Table of Content

20 September 2016, Volume 36 Issue 5

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Lun: The Common Basis of Chinese Thoughts and Society

ZHAI Xuewei

2016, 36(5):  1-35. 

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The character Lun and its meaning have been subjected to many discussions and unanswered questions. Is it part of the Chinese traditional thoughts or does it echo the framework of Chinese traditional society? What is its relevance to the modern Chinese sociological inquires? This study reviews the works of traditional Chinese thinkers and modern sociologists, especially their views on Five Lun in order to gain a sociological explanation of the character. Rooted in Chinese traditional understanding of the relationship between Heaven and Man, and between man and man, lun defines individual roles in social hierarchy and stratum. Confucianism functions to legitimize and normalize this social arrangement. By comparing modern sociological concepts of self, role, social exchange, social networks, and social stratification and inequality to the character, this paper discusses lun as a self-evident social reality and its presumptive principles in traditional society, as well as its function and adaptation in modern society. In author's opinion, Confucian ethics adhere to the social structure of traditional Chinese society, and therefore, promote harmony, stability and order. In contrast, the Western thoughts of equality and justice reject the acceptance of social reality and thus encourage progress. Through a close examination of lun, a better understanding and a new way of interpretation of the characteristics of Chinese people and society can be reached.

Lost Trust and Dissolved Guanxi Circles: A Case Study of the Collective Resignation Event in Tianyuan Tea Company

SHUAI Man

2016, 36(5):  36-63. 

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The mainstream explanation on employee turnover is either cause-effect factor analysis or interaction analysis. The former is effective in identifying causal relations between factors and the latter in showing the dynamics of interpersonal relationship. Combining the benefits of both methods,this study applies guanxi circle theory. It places various turnover factors under the framework of interpersonal interaction and uses the social network structure as an analytic point to examine the dynamic evolution of trust within the organization. The study finds that in the case of Tianyuan Tea Company,the collective resignation is largely caused by the collapse of trust within the guanxi circles that informally operated in the company social network centered on the management authority who had the power of hiring,firing and promotion. Five conclusions are proposed:1) The formal hierarchical structure of power can either coincide with or separate from the informal guanxi circles. When the two are in accordance,resignations rarely happen while discordance of the two is often an indication of potential resignations. 2) Organizational changes most likely cause guanxi circles outsiders to resign. 3) Members of the top guanxi circle in hierarchy do not resign because of discordant relationship with lower level managers,instead,they get relocated with promotion. 4) The collapse of "bridge" between guanxi circles can cause collective resignations. 5) Those who survive organizational shakeups are members of the top guanxi circle in hierarchy and the "bridge" people of guanxi circles. This study contributes to the research of employee turnover by introducing a new perspective of guanxi circle theory as well as drawing attention to the important function of the "bridge" coordinating between circles,and by offering theoretical understanding and practical guidance for social governance.

Political Values of Chinese Netizens and Limitation of Online Protests

JI Chengyuan, WANG Heng, GU Xin

2016, 36(5):  64-87. 

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China's market transition has brought changes on people's political values as well as individual behaviors in political participation. Internet itself does not necessarily lead to political participation due to many constraints,which contains people's political values. Taking the data from a nationwide random sample,this study examines the relationship between Netizens'political values and their participation in online protests. Their basic political orientation is identified in two groups of "authoritarian" and "liberal democratic". Two areas of online protests——criticism of government officials or policies and discussion of political collective actions are looked into to compare these two groups. Generalized propensity score matching is applied to predict the dose-response function and average treatment effect of the two types of political values on online protests. We find that the liberal oriented Netizens generally have much more online protest engagements than their counterpart. However,interestingly,when one's liberal-democratic value score reaches to a certain high level,such a correlation disappears. Instead,there is a significant decrease in protest engagements among high scorers. Our tentative explanation for this threshold effect is that,similar to the "diminishing marginal utility" phenomenon in economics,political values'motivational function possibly lessens overtime. High scores can also be an indication of changes in other conventional elements in political participation such as decrease of political efficacy. Therefore,in addition to the government control and agenda-setting,personal political values influence people's political participation and constitue an internal constraint on online protests.

Does Internet Reproduce Gender Inequality? A Study on Internet Use Wage Premium

ZHUANG Jiachi, LIU Aiyu, SUN Chao

2016, 36(5):  88-106. 

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Internet has changed our working life dramatically in the last few decades. Internet use wage premium refers to the positive return of internet use on wage. This study attempts to examine the impact of internet use on gender inequality in China by analyzing the data from the Third Chinese National Survey on Women's Social and Economic Status. Propensity Scores indicate that people who use internet have 1.38 times more income than people who do not. Although men and women today have relatively equal internet access, internet use wage premium remains gender differentiated. The return of internet use on income for women is 90.6% of that for men. Different kind of internet usages result in different returns as well. Men are more likely to use internet for learning and career advancement than women. Women who use internet for the same purpose have higher wage premium than women who use internet primarily for entertainment. We find that women who believe in gender equality are predisposed to use internet for self-betterment. The study aims to explain the effect of cultural values on people's preference and types of internet usage, and how it become an important source and mechanism of reproducing gender inequality in cyberspace.

The Control,Discretion,and Policy Implementation of Local Authorities in Rural China

TAO Yu, HOU Linke, LIU Mingxing

2016, 36(5):  107-130. 

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Drawing upon representative national survey data collected in 2000, 2004, and 2007, this paper systematically examines how township and village authorities in contemporary rural China actually implement the policies and instructions that they receive from above. The empirical evidence reveals the following. First, the actual situation of policy implementation in contemporary rural China is often jointly determined by the controlling powers that upper-level authorities have over their subordinate agencies on the one hand, and the discretion enjoyed by the latter on the other. Second, the interactions between upper-level authorities and their subordinate agencies vary across different governmental levels and policy fields. County authorities are more capable in controlling over township authorities, but township authorities often have relatively weaker control over village authorities. Such a pattern was reinforced after the rural taxation reform in early 2000s. In addition, this paper also demonstrates that local authorities in contemporary rural China tend to prioritise activities which can bring about direct benefits to them, even when such activities are not regarded as priorities by their higher-ups.

State or Market: Preference to Market Transition Among Migrant Workers Under Urbanization

ZENG Diyang

2016, 36(5):  131-154. 

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Research on China's market economy transition has more or less focused on its processes and outcomes, often neglecting people's subjective attitudes towards the change. Nevertheless, such attitudes constitute the basis upon which migrants make their choices and decisions in response to the ongoing urbanization process, and vice versa, their actions also affect the path and the future of Chinese marketization and urbanization. This study reaches several conclusions based on an analysis of the 2012 Tsinghua University Urban Survey. In comparison between local residents and migrants, there is a strong support among migrants towards the real estate property marketization as well as the overall market transition. Such marketization preferences become even stronger with the younger migrant cohorts, influenced by the generational differences in life experience. There is also a difference between city-to-city and rural-to-city migrants in their attitudes towards the market transition with the former much more in favor of than the later. These findings suggest that both structural and cognitive factors help constitute people's different attitudes towards the market transition. Concrete benefits and subjective perception together decide individual's preference over the dichotomy between state and market. The Chinese market transition is being proceeded under its political system and many market rules cannot be operated independently from political elements. Therefore, under the current large-scale urbanization, institutional advantage remains the key to access benefits. The gap between migrants and local residents is triggered, not by the market as it might be seen on the surface, but essentially by the state protection of the existing institutions. To change it, we need to abandon the household registration segregation.

Market Transition, Educational Differentiation and Urban-Rural Inequality in Chinese Higher Education (1977-2008)

PANG Shengmin

2016, 36(5):  155-174. 

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Since the 1990s, the urban-rural inequality in higher education access has become increasingly severe in China. Drawn from the data of the 2008 Chinese General Social Survey, this study applies the Mare Model to analyze the evolutional process of urban-rural inequality in higher education access. Results show that the urban-rural gap begins in two transitional stages of schooling:elementary to junior and junior to senior, with the latter playing a much more significant role to the discrepancy. The after-school tutoring market is particularly beneficial to the urban students from non-key junior high schools. Because of it, the difference between them and their rural counterpart amplifies dramatically during the important transition from junior to senior high schools. As a result, while higher education has expanded continuously since the 1990s, the urban-rural inequality in educational access is becoming even more prominent. Nevertheless, the marketization of education does not seem to have a significant impact on the access inequality between the urban and rural students from key junior high schools. It appears that key school system itself is not the culprit causing the inequality. The study concludes that in order to reduce the urban-rural inequality in higher education access, it is crucial to bring down the disparity in elementary education, and more importantly, to improve the quality of rural junior high school education. It also recommends a guided expansion of after-school tutoring market in rural area.

The Chinese Communist Party's Integration Policy Towards Private Enterprises and Its Effectiveness: An Analysis of the Ninth National Survey of Chinese Private Enterprises

HE Xuan, MA Jun

2016, 36(5):  175-196. 

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Since the Chinese economic reform, the CCP has gradually moved towards a separation of party-state from society, manifested in the withdraw of the party power in many areas of society and the growth of the new power of private enterprises. The CCP has actively reformed itself as it has evolved from a revolutionary party into a governing party. The Party's support of and collaboration with private enterprises, a powerful and indispensable force in Chinese economy, is a good example of such a change. Instead of focusing on political acceptance and organizational infiltration as most of the existing studies have done, this paper examines the political incorporation of the CCP's Integration Policy towards private enterprises. Theoretical analysis, supported by case studies, indicates that the relationship between the ruling party and private businesses is not, contrary to the common understanding, a unidirectional absorption and penetration by the Party. Instead, it is an interdependent and mutually beneficial relationship. A further empirical examination of the Ninth National Survey of Private Enterprises confirms that private businesses that have set up CCP organizations or with owners themselves CCP members identify more strongly with the ruling party policies, and are more active in production expansion and long-term growth. It appears that the CCP Integration Policy towards private enterprises has effectively utilized both the "top-down" organizational infiltration and the "bottom-up" political integration. In so doing, the CCP maintains its control over private enterprises. Not only does it consolidate the governing legitimacy of the Party but also enables private businesses to fulfill its social function. The policy helps the Party successfully avoid the formation of non-institutionalized powers outside the system.

Theory of Matriarchal Society and Its Problematic Application in China

ZHOU Dandan, LI Ruohui

2016, 36(5):  197-221. 

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The theory of matriarchal society has had quite a different fate in China than in the West. As an academic proposition, matriarchy, referring to primitive female-dominated societies, is largely discredited in the West. However, as an academic myth, it gained popularity among the Chinese social scientists in the 20th century. The collapse of matriarchy theory in the West offers us an opportunity to reflect on the origin and the meaning of the Chinese phrase "zhimu bu zhifu" (one only knows his/her mother but not father). The term of "matriarchy" was introduced into Chinese language during the late Qing and the early Republican period. Ever since then, the term has been applied to describe a Chinese prehistoric period in order to cast China in the same light of the West sharing the same universal pattern of evolutional development stages of human history. Phrases such as "zhimu bu zhifu" from ancient Chinese classics were treated as evidences for the existence of a matriarchal period in China. However, a careful examination of the original text challenges such assumption. "Zhimu bu zhifu" speaks for different sets of ideas in Daoism and Legalism. During the Warring States, Confucianism was the main advocator of monarchical power. In Confucian views, serve one's father is equal to serve one's emperor, the same reverence should be observed. But, Daoism rejects monarchy, thus the followers of Zhuangzi forsake fathers for the love of mothers. The followers of Legalist Shang Yang saw love for mothers as love for self, a motivation for people to pursue competition and conquest. The strong and the virtuous would emerge and compete with each other. A monarchy with absolute power is the necessary solution to such competitions. Therefore, in Legalist views, love to mother leads to a strong monarchical state. Our study demonstrates a clear mismatch of what "zhimu bu zhifu" meant in the pre-Qin Chinese classics and its modern interpretation in the Chinese application of the theory of matriarchal society.

Mothers' Parental Influence on Rural Migrant Workers' Important Life Decisions

GUO Qiuju, JIN Xiaoyi

2016, 36(5):  222-241. 

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The massive rural youth migration in China in recent decades has weakened the traditional influence of mothers upon their adult children over important life decisions. This study analyzes the data from the 2013 Survey of Shenzhen Migrant Workers with application of OLS and Ordinal Logistic models to look into the intergenerational relationship between mothers and their migrant children. How influential are mothers today over their grown up children who have left home? What kind of factors determine the influence? These questions are examined through the lens of recourse theory,cultural norm theory and intergenerational relationship. We find that mothers of rural migrant workers still play an important role in their children's personal life and their important decision-makings. Children often consult mothers on important matters not so much out of deference to authority but out of respect. All three theoretical perspectives are somewhat applicable to explain this continuous influence,however,intergenerational relationship is by far the most relevant. Mothers with more resources,educational or otherwise,exert more influence on important matters of their migrant children. However,children with more recourses are not necessarily less inclined to consult with their mothers. A strong cultural value of filial piety leads to closer communication with mothers over key life decisions. The intergenerational kinship relationship appears to be the most significant factor determining the influence. Those who share similar outlooks and maintain a close and affectionate relation with their mothers are most likely to seek parental input over important personal decisions.