Table of Content

20 March 2016, Volume 36 Issue 2

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The Double -Track Governance in Chinese Traditional Society: Dialectics between System of Enfeoffment and System of Prefectures & Counties

QU Jingdong

2016, 36(2):  1-31. 

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Since Yin-Zhou and Qin-Han, the development of Chinese imperial system revolved around the dialectical tension between the feudal system of fiefdom (封建制) and the bureaucratic prefectural system (郡县制). In Fei Xiaotong's words, it is a dual-track politics of “Power of Monarch” and “Power of Gentry.” Under fiefdom, the relationship between monarch and his kinship was governed by the Confucian hierarchical principle of favoring the intimate (qin-qin) and respecting the superior (zun-zun), and ritualized by the patriarchal order of clan, mourning rites and ancestral worship. In addition, “Mandate of Heaven” solidified an organic relationship between the emperor and his subjects and became the foundation for the monarchical rule. The prefectural system highlighted the historical change since the Warring States that had abolished the feudal fiefdom system and gave the birth of an “All under the Heaven” (公天下). Thinkers like Wang Fuzi and Gu yanwu place emphasis on fiefdom as a counterpart of the prefectural system to break up the centralization of power and renew the debate on the dialectic between “public” and “private.” In sum, the feudal system of Fiefdom in China still needs to be clarified through reexamining the classical texts.

Mourning Rituals and Legal Codes for Children in Homicides of Mother Killing Father from Han to Tang: A Classical Debate

JING Fenghua

2016, 36(2):  31-57. 

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In homicides of spouse killing, how should surviving children mourn their lost parent remained a difficult issue in traditional China. This study examines how the mourning rituals and legal codes were debated by Confucian scholar-bureaucrats in imperial China from Han to Tang. The debates were mainly focused on the interpretation of Confucian classics such as “Mourning Apparel Codes”offering different views on ideal social order and lawfulness. For instance, in debating cases of stepmother killing father, Kong Jiyan derived his view from the principles in the Spring and Autumn and concluded that severance of relationship should be equally applied whether it was step-mothers or birth-mothers. Emperor Wu of Han described “stepmother” from Confucian doctrines as “for father's love, stepmother is like mother”. Scholars in Wei and Jin reached a conclusion that a stepmother became a stranger if she had killed her husband but a birthmother would continue her blood bond with her children. In debating cases of mother killing father, Dou Yuan argued that sons had duty to turn mothers in as under the Confucian patriarchal order, fathers were superior to mothers. In opposition, Fen Junyi believed that filial piety required an equal obligation towards father and mother, therefore, children should remain silence. These different views on the relationship between mother and child provided grounds for varied practices and legal codes on the mourning rituals in homicides of mother killing father under the Confucian patriarchal order of the imperial China.

Alternative to the “Dormitory Labor Regime” Problem: Labor Dormitories as Space for Modernization in the Republic of China

YANG Ke

2016, 36(2):  58-76. 

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Scholars in the field of rural migrant labor study have proposed the concept of “dormitory labor regime” to describe an important labor organizing system used by the Chinese enterprises to house rural workers in dormitories and thus exercise a full control of labor. This paper examines another probable outcome of the “dormitory labor regime” by examining the labor dormitory construction under the Republic of China. In its pursuit of modernization and new cultural customs, the republic government promoted the workers' dormitories as a way to introduce modern civilization to rural workers. Modern-minded entrepreneurs actively involved in the cause. Tianjin Dongya Wool Textile Company and Chongqing Minsheng Shipyard are the two examples in this study that illuminate the issues of workers' education, collective unity and labor self-governing in dormitory sites. It is argued that with good practices, labor dormitories could be a ground for the transitional “resocialization” from rural farmers to modern workers. These two exemplary cases and their social implication offer us an opportunity to contemplate an alternative to the “dormitory labor regime” problem and seek for new possibilities of migrant workers' living space at this junction of the socialist transitional period of China.

Sociologist as a Story-Teller

YEH Chi-jeng

2016, 36(2):  77-98. 

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In past, the task of sociologist has long been regarded as the excavator (and interpreter as well) of those unanticipated consequences deeply remained in conceal under the surface of a social interaction. Under the rubric of structural-functional doctrine, Merton takes a position to conceive society as an organism-like body enshrined with a holistic nature. It thus leads Merton to conceive unanticipated consequences as a handful of social facts with latent function which were objectively constellated within a social system. In effect, those objective unanticipated consequences are considered to be beneficial to the adjustment and adaptation of a system, but they are neither intended nor recognized by the participators. In this article, the author takes an alternative stand to argue that a sociologist may just only play a role of story-teller. Like a stroller in a city who takes all his purposes as well as possible opportunities in mind to choose where to go further at every forking street corner he (or she) is encountering. As a stroller, a person always presents himself (or herself) at a given moment of time in such a way that any single move in space actually tells us a “present” moment in time. That is to say, people are always in a phasic state in which a continuously forking-like displacement of “here/there” phase hybridizes the sense of “time”. Translating such a complex of notions implicit in the scenography of a stroller in a city into the enterprise of sociological knowledge construction, what a sociologist as a story-teller is expected to do means to select a particular conceptual scheme with salient cultural-historical significance as a point of departure to construct a frame of analysis in which finding a conceptual forking path is exerted all the way. Concomitantly Max Weber's ideal type as an analytical tool happens to tell such a same story.

Tönnies's New Science: “The 1880/1881 Manuscript” and Its Basic Problem

ZHANG Weizhuo

2016, 36(2):  99-122. 

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In his preliminary 1880/1881 draft of Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Theorem der Kultur-Philosophie), Tönnies laid the ground for new empirical cultural sciences. “Cultural Sciences” are not just an application or methodology, they comprises everything Tönnies was about——his own experience and understanding of German Reich, his knowledge structure and intellectual tendency, and his life viewpoint. This paper attempts to explain “Cultural Sciences” through three dialectic aspects:1) as empirical science, “Cultural Sciences” study the world through objective facts. Tönnies's early life and his academic background offer us clues of how he viewed German Reich. He believed that modern individualism and Prussian dictatorship were the predicament of the time. 2) Tönnies explained the philosophical foundation of “Cultural Sciences” and called it “Cultural Philosophy”. For him, cultural philosophy was about life ideals based on material reality just as his own ethical ideas were prompted by his observation of real social problems of the time. 3) “Cultural Sciences” could unveil human nature and examine psychological development of individuals. By employing “cultural sciences”, Tönnies was able to identify human “habits” and “sense of obligation” as two elements for the possibility of actual community. Tönnies's subsequent masterpiece Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft:Abhandlung des Communismus und des Sozialismus als empirischer Kulturformen, published in 1887, continued as well as expanded the essential questions of its early draft of 1880/1881. He brought a historical dimension into the book with a concrete investigation of the evolution of modern society and the possibility of community. By studying Tönnies's “Cultural Sciences”, we learnt that understanding material reality and reflecting on life ideals are the very first questions of social science. In this sense, classical sociological theories are still meaningful to the social science of our day.

A Study on the Effect of Income Inequality on Happiness and Its Mechanism

HUANG Jiawen

2016, 36(2):  123-145. 

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Research on the relationship between income inequality and happiness can be grouped into two major analytic perspectives: social comparison and social norm. The former, by focusing income inequality at individual level, argues that happiness depends on perceived gaps within reference groups in society. The latter, by looking at income inequality at aggregate level, believes that income disparity in society as a whole is an important source of individual unhappiness. From the social norm perspective, this paper applies the multilevel logistic model of analysis on the data from the Chinese General Social Survey to examine the effect of income inequality on happiness as well as its mechanism. The results show that the sever income inequality brought by the rapid economic growth and social transformation has a detrimental effect on people's happiness in China. However, the depth of the effect is different between low-income groups and high income-groups. People in low-income strata are much more affected by income inequality in their sense of wellbeing. Relative deprivation and relationship trust form an important social psychological mechanism that influences the relationship between income inequality and happiness. The conclusion is that happiness is not entirely determined on the existence of income inequality itself but the fairness of income distribution in society. Therefore, a fair and just income distribution system is the key to improve happiness of Chinese citizens.

From Mind to Body: Social Stratification and Its Impact on Psychological Mechanism of Body

GUO Huiling

2016, 36(2):  146-166. 

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Body exists in social groups and its wellbeing and development are affected by its position in social structure. The existing literature on the subject rarely looks at the issue from microscopic perspective to determine how one's social status influences his/her body health, nor does it separate physical health from mental health. This study attempts to answer questions of how social stratification influences physical health, to what extent such influences work through social psychological mechanism and what kind of psychological mechanism it might be, and finally, if there is a possibility for positive intervention. Data on variables such as daily activities, job participation, physical pain, and agility of arms and legs besides self-reported health from the China General Social Survey in 2010 (CGSS2010) were examined. The study distinguishes physical health from mental health and applies a multidisciplinary approach of sociology and social psychology. It concludes from analyzing the empirical data that physical fitness is somewhat shaped by social stratification. Social psychological factors such as class identification, intergroup prejudice, learned helplessness, and emotional support are facilitative variables in this shaping process. Social interaction reinforces social statuses but can also become a way for individuals to overcome the psychological embodiment of social stratification.

Educational Return Differences between Secondary Vocational Education and Regular Senior Secondary School Education

CHEN Wei, Wuriniqiqige

2016, 36(2):  167-190. 

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Previous studies of returns to education have paid little attention to the distinction between effects of secondary vocational education and regular senior secondary school education. Using human capital and information economics theories, this study puts forward three hypotheses on the differential returns between secondary vocational school and regular senior secondary school graduates. They are tested with the data from the China Family Panel Studies in 2010 (CFPS2010). Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) often encounters problems of omitted variable and sample selection bias. Some factors affecting the choice of education are the same factors affecting returns. If these effects are not controlled, a biased coefficient could occur. Treatment effect model, with its ability to better control the effects of education choices, is better suited to estimate the differential returns of these two different types of education. The empirical results of OLS and treatment effect regression in this study show that vocational education has higher returns compared to regular high school education when education selection bias is controlled. Moreover, returns to vocational education vary across school cohorts. They appeared to have diminished since the 1990s after the initial high-return period in the early stage of the economic reform. The limited supply of college graduates in the 1980s and the 1990s higher education expansion have both contributed to this phenomenon.

An Sociological Analysis of the Production of Depression:An Neoliberalist Globalization Perspective

HSIAO I-HSIN

2016, 36(2):  191-214. 

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This paper analyzes the reason why the rate of depression in China around the globe was underestimated. Through arranging certain social theories, the paper refers to an analytical framework about the production of depression. The framework is based on the criteria of “global/international-national/domestic”and of “social structure-social construction”dimensions. Concretely speaking, Neoliberalist globalization simultaneously produces the social structure of and social construction of depression. The change of “social structure”is reflected on the time-space upheaval, which cause instability, as well as intensified individualization. These two factors cause people's emotions facing more conflicts than ever. The change of “social construction” includes industry, government academia and media's construction of medicalization, and the concept of the people's awareness of depression practices. The former is that industry, government academia and media all promote top-down medicalization of depression due to commercial interests of these actors. The latter is the conflicts between patients' subjective cognition or culture as well as objective pathology. Patients often face conflicts, bargain, and compromise. But neo-liberal globalization has provided people multivariate medical programs, which can promote bottom-up medicalization. These social constructions strengthen people's awareness of depression. Overall, there is a mature condition for generating depression in China in terms of the factor of “social structure”. However, the condition of “social construction” in China is still inadequate or hidden. This paper argues that “social construction” is more critical than “social structure” in terms of producing depression. Once the condition of “social construction” is more mature, the proportion of depressed patients in China would increase.

Paradoxical Visibility: An Analysis of Homosexuality Representation in The Nine Gay and A House of Zanker

LUO Muyuan

2016, 36(2):  215-241. 

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This study provides an analysis of the homosexuality representation in two online shows of The Nine Gay and A House of Zanker. Both online shows confine their representation of homosexuals in private domain, in which, consumption, love and intimacy, and family relationship constitute the cornerstone of homosexual life. Life outside this confined private sphere, or experiences other than sexuality and gender are invisible in the shows. Under this type of representation, homosexuality becomes a phenomenon of the young, urbane and middle-class. People do not fall in this category are neither visible nor comprehensible. Such a representation overlooks the issues of class division, regional disparity, inequality in education and between rural and urban, as well as differences in age and body. It reduces a very diverse group of people into a single homogenous group that is free from any oppression of class and inequality except sex/gender discrimination. By locating homosexuality in a privatized and de-politicalized domain, conventional homosexuality seeks the acceptance of the mainstream culture and demonstrates its willingness to comply and preserve the mainstream norm.Heteronormativity becomes the only enemy. This absence of oppression and inequality in representation portrays homosexuals as those who follow homonormative rules——a mere opposite of heteronormativity. Homonormativity and heteronormativity are the dual sides of the visibility. This paradoxical visibility, on one hand, helps change the social stigma associated with homosexuality and promote gay civil rights;on the other hand, it restrains homosexual representation at the expense of those marginalized invisible groups. Such a representation may lead to a misguided direction, not a true emancipation for the gay rights movement.