As the world’s only English-language historical dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), this book offers a comprehensive coverage of major historical figures, events, political terms, and other matters relevant to this unique period of modern Chinese history that had profound influence on social and cultural movements of the world in the 1960s and 1970s. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this important period in Chinese history.

"There has never been anything quite like the Cultural Revolution, which disrupted life in the People's Republic of China from 1966 to 1976. It wreaked havoc in the world's most populous country, often turning life upside down and undermining the party, government, and army, weakening the economy, society, and culture. Tens of millions were hurt or killed during this period, and relatively few benefited, aside from Mao Zedong and (temporarily) the Gang of Four." "The A to Z of the Chinese Cultural Revolution provides an extensive chronology that traces the events of the revolution and the introduction puts those events in context and explains them. The bulk of the information is provided in numerous dictionary entries on important persons, places, institutions, and movements. The bibliography points to further resources, and the glossary helps those researching in Chinese." --Book Jacket.

This book brings together unique experiences of India, China and Israel in overcoming economic, social, and natural resource challenges. Through its eleven chapters, the book captures the role of groundbreaking innovations in achieving unprecedented agricultural growth and stabilizing these nations. It provides a future outlook of the new challenges that will confront these countries in 2030 and beyond, related to tackling food and nutrition security, sustainable agricultural growth and adhering to improved food safety standards. This book provides useful insights for exploring technological innovations and policies that can address these future challenges and develop profitable and sustainable agriculture. This volume also highlights valuable lessons that India, China and Israel provide for the rest of the developing world where population is growing fast; natural resources are limited; and it is a challenge to produce enough food, feed and fibre for their populations. Tracing the historical past, this book is an impressive resource for academicians, policymakers, practitioners, agribusiness players, entrepreneurs in understanding the role of innovations in addressing future challenges.

The Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China started in 1966 and lasted about a decade. This revolutionary upsurge of Chinese students and workers, led by Mao Zedong, wreaked havoc in the world's most populous country, often turning things upside down and undermining the party, government, and army while simultaneously weakening the economy, society, and culture. Tens of millions of people were killed, injured, or imprisoned during this period and relatively few benefited, aside from Mao Zedong and the Gang of Four, the group that would eventually receive the blame for the events of the Cultural Revolution. Given the turbulence and confusion, it is hard to know just what happened. The A to Z of the Chinese Cultural Revolution tackles this task. First, in an extensive chronology, which traces the events from year to year and month to month, then in an introduction puts these events in context and helps to explain them. But most importantly, the bulk of the information is provided in a dictionary section with numerous cross-referenced entries on important persons, places, institutions, and movements. A bibliography points to further sources of information and a glossary will help those researching in Chinese.

China has experienced unprecedented economic achievement for more than three decades and remains one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Rapid urbanization and development of the non-farm economy have led to massive movements of labor from rural to urban areas, leaving agricultural production mostly in the hands of female and senior farmers. Due to considerable surplus labor in rural areas, these changes did not raise concerns about agricultural production until recently, when the rural real wage experienced a sharp rise, signaling the exhaustion of this surplus. Since 2010, China has changed from a net exporter to a net importer of grains. Currently, China’s self-sufficiency ratio of wheat, rice and corn is about 95%. About 80% of consumed soybean and other agri-products, such as milk and sugar, are imported. As the world's most populous country, further reduction of self-sufficient ratio of major agri-products could lead to problems in food security world-wide. In order to maintain agricultural production as labor costs continue to rise, agricultural labor input will need to be substituted with machine input. China's farming system, like that of many Asian Countries, is characterized by small landholdings, a high degree of land fragmentation, and high intensification at both the intensive and extensive margin. Although China has experienced rapid farm mechanization in recent decades thanks to the rapid development of machinery rental markets, the extent to which mechanization can be realized in China's farming system remains a critical question. Small plot size poses serious constraints for mechanization because of scale economies of machine. In addition, a considerable amount of China's land is located in hills or mountains, posing further difficulties for mechanization. Recently we completed a study to explore the extent to which small plot size deters mechanization in China and the implications for agricultural production, specifically the number of cultivating seasons per year. In our field trips in China, we often observed that small plots were less frequently cultivated; the farmers we interviewed attributed this reduced intensification to the difficulty of using machines on small plots, especially if these plots are in mountainous and hilly areas. Cultivating in these small plots become less worthwhile when labor costs increase.

Yuan Zhou analysiert eingehend die fünf Go-Partien des historischen Wettkampfs zwischen dem Computerprogramm AlphaGo und dem Spitzen-Profi Lee Sedol. Dabei erzählt er auch von den Wahrnehmungen und Reaktionen seitens der Zuschauer und Teilnehmer des Geschehens. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit legt er auf die Stärken und Schwächen des KI-Programms, das nicht nur in der Go-Welt Aufsehen erregt hat, als es gegen die stärksten menschlichen Spieler nahezu alle Partien gewann.

Das KI-Programm AlphaGo Zero hat eine Anzahl neuer Ideen dazu vorgestellt, wie man in der Eröffnung einer Go-Partie spielt. Der bekannte Go-Lehrer Yuan Zhou bespricht einige davon und zeigt ihre Awendung in verschiedenen Profi-Partien.