Rewriting Modernity: Contemporary Western Academic Discourse

Author: Yang Yanbin / Xue Xiaoyuan
Author Country: China
Editor-in-Chief: Li Huiguo / Huang Changzhu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Every second month in the middle of the month, I always receive Social Sciences in Foreign Countries from my senior brother Wang Zhihe. After Zhihe brother went abroad, Yang Yanbin brother also sent me the journal on time. Every time I receive the journal, I eagerly turn to it, and the joy of reading has accompanied me for six years. I am also in charge of a journal and deeply understand the hardships and difficulties of running a high-quality academic journal in the era of globalization and the market economy. Therefore, I greatly admire the broad academic vision and inclusive academic tolerance of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries. What impresses me particularly is the journal's tracking, translation, and analysis of contemporary Western academic mainstreams and frontiers, which is highly forward-looking.
The New Criticism school in the United States believes that reading requires close reading (close reading); Mr. Lu Xun believed that reading requires broad exploration and casual browsing. In my opinion, in the age of knowledge explosion and information overflow, facing tens of thousands of journals, both methods are needed, but they require a dialectical and integrated approach. When I read Social Sciences in Foreign Countries, I adopt both methods. The journal has many columns and articles in each issue, with a huge amount of information, so I usually skim through it casually. However, in 1996, Social Sciences in Foreign Countries was redesigned and presented to readers with a fresh look. Two columns particularly caught my enthusiasm and interest: one was "Centennial Academia," and the other was "Academic Figures of the Month."
The "Centennial Academia" column generally invites experts in a specific social science discipline in China to write articles, not only introducing and analyzing the historical evolution, inherent characteristics, important academic figures, and academic achievements of Western disciplines over the past century but also summarizing and prospecting the development trends and profound future impacts of the discipline. The "Academic Figures of the Month" column generally introduces one contemporary Western academic master or luminary per issue, such as the already introduced French postmodernism masters Foucault, Lyotard, Lacan, and Deleuze. This column is very distinctive. It generally selects representative articles by these masters and luminaries for translation and invites domestic scholars who have studied these figures to provide multi-dimensional introductions, analyses, and critiques of these articles, not confined to the several pieces. This not only allows readers to appreciate the brilliance and beauty of the masters' original works but also helps them quickly grasp the academic themes, positions, and profound impacts of these figures on the contemporary world. I not only engaged in close reading of these columns but also introduced them to my colleagues and friends, who greatly enjoyed them.
I believe that publishing books and running journals can be complementary and mutually beneficial. Books are convenient for collection and have a broader readership and greater influence, but the publication cycle is relatively long. Journals have a shorter publication cycle and a stable readership, but they are not as convenient for reference and collection, and their influence is relatively smaller. If books and journals are combined, it will be like a tiger gaining wings and achieving both benefits!
During a casual conversation with the deputy editor-in-chief of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries, Yang Yanbin brother, about this matter, he highly praised it and generously 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 brother and preliminarily compiled a table of contents for three books. Professor Yang Yanbin and the colleagues of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries did a lot of editing and refinement, making these articles increasingly perfect. When Comrade Xie Shuguang, the president and editor-in-chief of the Social Sciences Documentation Publishing House of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, heard about this, he highly appreciated it and expressed willingness to publish. Comrade Cheng Xiaoyan of the publisher did a lot of work for this, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude here! Yang Yanbin brother invited me to co-edit this series, and his kindness was hard to refuse. To be honest, I only came up with an idea, and most of the work was done by Yanbin brother and the colleagues of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries. It must be noted here.
"The parrot sings to seek the sound of friends!" I sincerely hope to receive criticism and corrections from readers and experts!
Xue Xiaoyuan
August 11, 1999