Youngmin Kim

“China is”, in the words of Bertrand Russell, “much less a political entity than a civilization.” To this we may add that China is also a geographical area. The word China has multiple meanings charged with different kinds of values and preconceptions. In this book ten scholars from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden, and Taiwan explore various meanings and aspects of Chinese identity. What does “China” mean as a cultural concept and when referring to a geographical territory? What is the significance of the historical relationship between the interior and exterior for the Chinese identity? How have classical texts been used by the Chinese state? These are central questions in this book, where you will also find contributions analysing, among other topics, the Chinese self-image and China as seen from the outside. One article examines the ideological use of the notion of “Chinese characteristics” in contemporary Mainland China, while another analyses China’s future development in terms of the country’s transformation from a multiethnic empire to a homogenous national state.

China's rapid rise as a regional and global power is one of the most important political developments of the twenty-first century. Yet the West still largely overlooks or oversimplifies the complex ideas and ideals that have shaped the country’s national and international transformation from antiquity to the present day. In this beautifully written introductory text, Youngmin Kim offers a uniquely incisive survey of the major themes in Chinese political thought from customary community to empire, exploring their theoretical importance and the different historical contexts in which they arose. Challenging traditional assumptions about Chinese nationalism and Marxist history, Kim shows that "China" does not have a fixed, single identity, but rather is a constantly moving target. His probing, interdisciplinary approach traces the long and nuanced history of Chinese thought as a true tradition anchored in certain key themes, many of which began in the early dynasties and still resonate in China today. Only by appreciating this rich history, he argues, can we begin to understand the intricacies and contradictions of contemporary Chinese politics, economy, and society.

China's rapid rise as a regional and global power is one of the most important political developments of the twenty-first century. Yet the West still largely overlooks or oversimplifies the complex ideas and ideals that have shaped the country’s national and international transformation from antiquity to the present day. In this beautifully written introductory text, Youngmin Kim offers a uniquely incisive survey of the major themes in Chinese political thought from customary community to empire, exploring their theoretical importance and the different historical contexts in which they arose. Challenging traditional assumptions about Chinese nationalism and Marxist history, Kim shows that "China" does not have a fixed, single identity, but rather is a constantly moving target. His probing, interdisciplinary approach traces the long and nuanced history of Chinese thought as a true tradition anchored in certain key themes, many of which began in the early dynasties and still resonate in China today. Only by appreciating this rich history, he argues, can we begin to understand the intricacies and contradictions of contemporary Chinese politics, economy, and society.

Beyond simulation and algorithm development, many developers increasingly use MATLAB even for product deployment in computationally heavy fields. This often demands that MATLAB codes run faster by leveraging the distributed parallelism of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). While MATLAB successfully provides high-level functions as a simulation tool for rapid prototyping, the underlying details and knowledge needed for utilizing GPUs make MATLAB users hesitate to step into it. Accelerating MATLAB with GPUs offers a primer on bridging this gap. Starting with the basics, setting up MATLAB for CUDA (in Windows, Linux and Mac OS X) and profiling, it then guides users through advanced topics such as CUDA libraries. The authors share their experience developing algorithms using MATLAB, C++ and GPUs for huge datasets, modifying MATLAB codes to better utilize the computational power of GPUs, and integrating them into commercial software products. Throughout the book, they demonstrate many example codes that can be used as templates of C-MEX and CUDA codes for readers’ projects. Download example codes from the publisher's website: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780124080805/