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Table of Content

    20 May 2014, Volume 34 Issue 3
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    Articles
    Parents and Nature: A Genealogy of Western Matriarchal Thought (II)
    WU Fei
    2014, 34(3):  1-36. 
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    After “The Myth of Matriarchy”, this part of the paper examines the intellectual origin of matriarchy. Among modern thinkers, Hobbes already discussed the main ideas of matriarchy. The state of nature in “Leviathan” reflected not only wars of all against all but also marriages of all with all. Hobbes clearly argued that the first human family might be headed by the mother and that because children could not identify their fathers, the motherson contract could be the first human contract. Matriarchy of the 19th century was nothing but another form of social contract from the theory of human nature and the theory of contract. Bachofen’s ideas of matriarchy followed the thinking of Hobbes’s and his interpretation that the mother represented nature whereas the father represented culture was exactly the philosophical basis for the matriarchal anthropologists even none had made an explicit statement. This thought can be traced back to Aristotle, who viewed man as a perfect human being but woman as an underdeveloped deformed man. In generation, the father provided form and the mother matter. The relationships between the two genders in both family and city were based on this philosophical principle. The understanding of gender relationships in Western traditional thinking originated from Aristotle’s theory of form and matter. With the development of Christianity, however, the gap between form and matter (or culture and nature) became bigger and bigger, and matriarchy was a result of this trend. Modern feminists have been trying in multiple ways to solve the problems of gender since Aristotle but only to get themselves into new dilemmas.
    Inter-Organizational Network Structure and Formation Mechanisms in Weibo Space: A Study of Environmental NGOs
    HUANG Ronggui, GUI Yong, SUN Xiaoyi
    2014, 34(3):  37-60. 
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    This study explores the structures of follower/identity networks among environmental nongovernment organizations on Sina Weibo by using social network analysis techniques, and unpacks the formation mechanisms of these networks by integrating the literature of interorganizational network, social movement coalition, Internet studies, and the institutions of social organization management in China. In particular, this study proposes an appropriateness principle to explain the effect of registration status on network structure. Descriptive network analyses show that close virtual relations exist among environmental NGOs, and reciprocal relations are prevalent. Results of exponential random graph models show that the formation of virtual relations is influenced by selforganization mechanisms, organizational resources, appropriateness principle (registration status), homophily principle (offline collaboration relations, geographical location, and focus areas) and activity levels of Weibo use. Organizational resources function as a “signal” on which users base their evaluation of the trustworthiness of the organization, and thus organizations with unknown funding are less likely to be followed or identified with. With regard to the organizations whose funding is known, those with lower levels of resources tend to use the Weibo platform more actively. Unregistered organizations tend to actively build relationship with others, while registered organizations tend to avoid establishing relationships with the unregistered. These findings highlight the importance of legitimacy and lend support to the appropriateness principle. Nongovernmental organizations which have offline collaboration relations or reside in the same province are more likely to form follower/identity relations, and those with similar focus areas are more likely to form identity relations. Activity of Weibo use also has a positive impact on the formation of interorganizational relations. Overall, findings of this study suggest that “low cost of internet use” alone does not provide a sufficient explanation of interorganizational relations on the cyberspace. The authors argue that on a highly interactive social media platform like Weibo, trustworthiness of an organization and its capacity to earn recognition from peer organizations plays a crucial role in the formation of interorganizational networks.
    “XiaQi” (Chivalry) and Mores：Social Transformation Brought about by Local Militarization during Taiping Rebellion
    HOU Jundan
    2014, 34(3):  61-91. 
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    The impacts on social structure of the Late Imperial China were catastrophic during Taiping Rebellion. In addition to mutations in fiscal system, population and ownership of land, a major change made to the Imperial was the morality and mores, which predicated a new social condition. This change was mainly reflected in the violence in the local resistance to Taiping Rebellion, and was a result of the spread of “XiaQi” (chivalry), the ethical principle of the local military mobilization. “XiaQi” is a key conception to better our understandings of the ethical principle of the civil societies in Chinese history. At the end of Ming Dynasty, “XiaQi” transformed to an abstract spirit which could be discovered in any social stratum. Based on an exploration of local militarization in Wenzhou province in the mid 19th century, this research also discovers that “XiaQi” not only played a role as organization mechanism in local militarization, it also provided an inner foundation for the shape of a new society. “XiaQi” was a law of individual power leading to countless rebellions against the Imperial because of its opposition to the traditional orders in patriarchal system, rates in villages, the authority of Confucians and dependant relationships in the Imperial China. As a result, the law of power in “XiaQi” destroyed the hierarchical structure of the Imperial and produced a social equalization which rendered the traditional governance in crises. This also caused the coming of modern revolution which resulted in a series of social and political transformations and the collapse of the traditional governance. The constitutional reform in the late Imperial on the one hand meant a new power relationship between the central and the local governments, on the other showed a reconstruction of morality. 
    Institutional Segmentation and Housing Inequality in Urban China
    FANG Changchun
    2014, 34(3):  92-117. 
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    Studies on early socialist societies found that ideological, political processes, especially the changes of national policies had effects on social inequality. Had the marketoriented reforms changed this mechanism of social inequality? With the subsidence of debates aroused by Victor Nee’s market transition theory, attention has been paid to the relationship between the mechanism of market and the mechanism of “redistribution”(or socialist institution) again, and the effects of institutional environment on social inequality have been highlighted too. This paper suggests that the current fixed forms of economy of China might have intensified social inequality due to the lack of a balance between “market” factors and “redistribution” power. Empirical analysis on housing inequality in this paper shows, today’s housing inequality in urban China has not only been caused by the market, but also by the housing allocation system before the housing reform, and the institutional segmentation can still be found in housing inequality. The empirical analysis suggests that institutional factors still have effects on social inequality, and at some point they can reinforce inequalities caused by the market.

    Theoretic Construction and Empirical Test of Multiple Sex Partners Behavior in Shanghai
    ZHUANG Yuxia
    2014, 34(3):  117-144. 
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     From a gender perspective, using the data of sexual behavior and reproduction health in Shanghai in 2007-2008，this paper first finds out regarding multiple sex partners behavior, there are obvious differences across gender in terms of the characteristics of the sex partners, the process of finding sex partners and the situation of unprotected sex and prostitution. We then construct a theoretical model to explain the gendered differences and use the empirical data to test the model. Our Logistic regression finds out that apart from gender, four factors, including social standing (household registration status, income, education and occupation), family life (marriage, reproduction, time of living together and relative relationships), previous sex life (age of firsttime sexual intercourse, being engaged in premarital cohabitation or not, conjugal trust) and perceived gender norms, mainly contribute to one’s multiple sex partner behavior. This model therefore challenges the “physical needs” theory and offers more interesting findings, for example, one’s “capital operation” and situation enacting bigger influences than one’s social standing; and marital affection encounters a low after both twoyear and sevenyear of marriage; sexual transgressions are continuous; and gender norms affect one’s multiple sex partner behavior through their shaping effects within family and the society. In the end, we suggest that more attention should be paid to three related areas: firstly, sex satisfaction of migrant workers in urban China; secondly, the construction of a new partner or family relationship; and finally, the promotion of knowledge regarding sex and sexual safety. We also call for a reflection upon whether the sex revolution for women a real revolution or a new oppression.

    Citizenship and Public Life Revisited: Based on the Confucian Views and Chinese Historical Experience
    YAO Zhongqiu
    2014, 34(3):  145-162. 
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    Based on Chinese historic experience and Confucian ideas，this paper reflects upon the concepts of public life and citizen, which originate from Western experience. In both Western histories and theories, the basic carrier of public life was polis, or city, a smallscale political unit. China, however, has been a superscale civilization and political body since Emperor Yao and Emperor Shun, about B.C. 2000. This has made the patterns of public life and citizenship in China different from its western counterparts. During Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, three characteristics featured public life and citizenship: multicentric units of public life; every person having varying degrees of publicity; and Junzi, as the most active citizen, owning multilayered identities and acting throughout hierarchical political systems. In the postclassical period, Confucian adherents were devoted to cultivate a nonhierarchical ShiJunzi (scholarJunzi) as the promoter, organizer and leader of public life, and build a series of effective institutions supporting public life. As a result, we can observe a picture of multilayered and multicentric public life and citizenship: Every people lived in more than one public communities, and had more than one citizenship identity generally, participating in public life on different levels; In every community, ShiJunzi or gentlemen worked as active citizens, differentiated themselves from Xiaoren, the inactive mass; ShiJunzi was the only group connected with all communities. This paper concludes that the conceptualization of public life and citizenship was situated in a Western context, and calls for the development of a universal concept of the terms which can accommodate both the case of China and the West. 

    The Development and Crisis of Chinese Discourse on Publicity
    REN Feng
    2014, 34(3):  163-184. 
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     Charting the development and identifying the crisis of Chinese discourse on publicity, this article suggests that a proper research on Chinese discourse on publicity should be more based on observation of and reflection upon the internal dynamics of Chinese civilization and tradition, rather than mainly focusing on the influences of modern West. Laying its foundation on the HeavenHuman order and the threedynasty paradigm, the discourse on publicity and conception of publicity in China had arose and flourished since the Song Dynasty. The Chinese character Gonggong for publicity emphasizes practicality, and advocates for collective participation out of public spirits. Since its rise in early modern China, the discourse on publicity had played a part in advancing quasirepublican political model, the respect for established constitution and public laws, the popularity of public consensus and the prosperity of socially autonomous organizations. Later, the flourishing Heavenlyprinciple worldview greatly enhanced and deepened the theoretical quality of this discourse. In contemporary China, however, the discourse underwent a complicated transition which incurred a profound crisis. Heavily influenced by unprecedented radicalized culture and politics, contemporary modern Chinese discourse on publicity experienced a disruption from its traditional counterpart and became flattened and fragmentary. A prophetic and restless image of secularist and absolutist collectivity held and grasped Chinese public perception during waves of ideological struggles in the last century. As a result, the abovementioned discourse encountered its crisis which could be presented by the loss of transcendence and self understanding, the breakdown of established constitution and the decline of multiplecenter governance.
    Dibao  and Debating Publicly in the Mid and Late Ming Dynasty
    REN Wenli
    2014, 34(3):  185-205. 
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    Confucianism has the ideal of “Gonglun” (to debate publicly) or “Gong shifei yu tianxia” (to publicize the debates about national policies all over China), which had been realized, though in a limited way, in Chinese ancient history. One media to realize the ideal is Dibao (court bulletin), which could be traced back to the Song Dynasty and had been revived and reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty. This paper tests in the textual data the existence and importance of Dibao in the Ming Dynasty and argues that it had promoted the transparency of politics, especially in the mid and late Ming Dynasty. The contents of Dibao were imperial edicts and the memorials to the emperors from the scholarofficials, with the purpose to discuss national policies, under the permission of the emperors. During the mid and late Ming Dynasty, Dibao reached almost all counties of China, the lowest level of the imperial government, including remote counties in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces, the farthest provinces from the central government. The debates were made available to all scholarofficials and they all could have a part in the debates. Moreover, Dibao played an important role in circulating those memorials held by the emperors without responding to the scholarofficials who sent them, a phenomenon called Liuzhong. This was especially the case during Wanli, one of the most inactive monarchies during Ming Dyansty. Dibao had its limit though: it was not available to all Chinese people but scholarofficials. Even the nonofficial students in official schools had no access to it. Despite this, the publicity mediated by Dibao could not be neglected.