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Muslimism in Turkey and Beyond: Religion in the Modern World. By Neslihan Cevik. New York: Palgrave, 2016. 270p. $100.00.

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can be placed into three categories: those that advocate convergence with the West; those that want to maintain a mix of Western and Chinese values and institutions; and those that… Click to show full abstract

can be placed into three categories: those that advocate convergence with the West; those that want to maintain a mix of Western and Chinese values and institutions; and those that seek divergence from the West, even to the point of socializing the rest of the world into China’s new global order. These viewpoints repeat and carry forward a debate that has played out in China since the nineteenth century: Are outside influences the cause of China’s problems or the solution to them? Should China learn from foreign models or strengthen and restore its own traditions? The 20 visions make clear that there is no consensus on these questions. The first five chapters present summaries of key individuals on matters of foreign relations, economic development, race, and views of the future from the vantage point of city and countryside. There is also an interesting chapter comparing the American and Chinese dreams and, by extension, American and Chinese exceptionalism. Just as in earlier chapters he presented multiple China dreams, Callahan describes how the American dream has multiple meanings. They too easily become mere slogans with implied connotations, rather then welldefined content. Not all dreams in either the United States or China are compatible, yet the same slogan is used to convey quite different meanings. Callahan rightly notes that the American and China dreams are fundamentally different, however they are defined: The American dream “generally promotes individual freedom and success, and it tends to be suspicious of state power,” whereas the China dream “generally is national rejuvenation through state power” (p. 162). This contrast between individual and collective interests distinguishes the American dream and the China dream. Many Chinese are clearly seeking upward mobility, greater equality, home ownership, and other attributes of a middle-class lifestyle, but these individual goals are generally not part of the China dream. A recurring theme throughout the book is the role of “citizen intellectuals.” Beyond saying that they are not synonymous with public intellectuals in liberal societies, Callahan does not give a precise definition of this concept. It has somewhat fluid boundaries: When artists like AiWeiwei become dissidents, or social critics like Taiwan’s Lung Ying-tai become government officials, they cease being citizen intellectuals, at least for a time. But Callahan also uses the label to describe a senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, a scholar who works in the government’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and even nineteenth-century scholar-officials. Although he claims that they are growing in influence, it is not clear who their audience is or what they are influencing. It is worth noting that several years ago, the Chinese government actively discouraged use of the term “public intellectual,” in part because it did not want public debate over political and economic issues. The same concern would seem to apply to citizen intellectuals. The book ends on a somewhat whimsical note, using a popular movie and the best-selling novel it was based on to ask how compatible Chinese and Western models are. To get ahead in life, how important are individual ambitions and ideals relative to the needs of the company (and, by extension, the country)? Because China’s story is still being written, there is no definitive answer to this question. More generally, the book provides no clear answers on the China dreams and was not intended to do so. It is designed to give general readers an appreciation of the diverse viewpoints related to China’s future. On that score, Callahan succeeds well. China Dreams joins a few other books that also survey ongoing debates within China, including Daniel Lynch’s China’s Futures (2015), Mark Leonard’s What Does China Think? (2008), and, arguably the best of the genre, Joseph Fewsmith’s China since Tiananmen (2001). Like these other books, there is a danger that the specific examples will soon be outdated, but the broader issues have proven to be quite durable. It will be of greatest interest to those who seek an introduction to the debates underway among China’s leaders, scholars, and artists about their country’s present and future.

Keywords: dream; china dreams; american dream; china; world; china dream

Journal Title: Perspectives on Politics
Year Published: 2017

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