Gordon White, Jude Howell, and Shang Xiaoyuan
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198289562
- eISBN:
- 9780191684739
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198289562.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter aims to provide an overall context for the detailed case studies of intermediate social organizations. It begins with a brief inquiry into the existence and character of ‘civil society’ ...
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This chapter aims to provide an overall context for the detailed case studies of intermediate social organizations. It begins with a brief inquiry into the existence and character of ‘civil society’ organizations in pre-revolutionary China as a historical benchmark for viewing their emergence in the era of economic reform. Next, the chapter describes the structure of Chinese social organization during the Maoist era and identifies the socio-economic changes that have since taken place under the impact of economic reform, and which have created pressure for changes in associational behaviour and linkages between the party/state and society. It then draws a broad picture of Chinese civil society in the mid-1990s.Less
This chapter aims to provide an overall context for the detailed case studies of intermediate social organizations. It begins with a brief inquiry into the existence and character of ‘civil society’ organizations in pre-revolutionary China as a historical benchmark for viewing their emergence in the era of economic reform. Next, the chapter describes the structure of Chinese social organization during the Maoist era and identifies the socio-economic changes that have since taken place under the impact of economic reform, and which have created pressure for changes in associational behaviour and linkages between the party/state and society. It then draws a broad picture of Chinese civil society in the mid-1990s.
Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190923464
- eISBN:
- 9780190923495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190923464.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, World Religions
During the 1950s, the universal ideology of Chinese Christian churches such as the True Jesus Church clashed with the universal ideology of the Maoist party–state. Christian communities’ relative ...
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During the 1950s, the universal ideology of Chinese Christian churches such as the True Jesus Church clashed with the universal ideology of the Maoist party–state. Christian communities’ relative ideological autonomy hindered the party–state’s ambitions for control. Christians, especially Christian leaders, experienced intense pressure to adopt the new code of Maoist speech during this era. Documents from archives in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan and oral history interviews with members of the True Jesus Church in South China show how between 1949 and 1958, top church leaders bowed to this pressure, replacing biblical rhetoric and discursive patterns with Maoist rhetoric and discursive patterns. The contest between religious communities and the state to control the terms of public moral discourse demonstrates the significance of such discourse in demarcating and legitimating community authority.Less
During the 1950s, the universal ideology of Chinese Christian churches such as the True Jesus Church clashed with the universal ideology of the Maoist party–state. Christian communities’ relative ideological autonomy hindered the party–state’s ambitions for control. Christians, especially Christian leaders, experienced intense pressure to adopt the new code of Maoist speech during this era. Documents from archives in Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan and oral history interviews with members of the True Jesus Church in South China show how between 1949 and 1958, top church leaders bowed to this pressure, replacing biblical rhetoric and discursive patterns with Maoist rhetoric and discursive patterns. The contest between religious communities and the state to control the terms of public moral discourse demonstrates the significance of such discourse in demarcating and legitimating community authority.
Huaiyin Li
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824836085
- eISBN:
- 9780824871338
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824836085.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book offers the first systematic analysis of writings on modern Chinese history by historians in China from the early twentieth century to the present. It traces the construction of major ...
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This book offers the first systematic analysis of writings on modern Chinese history by historians in China from the early twentieth century to the present. It traces the construction of major interpretive schemes, the evolution of dominant historical narratives, and the unfolding of debates on the most controversial issues in different periods. Placing history writing in the context of political rivalry and ideological contestation, the book explicates how the historians' dedication to faithfully reconstructing the past was compromised by their commitment to an imagined trajectory of history that fit their present-day agenda and served their needs of political legitimation. Beginning with an examination of the contrasting narratives of revolution and modernization in the Republican period, the book scrutinizes changes in the revolutionary historiography after 1949, including its disciplinization in the 1950s and early 1960s and radicalization in the rest of the Mao era. It further investigates the rise of the modernization paradigm in the reform era, the crises of master narratives since the late 1990s, and the latest development of the field. Central to the analysis is the issue of truth and falsehood in historical representation. The book contends that both the revolutionary and modernization historiographies before 1949 reflected historians' lived experiences and contained a degree of authenticity in mirroring the historical processes of their own times. In sharp contrast, both the revolutionary historiography of the Maoist era and the modernization historiography of the reform era were primarily products of historians' ideological commitment, which distorted and concealed the past no less than revealed it.Less
This book offers the first systematic analysis of writings on modern Chinese history by historians in China from the early twentieth century to the present. It traces the construction of major interpretive schemes, the evolution of dominant historical narratives, and the unfolding of debates on the most controversial issues in different periods. Placing history writing in the context of political rivalry and ideological contestation, the book explicates how the historians' dedication to faithfully reconstructing the past was compromised by their commitment to an imagined trajectory of history that fit their present-day agenda and served their needs of political legitimation. Beginning with an examination of the contrasting narratives of revolution and modernization in the Republican period, the book scrutinizes changes in the revolutionary historiography after 1949, including its disciplinization in the 1950s and early 1960s and radicalization in the rest of the Mao era. It further investigates the rise of the modernization paradigm in the reform era, the crises of master narratives since the late 1990s, and the latest development of the field. Central to the analysis is the issue of truth and falsehood in historical representation. The book contends that both the revolutionary and modernization historiographies before 1949 reflected historians' lived experiences and contained a degree of authenticity in mirroring the historical processes of their own times. In sharp contrast, both the revolutionary historiography of the Maoist era and the modernization historiography of the reform era were primarily products of historians' ideological commitment, which distorted and concealed the past no less than revealed it.
Juan Wang
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190605735
- eISBN:
- 9780190609511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190605735.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Politics
This chapter introduces the central puzzle of continuous rural unrest despite national reforms by reviewing major waves of farmer protest since the Maoist era and demonstrating their differences in ...
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This chapter introduces the central puzzle of continuous rural unrest despite national reforms by reviewing major waves of farmer protest since the Maoist era and demonstrating their differences in state-society relations. It shows that the latest wave of farmer protests after 2000 was particularly alarming for the regime because grassroots cadres served as coordinators, mobilizers, or bystanders of farmer protest instead of active social controllers or agents of the state. The behavior and rationale of village cadres reflected a fundamental erosion of elite cohesion. The question, then, is how a fragmented local state has come into being during this period.Less
This chapter introduces the central puzzle of continuous rural unrest despite national reforms by reviewing major waves of farmer protest since the Maoist era and demonstrating their differences in state-society relations. It shows that the latest wave of farmer protests after 2000 was particularly alarming for the regime because grassroots cadres served as coordinators, mobilizers, or bystanders of farmer protest instead of active social controllers or agents of the state. The behavior and rationale of village cadres reflected a fundamental erosion of elite cohesion. The question, then, is how a fragmented local state has come into being during this period.
Ka-ming Wu
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252039881
- eISBN:
- 9780252097997
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252039881.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The final destination of the Long March and center of the Chinese Communist Party's red bases, Yan'an acquired mythical status during the Maoist era. Though the city's significance as an emblem of ...
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The final destination of the Long March and center of the Chinese Communist Party's red bases, Yan'an acquired mythical status during the Maoist era. Though the city's significance as an emblem of revolutionary heroism has faded, today's Chinese still glorify Yan'an as a sanctuary for ancient cultural traditions. The book examines the relation between the government and local communities for heritage preservation and cultural tourism in the age of runaway urbanization by focusing on the moments of mobilizing and representing folk traditions in both socialist and late socialist Yan'an. This ethnographic account of contemporary Yan'an documents how people have reworked the revival of three rural practices—paper-cutting, folk storytelling, and spirit cults—within (and beyond) the socialist legacy. Moving beyond dominant views of Yan'an folk culture as a tool of revolution or object of market reform, the book reveals how cultural traditions become battlegrounds where conflicts among the state, market forces, and intellectuals in search of an authentic China play out. At the same time, it shows these emerging new dynamics in the light of the ways rural residents make sense of rapid social change. The book uses “Yan'an and folk culture” to connote a historical model of the Chinese Communist Party appropriating folk traditions to promote rural reform and national state campaigns.Less
The final destination of the Long March and center of the Chinese Communist Party's red bases, Yan'an acquired mythical status during the Maoist era. Though the city's significance as an emblem of revolutionary heroism has faded, today's Chinese still glorify Yan'an as a sanctuary for ancient cultural traditions. The book examines the relation between the government and local communities for heritage preservation and cultural tourism in the age of runaway urbanization by focusing on the moments of mobilizing and representing folk traditions in both socialist and late socialist Yan'an. This ethnographic account of contemporary Yan'an documents how people have reworked the revival of three rural practices—paper-cutting, folk storytelling, and spirit cults—within (and beyond) the socialist legacy. Moving beyond dominant views of Yan'an folk culture as a tool of revolution or object of market reform, the book reveals how cultural traditions become battlegrounds where conflicts among the state, market forces, and intellectuals in search of an authentic China play out. At the same time, it shows these emerging new dynamics in the light of the ways rural residents make sense of rapid social change. The book uses “Yan'an and folk culture” to connote a historical model of the Chinese Communist Party appropriating folk traditions to promote rural reform and national state campaigns.
Jie Li
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231167178
- eISBN:
- 9780231538176
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231167178.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
In the dazzling global metropolis of Shanghai, what has it meant to call this city home? In this account—part microhistory, part memoir—the text salvages intimate recollections by successive ...
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In the dazzling global metropolis of Shanghai, what has it meant to call this city home? In this account—part microhistory, part memoir—the text salvages intimate recollections by successive generations of inhabitants of two vibrant, culturally mixed Shanghai alleyways from the Republican, Maoist, and post-Mao eras. Exploring three dimensions of private life—territories, artifacts, and gossip—the book re-creates the sounds, smells, look, and feel of home over a tumultuous century. First built by British and Japanese companies in 1915 and 1927, the two homes at the center of this narrative were located in an industrial part of the former “International Settlement.” Before their recent demolition, they were nestled in Shanghai's labyrinthine alleyways, which housed more than half of the city's population from the Sino-Japanese War to the Cultural Revolution. Through interviews with family members as well as their neighbors, classmates, and co-workers, the author of this book weaves a complex social tapestry reflecting the lived experiences of ordinary people struggling to absorb and adapt to major historical change. These voices include workers, intellectuals, Communists, Nationalists, foreigners, compradors, wives, concubines, and children who all fought for a foothold and haven in this city, witnessing spectacles so full of farce and pathos they could only be whispered as secret histories.Less
In the dazzling global metropolis of Shanghai, what has it meant to call this city home? In this account—part microhistory, part memoir—the text salvages intimate recollections by successive generations of inhabitants of two vibrant, culturally mixed Shanghai alleyways from the Republican, Maoist, and post-Mao eras. Exploring three dimensions of private life—territories, artifacts, and gossip—the book re-creates the sounds, smells, look, and feel of home over a tumultuous century. First built by British and Japanese companies in 1915 and 1927, the two homes at the center of this narrative were located in an industrial part of the former “International Settlement.” Before their recent demolition, they were nestled in Shanghai's labyrinthine alleyways, which housed more than half of the city's population from the Sino-Japanese War to the Cultural Revolution. Through interviews with family members as well as their neighbors, classmates, and co-workers, the author of this book weaves a complex social tapestry reflecting the lived experiences of ordinary people struggling to absorb and adapt to major historical change. These voices include workers, intellectuals, Communists, Nationalists, foreigners, compradors, wives, concubines, and children who all fought for a foothold and haven in this city, witnessing spectacles so full of farce and pathos they could only be whispered as secret histories.
J. Vernon Henderson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- December 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199678204
- eISBN:
- 9780191788635
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199678204.003.0035
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter discusses China’s urbanization process, which played a crucial role in its economic growth. Key features and challenges of China’s urbanization process include the restraints imposed on ...
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This chapter discusses China’s urbanization process, which played a crucial role in its economic growth. Key features and challenges of China’s urbanization process include the restraints imposed on migration from the rural sector into the urban sector. These restraints delayed and distorted the urbanization process, and may be responsible for China’s extraordinary degree of income and social inequality. The discussions also cover the development of an economically healthy urban economic hierarchy emerging out of the Maoist era; biases in fiscal allocations and in capital markets controlled by the state; and state control of the financial sector and legal system.Less
This chapter discusses China’s urbanization process, which played a crucial role in its economic growth. Key features and challenges of China’s urbanization process include the restraints imposed on migration from the rural sector into the urban sector. These restraints delayed and distorted the urbanization process, and may be responsible for China’s extraordinary degree of income and social inequality. The discussions also cover the development of an economically healthy urban economic hierarchy emerging out of the Maoist era; biases in fiscal allocations and in capital markets controlled by the state; and state control of the financial sector and legal system.
