the freedom of consumption; in the latter case, the power of individual agency has been largely ignored. At the same time, with social psychology and positivism leading the way in leisure studies since the 1960s, a purely subjective sense of “perceived freedom” was increasingly accepted as the understanding of freedom in leisure. But this purely subjective sense of freedom tends to reduce leisure to an individualized private sphere and reduce the possibilities of the communal benefits that leisure could achieve at a larger and higher level. It is argued in this paper that in the modern society leisure remains inextricably linked to the production-based essentialism of labor. Therefore, the first dimension of freedom in leisure is that of escape (free from). The second dimension of freedom in leisure as a choice is the result of the entry of free time into consumption, free to leisure in one’s free time. The third dimension of freedom in leisure is the process towards being human, the extent to which one can accomplish this is based on the highest possibility of personal development offered by the development of the level of productivity in the modern society. It is at this level that the human being as a person can break through the limitations of the times. Freedom in leisure is achieved through the sharing of freedom as a whole, a process of becoming. Freedom in leisure points to the transcendence of external constraints, to the transcendence of the self rather than to arbitrariness, and the actualization of individual agency largely determines where it can be reached. In this sense, the exercise of freedom in leisure is linked to the formation of personality, beginning with an increased awareness of what constitutes leisure, i.e., leisure enlightenment. Differences in social systems, classes, literacy levels, habits, etc. can lead to individual differences in the acquisition of freedom in leisure, but these differences are not simply differentiated by level, and any journey toward personal liberation is a worthwhile one. The concept of “freedom” in leisure has been one of the main points of debate among leisure scholars, and there is no systematic discussion of it in China yet, so this review provides a reference for the future expansion of the topic in China. The emphasis on leisure enlightenment and individual agency contributes to the interpretation of generating power with leisure.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 129-137 [Abstract] ( 26 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 705KB] ( 128 )

	138	Qi Hao

		The Cross-boundary Style: The Special Changes of Fu Outside the System of Ancient Literary Writings ^Hot!
		In the variation of literary genres in ancient China, some forms transcended their original literary scope and permeated into other domains of knowledge. Persisting over a long period of time,this phenomenon was mainly manifested in the fu.Whether they were ancient physicians with scholarly temperament or fortune tellers and geomancers shrouded in an aura of mystery, they all belonged to the “subordinate knowledge communities” outside the traditional elite literati. The level of knowledge they grasped was relatively lower and their professional domains tended towards the lower social strata. These ancient doctors, fortune tellers, and geomancers all successfully incorporated the fu into their own cultural categories, to serve the expression of knowledge in traditional Chinese medicine, fortune telling, and geomancy. Thus, the “fu of physicians,” “fu of fortune tellers” and “fu of geomancers” gradually emerged. These three special types of the fu, on the one hand, expanded the traditional fu’s expressive content and functions, while on the other hand, still retained the basic framework of the fu, which can be regarded as mutations of the fu.Generally being considered as a literary genre, the fu pursues ornamentation in language and textual style as well as expressiveness in emotions and attitudes, possessing distinct aesthetic quality. However, these three special types of the fu were all created to expound upon the theories and techniques within their respective domains of knowledge. Without a doubt, their primary purpose in being composed was practical consideration rather than conveying literary aesthetics. Therefore, these three unique types of the fu actually underwent a transcendence from the literary to the non-literary, and this phenomenon can be termed the “crossing of boundaries by literary genres”.The main reason that the fu underwent a “crossing of literary genres” is its rhyming and easy chanting, which enabled various types of concrete knowledge in traditional Chinese medicine, fortune telling, and geomancy to be quickly and accurately understood and memorized. However, parallelism and elaboration in the fu were also important reasons why it was chosen as the “crossing genre”. In specific works of creation, the “fu of physicians”, “fu of fortune tellers” and “fu of geomancers” often employed the fu to express their own theories. For example, the relationships between integral, corresponding, foiling, and parallel elements of knowledge were all suitably conveyed through the fu. Moreover, the fu possesses the features of an orderly form and powerful style. Using the fu to elucidate the theoretical knowledge systems of traditional Chinese medicine, fortune telling and geomancy also introduced a dynamic style into the texts, which increased the rationality of the theories and helped in persuasion.The “crossing of literary genres” in ancient Chinese literature has not received due attention from scholars to this day. As a result, many specific academic questions have not been reasonably answered, such as “whether xuanyan poetry is poetry” and “whether the verses and chants created by the Buddhist monks and Taoist priests are poetry”. From the perspective of “crossing of literary genres”, it can be discovered that although xuanyan poetry is not literary poetry, it remains a form of poetry. Essentially, it is a type of non-literary poetry, belonging to the “crossing from literature to philosophy”. The verses and chants created by the Buddhist monks and Taoists belong to the “crossing from literature to religion”. Although they are not literary poetry, they still remain forms of poetry.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 138-155 [Abstract] ( 31 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 1120KB] ( 69 )

	156	Xie Jing

		Old Wine in New Bottles: The Value and Path of Integrating Traditional Culture into Judiciary ^Hot!
		Modernization is modernization based on tradition. Promoting the great Chinese traditional legal culture is not to blindly adhere to tradition, but to take tradition as the foundation, advance it after inheritance, and realize its creative transformation and innovative development.Unfortunately, the confidence of the country has been lost since the modern era, and the history of modern legal system in the past hundred years has been always in line with the West. Under the influences of the Western culture and civilization, various so-called modern legal systems and judicial institutions have been set up gradually to replace the traditional, but in all fairness, how effective is it? If only from the perspective of the legal profession, the legal relationship of many sensational cases that have occurred in recent years is not considered complex. It is no wonder that whenever there is public outcry, scholars often criticize the public’s lack of legal knowledge as experts, emphasize the professionalism of the judiciary, and discuss the negative interference of public opinion with the judges’ independent adjudication. It must be admitted that the professionalism of the judiciary and the independent adjudication of the judges is indeed important, and it is necessary for achieving the ends of justice. However, the means is to serve the purpose. If the so-called professional and independent adjudication cannot resolve the dispute but leaves most people with a sense of unfairness and injustice, and creates social contradictions, what is then the advantage of such a “profession”? The question that should be considered is why the gap between the “professional” and the general public’s sense of justice is so large. I am afraid the reason for this is that we have forgotten the large difference between Chinese and foreign cultures, and that foreign theories and systems may work well in other countries, but may not work well in China. Chinese traditions have lasted for thousands of years and are not necessarily inferior to those of the West. The most influential and the greatest culture of the traditional era is Confucianism, so the integration of great traditional culture in judicial adjudication should mainly start from Confucianism. Confucianism was founded by Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period and became a prominent school of thought in the era of contention of a hundred schools of thought. After the reform of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who “dismissed the hundred schools and revered only Confucianism”, it became the unchanged orthodoxy for more than 2,000 years and penetrated into all aspects of the traditional era. Confucianism is extremely inclusive, and it has absorbed the essence of Taoism, Legalism, Mohism and even Buddhism from the outside. The ocean is vast because it is fed by hundreds of rivers. Confucianism is not only the most outstanding culture of the traditional era, but also a kaleidoscope of the various cultural schools of the traditional era.So, how to integrate traditional culture in judicial activities? Traditional culture can be integrated and promoted in the part that is compatible with the law. When encountering legal blanks in the civil field, traditional culture can be used to fill up the loopholes. If there is a conflict between traditional culture and the existing law, attempts should be made to coordinate and moderate. In case adjudication, traditional culture is mainly integrated into the judiciary through the method of interpretation, and the Supreme People’s Court can integrate traditional culture when formulating judicial interpretation and issuing typical cases such as the guiding cases, in order to model the judicial work of courts at all levels.The innovation of this paper is mainly reflected in the following aspects. Firstly, connecting the ancient with the modern. This paper attempts to integrate traditional culture into today’s judicial activities, to help and improve the latter, and to compensate for the latter’s drawbacks caused by a century of Western concerns. Secondly, it proposes a new explanation for the causes of the sensational cases, that is, the reason why these cases have attracted widespread public attention is not simply a technical problem within jurisprudence (Rechtsdogmatik), but lies in the disdain for traditional culture and the neglect of national conditions and public sentiment. Thirdly, theory is linked to practice. The article starts from several real cases, among which there are both cases with bad effects due to the neglect of traditional culture and good cases with unification of legal and social effects due to a certain degree of respect for traditional culture. This paper distills several reasons why judicial activities should make use of traditional culture, and summarizes operable methods and paths for integrating traditional culture into judicial activities.
		2024 Vol. 54 (1): 156-168 [Abstract] ( 47 ) [HTML 1KB] [PDF 1112KB] ( 52 )

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