This book tracks changes in the use of metadiscourse in Chinese scholars’ English and Chinese research articles, discusses how these changes reflect changes in Chinese scholars’ interactions with their peers in China and outside China, and analyzes how Chinese scholars are responding to changes in the academic context that embrace and shape rhetorical practices in the academic world. Around the turn of the twenty-first century, the Chinese government declared the goal of “enhancing international soft power,” and one important way to achieve this goal is to promote China’s global academic influence. China has indeed made remarkable strides in terms of academic output by publishing Chinese scholars’ research papers and monographs around the world. However, “international soft power” means more than just the export of papers or books; it means connecting to and participating in the academic world. For this to happen, Chinese scholars must get to know their international counterparts, understand their rhetorical preferences, and be willing (and able) to accommodate their needs.

This volume brings together an international group of distinguished scholars to provide a fresh assessment of China's strategic military capabilities, doctrines, and its political perceptions in light of rapidly advancing technologies, an expanding and modernizing nuclear arsenal, and increased great-power competition with the United States.

Translation, History and Arts: New Horizons in Asian Interdisciplinary Humanities Research is a collection of selected research papers originally presented at the Todai Forum in October 2011 in Lyon, France, under the auspices of the University of Tokyo, Japan. Papers selected for inclusion in this book stand at the frontier of interdisciplinary humanities research, and are concerned with translation and cross-cultural studies, social and art history, and comparative area studies. A central theme of the papers is the development of a new discursive narrative of local histories against the backdrop of world history. Through case studies of historical and modern socio-cultural events occurring in different regions and countries, this book strives to advance our understanding of the dynamic and complex interactions among distinct social and cultural systems in world history.

Lutes and Marginality in Pre-Modern China traces the complex history of lutes as they moved from the far west into China, and how these instruments became linked to various forms of social, cultural, ethnic, and religious marginality within and at China’s borders. The book argues that the lute, a musical instrument that likely originated in the Near East or Central Asia, became a highly charged object replete with associations of ethnic and political identity, social status, and gender in China across the third to seventeenth centuries, and as such, offers a crucial vehicle for understanding interactions between the Chinese center and periphery. Using a richly interdisciplinary perspective that brings together music history, performance studies, archaeology, and art history, the author draws together the visual evidence for the history of Chinese lutes and analyzes the political and cultural dimensions of their depictions in art. In exploring the lute’s reception across time and space, this book illuminates the shifting relationships between China and cultures along its frontier, as well as the dynamics of gender and social status within China’s center. Comprehensive in scope, Lutes and Marginality in Pre-Modern China offers new insights for scholars of pre-modern China, art history, archaeology, music history, ethnomusicology, and Silk Road and frontier studies.

This collection is a comprehensive resource on conducting research in applied linguistics involving written genres that is distinctive in its coverage of a multiplicity of interdisciplinary perspectives. The volume explores the central approaches, methodologies, analyses, and tools used in conducting genre-based research, extending the traditional focus on a single framework for defining genres by explicating the major approaches that have been invoked in applied linguistics. Chapters address a mix of commonly used methodologies (e.g., case studies, ethnographic approaches), types of analyses (e.g., metadiscourse, rhetorical move-step analysis, multidimensional analysis, lexical bundles and phrase frames, CALF measures, multimodal analysis), and studies that focus on other areas of second language (L2) teaching and learning (e.g., multilingualism, the Teaching and Learning Cycle). Taken together, the volume provides a theoretically and methodologically diverse introduction to foundational topics in genre-related research, supported by detailed discussions of the challenges and practical considerations to take into account when conducting research involving written genres. This book is a valuable resource for graduate students, faculty, and researchers in applied linguistics, particularly those working in second language acquisition, L2 writing, and genre theory and pedagogy.

Contemporary societies have been advancing gradually towards the construction of a model of a literate population. Significant efforts have been made so that most citizens can access various sources today, using their reading and writing abilities, but are we really prepared to face the information age? Is information literacy being promoted from schools? Are individual capabilities being considered? Do we have a true critical literacy? This article collection aims to show an overview of the most recent research; ranging from the individual to the collective, from the subject's competencies and their beliefs, to the way to develop them from school. There is room in this Research Topic for investigations belonging to the linguistic, psychological, and didactic field. This Research Topic aims to address a pressing problem in contemporary world societies. It is proposed to offer various contributions related to critical literacy, in general, and reading and writing. In this sense, research that addresses analog and digital reading, writing processes, academic literacy, and the use of resources such as non-fiction illustrated books to develop critical thinking, will be welcome. But also, and in a very important way, the cognitive processes of the subject will be considered, not only to deal with access to information, but also in the construction of their mental lexicon, an issue that offers the vision of the world of those who are immersed in literacy and in the post-truth era.