This book explores the remarkable phenomenon of Chinese lineages – groups of people connected through patrilineal kinship ties, which have existed for centuries in China and which are currently undergoing significant revival after being suppressed in many parts of China during the cultural revolution period. The book considers how lineages and the associated networks and membership associations have developed, surveys how lineages have been studied by anthropologists and others over time in different ways, and discusses the important social functions of lineages in contemporary Hong Kong and mainland China.

Ancestral Leaves follows one family through six hundred years of Chinese history and brings to life the epic narrative of the nation, from the fourteenth century through the Cultural Revolution. The lives of the Ye family—"Ye" means "leaf" in Chinese—reveal the human side of the large-scale events that shaped modern China: the vast and destructive rebellions of the nineteenth century, the economic growth and social transformation of the republican era, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Cultural Revolution under the Chinese Communists. Joseph W. Esherick draws from rare manuscripts and archival and oral history sources to provide an uncommonly personal and intimate glimpse into Chinese family history, illuminating the changing patterns of everyday life during rebellion, war, and revolution.

Although most studies of rural society in China deal with land villages, in fact very substantial numbers of Chinese people lived by the sea, on the rivers and the lakes. In land villages, mostly given to farming, people lived in permanent houses, whereas on the margins of the waterways many people lived in boats and sheds, and developed their own marked features, often being viewed as pariahs by the rest of Chinese society. This book examines these boat and shed living people. It takes an "historical anthropological" approach, combining research in official records with investigations among surviving boat and shed living people, their oral traditions and their personal records. Besides outlining the special features of the boat and shed living people, the book considers why pressures over time drove many to move to land villages, and how boat and shed living people were gradually marginalised, often losing their fishing rights to those who claimed imperial connections. The book covers the subject from Ming and Qing times up to the present.

In ancient China, as the lowermost class in the social hierarchy, merchants were viewed as greedy and immoral, commanding little respect. But since the sixteenth century, when China entered modern times with the sprout of capitalism, merchants have become a strong force to transform the ancient society. By absorbing methods of anthropology, psychology, geography, and economics, as well as cultural and genealogical studies, this book explores the development and rise of the merchant in modern China. To start with, it examines the golden times of the merchant and the dilemmas facing them in the two-millennia-long traditional society where the "pro-agriculture and anti-commerce" policy was implemented. With the economic development, merchant groups gradually came into being and formed a vibrant social class in the modern era. Major merchant groups, their psychological integration, and the interaction between merchants and capitalism in China are specifically studied. Also, merchants’ role in the communal life is analyzed, including their contribution to the making and expansion of modern communities, which led to China’s social transformation. With a multi-faceted description of Chinese merchants whose development interweaves with the transformation of the ancient country, this book will appeal to scholars and students in economics, history, sociology, and cultural studies. Readers interested in Chinese culture and social history will also be attracted by it.

This book offers the first comprehensive and systematic introduction to the origins and development of China’s genealogy, as well as its fundamental role in eugenics, ethics, politics and culture throughout China’s history. This book is divided into two parts: chronological research and thematic research. The first part explains the definition, origin, birth, development, transformation, optimization, popularization and contemporary status of China’s genealogy, while the second addresses its styles, content, quantity, family names, format and value, illustrations, functions and other related issues. The book, for the first time in China’s genealogy, proposes several new concepts and perspectives, such as dividing the history of China’s genealogy into seven stages; redefining genealogy; and analyses of the transformation, popularization and value of China’s genealogy. Given its scope, the book offers a groundbreaking and authoritative resource for a broad readership.

"Esherick looks at familiar historical events and processes anew, enriching that history with great personal depth. There is really nothing like it."—William T. Rowe, author of China's Last Empire: The Great Qing "A uniquely revealing and humanizing prism through which to view the fascinating human drama of modern Chinese history, replete with information for both longtime students of China and newcomers alike. An absolutely splendid book."—Elizabeth Perry, author of Patrolling the Revolution: Worker Militias, Citizenship and the Modern Chinese State

An “immensely readable” journey through modern Chinese history told through the experiences of the author’s extended family (Christian Science Monitor). When journalist Scott Tong moved to Shanghai, his assignment was to start the first full-time China bureau for “Marketplace,” the daily business and economics program on public radio stations across the US. But for Tong the move became much more: an opportunity to reconnect with members of his extended family who’d remained there after his parents fled the communists six decades prior. Uncovering their stories gave him a new way to understand modern China’s defining moments and its long, interrupted quest to go global. A Village with My Name offers a unique perspective on China’s transitions through the eyes of regular people who witnessed such epochal events as the toppling of the Qing monarchy, Japan’s occupation during WWII, exile of political prisoners to forced labor camps, mass death and famine during the Great Leap Forward, market reforms under Deng Xiaoping, and the dawn of the One Child Policy. Tong focuses on five members of his family, who each offer a specific window on a changing country: a rare American-educated girl born in the closing days of the Qing Dynasty, a pioneer exchange student, a toddler abandoned in wartime who later rides the wave of China’s global export boom, a young professional climbing the ladder at a multinational company, and an orphan (the author’s daughter) adopted in the middle of a baby-selling scandal fueled by foreign money. Through their stories, Tong shows us China anew, visiting former prison labor camps on the Tibetan plateau and rural outposts along the Yangtze, exploring the Shanghai of the 1930s, and touring factories across the mainland—providing a compelling and deeply personal take on how China became what it is today. “Vivid and readable . . . The book’s focus on ordinary people makes it refreshingly accessible.” —Financial Times “Tong tells his story with humor, a little snark, [and] lots of love . . . Highly recommended, especially for those interested in Chinese history and family journeys.” —Library Journal (starred review)