{"id":39690,"date":"2021-01-08T00:02:07","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T00:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cupblog.bluefusesystems.com\/?p=39690"},"modified":"2021-03-31T12:02:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T11:02:53","slug":"the-china-quarterly-at-60-a-special-anniversary-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/2021\/01\/08\/the-china-quarterly-at-60-a-special-anniversary-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"The China Quarterly at 60: A Special Anniversary Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Founded in 1960, The China Quarterly<\/em> is on the eve of entering its seventh decade of publishing world-class research on China. We are marking this milestone with a free-to-access virtual special issue containing some of the most influential articles over the past six decades measured by citations. As with any such enterprise, selection inevitably requires exclusion especially as we have chosen papers from each decade. However, by focusing on impact, this collection will serve as a beacon to the work of all past, present, and indeed future authors published in The China Quarterly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The virtual special issue is made up of 12 articles arranged chronologically. As a rough guide to this short introductory note, I have categorized the papers \u2013 post-selection \u2013 into four broad and loosely interlinked themes: political control, governance, and cadre management; the state, pluralization and civil society; stratification and inequality; and personal ties and guanxi<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first theme remains profoundly relevant given the ongoing stability of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s rule. We learn from Thomas B. Bernstein<\/a>\u2019s (1967) examination of the 1955\u201356 Collectivisation Campaign that well-established political control in China\u2019s villages allowed the space for a focus on economic control of agriculture in contrast to the Soviet Collectivisation Campaigns of 1929\u201330. More than thirty years later, the Party is focused on market orientation and cadre management reform. Melanie Manion<\/a>\u2019s (1985) forensic examination of the January 1983 version of Dang de zuzhi gongzuo wenda<\/em> (\u515a\u7ec4\u7ec7\u5de5\u4f5c\u95ee\u7b54, \u201cQuestions and Answers on Party Organizational Work\u201d) finds contrary forces at play that combine to undermine cadre management reform. On the other hand, Maria Edin<\/a>\u2019s (1985) research on township cadre management suggests that heaven is not so high, and the emperor is not so far away after all and that any failure in cadre management reform is the outcome of the center\u2019s competing priorities. Control and monitoring over local leaders have increased. Fast forward to the early 2010s and the political control of the Party remains firm, prompting \u201coptimistic claims about Beijing\u2019s authoritarian advantage\u201d especially concerning China\u2019s environmental commitments. Sarah Eaton and Genia Kostka<\/a> (2014) argue that the potential advantage is undermined by the frequent rotation of local leaders\u2019 who have insufficient time to see projects through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capacity of the CCP to manage the transition and remain in power, contrary to some expectations, has generated scholarly inquiry. Authoritarian one-party rule has demonstrated adaptability as a process of \u201cpolitical pluralization\u201d has crowded the policy-making field and \u201cpolicy entrepreneurs\u201d have entered the fray (Andrew Mertha<\/a> 2009). Jessica C. Teets<\/a> (2013) argued that the inclusion of new actors from an expanding civil society amounted to \u201ca growing convergence on a new model of state-society relationship.\u201d To what extent this model of \u201cconsultative authoritarianism\u201d was an outcome of Jean C. Oi<\/a>\u2019s (1995) \u201cstate corporatism\u201d in which \u201caltered fiscal flows and property rights\u201d guided and even drove the transition to corporate growth is worth reflecting upon, given the dramatic increase in Party control over civil society since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing in an era when the Zeitgeist was far from getting gloriously rich, Martin King Whyte<\/a> (1975) mapped evidence of inequality in Maoist China in which egalitarianism had become a dominant narrative. Although rural incomes averaged half of the urban residents\u2019, there were also significant differences across rural incomes. Whyte found that the Party\u2019s main preoccupation was avoiding the emergence of \u201cdifferentiated lifestyles\u201d and concomitant social conflict. These were just a decade away anyway as the reform era unleashed a reserve army of rural migrants who formed what some scholars have called China\u2019s new working class. And yet, as Kam Wing Chan and Li Zhang<\/a> (1999) argue in their article on processes and changes in the hukou<\/em> system, this administrative barrier to the relative privileges of urban citizenship was unlikely to disappear soon. Despite further hukou <\/em>reform, it remains the key institution affecting rural-urban migration today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we turn to personal relations, friendship, and guanxi<\/em>. Ezra Vogel<\/a> (1965) argues that the Party had successfully moved the goalposts of personal relationships from the graded and particularistic ties of \u201cfriendship\u201d to the universalistic morality and apparently level playing field of \u201ccomradeship.\u201d Precisely twenty years later, Thomas B. Gold<\/a> (1985) asks if the reach of the Party was as deep and granular as Vogel implies, and points to evidence of ritualistic behaviors as a form of superficial compliance. In Gold\u2019s opinion, comradeship\u2019s days may be numbered in the face of the entrepreneurialism unleashed by economic reform. J. Bruce Jacobs<\/a> (1979) brings data on carefully cultivated particularistic ties of guanxi<\/em> from a rural township in Taiwan to develop a \u201cpreliminary\u201d model of Chinese particularistic ties as a guide to the study of \u201ccultural influences in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, I hope that the influential and widely cited articles in this virtual special issue serve as inspiration for further research \u2013 not, of course, restricted to the themes described above. Second, and perhaps equally important given the horrid year we have collectively been through, I hope they provide as much intellectual stimulation to journal readers as they have done to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Articles in this special issue:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Friendship to Comradeship: The Change in Personal Relations in Communist China<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ezra Vogel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741000048463<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership and Mass Mobilisation in the Soviet and Chinese Collectivisation Campaigns of 1929\u201330 and 1955\u201356 A Comparison<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas P. Bernstein<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741000028691<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inequality and Stratification in China<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin King Whyte<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741000007566<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Preliminary Model of Particularistic Ties in Chinese Political Alliances: Kan-ch’ing<\/em> and Kuan-hsi<\/em> in a Rural Taiwanese Township<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

J. Bruce Jacobs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741000040467<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Comradeship: Personal Relations in China Since the Cultural Revolution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas B. Gold<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S030574100003335X<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cadre Management System, Post-Mao: The Appointment, Promotion, Transfer and Removal of Party and State Leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melanie Manion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S030574100002991X<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Role of the Local State in China’s Transitional Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean C. Oi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741000004768<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hukou System and Rural\u2013Urban Migration in China: Processes and Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kam Wing Chan and Li Zhang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741000001351<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFragmented Authoritarianism 2.0\u201d: Political Pluralization in the Chinese Policy Process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Mertha<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741009990592<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

State Capacity and Local Agent Control in China: CCP Cadre Management from a Township Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Edin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0009443903000044<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let Many Civil Societies Bloom: The Rise of Consultative Authoritarianism in China<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica C. Teets<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741012001269<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authoritarian Environmentalism Undermined? Local Leaders\u2019 Time Horizons and Environmental Policy Implementation in China<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sarah Eaton and Genia Kostka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0305741014000356<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Click here to explore and enjoy a free article collection from China Quarterly<\/em> for a limited time only.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Founded in 1960, The China Quarterly is on the eve of entering its seventh decade of publishing world-class research on China. We are marking this milestone with a free-to-access virtual special issue containing some of the most influential articles over the past six decades measured by citations. As with any such enterprise, selection inevitably requires […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":39698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2264,11,6,8,1,17,7],"tags":[88,15,3909,3910,55,2276,83,235,407,2277,8353],"coauthors":[8354],"class_list":["post-39690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-studies","category-history","category-humanities","category-law","category-news","category-politics","category-social-sciences","tag-anniversary","tag-area-studies","tag-asian-studies","tag-cqy","tag-history-2","tag-humanities","tag-law-2","tag-literature","tag-politics-2","tag-social-sciences","tag-the-china-quarterly-at-60"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39690"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39796,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39690\/revisions\/39796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39690"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=39690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}