1. Folberg, J. & Taylor, A., Mediation: A Comprehensive Guide to Resolving Conflicts without Litigation (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984) at 1–2Google Scholar; Ryan, J. P., “Lawyer as Mediator: A New Role for Lawyers in the Practice of Non-adversarial Divorce” (1986) 1 Can. Family L. Q. 1 at 1Google Scholar; Irving, H. & Benjamin, M., Family Mediation (Toronto: Carswell, 1987) at 46.Google Scholar

2. Cloke, K., “Politics and Values in Mediation: The Chinese Experience” (1987) 17 Mediation Q. 69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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5. I am grateful to the China Law Project at Queen's University, the Max Bell Foundation, and the V. Vicbir Foundation for financial support in conducting this research. The following is a list of my interviews in China and the manner in which they will be cited. I cite groups rather than individuals because the views expressed were presented as those of the group: 4 May 1990, Professors Wu Changzhen and Yang, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing (Wu & Yang); 5 May 1990, Women's Law Firm (No. 8) of Beijing (Women's Law Firm); 8 May 1990, Er Long Road Mediation Committee, Beijing (Er Long); 9 May 1990, Family Law Professors, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing (CUPSL); 9 May 1990, West China Avenue Neighbourhood Committee, Beijing (West China Avenue); 11 May 1990, Professor Yang Rong-Xi, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing (Yang Rong-Xi); 15 May 1990, Family Law and Civil Procedure Professors, North-West Institute of Politics and Law, Xian (NWIPL); 18 May 1990, Family Law and Civil Procedure Professors, East Institute of Politics and Law, Shanghai (EIPL); 19 May 1990, Shanghai Chiang Ning District Huayang Street Committee and East China Institute of Politics and Law Committee, Shanghai (Chiang Ning District).

6. “Intellectuals' Role,” China Daily (18 May 1990) 4.

7. Ibid.

8. Qilin, L., “Traditional Ethics and Contemporary Marriage” in New Trends in Chinese Marriage and the Family (Beijing: Women of China, 1987) 141.Google Scholar

9. Spence, J., The Search for Modern China (New York: Norton, 1990) at xxiGoogle Scholar: “The customs and practices that ensured the low social and economic status of women, the educational methods that were used to instill in children certain patterns of generational deference and concepts of obligation, the power of the family as an organizational unit, the ability of certain people within local communities to gain and preserve an abusive level of control—all of these aspects of Chinese society and culture can be seen in various forms from 1600 onward.”

10. Confucius (551–479 B.C.) stressed reciprocity, interdependence, and sharing as necessary elements of the five relationships and taught that the ideal relationship of husband and wife depended on each knowing and respecting their respective functions. Later Confucian scholars adopted the Ying-Yang teaching that all things are explained by the operation of Ying (the inferior) and Yang (the superior) and modified the five relationships of Confucianism with this notion of superior and inferior parties: Ma, H. H. P., “The Legalization of Confucianism and Its Impact on Family Relationships” (1987) 65 Washington U. L. Q. 667 at 669 and 672.Google Scholar The complexities of Confucianism and Chinese history are beyond the scope of this paper, but it is necessary to note that my references to Confucianism are to a modified form.

11. Wang Zhen, “The Family and the Law” in New Trends, supra, note 8, 120 at 122, writes, ‘“The wife must always listen to her husband. The husband is master over the wife,’ said the feudal dictums. The wife had no name of her own; she had no personal rights … The alleged inferiority of women was taken to be part of the unalterable ways of nature.” See also Ch'u, T'Ung-Tsu, Law and Society in Traditional China (The Hague: Mouton, 1961) at 102–10.Google Scholar

12. Cohen, J. A., “Chinese Mediation on the Eve of Modernization” (1966) 54 California L. Rev. 1201 at 1207CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ch'u, ibid. at 226ff.

13. Wang Z., supra, note 11 at 121–22, writes: “The most senior male headed the family, usually the grandfather or father. The mother could never be the head. All powers belonged to the family head. The opinions of other family members carried no weight … In short, the head of the family held supreme power as both father and husband. By dint of this power, the family head controlled the destinies of everyone in the family. He had the legal right to punish those under his sway by flogging them, selling them into slavery or even killing them.” See also Ch'u, supra, note 11 at 20–41.

14. Cohen, supra, note 12 at 1216–17.

15. Ch'u, supra, note 11 at 118.

16. Ibid.; Platte, E., “Divorce Trends and Patterns in China: Past and Present” (1988) 61 Pacific Affairs 428 at 429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Cohen, supra, note 12 at 1224.

18. Watson, R. S., “Afterward: Marriage and Gender Inequality” in Watson, R. S. & Ebrey, P. Buckley, eds., Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) 347 at 347–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

19. Davin, D., Women-work: Women and the Party in Revolutionary China (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976) at 15Google Scholar; Ma, supra, note 10 at 675; Platte, supra, note 16 at 429; [Chinese] Civil Code, Book of Family, arts. 1049, 1052, 1089, and 1124.

20. Wu B., “The Urban Family in Flux” in New Trends, supra, note 8 at 24.

21. Davin, supra, note 19 at 79–80.

22. Spence, supra, note 9 at 376. The notion that women who work hard will have more respect was repeated by many of the groups I interviewed in China and seems to be a received idea. While accepting that a link between work, economic independence, and respect may certainly exist, I wondered if the promise of respect was not used to encourage women to accept a disproportionate share of labor. Like elsewhere in the world, women in China have a double burden of housework and childcare and waged labor.

23. Engels, F., The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (London: Penguin, 1986) at 113.Google Scholar Li Yongfu, a Chinese graduate student at Queen's University, told me in April 1990 that Engels was still heavily quoted in family law classes in China, particularly the following (at 133): “Full freedom of marriage can therefore only be generally established when the abolition of capitalist production and of the property relations created by it has removed all the accompanying economic considerations which still exert such a powerful influence on the choice of a marriage partner.”

24. Meijer, M. J., “Legislation on Marriage and Family in the Chinese Soviet Republic” in Butler, W. E., ed., The Legal System of the Chinese Soviet Republic 1931–1934 (Essex: Bowker, 1983) 95.Google Scholar

25. Spence, supra, note 9 at 376. China's current law retains the requirement that the spouse of a member of the armed forces must obtain the spouse's consent to divorce: art. 26 of the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, 10 September 1980 (effective 1 January 1981), reprinted in Beijing Review (16 March 1981) 24.

26. Spence, supra, note 9 at 376

27. Meijer, supra, note 24 at 103.

28. Cohen, supra, note 12 at 1205; “Mediation System Resolves Legal Disputes” China Daily (10 October 1989) 4.

29. Lubman, S., “Mao and Mediation: Politics and Dispute Resolution in Communist China” (1967) 55 California L. Rev. 1284 at 1306–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30. Ibid. at 1308.

31. Ibid.

32. Sidel, R., “In the Cities” in Coye, M. J., Livingston, J. & Highland, J., eds., China Yesterday and Today, 3d ed. (Toronto: Bantam, 1984) 315 at 316–17Google Scholar; Spence, supra, note 9 at 518.

33. Yang Rong-Xi, supra, note 5. For an early and detailed description of mediation committees in the 1950s, with discussion of innovations introduced by the CCP, see Lubman, supra, note 29.

34. “Mediation System Resolves Legal Disputes” supra, note 28.

35. Ibid.

36. Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, 1 May 1950 (repealed 1 September 1980) [hereinafter “1950 Marriage Law”].

37. Ibid., ch. 5, art. 17 states: “Divorce shall be granted when husband and wife both desire it. In the event of either the husband or the wife alone insisting upon divorce, it may be granted only when mediation by the district people's government and the judicial organ has failed to bring about reconciliation.”

38. Cook, C. W., “Chinese Family Law: A Potential Statutory Revolution” (1986) 9 Loyola L.A. International and Comparative L. J. 63 at 77.Google Scholar

39. Ibid. at 64.

40. Palmer, M., “The People's Republic of China: Some General Observations on Family Law” (1986–1987) 25 J. of Family L. 41 at 53.Google Scholar

41. Davin, supra, note 19 at 98.

42. Ibid.

43. 1950 Marriage Law, supra, note 36, c. 5, art. 21.

44. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 53.

45. Ibid. at 43.

46. Cook, supra, note 38 at 74.

47. Spence, supra, note 9 at 574–83. Yuen-fong W., “From Mao to Deng: Life Satisfaction among Rural Women in an Emigrant Community in South China” (Paper delivered at meeting of Learned Societies, Vancouver, May 1990) notes at 19: “After the experiment in the socialization of housework ended abruptly in the early 1960's, women's domestic burden became excessively high. Traditional male attitudes and the prohibition against hiring outside help meant that during the decade of the Cultural Revolution women had to shoulder a work-load consisting of four different spheres: domestic labour at home, agricultural sidelines on private plots, paddy farming on collective land, and political participation in the village.”

48. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 42–43.

49. Ibid. at 52.

50. Platte, supra, note 16 at 431 notes that the number of divorce cases rose from 186, 167 in 1950 to a record (not yet matched) 1,170,000 in 1953.

51. Davin, supra, note 19 at 87.

52. Davin, ibid. at 432, writes that “efforts to publicize the new legislation slackened after 1952 and 1953” and “after 1951 emphasis changed to reforming rather than dissolving ‘feudal families.’”

53. Cook, supra, note 38 at 76; Palmer, supra, note 40 at 53.

54. Palmer, ibid. at 42.

55. Lubman, supra, note 29 at 1315.

56. Spence, supra, note 9 at 704–5.

57. Platte, supra, note 16 at 432 writes: “The dissolution of marriage came to be viewed as a negative thing which prompted the leadership to introduce mediation as a device to block divorce. From then on only a small percentage of marriages were judged to be unreconcilable.”

58. Davin, supra, note 19 at 86.

59. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 53.

60. Davin, supra, note 19 at 88.

61. Davin, ibid. at 86 and 88. Riles, A., “Spheres of Exchange and Spheres of Law: Identity and Power in Chinese Marriage Arrangements” (1991) 19 Int. J. of the Soc. of Law 501 at 507–8Google Scholar, writes: “[M]any cadres treated [the 1950 Marriage Law] and the policies that followed from it as repugnant if not absurd. Sometimes acting out of pure self-interest and at others reasoning that the Party must have made a mistake, many sided solidly with the lineage on questions of marriage and simply ignored the law.”

62. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 53.

63. Ibid.

64. Davin, supra, note 19 at 87.

65. Ibid. at 43.

66. Ibid. at 53.

67. Ibid. at 44.

68. Davin, supra, note 19 at 99; Lubman, supra, note 29 at 1328.

69. Davin, ibid.; Cook, supra, note 38 at 76; Lubman, ibid.

70. Cook, ibid. at 67.

71. Davin, supra, note 19 at 89.

72. Davin, ibid. at 87.

73. Zeng, Y., in Family Dynamics in China: A Life Table Analysis (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991) 31Google Scholar; Platte, supra, note 16 at 433.

74. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 41.

75. “Mediation System Resolves Legal Disputes,” supra, note 28.

76. Organic Regulations on People's Mediation Committee, passed by the 40th Session of the Standing Committee of the State Council on 5 May 1989; promulgated and in force on 17 June 1989. Trans. Li Yongfu, LL.M., student at Queen's University.

77. 1980 Marriage Law, supra, note 25.

78. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 41; Wu & Yang, supra, note 5.

79. Interview with Wu T., Bureau of Legal Affairs, State Council, People's Republic of China (3 March 1988), Kingston, Ontario; Cook, supra, note 38 at 77.

80. Wu T., ibid. The Chiang Ning District mediators told me that this was required in their area, commenting “even if there is agreement the parties must go to mediation because they may make a decision too quickly.”

81. There was a 64 percent increase in the number of divorces filed in 1981 over the number filed in 1979: Ning, , “How Does China Deal With Divorce?” Beijing Review (4 February 1985) 18.Google Scholar

82. Wu & Yang, supra, note 5.

83. L. Zhongfang, W. Guishi & J. Baodeng, Hunyinfa Gailun [An Introduction to Marriage Law] (1984) 162 [cited in Palmer, supra, note 40 at 44].

84. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 44.

85. Ning, supra, note 81 at 20.

86. 1980 Marriage Law, supra, note 25, c. 4, arts. 29–32.

87. Wu T., supra, note 79; Interview with Li Qian, Beijing International Trust and Investment Corporation (3 March 1988), Kingston, Ontario. Jonathan K. Ocko cites one strategy used by mediators to encourage parties to stay in arranged marriages in “Women, Property, and Law in the People's Republic of China” in Watson & Ebrey, supra, note 18, 313 at 336: “[T]he older women who were mediators will often cite either Li Shuang-shuang's (the heroine of a mid-1960s film) or their own marriages as examples of initially loveless relations that eventually developed warmth and affection.” Yuen-fong Woon, supra, note 47 at 30, found that “[i]n rural China, marriages are increasingly being arranged by parents. Similar to the findings of other scholars studying rural China, my household data show that free choice of marriage partners, which occurred in about one-fifth of all marriages during the Maoist era, is now becoming rare in the village community. Currently, there are two professional go-betweens stationed at Chikan Town charging 100 to 200 yuan for a successful match. Parents from a farming household often use these services to help marry their daughters off to an Overseas Chinese or a man from a qiaojuan household. Such arrangements tend to result in the marriage of a young village girl to a man much older than she is.”

88. Wu T., supra, note 79. Professors Wu and Yang suggested to me that this is primarily a rural attitude. All of the groups I interviewed suggested that “feudal” attitudes and practices were primarily rural problems.

89. Wu T., ibid. For examples of women opposing divorces sought by their husbands see Ocko, supra, note 87 at 332–33, and “Why Did Courts Fail in Divorce?” China Daily (30 July 1983) 3.

90. According to Ning, supra, note 81 at 18, women file 70 percent of divorce applications. Ocko, supra, note 87 at 322, reports that 70 to 80 percent of divorce applicants between 1980 and 1985 were women. Zhao Z., Lü X. & GuoZ., “The Causes of Divorce” in New Trends, supra, note 8, 162 at 166, report that 81.9 percent of petitioners are women. Professors Wu and Yang told me that 60 percent of applicants are women. They said that in rural and mining areas it is usually the wife seeking the divorce because the husband treats her badly or she wants to go to the city, and in those areas it is not easy for the husband to remarry. In the cities more men apply, they said, because there it is easier for the man to remarry. Platte, supra, note 16 at 441–42, points out, quite rightly, that the majority of petitioners in the West are also women and cautions against looking only at conditions in China for an explanation.

91. Spence, supra, note 9 at 707–08. On the sale of women and children, see also Wudunn, S., “Market Revives Feudal Evil: The Sale of Wives” The New York Times (4 August 1991) 11.Google Scholar

92. Zhao Z., Lü X. & Guo Z., supra, note 90 at 166.

93. See 1980 Marriage Law, c. 4, art. 28.

94. Li Qian, supra, note 87.

95. “Mediation System Resolves Legal Disputes,” supra, note 28.

96. Spence, supra, note 9 at 708 writes that “when the First National Congress of Lawyers assembled in July 1986, it claimed to speak for 20,000 legal professionals. The state goal was to train 50,000 lawyers by 1990.” Members of the Women's Law Firm told me that, as of May 1990, there were about 1,700 lawyers in Beijing, 500 of whom were women.

97. Palmer, M., “The People's Republic of China: More Rules but Less Law” (1990–1991) J. of Family Law 325 at 342.Google Scholar

98. Cloke, supra, note 2 at 71.

99. Wu T., supra, note 79

100. Spence, supra, note 9 at 693.

101. There were several factors mentioned by the Chiang Ning District mediators that suggested the wife was not a sympathetic figure to them. The fuller story as told by the mediators is as follows. The husband and wife had married freely. After the marriage the husband took care of the wife. They worked in the same factory, and the husband tried his best to transfer the wife from heavy work to light work, and in the family the wife did not do housework. The husband did most of the housework, but the husband would lose his temper easily. After the wife was transferred to light work, she would always come home late, and this was the main reason for the husband losing his temper. Once the husband beat the wife. The wife was angry and returned to her mother and did not want to go back. The mediators tried to intervene to prevent it from getting more serious. On 14 May 1990, the wife and her mother and sister went to the mediation committee. On 15 May, the mediators went to the danwei and the authority of the danwei agreed that they should co-operate to persuade the couple to reconcile. The mediators also spoke to the husband's mother, and the wife and her mother and sister came to that meeting also. The mediators found that besides the husband beating the wife there were no other problems. The husband asked the wife why she was late every day, and the wife said she liked dancing. The husband said he would go with her, and the wife said no, so the husband continued to have doubts but also to love the wife very much and to be willing to take care of her. The danwei was supportive of the husband and decided after this dispute to transfer the wife back to heavy work, so she and her husband are in the same workshop now.

102. Zhao Z., Lü X. & Guo Z., supra, note 90 at 176–77, advocate even greater involvement by the danwei in order to stem “the current rash of divorces”: “When one party is found especially blameworthy in a divorce case (having, for example, indulged in extramarital affairs or sexual discrimination), note should be made of this in court records and passed on to the employer. When the party at fault wants to marry again, the workplace should reveal the facts to the future mate.” As well, these Chinese scholars recommend that the danwei participate in matchmaking, discourage early courtship and marriage, and educate employees about love, the Marriage Law, socialist ethics, sex, and marital obligations. They further suggest better professional training for mediators so that mediators can “perform their duties well and help troubled couples patch things up.”

103. Ren J., vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, “Mediation, Conciliation, Arbitration and Litigation in the People's Republic of China” (Address to the Fourth International Conference of Appellate Judges, Kuala Lumpur, 23 April 1987) in Selected Foreign-Related Laws and Regulations of the People's Republic of China, vol. 1 (Institute of Chinese Law and East Asia Open Institute) n.p.; Professor Yang Rong-Xi told me that the judge can mediate at every stage of the judicial process and that 60–70 percent of cases settle in judicial mediation. In 1991, the civil procedure law was amended, and judges are no longer required to “stress mediation,” but rather to “conduct mediation in accordance with the principles of voluntariness and lawfulness”: BBC Summary of World Broadcasts: The Far East (8 May 1991) C1/1.

104. Er Long, supra, note 5; the judge can make use of information from other sources as well. Professors at the EIPL reported to me that “a child whose parents were seeking a divorce wrote to the Mayor of Shanghai asking the Mayor to reconcile the couple. The Mayor wrote to the court and asked the judge to take care of the case. The judge, when mediating, pointed out the mistakes of the husband. The husband acknowledged his mistakes and the couple was reconciled.”

105. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 45, quotes a letter to the editor published in Democracy and Legal System, Minzhu Yu Fazhi 4 (MZYFZ) 5 [quotes from original Chinese omitted]. Palmer, M., in “The People's Republic of China: Problems of Marriage and Divorce” (1988–1989) J. of Family Law 57 at 76Google Scholar, notes that many judges take a conservative approach to divorce, especially when the application is brought by a woman: “If the case is difficult, and it is the woman who files for divorce, there may be three or even more examinations by the court before the application succeeds. Theproblems this may create for an unhappy wife are further compounded by general social attitudes that reflect the traditional views that a wife should not have the right to divorce her husband and that characterize divorce applicants as immoral people who ‘change partners’ too easily.”

106. Li Qian, supra, note 87. Professors Wu and Yang told me that “fathers and paternal grandparents want custody of boys because boys are their descendants and should not live under another's roof. Fathers also do not want their sons to have another father, but mothers want custody because they have strong feelings for their children.”

107. L. Qilin, supra, note 8 at 144.

108. Zhao Z., Lü X. & Guo Z., supra, note 90 at 172.

109. Ibid. at 166–69.

110. Xiao, Z., ‘“Breast is Best’ Say Experts” China Daily (12 May 1990) 3Google Scholar, reports that in 1985, only 10.4 percent of urban babies and 33.7 percent of rural babies under six months were breast fed. Reasons offered for the decrease in breast-feeding were the distance between a woman's home and danwei, lack of breast-feeding facilities at the danwei, lack of instruction from older generations, misleading advertisements about the benefits of formula, and the practice of separating mothers and newborns immediately after birth in most Chinese hospitals.

111. Palmer, “Problems of Marriage and Divorce,” supra, note 105 at 78–79.

112. Constitution of the People's Republic of China, c. 2, art. 49; 1980 Marriage Law, supra, note 25, c. 1, art. 2.

113. Palmer, supra, note 40 at 55.

114. Spence, supra, note 9 at 714; Wudunn, S., “China, With Ever More to Feed, Pushes Anew for Small Families” The New York Times (16 June 1991) 1.Google ScholarPubMed

115. Mediators of the Chiang Ning District reported their practices as follows: “Young couples fill out a form promising to have only one child. Every month after they have one child, the mediators visit the family to determine if a second child will be born. Most families want one child, but if the first child is a girl, the couple, or their parents, want a second child, to get a boy. The mediators pay more attention to such families. They do propaganda work to stop them from having a second child, have medical means, and birth control devices for husband and wife.”

116. Cook, supra, note 38 at 72; “Stop Sex Checks of Fetuses” Beijing Review (10–16 July 1989) 12–13; Spence, supra, note 9 at 714. For a detailed discussion of the infanticide issue see Jimmerson, J., “Female Infanticide in China: An Examination of Cultural and Legal Norms” (1990) 8 Pacific Basin L. J. 47.Google Scholar

117. Wu B., supra, note 20 at 24, discusses the strong acceptance for thousands of years of the Confucian idea that the purpose of marriage is to carry on the family line. Wang Zhen, supra, note 11 at 120, states: “The family line was carried on by the male offspring, and relatives on the mother's side did not count. Only the male offspring belonged to the clan community.”

118. Zeng Y., supra, note 73 at 156; Yu Guanhan, “Spending the Remaining Years in Ease” in New Trends, supra, note 8, 209 at 210. There are some ongoing efforts atreform: Yang Rong-Xi, supra, note 5; Yu Guanhan, idem, writes: “The long-term goal is to ensure that all retirees, both rural and urban, receive some form of pension.”

119. Zeng Y., ibid. at 19–24, discusses surveys from 1985 and 1987 that show that “a large majority of women were living or had lived with their husband's parents.” See also Watson, supra, note 18 at 350.

120. L. Qilin, supra, note 8 at 145, writes: “Given the backward economy and the virtual absence of public welfare in China until recently, it was only natural that notions like ‘raising sons to support you in you old age’ and ‘more sons, more happiness’ had currency.”

121. Palmer, supra, note 97 at 334.

122. Ibid. at 336.

123. Organic Regulations, supra, note 76, art. 1.

124. Ibid. art. 4.

125. West China Avenue, supra, note 5.

126. Ibid.

127. EIPL, supra, note 5.

128. Organic Regulations, supra, note 76, art. 5.

129. West China Avenue, Chiang Ning District, supra, note 5. The latter group said: “Even before the baby is born we begin education work. We invite good parents to speak to others about how they have raised their child. The ‘little Emperor’ syndrome is the main problem—children are more selfish, they can't get along so easily. The school, family, and other social organizations work together on this.”

130. Lubman, supra, note 29 at 1339.

131. Organic Regulations, supra, note 76, art. 6(1).

132. Ibid., art. 6(2) and (3).

133. Wu & Yang, Yang Rong-Xi, supra, note 5. Professors at the NWIPL, however, were more sanguine and reported that local courts always organize the mediation committees to study the laws, supervise the committees, and give the mediators advice.

134. “Ren Jianxin Stresses Need to Educate and Train Court Personnel” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts: The Far East (28 August 1990) B2/1.

135. This notion was described as “feudal” and “traditional” and ascribed to mediation committees by Professors Wu & Yang.

136. Organic Regulations, supra, note 76, art. 7.

137. The Chiang Ning District mediators explained that the house manager was invited to these meetings because many disputes concern the use of shared space. China's limited housing space is an extremely important factor in family organization and in family and neighborhood interaction. The Er Long mediators explained that they too had “informers” in each courtyard, and when an informer finds a problem, she or he reports it to the committee, and the committee then goes to the family and volunteers to mediate.

138. EIPL, supra, note 5.

139. Butterfield, F., China: Alive in the Bitter Sea (Toronto: Bantam, 1982) at 325.Google Scholar

140. Organic Regulations, supra, note 76, art. 11.

141. West China Avenue, supra, note 5.

142. The Er Long mediators said that they worked “voluntarily” and received a subsidy of 40–50 yuan (about $10 US at the time) per month. The West China Avenue mediators said that they received 60 yuan per month for mediation work, and the Chiang Ning District mediators received between 25 and 53 yuan per month. The Organic Regulations, supra, note 76, art. 14, provide that members of the People's Mediation Committees may be properly subsidized in accordance with the circumstances, and that the neighborhood or village committee is responsible for administering these subsidy funds.

143. “Law Officials Trample on Law” China Daily (21 July 1989) 3; “Anti-Corruption Struggle Will be ‘Long’ and ‘Arduous’” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts: The Far East (28 November 1989) B2/1; Kolenda, H., “One Party, Two Systems: Corruption in the People's Republic of China and Attempts to Control It” (1990) 4 J. of Chinese Law 187.Google Scholar

144. Organic Regulations, supra, note 76, art. 12(5).

145. Ibid., art. 12(1)(2)(3) & (4).

146. The Organic Regulations, ibid., art. 7, provide that mediation may be conducted by one or more members of the People's Mediation Committee, and that if the dispute arose among different districts or units, the different mediation organizations may jointly mediate.

147. Cloke, supra, note 2 at 72–73.

148. Hyung, I. K., Fundamental Legal Concepts of China and the West (Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press, 1981) 25–60.Google Scholar

149. Henderson, D. Fenno, Conciliation and Japanese Law: Tokugawa and Modern, vol. 1 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1965) at 5.Google Scholar

150. Ibid.

151. Cloke, supra, note 2 at 80.