Table of Content

20 September 2020, Volume 40 Issue 5

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Military Subcontract

YING Xing

2020, 40(5):  1-33. 

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A very important historical link has been absent in the current academic discussion of the administrative subcontract system in contemporary China and its historical roots in the imperial period: military subcontract. China's military subcontract system is not only different from the military contracting and the modern military bureaucracy in Western Europe, but also different from the party-military and central-local governmental relations in the Soviet Union. Military subcontracting is an organizational form that emerged during the Sino-Japanese War and the Liberation War when the CCP took control in its rural Soviet base areas. It is embedded in a superior-subordinate relationship between the party and the military under the overall authority of the CCP Central Committee. On the one hand, the unified leadership regime is established at the central level. On the other, at the military division and subdivision levels, the military subcontract system is put into operation in three aspects: the discretion of military decision making by divisions and subdivisions, the financial self-sufficiency and the relative autonomy of management at local levels with emphasis on military results and personalized responsibility. The system effectively solves the tension between mobilization and control, centralization and decentralization. It is recognized as an important avenue to develop the military and political capacity of modern political parties in partially controlled territories under a divided state. It prepares for the construction of a comprehensive state power after 1949. The military subcontract system is not only the pioneer but also the kernel of the administrative subcontract system in modern China. Whether it is to explore the effectiveness of the administrative subcontract system, or to correct its shortcomings, an in-depth understanding of the military subcontract system is unavoidable.

Thought， Custom，and Institution: The Sociological Implication of Chen Yinque's Historical Research

MENG Qingyan

2020, 40(5):  34-62. 

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Chen Yinque's historical research has an important academic status in the field of humanities and social sciences in China. For a long time, the discussion of Chen Yinque's historical research has been largely confined to the scope of history and medieval studies. Social sciences such as sociology and political science have paid very little attention to Chen's works. The existing literature is often divided into two groups of scholars: those who follow the timeline of Chen's works to trace the content and style change in order to understand thehistorical progress of Chen's research and those who focus on Chen's unique methodology. Both groups neglect the general issues of his research tradition. Based on a careful reassessment of Chen's works, this paperattempts to locate the inner connections in Chen's writings and explore his inherent concern on the issue of “the birth of civilization”. Through a discussion of three keywords: idea, custom, and institution, the paper illustrates how Chen put his concern of general issues into concrete research. It is argued that these three keywords together constitute the internal foundation of Chen Yinque's consciousness on the question of “civilization occurrence”. The paper further explores the sociological implication of Chen's research tradition in the context of western learning and the theoretical significance of classical research tradition for the development of Chinese sociology.

Sorrow and Respect Thoroughly Expressed: Examining the Emotional Connotation of Monarch-Officials and Father-Son Relationship Through an Analysis of “Jun Shi Da Lian”

LI Songtao

2020, 40(5):  63-90. 

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For the ancient Chinese, father-son relationship is the most important ethical relationship within the family, and the relationship between monarch and officials is the most important at the national level. People not only adhere to the moral requirements of the kinship, but also to the political ethics governing the monarch-officials relationship. The spiritual connotation of the two relations has laid the foundation of the social structure, the family-state relation, as well as the political order of traditional China. This paper analyzes the description of the “jun shi da lian” ritual （Emperor's attendance of funeral ceremony） in The Mourning Rites of Scholar-Officials to demonstrate how these two different relationships, deeply rooted in Confucianism, are interwoven together, interacting and influencing with each other. The respect emphasized in the state mourning ritual and the sadness emphasized in the family mourning ritual show the inner spiritual and emotional path of the traditional family-state relationship in China, that is, only people with a good heart who are filial towards their parents at home would be loyal to the monarch at the national political level. Similarly, how monarch and officials carry out their relationship reflects the father-son relations at the family level. The paper offers a new explanation for understanding the Chinese inner emotional state, behavior ethics, and social character and how they are shaped by this relationship structure in two layers: the hierarchy between superiors and inferiors and the differential obligations among family members.

Can Groups without Trust Cooperate with Each Other? An Analysis of the Event History of the XW Case

ZHANG Jing

2020, 40(5):  91-111. 

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The subject of this study is about the relationship between institutional rules and social capital construction. Unlike the existing research, which mainly regards social capital as an independent variable and explores its role in social development, this paper treats social capital as a dependent variable and tracks the development of public goods type of social capital, especially in the adverse environment of group conflict.The paper finds that universal social capital does not necessarily occur naturally in normal social relations, it needs to rely onspecific public social rules to develop and consolidate. The XW case shows that the expansion of social capital,represented by the breadth of villager cooperation moving from within-clans to cross-clans, is clearly the result of somenew innovative public decision-making rules.Facingan opportunity for collective asset appreciation and crisis management, people in XW responded with creating a set of new rules. A village council was set up with eighty-five representatives and an open WeChat platform was created for proposals and discussions, allowing representatives to deliberate and vote, sign resolutions,publish legal auditions, broadcast videos, and share other online information. The reconfiguration of the collective asset decision-making power structure has established a different public relationship among the villagers and stimulated the growth of general social capital. The study describes the mechanism of generating social capital，offering a theoretical explanation on the limitation of special social capital, the expansion of social capital, and the improvement of cooperative behavior. At the same time, it is suggested that disrupting the conventional system rules with innovative reforms could help break the cycle of group conflict and control competition, and improve the quality of grass-roots social governance.

Authenticity and the Logic of Change：A Study of Industry Governance and Production Practice Based on the Case of Anxi Tieguanyin

YAN Yanhua

2020, 40(5):  112-136. 

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Against the background of agricultural modernization，research on local governance has focused predominantly on the motivation of governmental behavior and its consequences but has failed to sufficiently reveal the tension between the logic of governmental industry policies and the concrete production practice of farmers. Similarly，the anthropological study on the authenticity of things has emphasized the impact of the cultural constructs of dominant consumer groups on producers but has overlooked the production rationality on the part of local producers. Taking the dual perspective of industry governance and authenticity，this paper points out the conspiratorial relationship between the local governmental industrial policy and the cultural construction of consumer market，and emphasizes the resilience and vitality of the tea farmers with production flexibility in dealing with this double pressure from governments and consumers. More specifically，the promotion of the tea industry under the name of “authenticity” by local governments is in fact to essentially transform the traditional ways of production into a large-scale standardized production，so as to guide and cater to the cultural imagination of the consumer market. However，this insistence on uniformity and non-historical authenticity stands in stark contrast to the flexibility of the tea farmers who adapts production and sales to suit production techniques，growing seasons，and social relations. In contrast to the government's strategy of authenticity to keep with a well-defined “tradition”，the tea farmers have their own logic of production and sales，adjusting to time，soil and market. Though the government's strategy of authenticity had some success in the past，but in the long run，farmers' flexible method is more suitable for the complex，changeable and multi-level market.

Technology Autonomy and State Molding: Political Venation and Imagination of the Relationship Between State and Technical Governance

CHEN Tianxiang, XU Yaqian

2020, 40(5):  137-168. 

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It has been a gradual process for technical governance becoming part of state governance. The relevant research has expanded the conceptual variables such as “expertocracy”, “technocrate”, “scientific technology” and “micromanagement”. There are two research dimensions: one is how to govern in a “technical” way, and the other is how to apply new IT technology in governance.This paper begins with the relationship between the state and the “technical” way, a logic starting point of the concept of technical governance. Technical governance has its own autonomy in development and operation. From this perspective, we identify three basic relationship stages between the state and the technical governance.During the “absorption”stage,the state adopts the manageable technology. The technology empowers the state and at the same time the state becomes the sponsor of the technical governance. This is followed by the stage of “diffusion”, under which the state directly involves in adaptation of the technology through resource support and administrative authority. In the third stage of “diversion”, the state monitors any deviation of the technical governance through regulations and policies.This paper further puts forward two ideas of “beyond technical governance”: political imagination and market savagery. The former illuminates how policy makers transcend the limitations of technical governance in practice, and the later explains the potential research direction of technical governance in the future.In sum, this study presents an overall picture of the mutual shaping of the state and the technical governance, providing a new reflection for the research of technical governance.

A Potential “Religious Gift Theory”: The Intrinsic Connection Between Gifts and Religion

WU Yue

2020, 40(5):  169-189. 

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This paper holds that“religious gift theory”， derived from the gift theory of Mauss and others， is a promising theoretical perspective that explores religion and its relationship with society. Through a review of the existing literature， this paper discusses the internal logic between gifts and religion， and then analyzes the affinity between gift theory and sociology of religion， and how gift theory can help us to understand the relationship between religion and society. Firstly， gifts and religion are mutually related and complementary to each other. The logic of religious gifts reveals its moral origin. At the same time， religious support makes gifts possible. Religion bestows a sacred foundation for the intrinsic value of gift exchange, while gifts provide a continuous social bond for the sustenance of religious life. Secondly， both gifts and religion are directly related to the law of social solidarity， reflected in their common character called “voluntary obligation”. The two combine not only emotional and instrumental connections but also reciprocal and hierarchical ethics， jointly representing the basic mechanism of social solidarity and social self-replication. Finally， the advantage of “religious gift theory” is most likely to be reflected in the analysis of “involuntarism” of religion， which includes “no need to choose” in diffused religions and “difficult to choose” in dominant religions. After all， it is a general fact about religion that “voluntarism” is embedded in the cultural context. In addition， the potential challenge of “religious gift theory” is mainly reflected in dealing with external social change and internal value orientation.

Change and Persistence：Typology of Intergenerational Relations of Chinese Family

ZENG Xuhui, LI Yifeng

2020, 40(5):  190-212. 

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In contrast to intergenerational relations of family in the West，Chinese families emphasize mutual support and care among family members，and regard parenting and filial duty as a continuous process. Based on the typology of intergenerational relations in western countries，the paper constructs an analytical framework consisting of two dimensions of living arrangement and functional exchange in Chinese families and proposes four potential types of intergenerational relationship: tight-knitted，instrumental，independent，and parental support. Using the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study （CHARLS） data，a latent category analysis shows that the four types are divided as the following：tight-knitted （21.7%）， instrumental （38.1%），independent （29.2%），and parental support （11.1%） respectively. A few things can be learnt from the finding. The significant share of instrumental type and the emergency of independent and parental support types indicate a change in contemporary intergenerational relations in China. Although the traditional tight-knitted type is no longer a dominant model，close intergenerational linkages are maintained through instrumental and parental support types，and 48.5% of parents continue having close relationship with their children. It shows that parenting and filial duty are preserved，reflecting the continuation of intergenerational relations. The study also finds that the type of intergenerational relationship is significantly influenced by people's socioeconomic status，mostly observed in the plight of a small number of disadvantaged elders，especially in rural areas，indicating the reproduction of social inequality.

Dialect Ability and Academic Performance of Migrant Children——Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey

LIU Jiankun, ZHANG Yunliang

2020, 40(5):  213-236. 

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Education is a key issue affecting child development. Since the economic reform，the urban migration has continued its expansion in China. With the improvement in economy and transportation，the cost of household migration has fallen continuously，making family migration a prevailing model. Previous studies on migrant children's academic performance have mainly focused on the impact of family background and school environment and have neglected the important role of language environment. Using the data from the 2014 to 2015 China Education Panel Survey，this study examines the influence of migrant student dialect language ability on academic performance and the potential mechanism involved. We find that mastering local dialects can significantly improve migrant students' academic performance in two subject areas of Chinese and English. After checking the issue of estimation bias with various methods of instrumental variables，propensity score matching and sample selection，we find that the conclusion remains valid. The positive effect of dialect language ability does show differences in gender and region. In addition，support from teachers and classmates is identified as the mechanism by which academic performance is enhanced by mastering dialects. The mediation effect results，estimated based on the Bootstrap method，are consistent with the above finding. This study reveals the logic of the accumulation process of human capital of migrant children from the perspective of language environment. It provides references for governmental educational policy improvement for migrant children. This study expands the existing literature in three ways：first，the analysis of social integration in the existing research mainly concentrates on individual weakness at the micro-level and institutional exclusion at the macro-level. However，because dialects reflect both individual ability and macro-environment，this study has expanded the scope of the existing research on social integration. Second，this study introduces a new interpretation for the formation and changes of human capital of migrant children，as well as the interactive role of dialects，from a language perspective，unlike the common approaches of family and school system applied in the existing literature. Third，this study emphasizes the sociological significance of dialects in helping individuals integrate into new places and new cultural environment and accumulate personal capital，a perspective different from the existing literature's mere emphasis on the economic impact of dialects.