You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This second edition of Understanding Chinese Society provides a comprehensive, readable, and well-grounded introduction to the key issues affecting contemporary China. A thorough analysis is undertaken not only of China’s family patterns, education system, status, hierarchy, and ethnic diversity, but also of China’s mass media, legal system and social control, work, and cultural expression. As well as being thoroughly updated and revised throughout, this edition offers new chapters on urbanization, the environment, and civil society in China. A team of international experts guide students though social issues including: What are the key features of the family and marriage institutions in...
This much-needed volume explains who ethnic minorities are and how well do they do in China. In addition to offering general information about ethnic minority groups in China, it discusses some important issues around ethnicity, including ethnic inequality, minority rights, and multiculturalism. Drawing on insights and perspectives from scholars in different continents the contributions provide critical reflections on where the field has been and where it is going, offering readers possible directions for future research on minority ethnicity in China. The Handbook reviews research and addresses key conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues in the study of ethnicity in China.
This much-needed work on ethnicity in Asia offers a major sociological analysis of Hui Muslims in contemporary China. Using both qualitative and quantitative data derived from fieldwork in Lanzhou between March 2001 and July 2004, it looks at the contrast between the urban life of the Han people, the ethnic majority in the city of Lanzhou, and the Hui people, the largest ethnic minority in the city, and assesses the link between minority ethnicity and traditional behaviour in urban sociology and research on ethnic groups of China. In-depth interviews and survey data provides a fresh perspective to the study of ethnic behaviour in China, and offers a rich account of Hui behaviour in seven aspects of urban life: neighbouring interaction, friendship formation, network behaviour, mate selection methods, spouse choice, marital homogamy, and household structure. Contributing to the global discourse on Islam, religious fundamentalism and modernity, this book will be invaluable to anyone interested in Chinese society, Islam, religion, development, urban studies, anthropology and ethnicity.
Contributing to existing literature on ethnic studies in China, this book is a study of minority subjective experiences in China, using Uyghur Muslims as a case study. By examining Uyghur conceptions of family and society, it investigates whether or not ethnic minorities are culturally capable of understanding and internalizing global norms on equality, community, citizenship, trust, justice and wellbeing. Specifically, it empirically examines Uyghur perceptions of issues such as spousal relations, parenting, community engagement and life satisfaction. Using data gathered from fieldwork in Ürümchi, the author is able to show that there is in fact a high degree of Uyghur conformity to global norms on family and society. In the contemporary context of an Islamic revival and a recent resurgence of Uyghur nationalism, the evidence presented in this book is particularly important to the understanding of the Uyghur ethnic group and other minorities in the region. Whilst making a valuable contribution to the fields of anthropology and sociology, this book will be useful for students of Chinese studies, Religious studies, Ethnic studies and Social Psychology.
On the global stage, China is often seen to be a homogenous nation when, in fact, it is a diverse multi-ethnic society, with 55 minority nationality groups recognized by the government. Scattered across the vast landmass, ethnic minorities in China occupy a precarious place in the state, where the Confucian concept of cultural community plays down ethnicity and encourages integration of minority nationalities into the majority Han-Chinese society. This insightful book reveals the ethnic diversity underlying the People’s Republic of China and examines how ethnicity intersects with social and political issues through key themes such as ethnic inequality, the preservation and contribution of ...
This book reveals the complex relationship between elite perceptions and behaviour, and governance, in China. It moves away from existing scholarship by focusing on functionaries, grass-roots elites, leading intellectuals, and opinion-makers in China and by looking beyond the top leadership, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of shared governance and broadened political participation in China. The chapters in this collection explore the elites’ role as opinion-makers, technical experts, producers of knowledge, and executives or managers, and pose a number of questions, the answers to which are crucial to understanding future political and economic development in China. W...
As the regional lingua franca, the Uyghur language long underpinned Uyghur national identity in Xinjiang. However, since the ‘bilingual education’ policy was introduced in 2002, Chinese has been rapidly institutionalised as the sole medium of instruction in the region’s institutes of education. As a result, studies of the bilingual and indeed multi-lingual Uyghur urban youth have emerged as a major new research trend. This book explores the relationship between language, education and identity among the urban Uyghurs of contemporary Xinjiang. It considers ways in which Uyghur urban youth identities began to evolve in response to the state imposition of ‘bilingual education’. Starti...
Political elites are a key topic in contemporary China studies, and have been investigated in relation to factional politics, generation politics, technocracy, and crucially, institutionalization. The institutionalization of elite replacement began in China in the 1980s and quickly accelerated after the early 1990s, as mechanisms emerged to regulate political elites’ entry and exit, including age limits, term limits, and step-by-step promotion. By examining the various processes of elite selection, this book explores the role played by institutionalization in elite recruitment, promotion and turnover in China. While existing studies have developed our understanding of Chinese elite politic...
This Handbook advances research on the family and marriage in China by providing readers with a multidisciplinary and multifaceted coverage of major issues in one single volume. It addresses the major conceptual, theoretical and methodological issues of marriage and family in China and offers critical reflections on both the history and likely progression of the field.