Chinese Sociology Research Articles

Resonance as a medio-passive, emancipatory and transformative power: a reply to my critics

This is a response to a critique of my theory in the Journal of Chinese Sociology. In this response, I take the relationship between resonance theory and the tradition of critical theory as the starting point, and discuss the contributions of the five commentators in terms of the focus of resonance theory and its extension to critical theory, the questions and concerns that such an extension may raise, and the overcoming and reflecting on Eurocentrism in resonance theory. Finally, I will conclude with some reflections on their approach.

Causes and Solutions to the Current Dilemma of Chinese Youth Women's Soccer

Chinese teenage women's soccer is often overlooked in China's overall efforts to improve sports literacy and develop soccer talent. This research paper explores the reasons for why Chinese girls' soccer has not expanded in popularity. My research methods included an online survey with over 100 respondents and extensive literature review, covering Chinese sociology and studies on Chinese soccer. This paper will argue that Chinese girls soccer's development is hindered by traditional ideas in society around gender and insufficient government support. These social elements limit the popularity of amateur female soccer, and also creates unfriendly sports policies for female athletes, and slows down the development of Chinese girls' soccer. Based on the current situation and needs of change and innovation in Chinese women's soccer, this paper examines the existing problems and offers detailed solutions for improving the imbalance between men and women's soccer.

Professor S. M. Shirokogoroff: Russian Origins of Chinese Sociology

Professor S. M. Shirokogoroff: Russian Origins of Chinese Sociology

Istoricheskij ocherk po issledovaniyu sociologicheskoj mysli V. I. Lenina v Kitae

V.I. Lenin’s sociological thought has been introduced into China for a hundred years, which has played an important role in the formation and development of early Chinese sociology. In th eir works and articles, Chinese scholars have fully affirmed the role of Lenin’s sociological thought in promoting the development of Marxist sociology, and made a fair evaluation of Lenin’s historical contribution to the discipline system of sociology.

Research on the Marxist School of Early Chinese Sociology

The “Marxist School” in the early stage of Chinese sociology had played a vital role in the development of Sociology and the spread of Marxism in China. This article introduces the social and historical contexts for the emergence of the Marxist School of Chinese Sociology in the early 20th century, the school’s representatives and main academic activities, the school’s academic characteristics, and their contributions to the localization and innovation of early Chinese sociological theory and empirical research. The prominent representative scholars of the Marxist school were also the early core members of the Communist Party of China. Therefore, their academic activities and research findings also played an essential supporting role in the early stage of constructing the theoretical system and revolutionary practice of the Communist Party of China. They also have enlightenment significance for social science research and social construction in contemporary China.

Caring masculinity as caring capital in the field of marriage: Chinese rural migrant men’s engagement with digital dating

ABSTRACT The concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used in Chinese sociology since the early-2020s to explain Chinese wealthy men’s power over women in the market reform era. Scholars have also paid attention to the ways in which rural, working-class men achieve a sense of manhood, but the links between digital media and gender theory have often not been explored. To fill in this gap, this article examines the ways in which Chinese rural migrant heterosexual men sophisticatedly employ digital technology and gain advantages in the highly competitive field of marriage, translating savvy digital media usage into cultural capital. Research findings drawing upon our long-term ethnography offer substantial evidence of a relationship between men’s active use of digital technology, caring practices, and the desirability of rural migrant men. As such, we develop the concept of caring capital in relation to men’s ability to: master romantic online courting manners, display caring behaviors during follow-up offline courtship, and please their (future) parents-in-law. Research limitations are discussed.

Sociology and the sociology of work in China: a brief illustration

Chinese sociology developed widely before 1949 but was then banned for ca. 30 years before ultimately renewing its rapid development trajectory. This blank page of history has led to knowledge becoming invisible at two different points in time: during this recent period; but also before 1949. In 1979, when sociologists started to resuscitate the discipline, they moved quickly to familiarise themselves with the sociologies of Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, India and North America....

Dongshi as reflexive habitus to understand Chinese rural students’ academic success

ABSTRACT This article uses a Chinese notion, dongshi, to understand Chinese rural students’ academic success in terms of accessing elite universities. Dongshi is defined as reflexive habitus informed by Bourdieu’s notions of field, capital and habitus. Through a qualitative study of a group of rural students’ pre-university life stories, dongshi emerges from the data, which alludes to four facets of reflexivity: (1) empathetic understanding of their parents’ hardships in supporting their education; (2) their parents’ powerlessness in educational involvement; (3) the significance of knowledge in changing destinies; and (4) expectations of repaying their parents. As reflexive habitus, dongshi echoes the transformative aspect of habitus, contributing to rural students’ access to elite universities. This article contributes to the constructive dialogue with Bourdieu in Chinese sociology of education and calls for global researchers to reflect on the theoretical resources available in their linguistic repertoire when contextualising Bourdieu.

Inheritance and reflection: \u201cre-study\u201d of three anthropology fieldwork sites in China\u2019s Yunnan Province

This article is a research report involving three anthropological studies conducted during the period of “Kuige” and their “re-studies.” By narrating the project, I set forth my views on the connections and differences between Chinese anthropological explorations from two historical periods. These anthropological explorations refer to the study of Lu Village conducted by Fei Xiaotong, that of “West Town” (Xizhou) by Francis L. K. Hsu, and that of “Pai-IPai” (Dai) villages by Tien Ju-Kang. They were all completed in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Each writer extracted a framework to analyze the land system, ancestor worship, and the relationship between humans and gods from the writer’s own field experience. Despite the difference in research methods, all three studies noticed the cultural differences between rural society and modernity. Since 2000, Peking University and Yunnan Minzu University have launched a “Province-university Cooperation Project.” During the project, a research team formed of several young scholars revisited Lu Village, “West Town” (Xizhou), and Namu Village. These writers’ works were based on the data acquired in their fieldwork and drew upon the opinions raised by global anthropologists on “re-study” in recent decades. Considering the dual effects of social change and shifts in academic concepts around “follow-up research,” the scholars put forward several points of view with their ethnographies, which all featured the characteristics of inheritance and reflection. Based on the results of the three “re-studies,” this article emphasizes the importance of the study of public rituals for the research of rural society. This article also attempts to re-examine the methodology of “human ecology,” which profoundly impacts Chinese anthropology and sociology.

The fabric of Post-Western sociology: ecologies of knowledge beyond the \u201cEast\u201d and the \u201cWest\u201d

For several centuries, the history of the West has merged with the history of the world. The global economy of knowledge is structured around epistemic inequalities, hegemonies, and dominations. A clear division of scientific practices has developed among academic “peripheries,” “semi-peripheries,” and “core.” The question of epistemic injustice, which includes the indigenization of knowledge, was posed very early in the twentieth century in China, Japan, and Korea without being linked to coloniality, which was the case in Indian sociology. Based on the production of an epistemology shared with Chinese sociologists, we proposed a Post-Western sociology to enable a dialogue—on a level footing—addressing common concepts. This sociology also addresses concepts situated in European and Asian theories that consider the modes of creating continuities and discontinuities as well as the conjunctions and disjunctions between the knowledge spaces situated in different social contexts. We aim to fill the gaps between these social contexts. We will describe an ecology of knowledge in the Western-West, the non-Western-West, the semi-Western West, the Western East, the Eastern East, and the re-Easternized East situated on an epistemological continuum. While Chinese sociology has constantly oscillated between indigenization and universalism, and while epistemic autonomies are diverse, Chinese sociologists agree that Western sociologies should not be considered hostile to Chinese sociology. We will offer a definition of Post-Western sociology and demonstrate how it can be theoretically and methodologically applied. We will then identify some transnational theories, theoretical discontinuities and continuities, and common knowledge situated in Western and non-Western contexts.

Returning life to society: Biography as a narrative of the whole

Biography is a unique form of narration in ethnography and historiography. This article attempts to position Lin Yueh-Hwa’s works within the context of sociological and anthropological debate since the 1920s. In doing so it explores the potential uses of the biographical method in the study of Chinese history and society. Although Lin was a bearer of the biographical tradition of Chinese literature and history, his works were also profoundly influenced by both the narrative method of life history in the United States and social-life studies in France. In addition to these two influential biographical traditions, anthropologists in Britain developed the genealogical approach to investigating sacred kingship. This study regards these three traditions of individual-life biography, social-life studies and genealogy as a “biographic triad”. Relevant works in contemporary Chinese sociology and anthropology are reviewed within this framework. It is conceivable that phenomenological description alone is insufficient when applying the biographical method. One must take into consideration Chinese centralized power and the overall social structure of China. Only by placing “life biography” against society’s ever-changing processes can one turn individual stories into powerful narratives depicting the whole structure of Chinese social life.

Between North and South: Historicizing the Indigenization Discourse in Chinese Sociology

AbstractThis paper aims to examine the indigenization discourse in mainland China by charting its evolution in shifting historical contexts. Three phases are distinguished. In the 1980’s, the idea of indigenization or “sinicization” was promulgated by Taiwanese and American Chinese social scientists. In taking up the idea, the early indigenization discourse in mainland China embraced rather than rejected positivism and modernity. The second phase is the 1990’s to 2000’s, when remarkable efforts at indigenization were made in the theory of social change, social psychology and post‐positivist philosophy. Yet these efforts did not constitute a pointed critique of Western social science. Most recently, there is a revival of interest in the indigenization idea, as evident in a major controversy over its adequacy and relevance in the Chinese context. While the call for indigenization is gaining currency, there is a concurrent trend of coalescence with the state‐sanctioned program of building “discursive power”.

Bauman in China

Zygmunt Bauman was one of the most influential sociologists in the English-speaking world. His work is translated into many languages. Chinese studies of Bauman started later than in the English-speaking world but have their own characteristics. In China, the interest is in sociology, culture, Marxism and aesthetics. This article surveys the current situation of Chinese Bauman studies and establishes the state of Chinese translations and studies of Bauman, and examines Chinese reception and interpretation of Bauman’s thought, especially theories of modernity and postmodernity. Its purpose is to display the state of Chinese Bauman studies on the one hand, and to take Bauman’s thought as a lesson in the construction of Chinese sociology on the other, leaving open the question of what studies of modernity might have to learn from Chinese experience and theory.

Governance Concepts in Chinese Marxist Sociology of the Early 20th Century: Tradition and Revolution

Представлен анализ концепций власти и управления, получивших описание в марксистской социологии Китая 1910–1930 гг. в работах ярких представителей этого направления: Ли Да, Ли Дачжао и Цюй Цюбо. Основные направления, в рамках которых китайские марксисты описывали социальное управление и подходы к нему, – это обоснование марксистских социологических теорий в контексте традиционных властно-управленческих ценностей Китая, критика управленческих концепций других социологических направлений, распространенных в то время, и анализ влияния методов управления иностранных держав на социальные проблемы страны. В данных направлениях отразились разновекторные социальные тенденции времени: движение за сохранение традиций и революционные изменения китайского социума. Китайская марксистская социология в обосновании идей социального управления пытается найти консенсус между традицией и революцией, что стало базовой рамкой построения дискурса обсуждения управленческих концепций.

Совершенствование механизма борьбы с коррупцией в высших учебных заведениях Китая в новых условиях

The article is devoted to the problem of corruption in the higher education system of the People's Republic of China. The author identifies the main reasons of its occurrence and spread in colleges and universities of China (with relevant examples) and defines the specifics of corruption in universities at the present stage of development of Chinese society; analyzes the current legislative framework of higher education and assesses its anti-corruption potential. The author briefly describes the main theories of combating corruption crimes proposed in modern Chinese jurisprudence and sociology; and formulates a number of proposals to improve the mechanism of combating corruption.

The resilience characteristics and its influencing factors in the elderly disabled

Objective To investigate the resilience characteristics of the elderly disabled, and the effects of individual, family and social factors on resilience. Methods A total of 138 disabled older adults from four districts of Chengdu City were investigated by 10 items Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC-10), the automatic thoughts questionnaire (ATQ), self esteem scale (SES), revised eysenck personnality questionnaire short scale for chinese(EPQ-RSC) and self-made population sociology questionnaire.Totally 194 community-dwelling older adults without disabilities, as a comparative population, were included in the analysis. Results Compared with the community-dwelling elderly without disability(35.58±5.75, 18.13±3.48, 18.43±3.08), the scores of resilience(21.38±7.71), strength(10.50±4.08)and hardiness (10.88±4.07) of the elderly disabled were significantly lower(t=-19.56, -17.81, -18.34, P<0.01). There were no significant differences in the resilience scores of the elderly disabled in terms of gender, urban and rural sources, marital status, education, disability level and family atmosphere. However, there were significant differences in age, disability causes, disability type and family economic conditions(age: thardiness=2.18, P<0.05. disability causes: tresilience=-2.75, tstrength=-2.22, thardiness=-2.68, P<0.05. disability type: Fhardiness=2.60, P<0.05. family economic conditions: Fresilience=5.45, Fstrength=4.78, Fhardiness=5.21, P<0.01). The resilience, automatic thoughts, self-esteem and personality were significant correlation with each other(r=-0.16-0.65, P<0.05). After controlling age, disability causes, disability type and family economic conditions, self esteem(β =0.291, P<0.01), extraversion(β =0.287, P<0.01) and neuroticism(β =-0.254, P<0.05) were important influential factors of resilience, explained 32.0% variance in resilience. Conclusion It may be an important way to improve resilience level of the elderly disabled by enhancing their self-esteem, promoting their psychological adjustment and strengthening their emotional management. Key words: The elderly disabled; Resilience; Self esteem; Automatic thoughts; Personality

The impact of historic zoning of the Chinese and Western European cities upon social differentiation in the conditions of urbanization

The object of this article is the cities of China. The rapid growth and impact of Chinese cities upon the economy, politics and social life of the country and South Eastern part of the world sparks persistent interest of the researchers. Urbanization processes in China has a range of specific features that distinguish them from urbanization in the countries of Western Europe. Their identification is the goal of this article. The subject of this research became the differentiation of the modern Chinese cities and intraurban social stratification. Based on the accepted in Chinese sociology methodology of classification of cities, the author determines the differences between the urban structures of Western European and Chinese cities. The acquired results detect that the urban social and spatial structures in Western Europe have established under the influence of general economic processes that destroyed the traditional urban structure; while the Chinese cities, despite their rapid development, retain historical and cultural continuity of the principles of creation of spatial structure as a result of planned economy and political control. Examination of the peculiarities of urban structure and agglomerations allows forecasting the development of China&amp;rsquo;s social structure in the context of global transformations.

Social Research in the Light of the German Sociologist Georg Simmel in Comparison with Chinese Sociology

The German sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel (1858-1918) is internationally known as the founder of Formal Sociology. I take the centenary of his death as a welcome opportunity to remember the beginning of modern social sciences. The current state of European and American relational sociology can be interpreted as a revival of Simmel’s method and principles of social research directed to a phenomenology of genesis. From the genetic point of view Simmel considers individuality, creativity, fragmentation and conflict the typical characteristics of modern society. Consequently, his Formal Sociology should be called “Genetic Sociology” instead of Relational Sociology. This paper has the aim to make Simmel’s legacy known to Chinese sociologists and cultural philosophers. Concluding, I highlight the essential differences between the German and the Chinese way of seeing the world of social life, and I propose issues for change.

Life and scientific work of outstanding Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong

Fei Xiaotong (费孝通) (2 November 1910 — 24 April 2005) was the prominent anthropologist and sociologist of China. He was one of the first sociologists and anthropologists who conducted anthropological studies of the life of Chinese society. He was a political journalist and a “cultural intermediary” who published articles about the West in Chinese in China, and about China in English in the West. Fei Xiaotong’s career was full of ups and downs that were associated with the political situation in the country. Finally, after 1978 and starting of the period of Economic Reform and Openness he could re-enter public and scientific life, and officially became a respected academic and a public intellectual which dedicated all his life to the investigation of Chinese society and social problems. For many people, Fei Xiaotong’s works became the first sources, from which it was possible to obtain various information about the Chinese village. His works made us think about the laws of social development and on what methods they should be studied. He believed that it was necessary not only to develop sociology but to go its way, to strive to develop Chinese sociology with all its specifics. Fei Xiaotong devoted his entire life to studying Chinese society and the changes taking place in it. The main stimulus that inspired him all his life was the hope that the Chinese peasants will live better and better, and with them, China will become stronger and more prosperous state.

Vectors of chinese sociology becoming: pragmatic orientation and maintaining of tradition

В статье анализируются социальные условия возникновения, становления и развития социологии в Китае. Показано, что начала её институционализации были отмечены признанием значимости социологии Европой и Японией и попытками использовать этот опыт на китайской почве. Среди факторов развития социологии в Китае названы переводческая деятельность китайских просветителей и ученых, деятельность ученых-миссионеров, обучение китайских студентов и аспирантов в зарубежных университетах, проведение прикладных исследований американских социологов в Китае, роль государства. Китайское социологическое общество появляется в начале 1930-х гг., в это же время начинают публиковаться социологические журналы, развивается прикладная социология. Особое внимание уделено китайской социологии периода культурной революции до конца 1970-х гг., когда начинается ее возрождение благодаря усилиям научного сообщества, молодежи, представителей государственной власти. В завершение делается вывод, что современная китайская социология полностью институционализирована как наука. Среди приоритетных тем исследования выделены изучение проблем занятости в малых городах, семейных и брачных отношений, социальной трансформации и модернизации общества, проблемы обустройства социальной жизни в сельской местности и др. Отмечается, что тесное сотрудничество российских и китайских социологов, развитие совместных исследовательских и образовательных программ позволяет получать новые знания о развитии наших обществ. Делается вывод о векторах, оказавших влияние на становление современной китайской социологии. В статье использованы оригинальные источники на китайском языке о становлении и развитии социологии в стране, показаны авторы работ о становлении китайской социологии.