This book provides a vivid critique of the modernist analysis of world politics by focusing on communalist and sacral discourses, and by asking: what might be a world affairs worthy of the name?
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"The Chess Master" is a story of escape and salvation, and the clue for both is chess. The protagonist, Wang Yisheng, undergoes a gradual transformation from "chess fool" to "chess master" -- from an alienated young man obsessed with the material needs of life to a spiritually enlightened transmitte[...]