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During the early 1980s China embarked on what can be seen as one of the world's largest social experiments ever. Decollectivization meant much more than the reorganization of agricultural production into family based farming. It signaled significant changes to rural social relations, when privatization, marketization and increased geographical mobility started tearing apart the economic and social institutions that had structured collective village life under Mao. The focus of this book is on how rural society has been reorganized in the 21st century. The first chapters outline the basic organizational structure of rural China and can be used as an introduction to the topic in a classroom se...
Bottom-up voluntary associations, it is commonly thought, are among the fundamental building blocks of democracy, preparing people for engaged citizenship. A great deal of interest in Chinese civil society is premised on the idea that such groups might foster the emergence of democracy. But in a society where virtually all major institutions—from schools to workplaces to government—bear the deep imprint of authoritarian rule, can voluntary associations still spur social and political change? Everyday Democracy is a groundbreaking study of bottom-up organizations in China, arguing that even in an authoritarian state, they nurture the skills and habits of democracy. Anthony J. Spires offer...
In China, the central government has the political will to control organized crime, which is seen as a national security threat. The crux of the problem is how to control local governments that have demonstrated lax enforcement without sufficient regulation from the provincial governments. The development of prostitution, underground gambling and narcotics production has become so serious that the central government has to rely on anti-crime campaigns to combat these "three evils". This book explores the specific role of government institutions and agencies, notably the police, in controlling organised and cross-border crime in Greater China. Drawing heavily on original empirical data, it co...
The People’s Republic of China is the world’s most populous state and largest consumer of energy, having demonstrated momentous progress on an unprecedented scale. This global power has increasingly shaped international relations as a result of its population size, economic development and political character. Identifying the most significant new issues and problems that have arisen from China’s rapid development, this book examines the evolution of China’s contemporary foreign policy and international relations. In doing so, it underlines the global importance of China’s management of its own politics and economics, and demonstrates how all nation-states have a vested interest in ...
By the turn of the 21st century, animation production has grown to thousands of hours a year in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Despite this, and unlike American blockbuster productions and the diverse genres of Japanese anime, much animation from the PRC remains relatively unknown. This book is an historical and theoretical study of animation in the PRC. Although the Wan Brothers produced the first feature length animated film in 1941, the industry as we know it today truly began in the 1950s at the Shanghai Animation Film Studio (SAFS), which remained the sole animation studio until the 1980s. Considering animation in China as a convergence of the institutions of education, fine ar...
China today has the largest communist political regime and one of the most dynamic, fastest-growing, and largest economies in the world. Using a case study of China’s tobacco industry, this book analyses how the Chinese government was able to cultivate big state-owned firms that have successfully embraced the global market. The success of the Chinese economy and the many state-owned firms within it have given rise to a "Beijing Consensus," challenging almost every principle enshrined in the so-called "Washington Consensus" that espouses private ownership, free markets, and democracy. By examining two important political processes in contemporary China, ‘local state competition’ and ‘...
This book examines the implications of China’s economic reforms for domestic work and domestic workers. It analyses the factors giving rise to paid domestic work in a socialist economy, and the need for social protection of domestic women workers within cities in contemporary China.
This edited volume presents fresh empirical research on the emerging outcomes of China’s law reforms. The chapters examine China’s ‘going out’ policy by addressing the ways in which the underpinning legal reforms enable China to pursue its core interests and broad international responsibilities as a rising power. The contributors consider China’s civil and commercial law reforms against the economic backdrop of an outflow of Chinese capital into strategic assets outside her own borders. This movement of capital has become an intriguing phenomenon for both ongoing economic reform and its largely unheralded underpinning law reforms. The contributors ask probing questions about doing ...
As a nineteenth-century commercial development, the alleyway house was a hybrid of the traditional Chinese courtyard house and the Western terraced one. Unique to Shanghai, the alleyway house was a space where the blurring of the boundaries of public and private life created a vibrant social community. In recent years however, the city’s rapid redevelopment has meant that the alleyway house is being destroyed, and this book seeks to understand it in terms of the lifestyle it engendered for those who called it home, whilst also looking to the future of the alleyway house. Based on groundwork research, this book examines the Shanghai alleyway house in light of the complex history of the city...
Like many countries around the world, China has been implementing policies aimed at improving parent-school relationships. However, unlike many developed countries, the historical context of family-school relationships has been limited and parents typically do not participate in the school context. Until now, there has been little research conducted in rural China on parental involvement in their children’s education. This book investigates the nature of parental involvement in primary children’s education in rural China by using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. It outlines the layered strategies of how rural parents are involved in their children’s schooling, sho...