Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-08-10DOI: 10.1177/00977004231189852
Z. Howlett
{"title":"Diligent Daughters: Women’s Educational Outperformance in Contemporary China","authors":"Z. Howlett","doi":"10.1177/00977004231189852","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231189852","url":null,"abstract":"In post-reform China (1979–present), women have advanced rapidly in educational achievement, and now surpass men in undergraduate and postgraduate attendance. Scholars tend to attribute women’s outperformance to the one-child policy, which empowered urban singleton daughters. But around 40 percent of women undergraduate students are from rural areas, where multi-child families and son preference are common. Based on participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and longitudinal family case studies, this article addresses educated migrant women from a broad range of backgrounds in Fujian province. It argues that academically outperforming daughters combine self-development, filiality, and resistance to patriarchal norms to pursue the full subjecthood that is conventionally reserved for men—encompassing recognition for individual accomplishment, independence, and filial contribution. By navigating marriage pressures and economically contributing to their natal families, diligent daughters shift patricentric family dynamics toward more bilateral arrangements, eroding the patriarchal structures that undergird male-centered power even as many gendered norms remain intact.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46255856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-08-10DOI: 10.1177/00977004231189278
J. R. Shepherd
{"title":"Reassessing the Mortality Impact of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in China","authors":"J. R. Shepherd","doi":"10.1177/00977004231189278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231189278","url":null,"abstract":"In accounts of the worldwide impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic, China remains a black hole of missing data. In the absence of systematically collected nationwide death statistics, scholars have used scattered and often impressionistic reports to suggest that the epidemic had only a mild impact in China and, in some cases, to raise the possibility that the epidemic originated in China. These works rely heavily on conclusions drawn from anecdotal reports of customs officers, a medical report from Canton, and uncritical use of Shanghai and Hong Kong crude death rates, which are shown herein to be seriously flawed or misstated. This article and its online supplement contribute to knowledge of the influenza epidemic in China by reassessing the available data on Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Canton and assessing hitherto neglected sources on seven majority-Chinese jurisdictions that enforced vital statistics reporting. The results refute the notion of a mild impact and show that the pandemic had an impact in most cases greater than that seen in Western countries like the United States and England and Wales.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45757326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-08-04DOI: 10.1177/00977004231185730
Kwok-shing Chan
{"title":"Customary Mortgages and the Moral Economy of Kinship in Chinese Lineage Villages, 1905–1965","authors":"Kwok-shing Chan","doi":"10.1177/00977004231185730","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231185730","url":null,"abstract":"This article illustrates the development and characteristics of two customary forms of mortgage lending by analyzing a total of 3,630 mortgage cases found in four lineage communities in rural Hong Kong during the period 1905–1965 under British colonial rule. Two major findings are presented. First, there was a progressive decline of the dian 典 form, in sharp contrast to the increasing popularity of the diya 抵押 form. Second, while dian practices distinctly followed prevailing kinship-based moral values and obligations to help needy agnates, agnatic ties were not a significant factor in determining the terms of diya loans. This suggests that needy villagers did not feel disinclined to get a loan from lineage outsiders who could offer reasonable or attractive terms. The popularity of the diya practice demonstrates the existence of a strategic balance between self-interest and communal moral values and mutual obligations in lineage communities.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43676515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-06-28DOI: 10.1177/00977004231179462
Philip C. C. Huang
{"title":"The Theories of “Differential Optimums” and “Vertical Integration” and Their Implications for China","authors":"Philip C. C. Huang","doi":"10.1177/00977004231179462","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231179462","url":null,"abstract":"Chayanov, outside of his theoretical analysis of how peasant households are distinctive for being at once a production and a consumption unit and the multiple implications of that fact, has made two other major theoretical contributions, one making clear that peasant economies observe the logic of “differential optimums” rather than the simple logic of economies of scale and the other having to do with the need for co-operatives for “vertical integration” of small peasant economies in order to preserve for the peasants more of the value of their products in the BIG MARKET. The former can be readily observed in the “new agriculture revolution” of the Chinese economy in the past few decades; the latter can be readily seen in the striking modernization of the “East Asian” (i.e., Japan, South Korea, and the Taiwan area) economies since 1945. China’s annual “Number One Documents” about agriculture of the past two decades have shown how the country first mistakenly tried to imitate the simple scale-economy logic of the United States and then shifted since 2018 toward a new emphasis on the peasants as the principal agents of agricultural development and peasant villages as the basic unit for agricultural co-ops. Those have been the basis for new advances as well as for reinterpretations and modifications of Chayanov’s two major theoretical visions.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46609282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-05-23DOI: 10.1177/00977004231170267
Xian Wang
{"title":"Contested Memories: An Imaginary Museum for a Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyr, Liu Hulan","authors":"Xian Wang","doi":"10.1177/00977004231170267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231170267","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past few years, the Chinese government has sought to assert ideological dominance and rebuild the legitimacy of the Communist Party regime through control of national memory. Although collective memory is shaped by the ruling government through ideological maneuvering, it is also reinterpreted in literature, media, and art. This article examines both the state-sanctioned narratives and the reproductions of one young female revolutionary martyr, Liu Hulan (1932–1947), to explore how the process of making Liu a martyr contributed to collective memory, how gender and sexuality support or problematize state-sponsored ideology, and how contemporary rewritings of Liu’s martyrdom question state ideology and nationalism. This article establishes an imaginary museum for Liu Hulan, exhibiting official memories and countermemories in juxtaposition. It shows that chastity and traditional gender roles remain constant concerns in the creation and commemoration of female revolutionary martyrs.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42775703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.1177/00977004231169008
Björn Alpermann, Michael Malzer
{"title":"“In Other News”: China’s International Media Strategy on Xinjiang—CGTN and New China TV on YouTube","authors":"Björn Alpermann, Michael Malzer","doi":"10.1177/00977004231169008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231169008","url":null,"abstract":"In the Western world China stands accused of severe human rights violations regarding its treatment of the Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in its northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. This is the first article to systematically analyze the response of China’s international state media to these allegations. By studying the YouTube channels of two leading Chinese state media, China Global Television Network (CGTN) and New China TV (operated by Xinhua News Agency), it presents an in-depth understanding of how China’s foreign-facing propaganda works in a crucial case. The quantitative content analysis highlights how China reacted to increasing international (mostly United States) pressure regarding its Xinjiang policies by producing higher volumes of videos and putting out new counternarratives. The qualitative analysis that follows provides in-depth treatment of the most important discourses that Chinese media engage in to salvage the nation’s international image, namely those on development, culture, nature, and terrorism. It finds several ways of countering criticism, ranging from presenting a positive image of China, in line with traditional propaganda guidelines and President Xi Jinping’s assignment to state media to “tell the China story well,” to more innovative approaches. Thus the development narrative becomes more personalized, the discourse on culture supports the “heritagization process” to incorporate minority cultures into a harmonized “Chinese civilization,” representations of nature firmly tie Xinjiang into the discourse of “beautiful China,” the “terror narrative” strategically employs shocking footage in an attempt to gain international “discourse power,” etc. The article provides an up-to-date picture of China’s state media strategy on a highly contentious international issue.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42239331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-05-04DOI: 10.1177/00977004231170269
Shannon Zhao
{"title":"The Past, Present, and Future of Commercial Associations in China: Reflections on Theory and the Pathways of Practice","authors":"Shannon Zhao","doi":"10.1177/00977004231170269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231170269","url":null,"abstract":"Since the 1980s, three paradigms have dominated the historical study of commercial associations—class analysis, modernization, and “public sphere”/“civil society”—but all three are imbued with and insist upon a binary opposition between state and society. These paradigms produce an understanding of commercial associations as part of a Western-style “bourgeois public sphere,” itself part of “civil society,” standing in opposition to the state. These misinterpretations were only strengthened by the complete state-ification of commercial associations in China after 1949. Studies of the history of commercial associations, trapped in this theoretical pitfall, cannot produce convincing historical research, even with abundant empirical data, nor can they provide experiential models for the development of contemporary commercial associations. Instead, if we focus on practice, we discover that modern commercial associations were part of a “third sphere,” an in-between space within the paradoxical institutional framework of China’s highly centralized government and minimalist administrative system. The semiformal governance mechanism operative within the third sphere reflected the close relationship and mutual shaping at work between the state and local society rather than a binary opposition between them. Applying these insights on the history of commercial associations to the practices of contemporary “commercial consultative associations” allows us to see that the semiformal administrative traditions embedded in the “third sphere” continue to quietly operate, which has immense significance for the future development of commercial associations in China.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49166086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-04-28DOI: 10.1177/00977004221137535
J. Wong, A. D. Wong
{"title":"The Ongoing Business of Chinese-Language Reform: A View from the Periphery of Hong Kong in the Past Half Century","authors":"J. Wong, A. D. Wong","doi":"10.1177/00977004221137535","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004221137535","url":null,"abstract":"Against the backdrop of the changing meaning of the “Chinese” language in Hong Kong, this article explores how Mandarin, once an unproblematic link to a nebulous Chinese nation for Hongkongers, now reflects anti-mainland sentiments. In the 1970s, Hong Kong Chinese who fought against English colonial oppression embraced Cantonese as their de facto Chinese language even as some conceded the broader allure of Mandarin. As the popularity of Cantonese rose, the appeal of Mandarin lingered but did not result in its higher currency. In the period leading up to the 1997 handover, while the colonial government did not mandate the study of Mandarin, its economic practicality surged, especially as the reform era engineered tremendous opportunities for Hongkongers in the mainland. Ironically, as Hongkongers have registered enhanced Mandarin proficiency, mounting resentment toward Mandarin in the city over the past two decades has come to represent a response to intensifying mainland control over Hong Kong.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45636018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-04-28DOI: 10.1177/00977004231156824
Xianghong Feng
{"title":"“Roots with Wings”: Impacts of Tourism-Induced Mobility on Individuals and Family Ties among the Miao in China’s Individualization Process","authors":"Xianghong Feng","doi":"10.1177/00977004231156824","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231156824","url":null,"abstract":"This article looks at the impacts of mobility on individuals and their family ties in tourist destination communities, paying attention to the individualization process among the rural, ethnic minority population in contemporary China. Based on my decade-long ethnography in Fenghuang county, Hunan province, I explore how the rapid rise of tourism-induced mobility has brought individual autonomy and collective morality under constant negotiation among previously clan-based people, and what the course and consequences of ongoing individualization are for the non-Han population in China. I argue that individuals’ greater mobility may enhance, rather than diminish, the importance of family, and that this is especially true for the rural, ethnic minority population in China. Their experience of dealing with individualization also reveals that the effect of social structure is to some extent unchanged, representing a case of “embedded individualization.”","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41801450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Modern ChinaPub Date : 2023-04-28DOI: 10.1177/00977004231153331
Clemens Büttner
{"title":"The National Protection War and the Intellectual Foundations of Chinese Warlordism","authors":"Clemens Büttner","doi":"10.1177/00977004231153331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004231153331","url":null,"abstract":"In 1915–1916, a coalition under the joint leadership of the military officers Cai E, Tang Jiyao, and Li Liejun fought the National Protection War 护国战争 to prevent Yuan Shikai from restoring the monarchy in China. Their declared goal was to defend the Republican polity, yet despite their victory, the Republic did not resurge. I argue that the actions of these men were motivated by two interdependent ideas that decisively contributed to the later rise of warlordism: the assumption that the professional soldier ought to play a prominent role in the Chinese nation-state-building project and the belief that the military man was obligated to defend the Chinese nation against all threats. By tracing the origins, implementation, and reception of these ideas, I focus on the previously neglected intellectual foundations of Chinese warlordism. The victory of Cai and his comrades-in-arms and the overwhelming public appreciation of their actions following the war would come to encourage an ever-growing number of military men—who soon were to be decried as “warlords” 军阀—to also intervene in political affairs.","PeriodicalId":47030,"journal":{"name":"Modern China","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42995342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}