China's Provincial Statistics, 1949-1989 (review)

Reviews 127 Kuno, Susumu. 1976. "Three Perspectives on the Functional Approach to Syntax." In Sound, Sign and Meaning, ed. L. Matejka. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Slavic Contributions. -----------. 1987. Functional Syntax. Chicago: The University ofChicago Press. Nuyts, Jan. 1983. "On the Methodology of a Functional Language Theory." In Advances in Functional Grammar, ed. Simon C. Dik, pp. 369-386. Dordrecht, Holland, and Cinaminson, New Jersey: Foris Publications. Tai, James H-Y. 1985. "Temporal Sequence and Chinese Word Order." In Haiman 1985. Thompson, Sandra A. 1973. "Transitivity and Some Problems with the Ba-Construction." Journal ofChinese Linguistics 1:208-221. Tomlin, Russell S. 1986. "The Identification of Clause-Level Theme in Text and Discourse." • Ms., Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon. Tsao, Feng-fu. 1979. A Functional Study ofTopic in Chinese: The First Step Towards Discourse Analysis. Taipei: Student Book Co. -----------. 1990. Sentence and Clause Structure in Chinese—A Functional Perspective. Taipei: Student Book Co. Xing, Zhiqun. 1993. Discourse Functions ofWord Order in Chinese: A Quantitative Analysis of Diachronie Texts. Ph.D. diss., University ofMichigan. Hsüeh Tien-tung, Li Qiang, and Liu Shucheng, editors. China's Provincial Statistics, 1949-1989. Boulder, San Francisco, and Oxford: Westview Press, 1993. xxiii, 595 pp. Hardcover $ 89.50. The editors and their staffs as well as their financial sponsor and their publisher are to be congratulated on making this comprehensive collection ofprovincial statistical data accessible to the general public. They have selected more than one hundred "key" socioeconomic variables collected by the State Statistical Bureau of the PRC, grouped them under fifteen headings (national output and income, investment , consumption, public finance and banking, labor force, population, agriculture , industry, transport, domestic trade, foreign trade, prices, education, social factors, and natural environment) for each of the thirty provinces, and tabulated all available entries. To facilitate the présentation of the data, all variables are coded, as are the source references at the end of each province-chapter oftables. Following the listing ofthe codes and the coded entries, the variables and their derivation are described in some detail, group by group. Two appen-© 1995 by University ,„ ¦<· n dixes provide English-Chinese and Chinese-English indexes ofthe key variables. ofHawai ? Pressr b ° ' A few limitations should be mentioned. The choice ofvariables may not suit every potential user entirely. The codes are too complex to be memorized and 128 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1995 need to be copied for any intensive use ofthe data. The adjustments to the data, which have been made to correct, for example, for provincial boundary changes, are not explained in detail. There are no indications of the dates when definitions and methods ofcollecting and compiling particular variables were changed, and so on. For such information, the critical user may have to turn to the referenced sources or to the editors and their institutions: the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Department of Statistics on National Economic Balances of the State Statistical Bureau. For those who plan to make extensive use of the data, it would be even more helpful if the data were also made available on computer diskettes. And for everyone it would be a welcome gift indeed ifthe series were updated periodically. What greater compliment can one pay than to ask for revised, enlarged, and improved editions of China's Provincial Statistics, 1949-1994 and 1949-1999? Please? Peter Schran University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Hu Wenzhong and Cornelius L. Grove. Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press, 1991. xviii, 192 pp. Paperback $16.95. With the world's largest population—more than one-fifth ofhumanity—China, the one remaining strong socialist country, is conducting the most rapid economic development during the current slump in the world economy. With these facts and with its policy of openness in mind, we see China attracting the attention of the rest ofworld, particularly the West. However, with the world's oldest civilization , China has also exhibited a remarkable ability to resist as well as to assimilate foreign cultures. Christian missionaries have for more than a thousand years attempted to convert the Chinese with only negligible success. To understand the Chinese, an outsider must associate with the Chinese; to associate with the Chinese , however, one must understand the Chinese. Encountering the Chinese: A , GuideforAmericans has been published with this purpose in mind: to help Westerners associate with the Chinese. As a handbook, it systematically describes what encountering the Chinese involves , and how a Westerner ought to behave in this encounter. There are eight ofHawai'i Press ...