Modern Chinese Society Research Articles

Old Country in New Fate-Feng Youlan's viewpoints on traditional Chinese Medicine

"Old Home land" is an obvious symbolism of traditional Chinese medicine. It has different features with modern medicine. In this new era, how to keep the TCM "new life" , how to preserve and develop it, has become an important subject. Feng Youlan is an important scholar in modern Chinese academic society. His idea on Chinese society is extensive and profound. According to Feng Youlan, we should understand the Chinese medicine from its attributes in philosophy, science and culture. And the medicine and pharmacy in the Chinese medicine need to be discussed from different point views. On the other hand, the dispute between Chinese and Western medicine itself maybe lead to a false direction. By his personal experience, Feng suggested that the traditional Chinese medicine should not lose its characters in the future time of modernization.

Uyghur customs: the genesis, popularity, productivity and demise of a modern Uyghur topos

ABSTRACT This article traces the development of the modern concept of ‘Uyghur customs’ in Xinjiang, its rise to popularity in the 1980s-2010s and its demise after 2016. It argues that a certain modern notion of customs took shape in Xinjiang within the frame of modernization policies and the strengthening of formal bureaucracy. This notion, built on ideas introduced in the early twentieth century, defined customs as being distinct from politics, religion and economy. It provided Uyghur intellectuals with a politically safe space to write about local practices and construct Uyghur identity. These intellectuals were bridge builders between modern Chinese society and Uyghur communities. They used discourses around customs formulated in articles, books, TV-shows and teaching to envision a specifically Uyghur modernity. This cultural production ended abruptly with the detention of many of its protagonists and a general security clampdown on minority people and culture in Xinjiang from 2017.

Lost Voices: Chinese Muslim Modernists and the Issue of Polygamy in the Republican Era

AbstractThis study brings the voices of Chinese Muslim modernists back into discussions on polygamy in the Republican era. Starting from the late nineteenth century, abolishing the practice of polygamous marriage became a vital component of Chinese modernizing elites’ vision of modern Chinese society, as they saw polygamy as an obstacle to modernization. Chinese Muslim modernists actively engaged in China's struggle with polygamy. Their dynamic discussions on polygamy were not insignificant and peripheral. On the contrary, when the Republican law promoting monogamy was hard to implement, some Chinese Muslim modernists pushed their fellow Muslims to set examples for other Chinese to obey the law. The Chinese translations of Arabic scholarly work even helped some Chinese Muslim modernists take a different approach to the issue of polygamy by arguing that polygamy, if properly regulated, could be beneficial to modern societies.

THE CHINESE CONCEPT OF TALENTNESS IN THE IDEA OF NATIONAL PARALYMPIC MOVEMENT

The idea of Paralympic movement is rather new for the Chinese society, though this country started its taking part in Paralympic games` history in 1984. Traditionally the Chinese society was wary of people with physical disabilities seeing external flaws as a sign of personal inferiority and punishment of gods. The pure Chinese concept of talentness having as the basic tenet "there are no talented, there are those who are not very hardworking", also for a long time limited people with special needs in accessing sport events of a high (and even local) level. The idea of the article is to show the efforts of modern Chinese society in balance search between trends of Paralympic movement and Chinese traditional socio-psychological attitudes as to people with special needs. Such methods as interviewing, questioning, statistical data and official documents` analysis, analytic compilation were used. The following theoretical results were gained: as the Paralympic movement is not very strong in China due to its novelty, for today Paralympic athletes make up a small, almost closed group of Chinese athletes, where the criterion of talentness in a particular sport is leveled by the physical abilities and hardworking of each athlete in particular.

중국 전통문화의 현대성 고찰

In this paper, I investigated the cultural phenomena formed in China's modern society, in which the tradition of Chinese culture was clearly displayed. I studied the two most striking aspects of modern Chinese society, namely the ideological and cultural and artistic aspects, which are believed to be maintaining and expanding traditionalism. First, I reviewed the consistent aspects of the political guiding ideology of modern Chinese society, especially under the influence of Confucian ideology, and then, from the cultural and artistic sides, I noted the Shaoxing opera that brought the young audience to the modern and novel stage, and the colorful presentness of traditional plays that combine with the new generation game characters in line with the digital age. Aside from the question of the dynamics of the national power and cultural market, I tried to objectively look at the phenomenon of the recovery of traditional culture and the actual relationship of the 'the government' and 'the people'. Regardless of the intention and purpose, the restoration of Confucian ideology or the revival of traditional performances confirmed that traditional culture was carried forward into modern culture with distinct period. In addition, I could identify that some kind of political power and cultural market exist in the existence of traditional culture in support of 'the government' and 'the people' drive. In retrospect, tradition in China is always a value that guarantees one's power, given that China's view of history or literature has been the process of repeating its return to retro. Perhaps that is why the restoration of traditional culture seems to be the best remedy for promoting confidence as a Chinese nation. In addition, the present nature of traditional culture is not just a matter of succession, but it is related to the establishment of national and national identity. Therefore, the succession of traditional culture should always be the present progressive form. In this regard, at least China may not have to bow before history.

On Being Confucians? Confucius, Confucian Traditions, and the Modern Chinese Society

After a century of its retreat from political and social stages in East Asia, Confucianism eventually found its revival together with the economic industrialization in the region. The awakening consciousness of the traditional Confucian values leads to a reconsideration of their implication on a modern society. Certainly China has experienced massive social and cultural transformations during the last century, an era marked with rapid adoption of Western norms and ideas. In the mean time, Chinese cultural heritages have never been totally cut and the Chinese people and the Chinese society today are still considerably shaped by China’s unique past and its traditional cultural identity, especially by the Confucian traditions. Despite the disruptive scholarly debates on the actual relevance of Confucianism and modernization, there are precious elements within the Confucian values which provide the relevance of Confucianism to the future, such as an ethic of responsibility and the understanding of the humanistic meaning of life. This paper endeavors to explore and discuss various aspects of the relationship between the old Confucian traditions and the modern Chinese cultural identity, including Confucianism as a way of life, Chinese understanding of morality and value relationships, and recent Confucian influence on Chinese politics. On the base of this examination, considerations will be given to demonstrate that Confucian teachings did not perished but are still relevant in modern China. A proper appreciation of these values can help to better comprehend Chinese contemporary society and Chinese cultural identity.

Themes and Images in Liu Zhenyun’s Novel “Strange Bedfellows”

«Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Востоковедение и африканистика» — рецензируемый междисциплинарный научный журнал, призванный стимулировать развитие оригинальных, независимых, достоверных, многосторонних исследований в области востоковедения и африканистики.

‘현대의 신화’ 창조 - 중국애니메이션『哪吒之魔童降世』의 哪吒 캐릭터 스토리텔링에 대한 고찰

This study explores a storytelling of the mischievous character Nezha (哪吒) in the 3D animation film titled Ne Zha (2019), currently a major box office hit in China. Ne Zha is a modern adaptation of the popular story of a young boy Nezha and the idea of deification of the dead manifested in the Ming novel Fengshenyanyi (封神演義). It especially focuses on the modern Chinese ideology implanted in the process of making the film. Nezha was initially introduced to Han (漢) China as one of the Buddhist guardian figures. It was the Tang (唐) period that he became widely known in China, through the Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures. Eventually, the character Nezha was absorbed into Chinese Daoism and gain the role as a subduer of evil. In the Fengshenyanyi, Nezha appears as a unfilial son. Nezha dissects his own flesh and bones and return them to his parents, and he even attempts to kill his father Li Jing (李靖), a clear representation of his Oedipus complex. The film Ne Zha creates a new ideological significance through the character Nezha, who had been imbued with diverse cultural implications in Chinese culture accumulated over a long period of time. Firstly, it eliminates the idea of the Oedipus complex, while it newly advocates the virtue of patriarchal sacrifice to accentuate the ideology of loyalty to national duty. Secondly, the film adopts the idea of yin-yang (陰陽) converting the notion of good and evil. Nezha overcomes his image as a destructive monster (妖怪) and his tragic fate, by saving the village, and thus he conversely gains a new virtuous reputation. Therefore, it effectively constructs the ideology of defiance towards the American “cultural standard” established in the global society. The Ne Zha becomes a “modern mythology,” through the espousal of the classical narrative familiar to the Chinese general public. In this manner, it encapsulates the ideology of modern Chinese society and the cultural psychology of the masses.

Formation of Civil Law in China in 1912–1929

In the article, the authors based on unpublished earlier in Russian language materials,study the process of civil law formation as an independent branch of law in China, payingspecial attention to the beginning of the 20th century, when the Chinese legal systementered the modernization period. That period is characterized by the existence of aphenomenon of the absence of regulatory and legal material that regulates property andpersonal non-property social relations that form the basis of civil law, with the activities of the Supreme Court of the Republic of China. The court’s presidents, having receiveda brilliant legal education, by relying on general principles of law, applying establishedlegal customs, interpreting the old Qing legislation and doctrinal interpretation of draftlaws, managed to create a unique law enforcement practice. In the framework of the legalsystem that takes most of the legal positions and constructions from the Roman-Germanlegal family, the judicial precedent, without being formally declared as a source of law,actually took the predominant position in the hierarchy of sources for a decade and a halfbefore it was adopted in 1929-1931, the first and only civil code of China. This situationbecame possible due to the fact that the leadership of the Qing Empire, long trying tokeep the country in international isolation, as a result, was forced not only to open citiesand ports for foreigners but also to actually take full advantage of the European right,mostly German, French and Belgian, etc. However, blind copying of legal norms did notgive the desired result, and the political struggle after the abolition of the monarchy andthe abrogation of the previous legislation created a legal vacuum that needed to be filledin by the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies. That allowed the Supreme Courtof China not only to ensure the uniformity of judicial practice but also to become a lawmakingbody, adapting the existing legal norms to the needs of contemporary reality.The Supreme Court summarized and systematized its own decisions for the first 7 yearsof activity, from 1912 to 1918, publishing them in the form of a collection of abstracts.In 1920 the collection was partially translated into English, and in 1924, into French. In1923 it was supplemented with new jurisprudence and translated into Russian, but notpublished. And, despite the fact that the legal system of the PRC does not consider itselfto any extent the successor of the legal system of the Republic of China, the study ofthe sources of law of the period 1912-1949 is a prerequisite for the fulfillment of themain function of any science - the growth of new knowledge, and in relation to legalscience - understanding of legal traditions and approaches to solving problems andregulating social relations, which are also characteristic of modern Chinese society.

Representatives of Chinese Society as Power Holders in the Images of Chinese Cinema

The study considers the visualization of representatives of Chinese society as power holders in modern Chinese cinema. Cinema has been chosen as the source of research since it visually displays the processes taking place in society. As a result of an analysis of ten films of Chinese directors, the author identifies certain types of heroes who, to one degree or another, are endowed with power in modern Chinese society. Seven groups of power holders have been distinguished and characterized: members of the Triad mafia, police officers, officials, business representatives, the media, teachers, men as heads of families. A comprehensive study of these images is carried out, which includes an analysis of professional activity, social status, age criteria, visual and behavioral characteristics. The emphasis is placed on the complex relationship between the police and the mafia in the cinema: in addition to the traditional confrontation, the cinema presents a new version of the development of relations between the representatives of these groups - a mutually beneficial symbiosis. Still preserved in modern society traditional attitude the teacher and the head of the family as a source of power is shown . The images of business representatives as power-holders are revealed in the cinema through the opposition “material and moral”. There are relatively few images of direct holders of power – government officials in modern cinema. This fact can be explained by existing censorship in China.

Образы мафии и полиции как носителей власти в современном китайском кинематографе

The study considers the visualization of power in Chinese cinema. Cinema has been chosen as the source of research due to the fact that it visually displays the processes taking place in society. As a result of an analysis of ten films of Chinese directors, the author identifies certain types of heroes who, to one degree or another, are endowed with power in modern Chinese society. Two groups of power holders are distinguished and characterized: members of the Triad mafia and the police. A comprehensive study of these images is carried out, which includes an analysis of professional activity, social status, age criteria, visual characteristics and behavioral characteristics. The emphasis is placed on the complex relationship between the police and the mafia in the cinema: in addition to the traditional confrontation, the cinema presents a new version of the development of relations between the representatives of these groups – a mutually beneficial symbiosis.

The Making of Sino Muslim Identity: Han Kitab in the Chinese Xidaotang

The seemingly oxymoronic term Sino Muslim has a historical relevance of more than 1,300 years in China. Historically, migration and intermarriage gave rise to a Sinophone Muslim population, upon which a body of Islamic literature written in Chinese three hundred years ago, known as Han Kitab, had played an instrumental role in shaping a distinct Sino Muslim identity. Despite dramatic transformations of modern Chinese society, we found that the Han Kitab tradition continues to be alive today in China’s grassroots-level Muslim society. This article documents, for the first time with a probability sample, an extensive exposure to the Han Kitab literature among ordinary followers of a major Chinese Islamic sect, Xidaotang. More importantly, such exposure—in both private and public spheres of life—simultaneously contributes to the core Islamic religiosity as well as distinctive affinities to their fellow Chinese people regardless of religion (in comparison to foreign Muslims). These findings have profound implications given the increasing significance of China as an agent of globalization.

The Ram Union

The Ram Union is a non-profit social organisation established in 2003 in Zhejiang Province. Its transformation from a local entity into an international NGO tells us about the methods implemented by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to accompany the development of popular associations or minjian, which appear to be external to the Party but which in fact are fully sponsored by it. Studying such organisations is a complex matter, as they appear to act in a benevolent and apolitical manner, while being completely integrated within the political and social apparatus of the Party-state (Youth League, volunteers, United Front, ministry of Civil Affairs, etc.). The historical trajectory of the Ram Union thus gives us insight into the CCP’s overlooked strategy of hybridisation, involving mass organisations that came out of the revolutionary period and charitable groups embodying modern Chinese society. This strategy is designed to occupy the social arena and forestall the emergence of an autonomous Chinese civil society in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or among the Chinese diaspora overseas.

On the Influence of Taoism on Female Characters in Moment in Peking

<p>Moment in Peking is one of the most famous English novel of Lin Tangy. It was written when Dr. Lin lived in Paris from August, 1938 to August, 1939. It is modeled on the structure of A Dream in Red Mansions, and dedicated “To the Brave Chinese Soldiers”. It tells the vicissitudes of life and the feelings of gratitude and resentment of the Zengs, the Yaos, the News, from the Boxer Rebellion (1901) to the Anti-Japanese War. It showed the historical style and features of the changes of modern Chinese society. The book shaped hundreds of figures, including more than 50 women images. The author expressed in a unique angle to express his respect and admiration to women. Every woman has a different story, and distinct personality traits. (Wang Zhibo, 2006:4) Their personality is distinct, high status, even beyond men in some ways. Compared with the previous writers, the author has a detailed understanding of women, and his work is more closed to the real life, so as to achieve a new world. At that time, this had made a great progress, although flawed, but in spite of his flaws.</p><p>The author represents his Taoist thought through the whole novel, in terms of characterization, plot and etc. Taoist thought is not only the theme of the full text, but also determines the basic structure of it. The author in the book conveys details of Taoist thought and, reflects the Taoist thought on three levels, namely the Taoist chronological life, easy detachment of the outlook on life and the method of gaining liberation, and spiritual freedom.</p>

Linguistic Expression of the Social Stratification of Chinese Urban Society

The purpose of the article is to consider newly-emerging Chinese nominations of social groups, largely reflecting the development trends of modern Chinese urban society. The investigation is done from the perspective of urban communication studies. The social structure of the modern Chinese urban space is a self-developing system, the transformation processes of which are determined by many social and economic factors. Consequently, the dynamic social modernization of Chinese megacities is undoubtedly reflected in the vocabulary, the most susceptible to any changes in the life of society. This is manifested in a significant expansion of the semantic class of words associated with social stratification. The material for this study was neologisms, which denote social groups differentiated according to their life style. As a result, recent appearance of a large number of such neologisms in Chinese speaks about the dynamics of changes in modern Chinese urban society, about diversifying the lifestyles of citizens. All of the neologisms under consideration, having first emerged in the Internet, became widespread in Chinese society due to their active use of the media, which are the first to respond to changes in the development of society, contribute to the assessment of the surrounding reality, introduce new concepts and names of phenomena into a wide circulation. The new nominations of social groups are distinguished on the basis of the life-style criterion reflect transformations in the lifestyle of modern citizens, based on changes not only in socio-economic conditions, but also in mentality, as well as value orientations. The study of these lexical units allows us to trace the influence of the processes of globalization, modernization and urbanization on modern Chinese urban society, to identify the main trends in its development.

The Comprehensive Manchu–Han Banquet: History, Myth, and Development

Abstract In* terms of grandeur and extravagance, modern Chinese society tends to think of the Comprehensive Manchu–Han Banquet 滿漢全席 as the pinnacle of China’s culinary heritage. Its allure is best illustrated by what happened in 1977, when the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) commissioned a Hong Kong restaurant named Kwok Bun 國賓酒樓 to recreate the banquet according to its “original” recipes. The preparation took over three months, involved more than one hundred and sixty chefs, and resulted in a meal that featured more than one hundred dishes.1 Since then, there has been no shortage of efforts made by different individuals, restaurants, and organizations to follow suit and recreate the Comprehensive Manchu–Han Banquet in a contemporary setting. These different endeavours commonly claim that they follow the most authentic recipes. Little did they realise that there is no such thing as an authentic recipe. In fact, historians cannot even agree on which era saw the banquet begin, though the leading candidates all date to the Qing dynasty (1644–1911); these are the reign of the Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661–1722), the reign of the Emperor Qianlong (r. 1735–1796), and the dynasty’s last decades. This paper examines the accuracy of these claims by analyzing a sample menu for the Comprehensive Manchu–Han Banquet recorded during Qianlong’s reign. This menu contains crucial information about the feast’s formative stages, information that has not yet been properly addressed by academics researching this topic. By drawing attention to the traditional dietary customs of ethnic Manchus and Han Chinese, understood in the context of contemporaneous Chinese gastronomy (to supplement the menu’s lack of contextual information), this paper provides a better understanding of the Comprehensive Manchu–Han Banquet and of Chinese gastronomy in general, in terms of their history, development, and cultural significance.

THE STUDY OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL MOBILITY IN MODERN CHINESE SOCIOLOGY: THREE CONCEPTS

This article examines modern concepts of social stratification and social mobility in China. The approaches of modern Chinese sociologists Lu Xueyi, Li Qiang and Gu Hui, who belong to different generations of scientists, are analyzed. Each of them puts forward his unique concept, relying on a large number of statistical data and sociological approaches. In the course of reasoning, Lu Xueyi, Li Qiang and Gu Hui are examining various social problems that arise as a result of changes in the processes of social mobility and the reform of the social structure that cause dissatisfaction among part of the population. Modern Chinese society can not be called stable. One of the main problems of Lu Xueyi calls the lag of social development from economic development, which generates social crises. Li Qiang analyzes the barriers to vertical mobility, among which is the registration system for the place of residence, unequal access to education and jobs. Gu Hui in his studies draws attention to the fact that the Chinese model of stratification and social mobility is becoming increasingly closed, emphasizes the importance of family origin, increases the closure of the transition between social classes, especially the transition to the upper class. Independently from each other, the aforementioned scholars come to the conclusion that since the reform policy (1978) the coefficient of social mobility in China has increased, and the opportunities for mobility have also increased, however, moving along social mobility channels is not always unhindered, the phenomenon of securing the social structure of modern society occurs.

On the Translation Forerunner of The Captain’s Daughter–Ji Jihui

Chinese literary translation started in late Qing Dynasty. Under the banner of “enlightening the Chinese people” proposed by Liang Qichao, Chinese translators of that time widely introduced foreign literary works into China via the typical method of unrestricted translation. In response to the call for enlightenment, Ji Jihui firstly translated into Chinese the Japanese version of The Captain’s Daughter written by the Russian writer Pushkin, consequently commenced the translation of Russia and Soviet Union literary works in China, and eventually changed himself from the pioneer of studying in Japan to the forerunner of translating Russia and Soviet Union literature. Ji utilized a foreign novel to effect social reform and thus contributed to the development of modern Chinese society.

Exploring women’s decisions about childbearing after the lifting of the one-child policy

In 2016, China officially ended the ‘one-child’ policy permitting all couples to have two children for the first time since 1979. While the policy was relaxed due to demographic concerns, it simultaneously provided many women with a new reproductive opportunity. The goal of this study was to qualitatively understand the childbearing decision process in the new era of the two-child policy. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 45 postpartum women at two hospitals in Zhejiang Province, China. The interviews explored women’s views on the two-child policy and reproductive decisions and how they decided to have their first or second child. Most women approved of the lifting of the one-child policy; however, many were hesitant or uncertain about their own decisions to have second children. Many felt pressured to have two children for the good of, or as an obligation to, the family. However, they also felt that caring for two children was burdensome, and that they would have to sacrifice a lot in terms of freedom, energy and money. Their responses to the new reproductive opportunity highlight the complexity of childbearing decision-making in modern Chinese society, against a background of persisting traditional values.

Проблематизация коррупции и антикоррупционная политика в современном китайском обществе: научный и официальный политико-правовой дискурсы

Проблематизация коррупции и антикоррупционная политика в современном китайском обществе: научный и официальный политико-правовой дискурсы