Xiaoqun Xu makes a compelling and original contribution to the study of China's modernization with this book on the rise of professional associations in Republican China in their birthplace of Shanghai, and of their political and socio-cultural milieu. This 2001 book is rich in detail about the key professional and political figures and organizations in Shanghai, filling an important gap in its social history. The professional associations were, as the author writes, 'unambiguously urban and modern in their origins and functions ... representing a new breed of educated Chinese' and they pioneered a new type of relationship with the state. Xu addresses a central issue in China studies, the relationship between state and society, and proposes an alternative to the Western-derived concept of civil society. This book illuminates the complexity of modernization and nationalism in twentieth-century China, and provides a concrete case for comparative studies of professionalization and class formation across cultures.

Xu makes a compelling, original contribution to the study of China's modernization with this book on the rise of professional associations in Republican China. This book is rich in detail about the key professional and political figures and organizations in Shanghai, filling an important gap in its social history.

This book illuminates what judicial modernity actually meant to the Chinese state and society in the early twentieth century and how the judicial reform resulted in paradoxical consequences due to a lack of resources and a disjunction between the national reform agenda and local social ecology.

Publisher Description

This book looks at how NGOs, social organizations, business associations, trade unions, and religious associations interact with the state, and explore how social actors have negotiated the influence of the state at both national and local levels, and examines how a corporatist understanding of state-society relations can be reformulated, as old and new social stakeholders play a greater role in managing contemporary social issues. In turn, the book goes on to chart the differences in how the state behaves locally and centrally, and finally discusses the future direction of the corporatist state.

In this cogent and insightful reading of China’s twentieth-century political culture, David Strand argues that the Chinese Revolution of 1911 engendered a new political life—one that began to free men and women from the inequality and hierarchy that formed the spine of China’s social and cultural order. Chinese citizens confronted their leaders and each other face-to-face in a stance familiar to republics worldwide. This shift in political posture was accompanied by considerable trepidation as well as excitement. Profiling three prominent political actors of the time—suffragist Tang Qunying, diplomat Lu Zhengxiang, and revolutionary Sun Yatsen—Strand demonstrates how a sea change in political performance left leaders dependent on popular support and citizens enmeshed in a political process productive of both authority and dissent.

This groundbreaking book is the first full-length English-language study to explore the struggles for constitutional democracy and democratic socialism of Zhang Junmai (Carsun Chang, 1887-1969), a major political and intellectual figure in Republican China. Focusing on Zhang's writings, Roger Jeans has provided detailed descriptions and extensive translations of Zhang's key books and essays. He sets the context for these seminal works by describing Zhang's personal situation, the social and intellectual milieu, and the political climate at the time.