Taru Salmenkari has for a long time studied Chinese NGOs and local activism. In this book, she examines a broad landscape where China’s NGOs engaged with not only the local-level issues but also transnational ideas and norms circulated by processes of globalization. Particularly, Salmenkari goes beyond the traditional, Western-rooted concept of “civil society” by focusing on Chinese activists whose practices combine advocacy with service delivery.

The book is organized into seven chapters. Chapter 1 offers a historical view of civil society in both globalization and glocalization contexts, aiming at explaining the reasons why Chinese NGOs are perceived as heterodox in existing scholarship. In chapter 2, Taru analyzes the promotion of civil society ideas to China, focusing on how Chinese NGOs perceive and respond to external interventions, and how global concepts are selectively adopted, reworked, or resisted in practice. Chapter 3 turns to an in-depth anthropological account of how NGO delegations and local protesters diverge, which forms a marginalized omission by mainstream ideas in socially knowledge production. In chapter 4, Taru explores tensions between global civil society ideals and Chinese NGOs’ use of local, cultural intellectually inspiration resources. Chapter 5 examines how self-organizing gay groups become (not) political in the Chinese context. Chapter 6 places globalized NGOs within a broader landscape of minjian (a Chinese style name of “Civil society”) self-organization. Chapter 7 sums up the comprehensive contributions of civil society promotion in Chinese political and socioeconomic governance.

Overall, Taru delineates two parallel trajectories in Chinese NGO practice. Rather than subsuming China into an a priori Western framework or treating it as an exception, the book situates Chinese NGO practices within the dynamic interactions of glocalization. On the one hand, Taru examines the relationship between the growth of Chinese NGOs and international NGO norms. She argues that when a standardized definition of civil society is applied to China as a case and used to contextualize grassroots practices, the long-standing indigenous concept of minjian encounters, accommodates, and translates these external norms. Through this process, a form of hybridization emerges that cannot be fully captured by standardized civil society concepts. This analysis captures with notable acuity the Chinese manifestation of “glocalization” and carries important implications for challenging the Eurocentric dichotomy of state and society. In particular, relational power constitutes a key mechanism through which Chinese NGOs adapt to domestic institutional logics, while informal institutions derived from Confucian traditions further enable their embedding in China’s everyday life. This argument not only sparks further debate on knowledge hegemony but also problematizes the dominant public sphere debates that portray Chinese society as inferior to its Western counterparts. In this sense, Taru’s contribution enables the study of Chinese NGOs to resonate with the broader agenda of Global International Relations.

On the other hand, Taru turns to the relationship between Chinese NGOs and domestic minjian groups. The author finds that although practitioners often aspire to foster the expansion of minjian and enhance its discursive capacity, their middle-class position leads them to exercise significant agenda-setting power in practice. At the macro level, this line of analysis connects with recent scholarly calls to examine forms of activism operating across multiple political levels while simultaneously shaping local and national practices—namely, transcalar advocacy.

Admittedly, there are some perspectives that warrant further investigation. First, with regard to China’s institutional logic, Taru tends to overemphasize the role of NGOs, while incentives from different levels of government also matter. In particular, since 2010, China has enacted a series of administrative regulations aimed at fostering a more autonomous, vibrant, and self-organizing social community. Consequently, the behavioral logic of Chinese NGOs is closely connected to the Chinese government’s distribution of attention. Second, the origins of a differentiated concept of civil society can be traced back to the late Ming dynasty, when clusters of voluntary charities were established through interactions between upper level government and local elites, thereby forming a distinctive social space different from its Western public sphere (Gong) which deserves a deeper discussion. This examination could offer a perspective on historical institutionalism when the author seeks to illustrate the root causes of minjian.

This book provides valuable insights for those interested in NGOs and activism within the context of “Global South” countries, including China. Taru depicts a vivid and inspiring picture for students and scholars of the voluntary sector, political science, and sociology. Individuals working in NGOs will find it useful when navigating complex relationships with governments or activists holding different positions. Policymakers will learn about how to improve the capacity of governance and forge a symbiotic order in local contexts through this book.