DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

  

Final Draft.pdf 

 

Insight to Chinese Economy:

A Review of an Academic Journal 

 

Zilong Zhu 

 

ENGL 3301 (SOL)

Professor Kara Mae Brown

Nov 3rd, 2012

 

Insight to Chinese Economy:

A Review of an Academic Journal

 

     In the past decades, the field of Economics has been a very popular discipline, filled with all different kinds of publications. Most of these publications relate ongoing national and international economic policy, economic status quo and much more to the community of economics as well as finance and international affairs. Among many well-known journals in this field, The Chinese Economy takes a very special and unique aspect in shedding light on the booming economy in China since it was founded in 1967, when China was not yet the darling of the global economic development. It stands out among the similar journals because it has done a phenomenal job in integrating both eastern and western economic perspectives in its analysis. Moreover, in order to provide expert insight on China's economic development and directions for future research and policy analysis, it publishes not only research papers by scholars all over the world, but also selected translation articles from a variety of Chinese sources. ("The Chinese Economy”, 2002). All these amazing characteristics make this journal a great source for the world to acquire a deeper understanding of the Chinese economy.

    During its 45 years of publication, The Chinese Economy has done an excellent job in discussing the heated Chinese economic topics and providing very analytical perspectives for its readers. The credit of this should go to its talented and hard-working editorial board. According to the information from their main website, all of the editorial board members have Chinese native background, which means that they are equipped with very comprehensive understanding of the Chinese culture and the Asian economic status quo. Moreover, almost all of the editors held positions in universities in the United States, and most of them are economic doctors with a subsequent degree’s concerning international trade or macroeconomic policy (“Editorial Board”, 2002). Their education background grants them good knowledge of the westernized view of analyzing economic issues. In this journal, they successfully implement their knowledge into the analysis of Chinese economy and make it a great success.

    The chief editor for this journal is Hung-Gay Fung from University of Missouri-St. Louis, who is of great fame in the study of Chinese economy. He acquired his bachelor’s degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1978, when is the first year of the implementation of the Chinese Open-up Policy, and continued his study as a PhD student in Georgia State University from 1979. He has been lecturing on topics of Chinese economy in more than five universities in the States and has been granted many professional recognition and awards in his field. (“Hung-Gay Fung”, 2010) Among all the academic journals he is either reviewing for or participating as an editor, The Chinese Economy is obviously not the most influential or authoritative one. However, he has put a great effort in the editing work of this journal because of its uniqueness among other related ones. In one of the interviews conducted by Georgia State University, he used to express the preference he gives to this specific journal as an editor by mentioning how much he could learn from communicating with other editorial board members and the idea of conveying a true image of Chinese economy from both its domestic and international sources simply fascinates him. (Tan, 2003) It is this passion and enthusiasm of editors that motivate the board members like Fung to spare no effort in continuously improving the quality of the journal and providing the readers a more accurate and vivid view of the Chinese economy. 

    The background of the editorial board does contribute a great deal to the uniqueness of this journal. Another factor that makes it distinctive is the depth of its analysis. Unlike most economic publications, which are only focused on various of economic phenomena and detailed algorithm of correlate variables, this journal does not stop at the level of economic phenomena, but digs deeper to some related political or social factors behind them. Due to reasons such as political atmosphere, sometimes there can be biases and differences between sources available to foreign and to domestic access. Hence, on top of solely analyzing the economic issues from a western perspective, it takes a close look at how the domestic analysts from China view the same issue. These analysts are mostly economists as well as sociologists and politicians. This is of great importance in grasping a more comprehensive picture about the economy from different angles.

A recent article reviewing the economic and financial drivers of growth elaborates on many aspects of the Chinese society such as the legal development or regional differences, and comes up with the conclusion that “China’s imperfect protection of private property, which is deeply rooted in its political regime and commercial contracting adds to the uncertainty for private firms” (Yueh, 2012, P. 41). The author is not only analyzing the economic phenomenon itself, but also drawing connections between it and the current social status quo that is very unique in China. The depth of the analysis has always been appreciated by readers and is one of the reasons that keep this journal popular.

    Throughout The Chinese Economy, the language and writing style that are adopted is very objective. However, even with so much jargon and lexis, the editors have done a great work in making the analytical articles easy to follow. As an academic journal, The Chinese Economy is very outstanding in not solely providing perspectives of Chinese economy to specific professional community, but also to English readers who share strong interest in the booming economy in the international community. In order to make it more reader friendly, each volume of this journal starts with a very comprehensive yet concrete introduction of the content. It relates all the articles within this volume to a specific topic and provides the readers a guideline in reading through. Also, in the selected translation articles from Chinese sources in this journal, the editors are very careful about the language and writing styles adopted to present some unique phenomena in China to a relatively broad range of readers.

    Personally, I have been reading The Chinese Economy for the past two years, and to be frank, it is of great help for me to grasp a deep understanding of the field of economics. Different from other similar readings the tone of which has always been talking about the paradox of development according to the western capitalistic point of view, this journal provides me a very unique angle of looking at this booming economy in terms of including the interpretation of the economists in China. As a loyal reader of this journal, I benefited very much from it and believe it has done a great job in introducing the true image and providing us a great insight to the Chinese economy.

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

“The Chinese Economy”, 2002, M.E. Sharpe, Retrieved from  

    http://www.mesharpe.com /mall/results1.asp?ACR=ces

“Editorial Board”, 2002, M.E. Sharpe, Retrieved from

    http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/ results1.asp?ACR=ces

“Hung-Gay Fung”, 2010, retrieved from http://www.umsl.edu/~fungh/vita.htm

Tan, D. (Producer). Jan 15 2003. Podcast retrieved from

    http://www.umsl.edu/divisions/ business/about%20the%  

    20College/Faculty/Finance%20%20Legal#21Studies@20/fung.html

Yueh, Linda, 2012, July-August, The Chinese Economy, Legal Development,

    Financial Repression, and Entrepreneurship in a Marketizing Economy. Vol. 45,

    no. 4, pp.41

 

 

Final Draft.pdf

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.