The State of China Studies: A Moving Target

1. The State of China Studies: A Moving Target Theoretical and empirical developments and challenges

2. Overview of the lecture • Major changes in the field (institutional and academic, disciplinary, access to China, domestic changes in China, political environment) • Developments in different disciplines • New topics and research frontiers • Important resources (journals, web sites etc)

3. China studies as a field: The framework • Development from classical sinology, to area studies, to incorporation in different disciplines, with the result that China studies has become more mainstream in Western academia • Research on China by Western scholars is facilitated through better opportunities to study and do fieldwork in China (better access to data) and through co-operation with Chinese scholars and institutions • Research in China is less politicised today (although some topics are sensitive and difficult) and more embedded in the international academic community

4. China studies and politics • China studies has never existed in an abstract, value-free domain • Different environments, different generation of scholars: Cold War, Maoism, reform period, post-1989 period • Traditional China scholars love for the Chinese past and a mission to save China from disintegration into modernity (Neo-Confucian scholars and work abroad) • Some contemporary social scientists in the West see China as a problem to be solved • Relationship between scholars, media, policy-makers, businessmen et al • China’s growing strategic and economic importance means that research in these areas are in high demand • Chinese politics and research: Peasant issue (san nong wenti), harmonious society (hexie shehui) etc

5. Keeping up with the field? • Growth in journals and books on China since 1980s • Journals within the disciplines increasingly have articles on China • Growth in good academic works published in China since 1990s • Growth and increasing reliability and transparency of government publications, statistics, laws and regulations etc • The internet as an important source • Larger academic community

6. Institutional and academic framework in the West • Sinological tradition still strong in Europe but younger generation focus more on contemporary China, building up of China or Asia centres • European Association of Chinese Studies, bi-annual conference in Lund 6-10 August 2008 • New sinology and cultural studies: Building on traditional knowledge in order to study modern cultural developments (memory-making, representation, heritage studies, film studies, popular culture, consumer culture etc)

7. Challenges to China studies • Area vs discipline (looks different in different disciplines, conflict diminished over time) • Challenges of globalization (Greater China, Cultural China, migration studies, diaspora studies, translocal studies, impact of Chinese culture abroad etc)

8. Pre-1949 situation • Establishment of Chinese universities early 20th century • Birth of sociological and anthropological studies in China in 1930s • Western scholars active in China • First generation of Chinese social scientists • Important rural studies in 1920s and 1930s

9. 1949-1979: Limited access for Western scholars and bleak period for Chinese social scientists • Many disciplines encountered problems in China, including sociology, anthropology, and law, politicisation of universities and scholarship • Anti-rightist campaign, campaign against intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution • Closure of universities • Western scholars banned from China led to turn to text based research and to emigré research in Hong Kong • Limited access for foreigners, guided tours to model farms, villages etc (Jan Myrdal on Liu Lin village in Shaanxi in early 1960s) • Research and politics: Friends of China, maoists, and anti-communists • Traditional sinology a safe haven from the politics of the day

10. The Opening Up of China after 1979: Growth in China Studies • Re-opening of Chinese universities, old teachers back, recruitment of new students, re-opening of faculties and re-emergence of sociology and law etc • Chinese students and scholars going abroad • Study and fieldwork opportunities in China for Western students and scholars • Growth in publications in China and abroad

11. Conceptual and theoretical contributions? • Different paradigms shaped different periods of China research (communism studies, modernization theories, impact-response paradigm, transition studies etc) • China is a fertile and challenging testing ground for the social sciences (possibilities to test, confirm, and contradict existing theories) • China’s political and economic development challenge many preconceived ideas about the relationship between economic development and democratization • Debates on civil society, governance, rightful resistance, selective adaptation etc

12. Political science • State-society relations: From leadership studies, to institutions, to processes , including different groups (migrants, women, entrepreneurs et al) • Political leadership and elite studies (Zhongnanhai watching), Cheng Li, Bo Zhiyue, Joseph Fewsmith, China Leadership Monitor etc • Provincial leadership, local leadership and economic development (Vivienne Shue, Jean Oi, et al) • Political institutions such as National People’s Congress, village elections etc (Kevin O’Brien, Li Liangjiang,Guo Zhenglin, Cai Dingjian et al) • Democracy movements, political participation, grassroot democracy, civil society (in aftermath of 1989), Shi Tianjin • Civil society, NGOs, internet etc (Yang Guobin) • Studies on corruption (Lu Xiaobo, Yan Sun, Melanie Manion) • Social unrest, rightful resistance, weiquan yundong etc (Scott Tanner, Kevin O’Brien),

13. Economy • Economists hostile to area studies • Focus on the theoretical and empirical issues raised by China’s economic transition • From socialist planned economy to market economy: Comparisons with developments in former communist countries, transition studies • Explaining China’s economic success • Rural reforms: Decollectivization, village and township enterprises (TVEs), local state and economic growth, regional differences, poverty reduction • Urban reforms: Reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) • Private entrepreneurs: Different models such as the Wenzhou model • China and the international economy: SEZ, WTO • Institutional reforms: Bank reforms etc • New issues: rural-urban gap, inequality, rural issues under Hu-Wen leadership, welfare issues • Hot topics: Innovation studies, China-India comparisons • Leading scholars: Peter Nolan, Barry Naughton, Carl Riskin

14. Sociology and anthropology • How reforms affect different groups of people: Migrants, women, laid-off workers, minorities et al • Inequality and discrimination: Migrant studies • Anthropological work in the countryside: family, clans, religion • New anthropological work: urban studies, cultural studies,effects of globalization • Interesting anthropologists: Myron Cohen, James and Rubie Watson, Stephan Feuchtwang, Dru Gladney, Louisa Schein, Helen Siu, Yan Yunxiang, Mayfair Yang, Xin Liu

15. International relations and security studies • More in the US than in Europe for strategic reasons • China’s relations with other Asian countries and increasing focus on China’s role and expansion in Africa and Latin America • China and the UN (security council, peace-keeping forces, human rights issues etc) • New topic: China as a soft power

16. Legal studies • Small field in the 1960s and 1970s (legal system attacked and demolished) • Building up of legal system led to studies of law making and law-in-the-books in 1980s (Jerome Cohen, Stanley Lubman) • Rule by law vs rule of law debate (Randall Peerenboom) • Since late 1990s, more focus on law-in-action and contributions by sociologists, political scientists et al

17. Media studies • Different types of media (print media, television, internet) • Conditions for media production: Journalism as a profession, censorship et • Commercialisation of the media in an authoritarian system • Internet and political change: Public opinion etc • China Media Centre at University of Westminster • Scholars: Hugo de Burgh, Zhao Yuezhi, Keane, Hong, Hemeruk et al)

18. Interdiciplinary studies and new areas • Gender studies: women in the Chinese revolution, family and gender roles, women on the labour market, women and political participation, women as migrants etc • Growing field in China: Activists and researchers • Scholars in the West: Elizabeth Croll, Tamara Jacka et al • Urban studies

19. Journals on China • The China Quarterly (1960-) • Modern China (1975-) • China Journal (1979-) formerly Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs • China Information (1986-) • Journal of Contemporary China (1992-) • China Perspectives (1994-) • China Review International (1999-) • China: An International Journal (2003-)

20. Translations of Chinese documents and articles: M.E. Sharpe journals • The Chinese Economy • Chinese Education and Society • Chinese Law and Government • Chinese Sociology and Anthropology • Chinese Studies in History • Chinese Contemporary Thought

21. Newspapers • China Daily • People’s Daily • South China Morning Post • New York Times • Washington Post • Nanfang zhoumo

22. Internet resources • China Elections http://www.chinaelections.org/en/ • China Digital Times http://chinadigitaltimes.net/ • China Leadership Monitor http://www.hoover.org/publications/clm/ • China Brief http:/www.jamestown.org/china_brief/ • Congressional-Executive Commission on China http://www.cecc.gov/ • Book list www.princeton.edu/~lynn/chinabib.pdf