Table of Content

20 May 2022, Volume 42 Issue 3

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Folklore, Fengshui, and the Making of a Multi-Ethnic Lineage：The Evolution and Social Process of "Ji's Domesticated Dragon Story" in Liuzhou

ZHANG Jianghua

2022, 42(3):  1-30. 

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This paper traces the evolutionary context of the legendary story of "Ji Domesticated Dragon" in Liuzhou, Guangxi, and discusses the familial practices of Ji clan that lived in the interior frontier region during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Through various historical materials such as official records, gazetteer, inscriptions, and family genealogies, this study first examines the folklore of Ji ancestors taming a crocodile to be raised as a pet, a myth that represents the process of Ji clan rising from a chieftain family to an imperial examination pedigree. Further more, it discusses how Ji family compiled the legend of "domesticated dragon" into a family myth in the event of a crisis, and through this myth new "fengshui" was recreated to strengthen the family's status. These efforts eventually led to the formation of a multi-ethnic clan organisation in Liuzhou. The paper argues that the traditional dynastic state had developed a set of sophisticated "civilization engineering" techniques in the frontier areas. The key point of the techniques is to establish a local social space with a hierarchical structure of "barbarians"-"registered villages"-"districts and prefectures", matched with a social value system and ideology from barbarism to civilization. In Guangxi, this kind of social space provided a dynamic activity sphere for social groups such as family and lineage. It is the combination of the desire and pursuit of this value system by families and clans and the exertion of clans as a social self-organization among all social strata and ethnic groups in interaction and communication, that facilitated the integration of the interior frontiers into the national system, thus integrating the ethnic minorities into the community of the Chinese nation.

Beyond the House: The Political Logic and Social Life behind the House Name System in Gyalrong Tibetan Area

SU Wan

2022, 42(3):  31-61. 

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The house names in Gyalrong Tibetan area perform a social function similar to that of surnames in distinguishing people with the same names. Unlike Chinese surnames, house names reflect the specific connection between people and specific houses rather than their specific patrilineal ancestors. Behind the apparent local appearance presented by the naming rule and the semantic association between house names is the political management technique of the feudal superior ("Tusi"). The house name system distributes the mandatory obligation of grain tax and drafted labor within house units. This grants each household incomplete right that combined subsistence needs and the symbolic capital. The house name system also designates subordinate people to a specific community, land, and house for the political purpose of "separate and rule". In this respect, the house name system acts like a local domicile system ("Hukou") originated from the feudal hierarchical society ruled by the chieftain "Tusi".
However, on the other hand, the assemblage of blood-relations across house units retains the "pre-feudal" tradition of mutual assistance in Maine's sense, allowing the practice of marriage and succession from one generation to the next to potentially converge the divisions exacerbated by chieftains, so that the family can achieve old-age support and young-age dependence through mutual assistance. Following the rules of obtaining and changing of the house name is to a large extent the habit of participating in the construction of political norms under the feudal hierarchy. Therefore, the house name system is neither a continuous replication of the "ideal model" of the kinship system, nor does it necessarily cause complete destruction of the kinship system, but makes a great use of the customs based on the principle of cognatic descent succession and "no marriage in the same house", to serve the political purpose of controlling the migration of the population, managing grain taxation and military forces. The dialectical tension intertwining the two forces of political-governance logic and kinship-mutuality practices around the house can provide us with a new perspective for understanding the relationship between people and their houses.

"Grandchildren Are Superior to Grandparents"：Intergenerational Relationship and Its Expanded Patrilineal World among the Akha People

WANG Ruijing

2022, 42(3):  62-91. 

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This study examines the hierarchical ideas, relations and practices demonstrated by the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren among the Akha families to reveal the ways and process of social construction. It points out that the Akha patrilineal family emphasises the two-way hierarchical structure of "elderly's priority" and "grandchildren's superiority" under the concept of good fortune and family continuity. The elderly, for being the foundation of bringing up the offsprings, command special respect and status. The grandchildren, for carrying on the family line, define the blessed status of the elderly. Through ancestor worship in praying and healing rituals, the young generation with their new life and vitality bring strength and longevity to the old generation. Therefore, they deserve to be superior to the elderly.
This model of mutual hierarchy is epitomized in the so-called "shuanxianli" (thread-tie) ceremonial ritual hosted by grandchildren for their grandparents. This gift- giving ceremony can only be done with the understanding that both the giver and receiver are superior on their own rights. The elderly is at the top of the hierarchy to receive the "gift". And the grandchild is the only person in the hierarchy who can bless the elderly with this life "thread". Such a framework of the mutual superiority between grandchildren and grandparents expands itself from families, kinships and villages, and ultimately constructs a broader hierarchical social world. Multiple hierarchical differentiations, like generation, gender, habitation, consanguinity and affinity, etc., are interacting in this ritual process. Male is taken superior to female among the same generation, yet female is in higher position than male across generations, such as granddaughter is superior to grandfather. Consanguinity is more important than affinity, and fellow villagers have closer relationship with each other than with those from outside the village. This not only reflects the different significance of male/female offspring and affinity for family continuity, but also expresses the spirit of mutual assistance, solidarity and integration within the multi-surname village communities. This paper contributes to the discussion on hierarchy, gift exchange and family.

Redemption and Transformation of "Cursed Profession"：Mei Lanfang's Journey to the United States at the Intersection of Old and New

PAN Tong

2022, 42(3):  92-124. 

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The special historical background of modern China made the modern construction of traditional art embark on a different path from that of the West. Through a careful examination of the preparatory process of Mei Lanfang's performance tour to the United States in 1930, this paper concluded that, unlike modern Western art, which had to confront the impact of rationalization and marketization after breaking away from religious and political dependence, Peking Opera, as traditional leisure entertainment, is influenced by Western artistic trends and thus shows the development orientation of actively pursuing "instrumentalization" and "de-cmmodification". At the same time, as an unintended consequence of the "National Opera Movement", Peking Opera became China's "National Opera", shouldering the historical mission of carrying forward traditional culture, a mission that was accomplished by adapting Western modern artistic concepts to traditional Peking Opera. Through examples of modern intellectual such as Qi Rushan and his transformative influence on Mei Lanfang and Peking Opera, this study illustrated how modern intellectuals as the main force of this change used the innovative concept of "combining Chinese and Western, integrating ancient and modern" to make art a popular fashion across classes and countries, and to transform traditional art with the lofty ideal of "saving the nation and promoting the glory of the country". In turn, Peking Opera has found a realistic balance between "art for art's sake" and "art for society's sake", and has become a popular art form enjoyed by different classes and is simultaneously international and national. The reform history of Modern Peking Opera provides guidance for us to explore the direction of "cultural consciousness" today.

The Moral (Bio) Politics of the Abnormal：Situating a Southwest China Border Town in the Global AIDS Governance

FANG Hongxin

2022, 42(3):  125-158. 

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This paper analyses the interaction of the two models in the social process of global AIDS governance and explores the possibilities of social innovation of society in its response to risks. The two moral regimes coping with problematized situations in the contemporary world are conceptualized as "center" and "border" respectively. "center" promotes normative educational discourse in the name of defending society, reifying order and pursuing cost-effectiveness in actual operations. "border"undertakes exploratory social action guided by a specific idea of goodness. While the two approaches engage in continuous battles, integration and penetration between themselves, people living with HIV worldwide were first degraded into a separated biomedical pariah population, and then were brought under the strict medical regime of Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy(HAART). This shift between abject exclusion and exceptional inclusion indicates the meta-structure of life governance in the contemporary world.
China's border cities are key outposts of global AIDS governance that reflect how the institutional deployment of exclusion and inclusion extends from global to local. The "zuo aizibing"(doing AIDS projects) in Biancheng, a southwest China border town embodies typically as well as uniquely the complicated "center/border"entanglement. The "border" organised "infected peer groups" are embedded in the local official governance system, incarnating as "frontline foot soldiers" serving as the "center", facilitating a smoother integration of the city's HIV-positive people into the public health monitoring system, where they are disciplined to become docile medical subjects. The groups, in adaptable symbiosis with the normative deployment, have also been able to open up entirely new fields of social action on their own, allowing a humanitarian vision to be replayed, "translated" and implemented. Through the transmission of knowledge, affection and vitality, the groups have freed their HIV-positive peers, otherwise abandoned by normative logic, from stigmatization, from being limited by disease and treatment and to start the pursuit of new forms of life. As a global social experiment, the "border", as revealed by AIDS, has far-reaching implications for exploring the inclusive and open potential of society itself.

Competition and Game：The Academic Returns and Mental Health Costs of Private Tutoring

ZHANG Qian, GAO Yayi

2022, 42(3):  159-194. 

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Given the fact of the fierce academic competition and gaming in China, we ask the question of whether the academic return of private tutoring comes at the expense of mental health. This topic involves the investigation and analysis of the dual effects of private tutoring. In this paper, an analytical framework is constructed through mathematical derivation and theoretical deduction, and a multi-layer linear model is applied to explore the influence of individual time input and the level of participation in private tutoring on students' academic performance and mental health. We further explore the trend of the dual effect of private tutoring when there are changes in the level of participation in after-school tutoring of the class. By using the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) data in the years of 2014 and 2015, this study reaches a solid and consistent finding that although investing time in private tutoring can boost academic achievement, it has a significant negative impact on students' mental health. With the increase of average tutoring and participation level in the class, the positive effect of the time invested in after-school tutoring on academic performance continues to weaken while the negative impact on mental health is gradually enhanced. The main triggers for increasing mental health impact are the weakening of the social comparison effect as well as the enhancement of the role stress effect and the sleep deprivation effect. In conclusion, this study reveals a trend that in the context of intense academic competition and challenges, over the time the academic reward of private tutoring reduces while the mental health cost rises. This conclusion has important theoretical significance in promoting further research on the micro-gaming mechanism and heterogeneity models of private tutoring. At the same time, it also provides some insights for other countries on policies of how to understand and respond to the phenomenon of private tutoring.

The Logical Power of Graphs：The Concept of Causal Graphs and Their Applications

JU Guodong, CHEN Yunsong

2022, 42(3):  195-221. 

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Causal inference is a core problem in empirical research in the social sciences,but understanding the context of causal inference relies on algebraic derivation,a fact that hinders the prevalence of causal knowledge among sociologists. Causal graphs derived from computer science can intuitively present casual paths and control strategies in a graphical way,thereby providing people with a non-parametric toolkit for understanding causal problems. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to the causal graph method and integrate it with the existing framework of causal inference based on regression models. This article first introduces the conceptual rules and the three basic configurations of chain,fork,and inverted fork that make up causal graphs. Then,it discusses the opening and blocking of causal pathways between variables and the three sources of bias that can mislead the identification of true causal relationships,namely confounding bias,over-control bias and endogenous selection bias. The article further introduces the D-separation rule used to determine which variables in a causal inference should be controlled. On this basis,various empirical examples are brought in to interpret four endogenous problems of omitting variable bias, sample selection bias,self-selection bias,and simultaneity bias through causal graphs. Graphic expressions and implementing conditions of several causal inference methods are also identified,including multiple regression and matching,proxy,experiments, instrumental variable,and panel models. In addition,this article attempts to clarify two common misconceptions in causal inference:conditioning on a post-treatment variable does not necessarily lead to bias and conditioning on a pre-treatment variable may cause deviation. Finally,it is suggested that the application of the causal graph method can help standardise causality research and facilitate the teaching and dissemination of causal inference knowledge.

Influencing Factors on Adolescent Peer Acceptance

XIE Guihua, ZHANG Xian, SUN Jiaqi

2022, 42(3):  222-241. 

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Peer relationship is essential for the healthy growth of adolescents. Positive peer relationships serve as fundamental support for adolescents to successfully pass through puberty,while negative peer relationships such as rejection and bullying may increase the risk of depression and hinder cognitive development. The formation of adolescent peer relationships and the role of family socioeconomic status in this process are important for understanding educational inequality and intergenerational mobility.
This paper examines the impact of family socioeconomic status on adolescent peer acceptance from the perspective of social stratification and explores its mediating mechanism,and discuss whether the mediation mechanism is differentiated among groups of different social classes. The data used in this paper is from China Education Panel Study (CEPS) for the school year of 2013 -2014. This study finds: (1) socioeconomic status has positive effects on adolescent peer acceptance,students whose parents have college education and above enjoy significant higher peer acceptance than those whose parents have high-school or below educational level;and (2) positive traits at individual-level,such as higher academic performance,self-efficacy,and sports hobbies,have a significant positive impact on peer acceptance,while art hobbies do not. Among them,only cognitive ability (academic performance) has slight mediating effect that transfers part of socioeconomic effect to adolescent peer acceptance. These findings show that in the context of Chinese middle schools,parental involvement in children's peer network is relatively low,possibly indicating that the inequality of family socioeconomic status is not passed on to classmate relationships. However,it may also mean that we have not yet found the real mechanism between family socioeconomic status and adolescent peer relationships,and further exploration is needed.