Table of Content

01 July 2018, Volume 4 Issue 3

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Variation in the education gradient of body weight in contemporary China

Weixiang Luo and Yu Xie

2018, 4(3):  301-329.  doi:10.1177/2057150X18782639

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Using data from the 1991-2009 China Health and Nutrition Surveys, this paper examines the temporal-spatial variation in the education gradient of body weight relative to height among Chinese adults, and how the variation is associated with levels of economic development. We find different variation patterns for men and women. For women, the education gradient in body weight shifted from being positive to being negative over time for China as a whole, as well as across regions with different levels of economic development. In contrast, for men, higher education remained consistently associated with higher body weight over the 18-year period studied in China as a whole, as well as across regions with different levels of economic development.

When do literacy skills begin to decline among Chinese adults?

Qiong Wu

2018, 4(3):  330-343.  doi:10.1177/2057150X18775874

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Literacy skills have been used in some studies as a proxy for premorbid intelligence because they are considered relatively resistant to normal aging. This study aims to explore whether there are signs of decline with aging in literacy skills among Chinese adults with average lower levels of education than their Western peers. Drawing on data from a nationally representative survey, the study uses two repeated literacy tests administered at four-year intervals to investigate at what age literacy skills begin to decline and the effects of possible risk factors. On average, literacy skills have been shown to decline at age 45 and above among Chinese adults. While gender, education, marital status, income, urban status, and subjective cognitive impairment were all associated with the level of literacy skills at baseline, only gender and education were predictive of change over time. Females declined at a slower rate, and the decline appeared to be statistically significant only for those with low education levels. The use of literacy skills as an indicator of premorbid intelligence may need to be reconsidered for the poorly educated. These findings highlight the greater burden of cognitive aging in China due to average low education levels.

Desacralized law, disenchanted society: A major transition in Ch’u T’ung-tsu’s historical studies

Yue Du

2018, 4(3):  344-358.  doi:10.1177/2057150X18779876

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In this study, I examine four major books written by a renowned Chinese historian, Ch'u T'ung-tsu, and describe a profound transition over the course of his studies. I argue that the isomorphism between Confucian doctrines and Chinese social structure in two earlier books, Feudal Society in China, and Law and Society in Traditional China, disappears completely in his last book, Local Government in China under the Ch'ing, which exclusively focuses on informal relationships and deviant behaviors in China's bureaucratic system. The current study traces this transition by carefully examining Ch'u's Western influences, represented by Maine's work in Ancient Laws, and Ch'u's subsequent ‘failed effort’ in his third book, Han Society Structure. I maintain that Ch'u's Western academic influences could best be characterized as the desacralization of law, with an exclusive focus on social structure. When the formal structure of kinship groups and social classes failed to explain the maintenance of social order in the Han dynasty, Ch'u turned away from formal structure and pursued studies on informal structure and deviance.

Research on urban residents' acquisitions of second sets of housing from a life-course perspective

Kaize Wu

2018, 4(3):  359-391.  doi:10.1177/2057150X18781056

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This study examines how macro-social and micro-social and economic factors at different life stages affect people's decisions about purchasing secondary residential property. I suggest several possible explanations, such as cohort opportunity, property market opportunity, elite advantage, family resource investment, and rational choice. Using discrete-time event history analysis, I look into the data collected from investigation of the housing conditions of urban residents of Guangzhou in 2010 and find that factors such as elite advantage and family resource investment become much more significant in purchasing a second property, while the impact of cohort opportunity and work unit subsidies diminishes. Housing marketization has changed property wealth accumulation in China from institutional resource distribution to market resource accumulation. It has changed housing purchase means from relying on work unit support to depending on personal and family financial capability. The early stage of market-oriented reform was able to offer property ownership opportunities to different social strata; however, deepening marketization and wealth redistribution have worsened housing inequality among different social groups as well as within the younger cohorts. Any future housing reform should endeavor to prevent further housing polarization between the rich and the poor.

'Neo-agents': A study of village governance under the 'Projects to Villages' model

Zupei Li

2018, 4(3):  392-421.  doi:10.1177/2057150X18782053

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The program 'Projects to Villages' (xiangmu jincun) is an important means by which the Chinese government distributes resources to grassroots villages, and it has gained popularity in recent years. 'Projects to Villages' has introduced a new group of players into the village governance body—village cadres designated in this study as 'neo-agents'. The term explains a newly emerged grassroots power base that was created by the government's 'Projects to Villages' initiatives. With the intense competition for projects among villages, people with the right political and personal skills, broad networks, and less vested interest in the village have been able to step onto the political stage and gain power. Contrary to the essential need for developing long-term effective rural leadership, these neo-agents practice a type of short-term, interest-focused governance. They do not provide a solution to the governance quandary experienced in villages since the rural taxation reform in 2002; instead, given the availability of state resources, they help further consolidate the existing village power structure. The study also compares neo-agents with the traditional power agents of gentry, local elites, and government officials. Four aspects of governance, including foundation of authority, mechanism of power transfer, structure of governance, and effectiveness of governance are discussed in hopes of stimulating further academic and practical interest in the subject.

The Chinese Communist Party's integration policy towards private business and its effectiveness: An analysis of the Ninth National Survey of Chinese Private Enterprises

Jun Ma and Xuan He

2018, 4(3):  422-449.  doi:10.1177/2397002218782636

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Since the Chinese economic reform, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has gradually moved toward a separation of the party-state from society, manifested in the withdrawal of party power from many areas of society and the growing new power of private enterprises. The CPC 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 the 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 CPC'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 common understanding, 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 CPC organizations or have owners who are themselves CPC members identify more strongly with the ruling party policies and are more active in production expansion and long-term growth. It appears that the CPC's integration policy towards private enterprises has effectively utilized both 'top-down' organizational infiltration and 'bottom-up' political integration. In doing so, the CPC maintains its control over private enterprises. Not only does it consolidate the governing legitimacy of the Party, it also enables private businesses to fulfil its social function. The policy helps the Party successfully prevent the formation of non-institutionalized powers outside the system.