The fifteenth and final volume of the series The Making of Modern Freedom, this book explores a variety of issues surrounding questions of human rights and freedom in China. The chapters suggest very significant realms of freedom, with or without the protection of law, in the personal, social, and economic lives of people in China before the twentieth century. This was recognized, and partly codified, in the early twentieth century, when legal experts sought to establish a republic of laws and limits. The process of legal reform, however, would be placed firmly in the service of strengthening the post-imperial Chinese nation-state, culminating after 1949 in despotism unparalleled in Chinese history. Nevertheless, the last decades of the twentieth century and the first years of our own would witness a slow, steady, but unmistakable reassertion of realms of personal and communal autonomy that show, even in an era of strong states, at least the prospect of institutionalized freedoms.

This book addresses the factors that determine the direct and indirect outcomes of collective resistance in contemporary China as well as the government's strategies to maintain social stability amid the numerous social conflicts.

Blame for the putative failure of liberalism in late-nineteenth-century Japan and China has often been placed on an insufficient grasp of modernity among East Asian leaders or on their cultural commitments to traditional values. In Personal Liberty and Public Good, Douglas Howland refutes this view, turning to the central text of liberalism in that era: John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. Howland offers absorbing analyses of the translations of the book into Japanese and Chinese, which at times reveal astonishing emendations. As with their political leaders, Mill's Japanese and Chinese translators feared individual liberty could undermine the public good and standards for public behaviour, and so introduced their own moral values - Christianity and Confucianism, respectively- into On Liberty, filtering its original meaning. Howland mirrors this mistrust of individual liberty in Asia with critiques of the work in England, which itself had trouble adopting liberalism. Personal Liberty and Public Good is a compelling addition to the corpus of writing on the work of John Stuart Mill. It will be of great interest to historians of political thought, liberalism, and translation, as well as scholars of East Asian studies.

This second edition of Understanding Chinese Society provides a comprehensive, readable, and well-grounded introduction to the key issues affecting contemporary China. A thorough analysis is undertaken not only of China’s family patterns, education system, status, hierarchy, and ethnic diversity, but also of China’s mass media, legal system and social control, work, and cultural expression. As well as being thoroughly updated and revised throughout, this edition offers new chapters on urbanization, the environment, and civil society in China. A team of international experts guide students though social issues including: What are the key features of the family and marriage institutions in China? How are women and men faring differently in Chinese society today? How are minorities faring in China? How does the education system differentiate Chinese society? How are religion and cultural traditions expressed? Including handy pedagogical features such as a chronology of the People's Republic of China, further reading suggestions, and related novels and films, Understanding Chinese Society is suitable for anyone studying Chinese Culture and Society, Chinese Studies and Asian sociology.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Zarafonetis, Nicole, author. Title: Sexuality in a changing China : young women, sex and intimate relations in the reform period / Nicole Zarafonetis. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Series: Routledge research on gender in Asia series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017001825| ISBN 9781138240148 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315293936 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Sex--China. | Sex instruction--China. | Sex role--China. | Dating (Social customs)--China. | Marriage--China. | Women--China--Social conditions. Classification: LCC HQ18.C6 Z37 2017 | DDC 306.70951--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017001825

Chinese Families Upside Down offers the first systematic account of how intergenerational dependence is redefining the Chinese family and goes beyond the conventional model of filial piety to explore the rich, nuanced, and often unexpected new intergenerational dynamics.