Governing Society in Contemporary China

Edited by: Lijun Yang (South China University of Technology, China), Wei Shan (East Asian Institute, NUS, Singapore)

This book examines how the Chinese state responds to the increasingly diverse civil society and maintains regime stability in a changing society. In recent years, the Chinese leadership has demonstrated great capability of adapting and developing sophisticated mechanisms of social control. The chapters in this book cover a wide range of these mechanisms, including co-opting social forces, managing population and migration, as well as controlling the media, trade unions, the internet, non-governmental organisations, and the cultural industries. The authors also discuss challenges the government is about to face and possible adjustments.

Contents:
The State and New Social Forces:
The Chinese Leadership and the Internet (LYE Liang Fook and YANG Yi)
Managing Social Media in China: A Fresh Campaign Against Internet Celebrities (CHEN Gang)
China's Crackdowns on "Internet Rumours" and "Illegal" Internet Publicity Activities (WU Mei)
Non-Governmental Organisations and Government in China: Enemies or Allies? (WONG Man Lai, Sonia)
The State and Social Reforms:
Chinese Trade Unions: Development and Dilemmas (QI Dongtao and HUANG Jingyang)
China's Hukou Reform: New Guidelines and Implications (ZHAO Litao)
Improving Local Governance without Democratisation: Community Building in Shanghai (SHI Fayong)
China's Initiatives in "Social Management" (SHAN Wei)
The State and Institutional Changes:
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: Co-opting Social and Political Forces in a One-Party State (YEW Chiew Ping)
Cultural Institutional Reform and the Changing Society in China (ZHONG Sheng)
Religions and Chinese Socialism: China's Religious Policies Since the 1990s (LAI Hongyi)

Dr YANG Lijun is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Public Policy of South China University of Technology (SCUT). She has studied social changes and social movements in contemporary China, particularly the Cultural Revolution and nationalism. Her research papers have appeared in academic journals such as The China Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, The Review of History, Asian Studies, and Chinese Affairs. Her book entitled Social Structure and the Cultural Revolution in China: Citizenship and Collective Violence was selected as one of the five best books in all social science subjects in the Asian Pacific region, and for this she received the Ohira Memorial Foundation Award in 2005. She has also edited and co-edited many volumes on contemporary China.

Professor Yang received her BA in media studies from Beijing Broadcasting College, now The Communication University of China, her MA in politics from Yokohama City University, Japan and her PhD in sociology from Hitotsubashi University, Japan. Before join SCUT, she held various research and teaching positions in the State Language Work Committee of the State Council China, Hitotsubashi University, Aochi Prefectural University, Aoyama Gakuin University, Waseda University (Japan), and National University of Singapore.


Dr SHAN Wei received his BA and MA in International Studies from Peking University and PhD in Political Science from Texas A&M University. His research focuses on the political behaviour of citizens and the elite in the context of political and economic development. Topics he has covered include Chinese citizens' political participation, changes in political culture, mass-elite relations, political leadership, and factional politics within the elite group. His research paper appears in China Quarterly and other academic journals. He is the co-editor of The State of Rural China: Peasants, Agriculture and Rural Society in the Reform Era.



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