Rewriting Modernity -- Contemporary Western Academic Discourse

Author: Yang Yanbin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Every second month, I always receive Social Sciences in Foreign Countries sent by my friend Wang Zhihe. After Zhihe went abroad, Yang Yanbin also continued to send me the journal as scheduled. Every time I received it, I eagerly flipped through its pages, and the pleasure of reading accompanied me for six years. I am also responsible for another journal and deeply understand the hardships and difficulties of running a high-quality academic journal in this era of globalization and the market economy. Therefore, I greatly admire the broad academic perspective and inclusive academic tolerance of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries. What is particularly impressive is the journal's tracking, translation, and analysis of contemporary Western academic mainstream and cutting-edge issues, demonstrating strong foresight.
The New Criticism school in the United States believes that reading requires close reading (close reading); Mr. Lu Xun argued that reading should be broad and casual. In my opinion, in the age of knowledge explosion and information overload, facing thousands of journals, both methods are needed, but a dialectical synthesis is essential. When reading Social Sciences in Foreign Countries, I employ both methods. The journal features numerous columns and articles with a vast amount of information, so I generally skim through it. However, in 1996, Social Sciences in Foreign Countries underwent a redesign, presenting a fresh appearance to readers. Two columns particularly sparked my enthusiasm and interest: one was "Centennial Academia" and the other was "Academic Figures of the Month."
The "Centennial Academia" column typically invites experts in a domestic social science discipline to contribute articles that introduce, analyze, and evaluate the historical development, intrinsic characteristics, key academic figures, and scholarly achievements of Western disciplines over the past century. It also summarizes and anticipates the future trends and profound impacts of these disciplines. The "Academic Figures of the Month" column introduces a contemporary Western academic master or prominent figure each issue, such as the already-profiled French postmodernism masters Foucault, Lyotard, Lacan, and Deleuze. This column is particularly distinctive: it selects representative articles of these masters and translates them, inviting domestic scholars who have studied these figures to provide multidimensional introductions, analyses, and critiques of these articles, without being confined to just a few pieces. This not only allows readers to appreciate the brilliance and beauty of the masters' original works but also helps them quickly grasp their academic themes, status, and profound influences on contemporary society. I not only close read these columns but also introduced them to my colleagues and friends, who greatly enjoyed them.
I believe that publishing books and journals can complement each other and mutually benefit. Books are easy to collect and have a broader readership and greater impact, but their publication cycles are relatively long. Journals have shorter publication cycles and stable readership but are less convenient for reference and collection, with a relatively smaller reach. If books and journals are combined, they will be like a tiger equipped with wings and achieve the best of both worlds!
During a casual conversation with the deputy editor-in-chief of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries, Yang Yanbin, about this matter, he praised it highly and kindly gifted me the combined volumes from 1995 to 1998, asking me to extract these two columns for planning and editing. After spending half a month reviewing these columns, based on the influence of these academic schools and figures, I discussed with Yang and drafted an initial table of contents for three books. Professor Yang Yanbin and the team at Social Sciences in Foreign Countries did extensive editorial work, perfecting these articles.
Xie Shuguang, the president and general editor of the Social Sciences Documentation Publishing House of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, upon learning of this, was highly appreciative and expressed willingness to publish. Cheng Xiaoyan, a lady at the publishing house, did a great deal of work for this, for which I am deeply grateful! Yang Yanbin kindly invited me to collaborate as an editor for this series. It is truly a pleasure to be honored in this way, but I feel ashamed as I only contributed a suggestion, while the majority of the work was done by Yang Yanbin and the team at Social Sciences in Foreign Countries. It must be noted here.
"The parrot sings to seek the sound of friends!" Sincerely hope to receive criticism and corrections from readers and experts!
Xue Xiaoyuan
August 11, 1999