Contemporary Chinese society

Contemporary Chinese society

Conceptual tools to understand social change in China and beyond

Key themes

• Change
• Society
• Institutions

Society

Describes both social life and units into which social life is organized. Lives of all human beings are social and involve relationship to others. At the same time, a person may be said to be a member of one society and not another, implying ideas of boundedness and cultural distinctiveness (these ideas are at best relative).

Institutions

Deeply embedded patterns of social practices or norms that play a significant role in the organization of society. Include diverse areas of social activity, from the family to basic aspects of political life. In some cases have an organized structure, becoming institutions in something closer to the common usage of the term.

Institutions are about:

• Values (individual and internal level)
  • Individual cognitive attitudes
  • Individual emotions
• Relations (individuals, collective and external level)
  • Social and political interactions (human-human)
  • Ecological interactions (human-nature)
• Norms (collective and internal level)
  • Shared understandings
  • Collective patterns of behaviour
• Rules (collective and external level)
  • Policies
  • Laws and regulations

Modernity and modernization

Theories of modernity generally plot a shift from the traditional European societies of the Middle Ages to the political, cultural, and economic forms that characterize Western and, arguably, industrialized society more generally in the present day. The dominant explanation of modernization in the 1950s and 1960s focused on how broad-based economic and social development occurs. Modernization theory explained development as the result of the systematic rationalization of a society's technology, social structure, and values. The development of a dynamic market-based economy was also accorded a large role in this process as a generator of wealth at the societal level and as a distributor of wealth across the society.

Modernization theory:

• Traditional society -> limited technology, static society.
• Preconditions for take-off -> commercial exploitation of agriculture and extractive industry.
• Take off -> development of a manufacturing sector.
• Drive to maturity -> development of wider industrial and commercial base.
• High mass consumption

Three dimensions of institution:

• Individual attitude
• Norms
• Rules (written)

The fourth dimension is the one of the relations, which is not about the institution but is more about the relationship, society, community, and the surrounding environment, both human and non-human.

Social institutions

The reason why this is so important in studies is that very often we tend to focus on many aspects of organizations and companies but just on technologies or micromanagement of employees, etc., but there are so-called soft aspects of the management of an organization, which refers to what is called the mission of the company and now there is more attention on this aspect.

Regulative, normative, and cognitive elements associated with organizational change. These three things have different aspects.

Understanding the dimensions of rules:

• Legitimacy and authorities: legal system, legal instruments
• Central rudiments: policies and rules
• System change drivers: legal obligation
• System change sustainers: fear and coercion
• Behavioral reasoning: have to

This dimension is based on the legal system and legal instruments, which can be translated into policies, actual policies, and rules. This dimension, when you want to push for changes in institution, is based on the idea of the legal obligation as well as coercion, the fear in the way to be punished if you don't follow the rules. So it is about what you have to do.

Norms

• Legitimacy: moral and ethical systems
• Central rudiments: work roles, habits, and norms
• System change drivers: moral obligations
• System change sustainers: duty and responsibility
• Behavioral reasoning: ought to

Norms are very different from rules; it's more about a moral obligation. Very often morality is different from rules. It's mostly about duty, being responsible, and responsive to a stimulus.

Cognitive

• Legitimacy: cultural systems
• Central rudiments: values, beliefs, and assumptions
• System change drivers: change values are internalized
• System change sustainers: social identity and personal desire
• Behavioral reasoning: want to

It is more about culture and identity, the aspiration of individuals as well as their desire and the way people imagine themselves in the future. This can be the deepest level of change both in individuals as well as in society.

Stages of institutional change

Institutionalization is another way to talk about change in those three dimensions.

• Precipitating jolts
  • Social
  • Technological
  • Regulatory
• Deinstitutionalization
• Pre-institutionalization
• Theorization
• Diffusion
• Re-institutionalization

Doesn't matter the different stages, but what is important is to understand this process where there is a first event that can be defined as a critical event about social situation, environment situation and technological development which figure something better. So the two stages after this are the two stages in which there are two things, on one hand, we have the former previous institution which is criticized, where there are people who are trying to find new words to substitute those, on the other hand, we have social actors (individuals, organizations) who try to find a new way. Very often these stages are about practical solutions. Then we have the stage called theorization, it's about the cognitive dimensions, the way we see things and understand these. Then the re-institutionalization, means new solutions.

Exogenous institutional change

Critical events accelerate change. Very often, according to many models, these critical events happen from somewhere outside of the system, for example, aqua Granda in Venice, a storm, an earthquake, also political events (the fall of the Soviet Union in Russia). A lot of people working on this are very much concerned about the exogenous events which happen outside of the system (for system I mean a society, organization, etc.).

Another thing that is important is that you have two dimensions which very often are more responsive to these events:

• One is a change in the collective and organizational behavior of people in responding to these events or new things emerging.
• The other one is a change in values and cognitive attitudes.

With these two then we have a change in formal institution. We have different understandings of this. In the model we saw before, first you have change in rules, in formal institutions and then in values. We found different interpretation of change. Can happen both ways.

In the case of China, the political system is different, have a strong imposition from above the rules and other things. It also depends on the way society works and the relationship in society and those who make the rules and rights. No matter which way goes, there are always going to be actors who strive and push for change. Another model

There is (slide 13 lesson 2), very often the processes of change are based ondissatisfaction of people. So people can use their agencies to try to change things. The process of agency is very important. The dissatisfaction is the starting point, the starting point is an event that shows the contradiction of the system or the way is unable to cope with certain situations.

Document about viral alarm

First thing, is a classical example of how this kind of event can be an opportunity for people to express what they think. Is something that very often happens, not only in the Chinese political system, shows how this event opens up opportunities for people to speak her mind. Second thing, most specifically for China, the last part of this document the author says “there is a system (China’s political system) that makes a natural disaster into a catastrophe”. This is not by chance, if you don’t to maximize the possibility that a push for change is understood.

Change is efficiently sustained by the individual-cognitive and emotional-level. There is an increasingly large consensus on the fact that change that is very radical is not about rules but is about personal beliefs.

The iceberg model

Is useful in different fields of study. This is one of the most basic figures about different levels of change. What is important about this? Is that you have the part of the iceberg which is emerging from the water that is about what you can see, touch, is about reality, that you may or may not be able to manage.

Then we have these three levels patterns of behavior, system structure, and mental models. The emotional ones are in the deepest level. Changing mental models means also changing aspirations. Very small experiences can change individuals, because if the mental models and the attitudes are so important it means also that change things can be insignificant for some people but very important for others.

Historic examples

It is said that in 1672 the Jesuit Ferdinand Van Verbiest donated the model of a steam engine to the emperor Kangxi (not yet introduced in Europe), but Kangxi did not realize the importance of that model, so the idea is discarded. This event is an example of the difference between China and Europe, anticipating China's delay. Due to the rejection of the model of the steam engine, there is a delay in China.

Early decades of the 19th century (opium wars period) rapid drop in the Chinese economy due to:

• Opium wars are born because there is a strong trade imbalance between China and western countries, introduction of opium in the country can help the British to rebalance.
• Another negative event for the Chinese of that period is the Taiping revolt which drains many human and financial resources. These events start the decline of China, they are exogenous events.

中学为体，西学为用 “Learning Chinese wisdom as a basis (not language), western knowledge as an instrument”

Look to foreign technology (understood as weapons and ships) to get to their level and defeat them in the future. Began the production of modern ships and armaments and the creation of places where cannons were produced. The modernization in China starts with the opium war. After these another event: war with Japan (1894-1895)

Legal reform in Japan was not only about technologies, but also about institution. Sun Yat Sen -> wanting to transform China into a modern country, works politically and institutionally

Three basic points

• Nationalism (民族主义) idea to free China from foreign presence
• Greater well-being (民生主义) is shared by all those who are part of the Chinese people
• Redistribution of political power (民权主义) to give people the opportunity to participate in processes that may affect the future of the country

Chen Duxiu (Communist Party founder) more radical, in addition to the features just seen, he focuses on two particular aspects (based on the Japanese experience):

• Mister democracy
• Mister science

Idea that the scientific development of the knowledge of the world around us must go hand in hand with greater freedom in a democratic sense for individual human beings and for the community. He is the first in China to try and keep these two things going hand in hand.

1919 first radical movement that imposes itself on the Chinese scene, it is not a gradual change or that selects single aspects that can help China to get out of its backward situation, but a real revolution. It is not just an emancipation from foreign power but an emancipation of the individual (being able to choose who to marry, educate with, etc.), the first time it happens in China. Change in the mental model. Filial piety is also called into question, especially burdensome for women. All this affects the way we see the family. Zhou Enlai and Deng Yichao, an example of a couple representing this change. Deng Yichao actively participates in the 1919 movement.

China reopens her doors

The main focus of today class will be about the re-establishment of relations of China with the western countries and the US in particular in the 1970 and the way it has a very strong impact in terms of following development both in social terms as well as economic and political of China. To do this we have to start where we left last time and so from the time where the communist rule is established in China in 1949.

1949

At that time the major idea of future which became dominant in China is this idea that the future is going to progress inevitably from a situation where most people are kept slaves or in any case in condition of poverty and exploited by others, so by those who have most resources throw asituation in which everybody will be equal and so to the establishment of war communist in a way and the engine for this change was class struggle. Class struggle led by certain individuals and organizations. Cases are embodied by Mao Ze Dong and the communist party of China. So in 1949 and the years which follow the establishment of the people’s republic of China, China is pretty much linked to the Soviet Union of course.

The establishment of relations with Soviet Union and the strength of these relations is very important for Mao because the country is in a complete chaos (poor after war and civil war). The soviet cooperation is extremely important for China in the first few years after the 1949 and in the stamps which are just highlight in celebrating this friendship between the two countries and also most importantly is the friendship between the two leaders (Stalin and Mao).

In this time (talking about China’s openness) there was a pick in relations before falling down. The strength of the relationship with Soviet Union in the years just after the establishment of the people republic of China is very clear. If you take a look of these data about sino-soviet trade, the growth is very quick especially in the first years after 1949, and up to the mid 1950. So this shows how much trade there is between the two countries and the way it increases.

Trade is especially about two things:

• Soviet union is exporting to China equipment and machinery in order to broaden industrial base of China.
• Soviet union is importing from China agricultural products mostly.

By looking at these data you can understand what is the balance between the two countries, so China is taking in technologies and machinery and is exporting agricultural products. China needs a lot of things to broaden and to strength the industrial base, China also needs expertise from abroad.

There is also another thing where the cooperation is very important although this is not going to give a result very quickly and it is the cooperation in the defence sector. One thing which Mao wanted to access as quickly as possible was the expertise in order to build the nuclear bomb and so this is actually draining a lot of resources from China towards the Soviet Union and also within China a lot of resources are spent, also intellectual resources, in the defence sector and in this project of the nuclear bomb. The first bomb will be completed by the Chinese and then tested in 1964 when the relationship with the Soviet Union are strained already but, important thing to remember, is that the previous cooperation actually was also going towards the duration was instrumental in getting this done.

The relationship between the two leaders, between the Soviet Union and China got into a difficult stage after the death of Stalin and after Khrushchev came to power, there are few reasons for that but a lot of historians all agree on the idea that Mao wasn't not really enthusiastic about the criticism by Khrushchev and his cult of personality which he made in 1959 within the Soviet Union. He was criticizing of course the rule of Stalin which have been very divisive in the Soviet society and very cruel as well especially during the thirties but this criticism of course is not really accepted by Mao because he was himself seeking some sort of cult of personality as we will see in the Cultural Revolution within China to strengthen his power in the country.

The sign of Soviet split which takes place in the 1960 is really about the relationship and very different interpretation of the role of single individual and personality of Mao and Khrushchev head. It becomes even more clear during the cultural revolution when Mao just imposes his own cult of personality within China which is very strong and of course the legacy of this we can still see hanging there on the main entrance of the forbidden city in Beijing where there is a big picture of Mao. So in 1971 when this event takes place, the very famous ping pong diplomacy played between the Chinese and the Americans, which is also part of the movie “Forrest Gump”, at this time of history of China is pretty much isolated because it had lost the only reliable partner she had in the years after the 1949. After this point China had not been represented in the United Nations because the seat was still in the hands of the Republic of China so Chang kai shek in Taiwan.

This ping pong match is not important in itself but it is important because it's an event which facilitates the re-establishment of relations between the US and China and because it prepares the ground to some-extend to the visit of Nixon to Beijing in 1972. At that time both countries (China and US) had shared a concern which was basically about Soviet Union and international geopolitical situation, the main concern for the United States were the involvement of the Soviet Union in the Vietnam war and of course the Vietnam war was something which was taking much of the attention of policymakers and also the general public in the US at that time. At the same time in the case of China there had been quite a few border clashes with the Soviet Union along the northern border of China, so they from being friends just a few years earlier became adversaries.