The Myth of Neighborhood Mutual Help: The Contemporary Chinese Community-Based Welfare System in Guangzhou (review)

Abstract

404 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 2, Fall 1995 Cecilia L. W. Chan. The Myth ofNeighborhood Mutual Help: The Contemporary Chinese Community-Based Welfare System in Guangzhou. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1993. xii, 266 pp. Paperback $42.50. To understand the immensely complex bureaucracy ofthe government ofthe People's Republic of China is an extraordinary task. It is even more impressive when one attempts to explain the welfare system, which is a daunting chore for any political system. Yet Cecilia Chan not only has made a remarkable attempt to convey to the reader how complex the welfare system in China is, but also asserts how deceiving the socialist state is in assuming that neighborhood structures are providing welfare services to the people ofChina. Her choice ofthe term "myth" in her title hints to the reader her conclusion that neighborhood street offices are not providing neighborhood mutual help in urban China. The purpose of the book is to see how traditional neighborhood mutual help structures were operating in the socialist state ofthe People's Republic ofChina. The author systematically studied the social welfare service system oftwenty-four neighborhoods in Guangzhou, China. Her goal was to determine the extent to which Chinese neighborhoods were actually providing services through the community -based welfare delivery networks. Beginning with historical and policy background information, the author describes the traditional neighborhood structures and analyzes the neighborhoods' attempts at mutual aid and networking. The book is based on survey data on the social and economic conditions ofthe Street Offices. It offers the finding that although there are five determinants ofwelfare service provision at the neighborhood level, welfare delivery at the local level is dependent upon the economic conditions and political mobilization of the Street Offices. In eight chapters the book treats in turn several issues: historical, macrolevel , and micro-level descriptions, and the results ofChan's own survey. The first and second chapters have a history and policy focus. Chan gives historical reporting of traditional Chinese neighborhood structures, starting from the field system Qing tian zhi) in the Zhou dynasty and continuing down to the bao jia system in the Nationalist era of the 1930s. Then there is a review ofthe community service policy established in 1987, which was an integral part ofurban welfare reforms. This historical review is an important beginning to the book, because it gives the reader a context for understanding the complexity of China's political system and© 1995 by University me importance ofthe systematic building ofthe welfare system based on commuofHawai 'iPress^ty organizations. The next three chapters focus on an explanation ofthe welfare system from the macro level. Chan gives a clear description of the organization and structure Reviews 405 ofgovernment administration through several diagrams that show, for instance, the different levels ofgovernment (central, provincial, municipal, and district) and ofthe residents' self-help structure (street office, residents' committee, residents ' group, and household). Street offices, which are the first level of the residents ' self-help structure, are described in more detail in a chapter on two typical street offices in Guangzhou Province. To finish up the discussion on the macro level, the author explains "community service outputs," which are the kinds of welfare services offered. Services are offered in the form of "services for the elderly , financial assistance for hardship families, nurseries and child-care services, services for handicapped and services for juvenile delinquents" (p. 106). This description at the macro level gives the reader the sense that the Chinese government feels obligated to provide services to certain target populations: the elderly, disabled, young children, and problematic youth. These services are in the form of financial or programmatic aid. At the micro level, there is one chapter which gives a rich description ofthree different cases (a blind worker, a mentally ill worker, and a retired worker). This chapter allows the reader to see the frustrations caused by an individual's limitations in working and contributing to that individual's own personal needs and the needs ofthe family and the State, resulting in the need for the assistance of welfare services. The discussion at the end ofthis chapter analyzes the Chinese government's attitude toward prioritizing services by discussing the...