What exactly is Takeuchi Yoshimi's logic of Asian resistance?

Literary Critic and Sinologist, Takeuchi Yoshimi, provides post-colonial and decolonial studies a logic of resistance that seeks to destabilize the colonialist projects of Western modernity without repeating its structural logic. In this regard, Takeuchi's logic of resistance functions as a dialectical lens into the “emancipatory traps” of Western modernity that frame the victim–victimizer paradox by turning negativity into a method of generating heuristic possibilities. But in this pursuit to look for alternative sites for mining theoretical possibilities, Takeuchi returns to the origins of Chinese modernity for imagining a proper logic of Asian resistance, that which could be deployed as a resource for negating the imperial gestures of modernist thought while affirming the positive kernel of the Enlightenment with the hope of bringing forth a global world that is continuously transformed by the cultural particulars themselves. The goal of this article is to further elucidate Takeuchi's logic of Asian resistance and to discuss how this logic can be read as having the potential to correct Nishida Kitarō's and the Kyoto School's failed attempt to overcome modernity.

The spatialization of time and history in the skyscrapers of the twenty-first century in Shanghai

This article aims to find out to what extent the skyscrapers erected in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, in Shanghai, follow the modern program promoted by the State and the city and how they play an essential role in the construction of the temporary discourse that this modernization entails. In this sense, it describes how the city seeks modernization and in what concrete way it designs a modern temporal discourse. The work finds out what type of temporal narrative expresses the concentration of these skyscrapers on the two banks of the Huangpu, that of the Bund and that of the Pudong, and finally, it analyzes the seven most representative and significant skyscrapers built in the city in recent years, in order to reveal whether they opt for tradition or modernity, globalization or the local. The work concludes that the past, present and future of Shanghai have been minimized, that its history has been shortened, that it is a liminal site, as its most outstanding skyscrapers, built on the edge of the river and on the border between past and future. For this reason, the author defends that Shanghai, by defining globalization, by being among the most active cities in the construction of skyscrapers, by building more than New York and by building increasingly technologically advanced tall towers, has the possibility to devise a peculiar Chinese modernity, or even deconstruct or give a substantial boost to the general concept of Western modernity.

The Moral Economy of Walls

This chapter discusses how the Chinese landscape is defined by its walls and, consequently, by an architecture of enclosure. Clearly demarcated walled spaces, each one nested inside another, provide order as they structure and arrange the landscape into conceptual units of social space. The chapter then looks at how space, time, and language interact within the discursive formation of Chinese modernity. Language inhabits a spatiotemporal geography in Shenyang, with words and accents indexing each person's location within this environment both physically (where they are from) and temporally (how they are oriented in terms of being “ahead” or “behind” others). Modern languages belong in modern spaces, while antiquated ones belong in antiquated spaces. Thus, Dongbeihua is properly thought to be a language spoken in the countryside, or by the poor and elderly residents of Shenyang's older neighborhoods. For those who can speak standard Mandarin, Dongbeihua belongs in private domestic spaces, signifying close social relations among family. English, in contrast, is a language expressed, both verbally and graphically, in popular shopping districts and corporate enterprises.

Conclusion: A Skill Perspective on Migration

This concluding chapter discusses four advantages of investigating migration settings from a socio-technical skill perspective. First, it provides an understanding of a particular form of peasant agency that is commonly overlooked. Second, focusing on skill allows us to better understand farmers’ decision-making. Third, it provides new insights into technology and Chinese modernity. Finally, it contributes to understanding migration beyond the common dichotomies such as between people and things, or migrants and those left behind. It concludes that even those who move to the cities remain part of their village communities of practice. They maintain their ties to the land through the ongoing management of their paddy fields – whether hands-on in person or at a distance using other household farming strategies.