Trajectories of Moral Transformation in Contemporary China

Abstract

Anthropological discussion of contemporary China appears to divide over the issue of whether China is in a moral crisis. Many argue it is and have reason to do so in light of various scandals. Others, often in the English-language literature, argue that individuals are gaining new rights in China and that nationalism and Confucian ethics provide a moral direction. A common feature shared by these divergent views is that most existing studies deal with one or two specific cases or aspects of moral changes in post-Mao China; missing here is a sort of balanced and holistic view of the big picture that, while having to omit the specifics, can sketch the structure of the process or the paths of changes. This chapter provides exactly this bigger picture review of the case for moral crisis in contemporary China. In my view, national trends in ethical discourse and moral practices demonstrate that what has occurred since the early 1980s constitutes a dynamic and complex process of moral transformation along with a number of trajectories instead of single-dimensional crises or single-directional development. Heavily drawing on my previous researches and secondary sources from the relevant scholarship and media reports, I highlight four major trajectories of moral change in post-Mao Chinese society whereby the moral transformation has taken place and is still ongoing.