Spectacular economic growth in China suggests the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has somehow gotten it right. A key hypothesis in both economics and political science is that the CCP's cadre evaluation system, combined with China's geography-based governing logic, has motivated local administrators to compete with one another to generate high growth. We raise a number of theoretical and empirical challenges to this claim. Using a new biographical database of Central Committee members, a previously overlooked feature of CCP reporting, and a novel Bayesian method that can estimate individual-level correlates of partially observed ranks, we find no evidence that strong growth performance was rewarded with higher party ranks at any of the postreform party congresses. Instead, factional ties with various top leaders, educational qualifications, and provincial revenue collection played substantial roles in elite ranking, suggesting that promotion systems served the immediate needs of the regime and its leaders, rather than encompassing goals such as economic growth.

https://faculty.washington.edu/cadolph/articles/ChinaRank.pdf

Getting Ahead in the Communist Party: Explaining the Advancement of Central Committee Members in China

Part 1 Muslim nationalism in China - a fourth tide: Qing Zhen - expressions of Hui identity state power and the evolution of an ethnonym the problem - who are the Hui? sociocultural diversity among the Hui three tides of Islam in China the fourth tide - ethnic nationalism in an age of nation-states. Part 2 Ethnographic research and the Chinese state: theoretical perspectives on Hui identity the rise of the nation-state and the invention of ethnicity Han nationalism and the creation of nationalities in China derivative discourses and Chinese traditional nationalism the ethnogenesis of the Hui - from Muslim to minority nationality the research - in search of the Hui the unity and diversity of Hui identity - four communities in flux. Part 3 Ethnoreligious resurgence in a northwestern Sufi community: a fundamentalist revivial in Na homestead? the rerooting of identity in Na homestead ethnoreligious roots the socioeconomic context local government policies and Na national identity truth within purity - expressions of Na identity. Part 4 Ethnic identity in Oxen Street - the urban experience: making Hui in the city - the urban problem Oxen street, an urban Hui enclave recurring texts in Oxen Street the socioeconomic context of Oxen Street Hui identity government policy and urban strategies the culture of purity - Hui identity in the city. Part 5 The other great wall - ethnic endogamy and exclusivity in a Hui autonomous village: ethnohistorical origins of a Hui autonomous village ethnic coherence and Changying identity Changying traditions of rural entrepreneurship ethnoreligious marriage traditions in Changying preserving purity through ethnic endogamy - ethnoreligious strategies and government policy in Changying. Part 6 Ethnic invention and state intervention in a southeastern lineage: no pigs for these ancestors - the memory of Muslim ancestry in Chendai the cultural basis for Chendai Hui identity socioeconomic factors in Chendai Hui identity ethnic identity and national policy - the \"Taiwanese Muslims\" public policy and ethnic revitalization in Chendai becoming ethnic in China purity within truth - Hui identity among southeastern lineages. Part 7 Conclusion - national identity in the Chinese nation-state: the people of the People's Republic - finally in the vanguard? the social life of labels objectified ethnonyms in the northwest the hardening of ethnonyms in the southwest \"sub-ethnic\" identities and the question of Han ethnicity the rise of \"united nationalities\" ethnic pluralism in Chinese society the dialectics of nationality policy and Hui identity ethnicity and nationalism in the People's Republic. Appendices: Hui Islamic orders in China a select glossary of Hui Islamic terms.

Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic

All multiracial and multi-ethnic nations are confronted with the important issue of how to handle ethnic relations and of the role that government should play in guiding the direction of such relations In viewing ethnic minorities, ‘culturalization’ has a tradition of thousands of years in China Until the late Qing dynasty, that tradition resulted in a united-pluralistic polity with a huge population by assimilation and prosperous economy Under the new historical conditions of the twentieth century, however, China has adopted the policies of the former USSR since the 1950s and given ethnic minorities more political emphasis, what is called the ‘politicization’ of ethnic minorities This paper proposes that, in the twenty-first century, China should learn from its own historical heritage and the lessons of the US, the former USSR and other nations, and redirect its policy from ‘politicization’ to ‘culturalization’ of ethnic issues so as to strengthen national identity among its ethnic minorities This n

A New Perspective in Guiding Ethnic Relations in the Twenty-first Century: ‘De-politicization’ of Ethnicity in China

Addressing the problem of the ‘Han’ ethnos from a variety of relevant perspectives—historical, geographical, racial, political, literary, anthropological, and linguistic—Critical Han Studies offers a responsible, informative deconstruction of this monumental yet murky category. It is certain to have an enormous impact on the entire field of China studies.” Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania “This deeply historical, multidisciplinary volume consistently and fruitfully employs insights from critical race and whiteness studies in a new arena. In doing so it illuminates brightly how and when ideas about race and ethnicity change in the service of shifting configurations of power.” David Roediger, author of How Race Survived U.S. History “A great book. By examining the social construction of hierarchy in China,Critical Han Studiessheds light on broad issues of cultural dominance and in-group favoritism.” Richard Delgado, author of Critical Race Theory: An Introduction “A powerful, probing account of the idea of the ‘Han Chinese’—that deceptive category which, like ‘American,’ is so often presented as a natural default, even though it really is of recent vintage. . . . A feast for both Sinologists and comparativists everywhere.” Magnus Fiskesjo, Cornell University “This collection of trenchant, penetrating essays interrogates what it means to be ‘Han’ in China, both historically and today. It will make a valuable and enduring contribution to our understanding of the uniqueness and complexity of Chinese history and culture. Dru Gladney, Pomona College Constituting over ninety percent of China's population, Han is not only the largest ethnonational group in that country but also one of the largest categories of human identity in world history. In this pathbreaking volume, a multidisciplinary group of scholars examine this ambiguous identity, one that shares features with, but cannot be subsumed under, existing notions of ethnicity, culture, race, nationality, and civilization. Thomas S. Mullaney is a professor of history at Stanford University. James Leibold is senior lecturer and Asian studies program convenor at La Trobe University. Stephane Gros is a research fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Eric Vanden Bussche is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. Contributors: Uradyn E. Bulag, Kevin Carrico, Zhihong Chen, Tamara Chin, Mark Elliott, C. Patterson Giersch, James Leibold, Thomas S. Mullaney, Nicholas Tapp, Emma J. Teng, Chris Vasantkumar, and Xu Jieshun Series: New Perspectives on Chinese Culture and Society, vol. 4

/pdf/critical-han-studies-the-history-representation-and-identity-37a4t02sey.pdf

Critical Han Studies: The History, Representation, and Identity of China's Majority

This article presents a cultural and historical analysis of 20th-century Tibetan medicine In its expansion into the state bureaucracy, Tibetan medicine has acceded to institutional modernity through transformations in theory, practice, and methods for training physicians Despite Chinese rule in Tibet, however, Tibetan medicine has not yielded completely to state interests With the collapsing of the traditionally pluralistic Tibetan health system into the professional sector of Tibetan medicine, contemporary Tibetan medicine has become to the laity a font of ethnic revitalization and resistance to the modernization policies of the Chinese state These processes are particularly evident in the elaboration of disorders of rlung, a class of sicknesses that, collectively, have come to symbolize the suffering inherent in rapid social, economic, and political change

Shih-Shan H. Tsai

Papers

China's Forty Millions.