Rewriting Modernity—Contemporary Western Academic Discourse

Author: Yang Yanbin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Every second month in the middle of the month, I always receive Social Sciences in Foreign Countries sent by my senior Wang Zhihe. After Zhihe brother went abroad, Yang Yanbin senior also continued to send me the journal on schedule. Every time I received the journal, I impatiently flipped through it, and the joy of reading 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 am very impressed with the broad academic perspective and inclusive academic tolerance of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries. What is particularly admirable 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 flipping. 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 reading Social Sciences in Foreign Countries, I adopt both methods. The journal features many columns and articles each issue, with a vast amount of information, so I usually skim through it casually. However, in 1996, Social Sciences in Foreign Countries underwent a redesign, presenting a fresh face to readers. 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 from China to write articles, not only introducing and analyzing the historical evolution, inherent characteristics, key academic figures, and academic achievements of Western disciplines over the past century but also summarizing and prospecting the future trends and profound impacts of these disciplines. The "Academic Figures of the Month" column typically introduces a contemporary Western academic master each issue, such as the already-profiled French postmodernism masters Foucault, Lyotard, Lacan, and Deleuze. This column is very distinctive: it selects and translates representative articles by these masters and experts from China who have studied these figures to provide multi-dimensional introductions, analyses, and critiques of these articles, not confined to the selected works. 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 journals can complement each other and have mutual advantages. 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 or collection and have a relatively smaller influence. If books and journals are combined, it will be like a tiger gaining wings and achieving the best of both worlds!
During a casual conversation with the deputy editor-in-chief of Social Sciences in Foreign Countries, Yang Yanbin senior, about this matter, he highly praised it and generously gifted me the combined volumes from 1995 to 1998, asking me to extract and plan these two columns. After spending half a month reviewing these columns, based on the influence of these academic schools and figures, I discussed with Yang senior and preliminarily compiled a directory of articles for three books. Professor Yang Yanbin and the team at Social Sciences in Foreign Countries did extensive editing and refinement, making these articles increasingly perfect. When Mr. 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 was very impressed and expressed willingness to publish. Ms. Cheng Xiaoyan of the publishing house put in a lot of effort for this, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude here! Yang Yanbin senior invited me to collaborate as an editor for 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 Yang Yanbin senior and the team at 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