Fei Xiaotong Research Articles

The misruling elites: the state, local elites, and the social geography of the Chinese Revolution

The existing scholarship has developed six main explanations to account for the success of the Chinese Revolution, which has been anomalous for major paradigms derived from cross-national comparisons. Methodologically, we use a social geographical approach to test these existing explanations systematically by constructing and analyzing a unique dataset of Communist growth in 93 counties in the three most contested provinces during its most pivotal period of ascendence. Theoretically, we advance and test an alternative perspective, based on the groundwork of Tocqueville and Fei Xiaotong, that integrates the state-centric theory, elite theory, and cultural analysis. Our perspective emphasizes the interplay between state centralization and local elite structure, which leads to intensified state extraction and local elite fracturing, thus creating favorable conditions for revolution. The quantitative analysis strongly supports the importance of the Japanese invasion but provides limited support for many other conventional explanations. The analysis largely confirms the Tocqueville-Fei perspective on state centralization, elite fracturing, cultural change, and revolution. The findings are buttressed by a detailed case study of Lianshui County. The study unveils a common structural challenge that a modernizing state faces in an agrarian status society, to recreate its political legitimacy while disrupting local elite structure. It also sheds historical light on the evolution of state-society relationship through the Chinese Revolution.

To study island China

As greater attention has been paid to island research in China, interactions between Chinese and international island scholars have increased. However, research has tended to take an ‘islands of China’ approach, which perceives China as a continental country surrounded by a large number of islands. The present paper proposes an alternative ‘island China’ perspective, informed by selected Chinese traditions of thinking about islands and the sea, that captures the role islands have played and continue to play in Chinese culture. Drawing upon Fei Xiaotong’s reflexive concept of ‘cultural self-consciousness’, we consider the cultural history of island China, including conceptual tensions between the binaries of continent/island and center/periphery, conceptions of land dwellers and water dwellers, the role of islands as hubs of cultural transmission, and the formation of maritime societies across East and Southeast Asia. We also argue that this cultural history ought to influence island governance in China today.

Re-situating Weber-reception in the circulation of knowledge: analyzing the intermediation of Chinese sociologists with overseas trajectory

ABSTRACT Research on Max Weber’s reception in Chinese contexts has often focused on the formative period (1980s–90s) and its changing political-economic circumstances. However, attempts to bring the reception process back into the broader circulation of knowledge and investigate the intermediations of the Chinese sociologists with overseas experience are scant. Therefore, the aim of this article is to deploy the “circulation of knowledge” approach to examine a selection of influential Chinese sociologists with international experience from three generations (born in the 1910s, 1930s, and 1950s). The representatives sampled include Fei Xiaotong (1910–2005), Chu Tung-tsu (1910–2008), Yang Ching-kun (1911–99), Ambrose King Yeo-Chi (1935–), Zhao Dingxin (1953–), and Zhou Xueguang (1959–). Dialoging with Rodriguez Medina’s analytical framework and his concept of “subordinating object,” this paper narrates and compares the explicit and implicit effects of the cohorts’ intellectual and political-ethical interventions. The results of this study show not only the asymmetric “dual gaze” between center and periphery, but also that generation and discipline are two crucial factors in the circulation of sociological knowledge. To conclude, this study may be of importance in explaining the asymmetries and intermediaries facilitating Weber’s reception process, as well as providing a base for alternative Weber-relevance that might go beyond the canonical image.

Integrating Chinese and Western knowledge: a case of scholar Fei Xiaotong

Integrating Chinese and Western knowledge: a case of scholar Fei Xiaotong

The school-based multicultural education curriculum in China: a case study of two Yugur middle schools

ABSTRACT In China, the school-based multicultural curriculum development in ethnic minority-concentrated areas has long been disregarded or marginalised. Drawing on case studies in two Yugur-dominant schools in Gansu Province, China, this qualitative study explored how a school-based multicultural curriculum was developed and implemented within the framework of duoyuan yiti geju (a framework of diversity within unity), proposed by Fei Xiaotong and recently metaphorized as pomegranate seeds. Collected data evince the importance of the policy initiation, the local elites’ agentic commitment as well as the support of school administrators, practitioners, and minority communities for initiating and enacting the school-based curriculum. The findings also unravel various structural/institutional barriers, such as the dominance of the national curriculum, the lack of bilingual teachers, and the need for the sustainability of the Yugur language and culture to develop school-based multicultural curricula.

КИТАЙСКАЯ МОДЕЛЬ ВЕДЕНИЯ БИЗНЕСА: ГУАНЬСИ МАРКЕТИНГ

The article is dedicated to exploring the Chinese business model of guanxi marketing. Relationship marketing and the Chinese guanxi marketing model manifest in social network structures, resource regulation, and dynamics, making them interconnected but with limited compatibility. This article provides a systematic exposition of the guanxi concept and introduces the theory of «differential mode of association» (chaxugeju) proposed by Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong and the major schools of research on guanxi marketing. Comparisons are also made between Western and Chinese approaches to relationship marketing and guanxi marketing. For foreign entrepreneurs and marketers aiming to

Practising collectivity: Performing public space in everyday China

This article investigates the specific cultural and collaborative nature of China’s public spaces and how they are formed through performative appropriations. Collective cultural practices as political participation were encouraged during the Mao era when cultural activities played a key role in workers’ education and participation. Since the opening-up period, performance in public space has become widespread in China and creates alternative community spaces that constitute alternatives to capitalist spaces of consumption. Using Habermas’s theory of communicative action, we argue that cultural practices performed in public space create a proletariat public sphere that plays a wider role in governance and China’s democratization. Further, the article examines performative practices in public space. It traces the popular activity of public square dancing through history and counters this research with a parallel study of a much younger skateboarding practice. The two practices are very differently rooted. Yet both practices appear to move through cycles of disruption and appropriation, followed by an affirmation of governmental rule. The studies reveal that western ideas of citizenship and individual leisure are less applicable. Public spaces are largely managed through collaborative practices, whereas contemporary scholarship reaffirms Fei Xiaotong’s description of Chinese society as individuals positioned within a complex network of concentric circles.

“Cultivate Beauty with Beauty, Share beauty with Others” — towards Chinese Utopian Thought “Great Harmony”

Just like the “Utopia” in the West, China also has its own ideal form of the world, which is the idea of “Great Harmony”.Great Harmony is an ancient Chinese thought, which refers to the ideal world that mankind can finally reach, and represents mankind’s beautiful vision for the future society. Nowadays,with the increasing cultural exchanges, the question of “how to deal with the cultural relations among various ethnic groups in China and even the world to promote cultural diversity and cultural prosperity?” is becoming more and more urgent. A short, powerful sentence in dealing with cultural relations of Mr. Fei Xiaotong , “Every form of beauty has its uniqueness;precious is to appreciate other forms of beauty with openness;if beauty represents itself with diversity and integrity,the world will be blessed with harmony and unity” answered this question, and once again enriched the connotation of China’s “Great Harmony” thought by focusing on Beauty, create beauty, respect different beauties, and ultimately promote the realization of the “Great World of Harmony”.On the road to promote the realization of the “world unity” of culture, we must not only cultivate the beauty of China with the vision of beauty and the cultural foundation of beauty, but also respect the cultural diversity, handle the relationship between different civilizations, and promote the common prosperity of culture.

From Intercultural Awareness to Global Awareness: The New Mission of Foreign Language Education

Modern transportation and media technology revolution has broken down the geographical barrier, integrating different areas and countries, so that an immense global climate is shaped, pushing the development of varied intercultural communications. Given the above situation, Baker extended the conception of CA (Cultural Awareness), and proposed ICA cultivation (Intercultural Awareness) in language and culture education from the perspective of English as a lingua franca, emphasizing that cultural influences are likely to be varied, dynamic, and emergent. For a peaceful environment for mankind over the world, however, constructing a community of a shared future for mankind is becoming the world’s mutual object which is definitely beyond the reach of individual purpose-oriented ICA. Based on the new situation and new requirements, the key approach to achieving this new mission of foreign language education is to go beyond Baker’s theoretic limitation, fully probe into China’s foreign language education vision together with considering Fei Xiaotong’s cultural self-consciousness theory and Xi Jinping’s idea of constructing a community of a shared future for mankind, and further cultivate learners, Global Awareness (GA) in language and culture education which contains four aspects: recognition of and participation in global integration; identification and mutual appreciation of global excellent cultures; exploration and observation of global issues; responsibility and commitment to the harmonious development of human beings, society.

Rediscovering Fei Xiaotong: Blending Indigenous Chinese Thought and Western Social Science

Rediscovering Fei Xiaotong: Blending Indigenous Chinese Thought and Western Social Science

On the Notion of “Peaceful Rise” and its Value Orientations: Some Views from China

As Chinese President Xi Jinping assesses, the entire world is now facing unprecedented changes not seen before in hundreds of years. In this respect, China has in recent years increasingly turned to its tradition, including philosophical concepts of ancient thinkers and traditional values, to draw on its own historical experience in the search for new formulas and ways of building (or rebuilding) a world order, as well as to promote its “peaceful rise”. In this article author attempts to find answers to the question, “What is meant by China's peaceful rise?” in the writings of Chinese scholars. It briefly outlines the ongoing debate on the essence of China's peaceful rise, and hence the experts' views on what impact the Chinese rise may have on the world order as a whole. The paper pays attention to the question of value orientations in this process by analyzing a number of new so-called Chinese theories of international relations and foreign policy. Examples touched upon include the theory of the “celestial” system, the theory of “moral realism”, and the theory of new cosmopolitanism, the development of which takes into account the essential need of modern China at the international level. In particular, their role for the construction of the community of destiny of mankind both on the theoretical and practical foreign policy level is also studied. As the main conclusion, it is noted that China today is gradually moving along the specific path, the essence of which is reflected in the four idioms put forward by Fei Xiaotong. Adhering to this path, China takes various opportunities and occasions to show the world which way it will develop under the guidance of values emanating from the depths of Chinese history and culture. Author is grateful to Prof. A.N. Karneev and T. Kuznetsova for constructive comments on the article's content and editing.

From Fei Xiaotong to Shi Zhengyi: The Chinese Economic Anthropology Pioneers’ Academic Essentials

In China, economic anthropology started relatively later compared with that in the West; however, under the guidance of Marxist theory and based on the needs of China's economic development, it gradually formed unique advantages in its development process. In China's economic and social development practice, Fei Xiaotong and Shi Zhengyi, among other pioneers, creatively applied the economic anthropological paradigm to solve the specific issues, starting from the local characteristics, and completed some excellent academic results. This paper probes and analyzes the scholarly contributions of the pioneers of Chinese economic anthropology; especially, it takes Marxist economics as the starting point to examine Professor Shi Zhengyi's theoretical contributions to the development of Chinese economic anthropology and its practical significance.

Contemporary Chinese anthropology: reflections, developments and prospects

Since the 16th World Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES) was successfully held in Kunming in July 2009, Chinese anthropologists have been committed to exploring the new direction of Chinese anthropology, striving to build the discipline system of Chinese anthropology in the new era, thus making it a prominent discipline in the study of contemporary Chinese society. After more than ten years’ efforts, Chinese anthropologists have made great progress both in theory and practice, which is embodied in two aspects: the first one is interdisciplinary comprehensive researches and cross-cultural comparative researches based on the thinking and efforts of prestigious anthropologists such as Qiao Jian, Fei Xiaotong, and Li Yiyuan; the second one is the new direction and construction of discipline system of Chinese anthropology in the new era pursued by contemporary Chinese anthropologists. Over the past decades, significant achievements have been made in Chinese anthropology, especially in three aspects. The first is localization of anthropology with less dependency on Western theories and more self-dependence, so as to establish Chinese anthropological schools enjoying localized concepts and theories. The second is modernization of anthropology which demands more adaptability and less discipline inertia and calls for practical researches on current social topics and modernization transformation from the perspective of anthropology. The third is internationalization of anthropology to reduce discipline closeness by conducting overseas researches and exchanges, thereby strengthening international communication and cooperation.

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.

Double-track governance in traditional Chinese society: Dialectics between the enfeoffment system of fiefdom and the bureaucratic prefectural system

Beginning in the Yin-Zhou and Qin-Han periods, development of the Chinese imperial system revolved around the dialectical tension between the “enfeoffmental system of fiefdom” ( fengjian zhi, or the fengjian system) and the bureaucratic prefectural system ( junxian zhi, or the junxian system). In Fei Xiaotong’s words, this was a dual-track politics of the “power of the monarch” and the “power of the gentry”. Under the enfeoffmental system of fiefdom, the relationship between the monarch and his kinsfolk was governed by the Confucian hierarchical principle of “favoring the intimate” ( qin-qin) and “respecting the superior” ( zun-zun), and ritualized by the patriarchal order of clan, mourning rites, and ancestral worship. In addition, the “mandate of Heaven” solidified an organic relationship between the emperor and his subjects and became the foundation for monarchical rule. The bureaucratic prefectural system highlighted the historical change since the Warring States period, which had abolished the enfeoffmental fiefdom system and given birth to the concept of “all-under-Heaven” ( gong tianxia). Thinkers like Wang Fuzhi and Gu Yanwu placed emphasis on the enfeoffmental system of fiefdom as a counterpart of to the bureaucratic prefectural system which helped break up the centralization of power and renew the debate on the dialectic between “public” and “private”. In sum, the enfeoffmental system of fiefdom in China still needs to be clarified through re-examining the Classics.

The Urban-Rural Relationships in China in the Context of COVID-19: From Urban-Rural Integration to Rural Rebuilding

Rural villages are the foundations of Chinese Society. City and the countryside, associating with the concept of social organic cycle “falling tree leaves return to the ground,”1 have supported each other for thousands of years. However, Chinese history in modern times has not developed as it was imagined theoretically. While the city is advancing, the countryside is declining. The duality of urban and rural areas has eroded the countryside, and their relationship has undergone a fundamental transformation. This deformed social structure must be corrected. Therefore, since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the work to reconcile the contradictions between urban-rural relationships runs through the entire process of China’s socialist modernization. This provides the logical main line of the urban-rural integration. City is a consumption group,2 and it does not have a production function, and the raw materials needed for urban development are all obtained from the countryside. Unlike cities, rural areas have always been production bases.3 However, limited by the scarce economical structure of self-sufficiency, if a rural village wants to prosper, it must rely on the urban market. As a result, the dual nature of the interaction between urban and rural economic development has conditioned that the urban-rural relationship is an interdependent, mutually restrictive and inseparable balanced one. This also means that the fundamental essence of urban-rural integration lies in the rebuilding of the rural social pattern from a modern perspective. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 disconnected the rural and urban areas in China, which caused a major blow to both cities and rural areas. When the organic cycle of the society is broken, the city will suffer first, and the countryside also cannot avoid economic losses. The cities and the countryside seem to have truly fallen into what Fei Xiaotong calls “the tragedy of urban bankruptcy and rural primitivization”. Examining the urban-rural relationship under the epidemic, we see that the countryside has become a buffer for social distress and a refuge for urban crises. In the post-epidemic phase, rebuilding a more flexible and resilient organic cycle is the theme of urban-rural relations.

From The Soil—The Foundation of Chinese Society—What I Have Found is "Rural Society"

From The Soil—The Foundation of Chinese Society is a classic work by Mr. Fei Xiaotong, which is great and significance for understanding some special characteristics in Chinese society. This book mainly summarizes the rural society described by Mr. Fei Xiaotong, and expresses the embodiment of rural society in modern China and its practical significance.

Research on the Emergence, Evolution and Identification of the Concept of “Zhonghua Minzu” (Chinese nation)

In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the concept of “Zhonghua minzu” (Chinese nation) was formally put forward under the historical background of the simultaneous outbreak of Chinese national crisis and border crisis. And this term has gone through a long historical process from the initial nickname of the Han nationality to the final development of the concept of “national race”. With the emergence of Fei Xiaotong’s theory of unity of pluralistic society of Chinese nation, people have a better understanding and deeper interpretation of the concept of “Zhonghua minzu” (Chinese nation).

Rethinking Cultural Competence Education in the Global Era: Insights from Fei Xiaotong’s Theory of Cultural Self-Awareness

Since humanity entered the 20th century, diversity has become a key feature that manifests itself in all aspects of society. As a venue for people and ideas to meet, universities face ever-increasing challenges in fulfilling their cultural mission. With unprecedented human connectivity, cultural competence is more than a goal. It has become an essential skill for students and a key concern for policymakers and practitioners across the world. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to cultural competence education, this article aims to elucidate the significance of the notion of cultural self-awareness proposed by Fei Xiaotong, China’s premier social anthropologist. It explores how Fei’s insights can facilitate universities to rethink their conception and delivery of cultural competence education. By challenging the tendency for cultural competence education to be segregated among a range of disciplines and moving it to the core of the university’s curricular offerings, the article promises an approach whereby all students, regardless of their disciplinary backgrounds, can benefit from the full development of their cultural capability, as can the institution, wider community, and society as a whole.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF NATION-STATE IN CHINA IN THE 20TH CENTURY

At the transition of the new century and the old, China faced the gunboat diplomacy of Western powers. The traditional Chinese «Tianxia» (天下) order was destroyed and disintegrated. China began to realize the existence of an international political order composed of nation states. In the face of imperialism devouring the land of China, Chinese intellectuals realized that the reason why China was invaded is because China had not completed its modernization, and political modernization was the establishment of a nation-state system to participate in the fierce national competition in modern times. Only the establishment of a nation-state could maintain China’s independence and territorial integrity. In this context, Liang Qichao, as a representative of constitutional monarchy, proposed the notion of «the Chinese Nation» (中华民族), with the effort to unite all ethnic groups in China against imperialist aggression and save Qing Dynasty from peril. Sun Yatsen put forward the idea of «Five Races Under One Union» (五族共和), and under this calling, the political forces of the North and South reached a consensus and finally a multi-ethnic bourgeois republic of China was established in 1912. Fei Xiaotong’s concept of «The Pattern of the Chinese Nation's Pluralistic Unity» (中华民族多元一体格局) was proposed after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, emphasized national diversity, unity and equality. This article takes these three political activists’ national theories as analysis objects to sort out the process of how China transitioned from the old empire into a modern nation-state. Through this analysis, I hope to understand the emergence and nature of modern China as an independent subject in international relations.