Showing papers in "China Journal in 2014"
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors compared 263 grass-roots NGOs across issue areas (including HIV, education, the environment and labor rights) and regions (Beijing, Guangdong and Yunnan).
Abstract: In the past two decades, the number of grass-roots NGOs in China has grown dramatically, yet most scholarship on Chinese civil society has had little to say about the resources on which they rely for survival. This article presents the first large-scale study of these groups and their resources. We compare 263 NGOs across issue areas (including HIV, education, the environment and labor rights) and regions (Beijing, Guangdong and Yunnan). We find that these groups are tapping into high levels of human resources—volunteers, boards of directors and informal government ties—even without official government approval for their activities. We also detail their sources of funding, revealing a diverse support system with clear regional and issue-based biases. Taken together, our findings form a baseline for understanding China’s grass-roots NGOs and point out new research questions that have yet to be addressed in the civil society literature.
107 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, three different methods have emerged to bypass these restrictions, allowing officials to attain faster promotion, i.e., the Communist Youth League route, temporary transferred duty and non-regulation promotion.
Abstract: Within the operational procedures of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadre appointment system, age restrictions hinder cadre promotion. As a result, three different methods have emerged to bypass these restrictions, allowing officials to attain faster promotion. These three methods are the Communist Youth League route, temporary transferred duty and non-regulation promotion. This article will explain the age restriction system, and then outline the three methods and discuss their impact on the appointment system as a whole. The examples of Zhou Qiang and Lu Hao, rising political stars, demonstrate how these methods are used to gain substantial age advantages for successful career progression.
97 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the dynamics of central-local relations that lead to the failure of the center's deterrence efforts and analyze local officials' reactions to these signals as a dynamic process in which they consider the selectiveness, severity and retractability of sanctions, and the reputation of the centre, when deciding to defy.
Abstract: Why do local officials in China often fail to comply with directives of the central leadership in Beijing? Existing scholarship suggests that local defiance results from reform-era decentralization, or from the difficulty of managing agents in a complicated policy environment. In contrast, we conceptualize threats by Beijing to punish local officials as deterrence signals, and analyze local officials’ reactions to these signals as a dynamic process in which they consider the selectiveness, severity and retractability of sanctions, and the reputation of the center, when deciding to defy. Examining the case of Beijing’s application of the seemingly powerful “hold-to-account” practice to curtail investment in iron and steel in 2004, its punishment of local officials in the “Tieben Incident”, and the continued defiance of other local officials, we analyze the dynamics of central–local relations that lead to the failure of the center’s deterrence efforts.
68 citations
TL;DR: Based on ethnographic research in Hebei villages, the authors examines different types of gendered subjectivity that lead some rural women to make fatal decisions, and argues that neither the concept of resistance nor that of subjection can properly represent the complex realities and inner voices of rural women who attempt suicide.
Abstract: While the high rates of female suicide in rural China have attracted much scholarly attention, previous studies have not addressed the psychological processes by which individual women in rural areas decide to attempt suicide. Based on ethnographic research in Hebei villages, this article examines different types of gendered subjectivity that lead some rural women to make fatal decisions. Suicidal behavior is an important form of female agency that asserts rural women’s moral aspiration for freedom and individual rights, but this form of agency does not highlight their ability to resist. Rather, it points to their powerless positions in the community. From these findings, I argue that neither the concept of resistance nor that of subjection can properly represent the complex realities and inner voices of rural women who attempt suicide.
46 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this paper, Steinmuller explores the creation of what Arthur Kleinmann calls "local moral worlds" within the village of Zhongba and the nearby market town of Bashan, in the Enshi region of Western Hubei Province.
Abstract: Communities of Complicity: Everyday Ethics in Rural China, by Hans Steinmuller. New York: Berghahn, 2013. xiv + 276 pp. US$95.00/£60.00 (hardcover).In this rich ethnography, Hans Steinmuller explores the creation of what Arthur Kleinmann calls "local moral worlds" within the village of Zhongba and the nearby market town of Bashan, in the Enshi region of Western Hubei Province. His particular focus is on the role of "everyday ethics" and "irony" in the creation of what he calls "communities of complicity". Local moral worlds, for Steinmuller, "never exist in isolation", and his book seeks to explore the complex engagements of the local with "outside frameworks, both moral and spatial" (p. 63).Steinmuller begins in Chapter 1 by considering the construction of the Bashan and Zhongba localities through an analysis of local historical sources, discourses from contemporary media and government, and local practices carried out in the family. Here Steinmuller also begins to tease out his central theme. He describes how a local farmer admitted to the power and potency of geomancy (fengshui) only after getting to know him sufficiently well. Geomancy was condemned as peasant backwardness but simultaneously also known to be crucially important in local sociality. "Such an intimate knowledge, then", Steinmuller argues, "is what makes a community of complicity" (p. 61).In Chapter 2, the book builds on the importance of geomancy by exploring changes in the siting and construction of houses in the village. Even though most houses were now "Western houses" or "small comfortable houses" made of baked bricks (as opposed to wood or stamped mud), most of them shared a common structure. In particular, the central axis of the main room (the line from the ancestral shrine towards the main door) was crucial to most households and, before new houses were constructed in the region, a geomancer was usually hired to determine the central axis. Thus, despite changes in the construction materials used for the house itself, Steinmuller stresses here the ongoing importance of "centring, linking, and gathering in the material space of the house" (p. 72).In Chapter 3, Steinmuller begins the exploration of moral ambiguities in relation to the different forms of work in which people now engage, such as migrant labor and odd jobs. He emphasizes that these forms of work "take place outside and away from the moral framework of the family. It is here, when people are seen to be abandoning the moral framework of the family, that the moral ambiguity of commodified work and consumption is felt most acutely" (p. 118).This lack of a "moral centre" once provided by the family leads on to Chapter 4, in which Steinmuller returns to the notion of "centring" as an aspect of li, or the propriety of social action. …
30 citations
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper showed that the Guiyang court's docket is dominated by minor criminal cases, rather than more ambitious attempts to hold polluters accountable, and pointed out that even the most active environmental courts do not necessarily tackle China's most pressing environmental problems.
Abstract: China boasts over 130 environmental courts opened between 2007 and 2013, a trend that promises to re-shape environmental law. What accounts for the political appeal of specialized justice? Overall, China’s specialized environmental courts are a method for local officials to signal commitment to environmental protection and a forum to defuse potentially explosive disputes. They symbolize the increasing importance placed by China’s leaders on environmental issues, while also offering welcome flexibility. Courts can accept cases when disputes are rising, and turn them away when local power holders are involved and caution appears prudent. Many courts struggle to find enough cases to survive, and even the most active courts do not necessarily tackle China’s most pressing environmental problems. A new analysis shows that the Guiyang court’s docket is dominated by minor criminal cases—crackdowns against powerless rural residents, rather than more ambitious attempts to hold polluters accountable.
30 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the 2008 Sichuan earthquake is an example of a consensus crisis, which provided civil associations with a situational opening of political opportunity, but neglect the role of situations.
Abstract: A consensus crisis is characterized by challenges to the state’s managerial capacity, a critical need for civil society’s services, a general agreement on priorities and goals, and the state’s efforts to construct a morally respectable image. These features amplify the structural conditions favorable for relatively amicable state–society interactions. Existing studies of social response to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake focus on state–society relations, but neglect the role of situations. I argue that the earthquake is an example of a consensus crisis, which provided civil associations with a situational opening of political opportunity.
28 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics by Perry Link as discussed by the authors examines three aspects in contemporary usage-rhythm, metaphor and politics, which naturally become the three major chapters of the book.
Abstract: An Anatomy of Chinese: Rhythm, Metaphor, Politics, by Perry Link. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. viii + 367 pp. US$39.95/ £29.95/euro36.00 (hardcover), US$39.95 (eBook).An Anatomy of Chinese is a social linguistic study of the Chinese language. It carefully examines three aspects in contemporary usage-rhythm, metaphor and politics, which naturally become the three major chapters of the book. "Anatomy" is used metaphorically to indicate that this study looks into the deep structure of the Chinese language. Perry Link's purpose, which he declares emphatically now and again, is to bring out the hidden meanings held within those structures that are not so obvious to uninformed users of the language. Clearly, this is not a comprehensive study of all features of Chinese, but a concentrated discussion of chosen topics, especially how political discourse informs language usage in the public domain. Link achieves this goal with an absorbing narrative, and in so doing explores the cultural logic beneath the political-linguistic landscape of contemporary China.The book's scope and insight are both impressive. It is a product of more than three decades' accumulated study, in both the primary sources and the knowledge underscoring the analysis. The usage under scrutiny is mostly that by public administrators or in political writings generated in Mainland China. The samples are, in effect, a glossary of the most frequently used official expressions, although there is occasional mention of idiomatic usages by locals for personal communication. Despite the book's focus on contemporary usages, Link is always ready to trace back connections with classical prose and poetry. The richness in his historical-linguistic mapping adds a cultural dimension to this political analysis.The most interesting part of the book is the chapter on metaphor, where Link's astute observation reveals many metaphors hidden in the most obvious locations, such as time, space, color and direction: for instance, the frequent "family member metaphors" commonly used to denote social positions or relations, as in the expressions fumu guan (parental officials, who should care about people as parents would), gongren dage (worker elder brothers), nongmin bobo (farmer uncles) or Jiefangjun shushu (Liberation Army uncles) (p. 201). Examples in the kinds of object which Chinese transitive verbs take are extremely intriguing. For instance, the verb chi (to eat) can mean many different things; "the person who metaphorically eats can either gain by eating or suffer from it" (p. 199). On the gaining side, we have chixiang ("eat fragrance"-enjoy popularity), chi laoben ("eat original capital"-live on past gains), chi huikou ("eat return discount"-be given some benefit). On the losing side, we have chizui ("eat crime"-be blamed for something bad), chikui ("eat loss"), chijing ("eat surprise"-be startled) (p. 199). Link also lists instances where one part in a dyad is privileged, such as "south" over north (such as zhinanzhen, the compass); black over white (heibai dianshi, blackand-white television), right over wrong (shifei, right and wrong) and many more (p. 175). These are fascinating insights about metaphors so common and so deeply entrenched in the everyday usage that regular users hardly notice.Link has been dealing with the relationship between Chinese language and politics in a number of his previous writings. This book's chapter on politics summarizes what he has observed over the years. He presents five features showing how politics is carried out in public language use in China-lexicon and metaphor, grammar and rhythm, moral weight, goal orientation, and "fit" as a kind of truth (p. …
28 citations
TL;DR: Based on newly available memoirs and previously unexplored policy speeches by insiders, this article conducted a political analysis of the Chinese Communist Party's decision to radically expand college enrollment in June 1999.
Abstract: Based on newly available memoirs and previously unexplored policy speeches by insiders, this article conducts a political analysis of the Chinese Communist Party’s decision to radically expand college enrollment in June 1999. I argue that the decision exemplifies a “guerrilla-style approach” to policy-making. From late March to early June of 1999 when the radical expansion policy was formulated and legitimated, the top leadership ignored opposition from the Ministry of Education (MOE), overturned established policies and assumed de facto control over MOE bureaucratic power. This abrupt, forceful, disruptive and non-professional policy intervention, which aimed to ensure regime survival in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, was antithetical to regularized educational policy-making in post-Mao China.
23 citations
TL;DR: Independent Chinese Documentary: From the Studio to the Street, by Luke Robinson as mentioned in this paper explores various stages and modes of Chinese documentary practice as the production of a differentiated and yet cohesive body of cinema, focusing on the theme of xianchang as contingency, providing the focus for Luke Robinsons investigation of what characterizes and differentiates the films of independent Chinese documentary directors during the 1990s.
Abstract: Independent Chinese Documentary: From the Studio to the Street, by Luke Robinson. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. viii + 198 pp. £50.00/ US$115.00 (hardcover).At the heart of this book is the theme of xianchang as contingency, providing the focus for Luke Robinsons investigation of what characterizes and differentiates the films of independent Chinese documentary directors during the 1990s. So what is xianchang? According to Robinson, it is part of the verite aesthetic of a new film practice that emerged in response to the studio productions in the dogmatic-formula mode of the Mao period, and the post-Mao state media system. Xianchang, then, challenges studio-based film-making by shifting the emphasis to location-shooting in identifiable, actual places, the here-and-now of filmed subjects, the quality of accidentality, variability and, ultimately, the uncontrollability of what is to be represented. Robinson gradually refines his explication of xianchang as he explores various stages and modes of Chinese documentary practice as the production of a differentiated and yet cohesive body of cinema.Following the Introduction, where Robinson states his main thesis and its proposed elaboration, Chapter 1, "Mapping Independent Chinese Documentary", grants us an overview of the theorization of the "New Documentary Movement" in both China and the West. This includes generous acknowledgments of the investigative work that has already been done, while at the same justifying why Robinson has opted for the label "independent Chinese documentary" in contrast to the standard account, in which it is known as the "New Documentary Movement". This serves his aim of teasing out salient differences in the practices of independent documentary directors. Each of the following four chapters addresses a specific manifestation of xianchang as representation of the contingencies of the scene, its here-and-now, and the intensely personal, in contrast to the predilection of generalities favored by the state studio system. In arguing for this fundamental difference, Chapter 2, "Metaphor and Event", discusses the disparity between the public and private documentary, the former addressing such broad themes as the "greater social and political good", the latter preferring an introspective attention to "the fate of the individual". This, Robinson claims, constitutes a radical shift from earlier documentaries, not only in the sense that those collective concerns are now replaced by an emphasis on the individual, but also in that the celebration of the private no longer resonates with a socialist vocabulary characteristic of a specific, political culture. This shift leads him to ask whether "perhaps the genre is proof that a post-socialist Chinese interiority is coming to fruition" (p. 39). The chapter then turns to three detailed case studies demonstrating their common character of "preserving the open-endedness of the profilmic" and the "accidental, unexpected and uncontrollable" nature of documenting actual events by employing "visceral signifiers of material reality's unpredictability" (p. 67). At the same time, the "shift from the metaphorical to the particular" allows the director to address the specifics of filmic space, such as the demise of an industrial complex, together with the intensely personal. …
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In Huashui Town, Zhejiang, China, societies of senior citizens (SSCs) took the lead in mobilizing protest and caused 11 factories to be closed.
Abstract: Societies of Senior Citizens (SSCs) are often thought to be non-political organizations focused on community traditions and services for the elderly. In Huashui Town, Zhejiang, however, SSCs took the lead in mobilizing protest and caused 11 factories to be closed. From 2004 to 2005, SSCs helped to fund a lawsuit, engineered a petition drive and organized tent-sitting at a chemical park notorious for its pollution. Huashui’s SSCs were effective mobilizing structures owing to their strong finances, organizational autonomy, effective leadership and the presence of biographically available, unafraid older villagers. Skillful mobilization led to efforts to rein in village SSCs and a reorganization which, however, had only a limited effect. SSC experiences in Huashui suggest that organized protest in China is more feasible than often thought and that understandings of protest outcomes should go beyond the success or failure of an episode to explore long-term consequences for the organizations involved.
TL;DR: The authors examined the continuity of son preference and daughter preference from adolescence to adulthood and investigated how perceptions of gender equity shape these preferences among 2,273 youth born in Dalian between 1979 and 1986 under the one-child policy, and found that increasingly gender-egalitarian attitudes in urban China shape the child gender preferences of singleton youth in adolescence, and are likely to contribute to their later childbearing decisio...
Abstract: In this mixed-method longitudinal study, we examined the continuity of son preference and daughter preference from adolescence to adulthood, and investigated how perceptions of gender equity shape these preferences among 2,273 youth born in Dalian between 1979 and 1986 under the one-child policy. The majority expressed no preference in adolescence or adulthood. Results from multivariate analysis and the narratives of 23 participants revealed that child gender preferences in adolescence were predictive of later preferences in adulthood. Furthermore, in adolescence, child gender preferences were associated with individuals’ beliefs about gender as manifested in their attitudes towards women and employment, as well as their perceptions of parental and social gender biases against women. Our findings suggest that increasingly gender-egalitarian attitudes in urban China shape the child gender preferences of singleton youth in adolescence, and are likely to contribute to their later childbearing decisio...
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The case of post-colonization Hong Kong as mentioned in this paper is a well-structured study of legal mobilization in Hong Kong, where a legal complex and a critical historical moment triggered Hong Kong's legal complex to mobilize itself at a critical juncture.
Abstract: Legal Mobilization under Authoritarianism: The Case of Post-Colonial Hong Kong, by Waikeung Tam Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013 xiv + 219 pp £5500/US$9500/AU$l 1500 (hardcover), US$7600 (eBook)In this well-structured book, Waikeung Tam asks concise theoretical questions about legal mobilization in Hong Kong and provides succinct answers to those questions His questions are straightforward: why did legal mobilization take place in Hong Kong, and why did it take place during and after the transition of sovereignty? His answers are sophisticated Fully versed in the academic literature on legal mobilization, Tam reveals a dynamic process He explains how the interaction of structure and agency explains the successes and limits of legal mobilization in Hong Kong In Tam's study, the structural elements include a well-established legal complex and a critical historical moment The legal complex in Hong Kong includes an independent and competent judiciary and a welltrained and highly autonomous legal profession well connected to the common law worldHong Kong's legal complex mobilized itself at a critical juncture, defined as "a period of significant changes which produce distinct legacies" (p 11) History makes heroes and the particular historical moment of Hong Kong's sovereignty transition pushed the territory's legal complex to the front stage of Hong Kong's political process The military crackdown in Tiananmen in Beijing in 1989, which occurred almost immediately after the completion of the Sino-British agreement on Hong Kong's return to China, triggered a deep political crisis in Hong Kong In response, the colonial authority enacted a series of laws to restrict government power and to broaden democratic participation Those reforms provided an ideal opportunity structure for legal mobilization through which judges and lawyers became active players on Hong Kong's political stageThe agentic element refers principally to political activism on the part of lawyers and judges in Hong Kong and a powerful support structure composed of a vibrant civil society, a free press, a generous legal aid system and, above all, a thick rights discourse in Hong Kong Given the historical heritage of a strong legal complex and the political opportunities, lawyers and judges created a constitutional moment for liberal rights and freedomThis is a comparative study Tam explores legal mobilization in Hong Kong in comparison with legal mobilization in liberal democracies and in authoritarian regimes Tam labels Hong Kong's system authoritarian This label reflects Hong Kong's lack of effective democratic participation Indeed, as Tam well demonstrates, the rise of judicial review correlates directly with the fall of legislative power in the post-colonial period The restrictions placed on the Legislative Council after the transition has effectively narrowed the scope of political mobilization, but created opportunities for legal mobilization …
TL;DR: Kim et al. as mentioned in this paper conducted a decade-long ethnographic fieldwork in a Korean-owned garment factory, Nawon Apparel, located in the city of Qingdao, China, and found that Korean managers used the space and architecture of the factory residential buildings and production facilities to maintain hierarchical differences among Koreans, Korean-Chinese and Han Chinese.
Abstract: Chinese Labor in a Korean Factory: Class, Ethnicity, and Productivity on the Shop Floor in Globalizing China, by Jaesok Kim. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. xiv + 290 pp. US$45.00 (hardcover and eBook).In studies of Chinese labor, it has been argued that, among the foreign-owned factories in China, Korean-owned factories are the most despotic and have the highest degree of labor control over Chinese workers. Why are the managers of Korean-owned factories so tough toward Chinese workers? How do Chinese workers respond to these authoritarian measures of labor control? How do globalization and the local investment environment affect labor management strategies in Korean-owned factories? In this new book, Jaesok Kim approaches these questions from cultural, ethnic and historical perspectives. Through ethnographic fieldwork in a Korean-owned garment factory, Nawon Apparel, located in the city of Qingdao, Kim presents a compelling account of Korean management's selective use of terms such as \"nation\", \"nationality\" and \"national culture\", as well as the factory managers' personal memories, to justify policies that discriminate against Han Chinese (p. 13). Having engaged in fieldwork for a decade, Kim is able to trace the transformation of labor regimes at Nawon over time, giving a dynamic account of how these changes emerged as a consequence of shifting interactions between global and local forces, alongside Chinese workers' resistance.This book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 reviews the literature on global production, challenges the Western-centered model of capitalism and globalization, and suggests how the Western-centered model fails to capture the dynamics between local and global forces in non-Western factories. In Chapter 2, Kim examines how Korean managers at Nawon used the space and architecture of the factory residential buildings and production facilities to maintain hierarchical differences among Koreans, Korean-Chinese and Han Chinese. This spatial arrangement \"led to subtle and intricate effects of social distinctions and discrimination\" against Han Chinese (p. 42). It also created a group of loyal Korean-Chinese employees who despised Han Chinese workers for being backward and culturally inferior.Chapter 3 discusses the formation of a group of white-collar workers at Nawon. Continuing his emphasis on national and ethnic differences between Korean-Chinese and Han Chinese, Kim suggests that the ethnic consciousness of the Korean-Chinese office workers derived from an \"historical imagination\" of China as an imperialist country and their personal memories as members of a marginal ethnic group in China. The Korean-Chinese perceived that their inherited \"Korean-ness\" and acquired qualifications made them eligible for prestigious white-collar positions. The politics of ethnicity and ethnic consciousness \"created a wide social distance between the Korean-Chinese office workers and the Han Chinese shop-floor workers\" (p. 97), thus becoming an effective mechanism for Korean managers to exercise divide-and-rule at Nawon.Chapter 4 provides an interesting account of the authoritarian labor controls that Korean managers exercised over the shop-floor workers during the early years of the company's operation. Kim suggests that the Korean expatriate managers misunderstood the workers based on their limited personal experience and knowledge of China and Chinese workers (p. 6). This collective misrecognition resulted in a panoptic surveillance system and military disciplinary measures including marching drills, writing exercises and toilet cleaning. …
TL;DR: Based on a close examination of documentary evidence, this paper demonstrated that the Yicheng program is not vastly different from the national population-control effort with regard to the timing of marriage, the number of children and the childbearing interval.
Abstract: In discussing the main forces shaping rapid fertility decline, current studies take the Yicheng two-child program as an example showing that the role of the birth-control policy in China’s fall in fertility is not as strong as commonly thought. Based on a close examination of documentary evidence, this paper demonstrates that the Yicheng program is not vastly different from the national population-control effort with regard to the timing of marriage, the number of children and the childbearing interval. We argue that in Yicheng the two-child policy has done more to effect a demographic transition to low fertility than has socioeconomic development.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Shanghai Gone: Domicide and Defiance in a Chinese Megacity, by Qin Shao Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013 xviii + 307 pp US$7900/£4995 (hardcover), US$2995/£1895 (paperback) US$2899/£1795 (eBook) as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Shanghai Gone: Domicide and Defiance in a Chinese Megacity, by Qin Shao Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013 xviii + 307 pp US$7900/£4995 (hardcover), US$2995/£1895 (paperback), US$2899/£1795 (eBook)Casual visitors and long-time residents of Shanghai today will be familiar with the city's brash, self-confident cosmopolitanism, and the provocative, visually stunning and at times haphazard urban restructuring that has been underway in earnest since the early 1990s Thousands of new skyscrapers, a nearly fourfold increase in per-capita residential floor-space, loss of nearly three-quarters of the traditional alleyway houses and relocation of millions of city residents are just a few of the impressive statistics cited in this book According to the official narrative, the profound physical transformation of Shanghai is framed by the notion of urban renewal In down-to-earth terms (literally, as described by Qin Shao), this means demolition and relocation This remarkable book invokes the concept of domicide-the planned deliberate destruction of a home-to provide deep personal insights into the vast human cost of the dramatic changes in ShanghaiThe introductory chapter sets the scene with a sweeping historical overview of Shanghai, outlining the key events since its establishment as a treaty port in the mid-19th century, explicitly positioning Shao's perspective as an historian working on post-Mao China This perspective provides important methodological and analytical tools for understanding the sociopolitical and cultural dimensions of post-1990s Shanghai Sections in the introduction on housing reform and conflict, changing regulations, administrative decentralization and corruption unpack the complex nexus between municipal and local governments, property developers (often with international partners), district-level housing bureaus, the judicial system and courts, national regulations, and ordinary residents Shao also makes useful conceptual links with wider international histori-cal comparisons to provide rigor and intellectual depth to the case studies in the chapters which followIt is these five case studies which make the book hard to put down Stirred by a moving vignette of domicide and defiance in 2002, Shao launched into nearly a decade of extensive firsthand fieldwork in Shanghai to uncover the extraordinary stories of ordinary people struggling to cope with the demolition or expropriation of their homes, and the lingering injustices gripping their lives The first story revolves around the transformation of Zhou Youlan from soft-spoken kindergarten teacher " into diehard petitioner as she was first victimized by domicide and then again by the petition system " (p 28) While the sometimes-strong language used by Shao evokes a certain sympathy for the "victim", this is balanced by a nuanced portrayal of individual motivation to manipulate the system to maximize compensation, and incisive analysis of how that system generates and perpetuates grievancesThe next chapter focuses on two families who lost their homes to the construction of Xintiandi-well known in Shanghai as a highly gentrified space of trendy cafes, bars and restaurants, high-end boutiques and international brands …
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper used the case of village elections in China to argue that elections may have two simultaneous effects: first, free and fair elections increase citizens’ confidence in the government, and second, elections also allow voters to exercise political rights and accumulate democratic experience through participation, and this in turn may trigger greater demand for further empowerment.
Abstract: How do authoritarian elections affect voters’ attitudes toward the regime and their support for democracy? This article draws upon the case of village elections in China to argue that elections may have two simultaneous effects. First, free and fair elections increase citizens’ confidence in the government. Second, elections also allow voters to exercise political rights and accumulate democratic experience through participation, and this in turn may trigger greater demand for further empowerment. Empirical analysis of data from a two-round nationwide survey conducted in 114 villages confirms both effects. One implication of these findings is that competitive elections may simultaneously boost regime popularity and increase public demand for further democratic reform.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Signifying the Local: Media Productions Rendered in Local Languages in Mainland China in the New Millennium, by Jin Liu Leiden: Brill, 2013 x+ 315 pp euro12600/US$16300 (hardcover) as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Signifying the Local: Media Productions Rendered in Local Languages in Mainland China in the New Millennium, by Jin Liu Leiden: Brill, 2013 x+ 315 pp euro12600/US$16300 (hardcover)This wide-ranging exploration of the linguistic value found in localized Chinese media texts (including literary fiction) offers rich insights into the broader contexts of Chinese cultures By carefully situating the production of film, television, music and literature, Liu is able to contrast the state-encouraged development of Standard Putonghua ("common speech") Mandarin texts with those produced or re-produced in various forms of fangyan ("regional speech") As Liu writes in reference to the use of fangyan in contemporary fictional literature, these regional forms are used to "repudiate the central, rational, modern discourse signified by the use of Standard Mandarin" (p 251) The sense of loyalty or authenticity to a particular linguistic, ethnic or minority group, however, often comes at the cost of commercial success on a national scaleLiu makes extensive use of footnotes, presenting a wealth of supplementary information Her discussions of the Sichuan Mandarin-dubbed versions of American Tom and Jerry cartoons, and the Japanese Crayon Shin Chan, clearly show how local languages are culturally marked to indicate status Even more specifically within these versions of foreign cartoons, Tom (the not-too-bright cat) speaks Chengdu Mandarin, while Jerry (the cunning mouse) uses Zhongjiang Mandarin; thus audiences will note subtleties (and blatant stereotypes) that align certain characters with particular behaviors or attitudesThe use of three separate chapters to investigate film allows Liu considerable space in which to explore the valuable and often necessary process of dubbing films into local languages, and the substantial differences between the use of local languages in films of the marginal (as exemplified by Jia Zhangkes Xiao Wu, Platform and Unknown Pleasures), and mainstream studio films It is this latter theme that could be developed further, although the discussion of the films of Feng Xiaogang and Ning Hao's Crazy Stone as a case study, serve to illustrate how popular film (and comedies in particular) can draw on marginalized languages without damaging the popularity of their films Similar depth of understanding is encountered in the three chapters on television-beginning with serialized sitcoms and dramas, before moving to TV news talk shows, and finishing with a brief chapter on the (comic) necessity for linguistic differences in the comedy sketches found in CCTV s most popular program, the Spring Festival Eve Gala …
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the relationship between the government and grass-roots environmental NGOs in China and found that environmental organizations in China position themselves tactfully as the government's partner, rather than its enemy.
Abstract: Green Politics in China: Environmental Governance and State-Society Relations, by Joy Y. Zhang and Michael Barr. London: Pluto Press, 2013. viii + 159 pp. £54.00/US$99.00/AU$ 138.00 (hardcover), £17.00/ US$30.00/AU$43.00 (paperback).Green Politics in China is a timely book that provides a succinct summary of Chinas state-society relations in light of the country's increasingly tense environmental politics. In this nicely written short book, Joy Y. Zhang and Michael Barr set out to examine "significant but less talked-about issues" (p. 2) by identifying "a series of innovative mobilization strategies" (p. 4) at the grass roots. In doing so, they argue that environmentalists in China are not only good at negotiating with the state but are also creative in engaging a wide range of audiences. While their case studies shed new light on our understanding of China's environmental movements, their ambition to "challenge a static view of statesociety relations" (p. 16) falls short of expectations. The fluidity of power dynamics in state-society relations has been well studied in and beyond China Studies, and the modest arguments found in this book may come as a disappointment to scholars who have a long-standing interest in China's environmental politics.The book is structured into five chapters, excluding introduction and conclusion. Chapter 1 asks who is to blame for the pollution in China today. It sets the scene for the rest of the book by moving its discussion from the negotiation of responsibilities between states (developed countries vs. China) to the search for environmental liability between state and society. The next two chapters form a pair, and examine Chinese people's perceptions of the environment and their ways of making a difference. Drawing on Bourdieu's practice theory, Chapter 2 is an attempt to decipher the social habitus of China's green movement, which in turn generates the actions illustrated in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 explores the relationship between the government and grass-roots environmental NGOs (ENGOs). It confirms previous findings that ENGOs in China position themselves tactfully as the government's partner, rather than its enemy. The final chapter moves from the bottom to the top. It analyzes the benefits and drawbacks of two of the most discussed modes of environmental governance in China-environmental authoritarianism and fragmented authoritarianism-along with examples of the governments plan for a circular economy and eco-cities.Zhang and Barr make a convincing case that seemingly apolitical public engagements are in fact new forms of mobilization with political significance. In examining the social milieu for popular activities like bird-watching and natural photography, they urge a reconsideration of what success means in evaluating Chinas environmental activism. Zhang and Barr contend that "it is not the absence of government approval that incapacitates grassroots actions", but our "institution-centric framework that prematurely invalidates bottom-up contributions" (p. …
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TL;DR: Meyer-Fong as discussed by the authors describes the Taiping as experienced both by the living and by the dead, and argues that even had the Qing survived, the official narrative would tell only part of the story.
Abstract: What Remains: Coming to Terms with Civil War in 19th Century China, by Tobie Meyer-Fong. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. xviii + 316 pp. US$39.50/E27.95 (hardcover), also available as an eBook.As Tobie Meyer-Fong points out, accounts of the Taiping Civil War in both Chinese and Western historiography have remained remarkably "bloodless" (p. 2). Debate has centered (in China) on the correct political characterization of its combatants, or (in the West) on the cataclysm's socioeconomic consequences. Loss and displacement-the central focus of this thoughtful book-have been marginal themes at best. In part this is an accident of history. The Qing had only a few decades in which to honor its "loyal dead", before revolutionaries overturned the dynasty's evaluative framework. Compare this to today's American state, which sees itself as the direct heir to the US Civil War, and commemorates it accordingly. Yet even had the Qing survived, the official narrative would tell only part of the story. For the rest, we need research such as this, which draws on the texts, spaces and commemorative practices that developed alongside, and in tension with, the state's own forms of remembrance (and forgetting).Meyer-Fong's book is part literary history, part social history, and contributes at times to a history of late Qing emotions. It begins with a portrait of the charismatic moralist Yu Zhi (1809-74), who represents the "o tempora, o mores" response to the Taiping. Combining in one the figures of the street preacher and upstanding community philanthropist, Yu Zhi used the written and spoken word to call on Jiangnan society to repent and confirm its loyalty to the Qing emperor, or else be damned. Yu Zhi's career shows how the advent of the heterodox Taiping was countered, not only by the Hunan Army's Confucian militancy, but by a local religious fervor that drew on state-sponsored loyalty rituals such as the reading of Kangxi's Sacred Edict, the cult of Lord Wenchang and Buddhist millenarianism. In the chapters that follow, Meyer-Fong describes the Taiping as experienced both by the living and by the dead. The Taiping s transgressively gaudy clothing might be easily discarded, but practices of tattooing and hair-styling left more lasting marks on Taiping subjects, and rendered it difficult for the Qing to distinguish those who were coerced into following Hong Xiuquan from those who did so willingly. For those wishing to escape to Qing-held territory, such physical traces created great risks. The conflict was thus "not a morality play of absolute identities and loyalties" (p. …
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TL;DR: The Chinese Air Force: Evolving Concepts, Roles, and Capabilities, edited by Richard P Hallion, Roger Cliff and Phillip C Saunders as discussed by the authors provides a comprehensive, encyclopedic overview of PLAAF developments and makes an important contribution to the literature on Chinese air power.
Abstract: The Chinese Air Force: Evolving Concepts, Roles, and Capabilities, edited by Richard P Hallion, Roger Cliff and Phillip C Saunders Washington: National Defense University Press for the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, 2012 xxx + 394 pp US$3900 (paperback), US$999 (eBook)China's recent creation of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea seems to indicate a more assertive, if not brash, military The ttiming of the ADIZ announcement, just before US Vice President Joe Bidens visit to China, recalls an earlier incident in 2011, when the Chinese air force timed its test flight of the J-20 stealth fighter to take place during the visit by US Secretary of Defense Bob GatesThese two incidents are noteworthy, not only for the attention they have garnered, but as indicators of the profound transformation of the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Just over a decade ago, the PLAAF was subservient to the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) ground forces, operating with aircraft based mostly on Soviet-era designs Today, the PLAAF has become a modern and independent service within the Chinese military hierarchy, posing a formidable challenge to potential adversariesThe Chinese Air Force: Evolving Concepts, Roles, and Capabilities provides a comprehensive, encyclopedic overview of PLAAF developments, and makes an important contribution to the literature on Chinese air power As the product of the 2010 International Conference on PLA Affairs, the book's individual chapters were originally papers presented at the conference Richard P Hallion, Roger Cliff and Phillip C Saunders have created a logical organization for the papers Four sections form the body of the volume: I-Concepts; II-Organization, Leadership and Doctrine; III-Equipment, Personnel and Education/Training; IV-Industries and Military ImplicationsThe book opens with a thorough introduction to the evolving concept of airpower, providing a frame of reference for the subsequent discussion of Chinese aerospace doctrine Authors in the following chapters paint conflicting sketches of the PLAAF's aspirations and realities While Mark Stokes highlights the Chinese military's interests in advanced weapons systems and space-based systems, Zhang Xiaoming notes that the inertia of political culture and older ways of thinking in the PLA political structure form constraints "that will undoubtedly continue to hinder PLAAF's modernization efforts" (p 88)Indeed, while the most visible part of PLAAF modernization is the adoption of advanced, fourth generation aircraft, equally important are the structures and systems that undergird PLAAF operations Kenneth Allen echoes Zhang's assessments, remarking that the legacy of ground force dominance still plays a major role in PLA thinking, serving as an impediment to the PLAAF's emphases on and aspirations for the planning and execution of joint operations Subsequent chapters evaluate the important doctrinal and employment concept changes that shape the future roles and missions of the PLAAF, and frame the relations between the PLAAF and other services in the PLAIn the third section, David Shlapak, Ji You and Kevin Lanzit, respectively, outline the equipment, personnel and training developments of the PLAAF Of these three domains, the PLAAF's equipment modernization has clearly been the most impressive While personnel selection, promotion protocols and training regimens have witnessed progress, there is more work to be done in these areas in order to realize fully the benefits of the leaps in equipment modernization …
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TL;DR: Lorenzo as mentioned in this paper investigates the role of the Kuomintang leaders in Taiwan's democratization and investigates the extent to which the KMT's leadership has over the decades made significant contributions to discussions of democracy in Taiwan and in the Chinese community.
Abstract: Conceptions of Chinese Democracy: Reading Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kaishek, and Chiang Ching-kuo, by David J Lorenzo Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013 x + 257 pp US$6000 (hardcover), US$2995 (paperback and eBook)The Kuomintang leaders Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo left a legacy that shaped and influenced political development in post-1949 Taiwan David Lorenzo takes an interest in Taiwan's democratization and seeks to determine whether the KMT's leadership has over the decades made significant contributions to discussions of democracy in Taiwan and in the Chinese community The key questions for him are what kind of democracy Sun and the Chiangs, father and son, meant, and how it compares and contrasts with Western democracy Lorenzo approaches these questions by first looking at the types of democracy described in Western literature and at the Chinese system of government He then highlights the republican unitary model, the Chinese unitary model and the liberal democratic model, in an attempt to determine the extent to which KMT democracy in the past and Taiwan's democracy today fit these modelsIn Chapter 2, the longest chapter in the book, Lorenzo provides a detailed account of Sun's idea The other chapters examine the two Chiangs, and Taiwanese and, briefly, mainland Chinese democratic thought In each chapter Lorenzo addresses a set of questions relating to the KMT leaders' understandings and justifications of democracy: what democracy meant to them; their views on democracy's relationships to human nature, to traditional Chinese culture, to Western thought and to the state and nation; and their contributions to democratic learning and to discussions of democracy in the Chinese communitySun advocated democracy for its functions and utility in the Chinese context, viewing it as a necessity not because democracy is naturally good but because it was a tool for solving China's many problems and providing good governance Culturally and philosophically, democracy is compatible with minben, or the principle of the people in the Chinese tradition Not a liberal democrat, Sun believed in elitism and in the unity of the people, differentiating between elite government and popular sovereignty He prescribed a system of checks and balances that would focus not on an institutional separation of powers but on giving the people the four rights of election, recall, initiative and referendum His system of government, which he believed to be more advanced than the Western liberal democratic system, adheres to a Chinese unitary model that features an elitist, benevolent and paternalistic government ruling a largely uneducated and docile people In his model, there is little downward accountability or popular participation outside that sanctioned by the ruling party, which insists on a period of political tutelage There are inconsistencies, contradictions and flaws in Sun's democratic model which Lorenzo critiques at every point In Lorenzo's view, Sun, portraying himself as a democratic theorist, did not create a Chinese conception of democracy; instead, he thought his model was applicable to the West as well as to ChinaChiang Kai-shek, as leader of the KMT and President of the ROC in Taiwan, invoked many of Sun's ideas, but strikes Lorenzo as "more liberal" than Sun with regard to natural rights, constitutionalism and individual rights …