Reform in Nineteenth-century China


Book Description

Preliminary Material /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Opening Remarks /John K. Fairbank --Opening Remarks /John E. Schrecker --The Variety of Political Reforms in Chinese History: A Simplified Typology /James T.C. Liu --Comment /Hoyt Tillman --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Definitions of Community by Ch'i Chi-kuang and Lü k'un /Joanna F. Handlin --Three Images of the Cultural Hero in the Thought of Kung Tzu-chen /Judith Whitbeck --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Economic Aspects of Reform /Albert Feuerwerker --Merchant Investment, Commercialization, and Social Change in the Ningpo Area /Susan Mann Jones --Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs as Reformers: The Case of Chang Pi-shih /Michael R. Godley --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Imperialism, Sovereignty, and Self-Strengthening: A Reassessment of the 1870s /Saundra Sturdevant --Reform and the Tea Industry and Trade in Late Ch'ing China: The Fukien Case /Robert P. Gardella --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Politics, Intellectual Outlook, and Reform: The T'ung-wen kuan Controversy of 1867 /Kwang-Ching Liu --The Image of the Empress Dowager Tz'u-hsi /Sue Fawn Chung --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --The Social Context of Reform /Marianne Bastid --Local Reform and Its Opponents: Feng Kuei-fen's Struggle for Equality in Taxation /Frank A. Lojewski --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --The Intellectual Context of Reform /Hao Chang --The Ideal of Universality in Late Ch'ing Reformism /Young-tsu Wong --National Image: Missionaries and Some Conceptual Ingredients of Late Ch'ing Reform /Suzanne Wilson Barnett --Kung as an Ethos in Late Nineteenth-Century China: The Case of Wang Hsien-ch'ien (1842-1918) /I-fan Ch'eng --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Reflections on an Aspect of Modern China in Transition: T'an Ssu-t'ung (1865-1898) as a Reformer /Luke S.K. Kwong --Some Western Influences on T'an Ssu-t'ung's Thought /Richard H. Shek --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Reform at the Local and Provincial Level /James Polachek --Gentry-Official Conflict in the Restoration Kiangsu Countryside /Jonathan Ocko --The Formation of a Province: Reform of Frontier Administration in Sinkiang /Nailene Chou --Local Reform Currents in Chekiang before 1900 /Mary Backus Rankin --Chihli Academies and Other Schools in the Late Ch'ing: An Institutional Survey /Richard A. Orb --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Women and Reform /Linda P. Shin --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --The New Coastal Reformers /Paul A. Cohen --Wu.T'ing-fang: A Member of a Colonial Elite as Coastal Reformer /Linda P. Shin --Foreign Policy Interests and Activities of the Treaty-Port Chinese Community /Louis T. Sigel --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --The Reform Movement of 1898 and the Ch'ing-i: Reform as Opposition /John E. Schrecker --On the Hundred Days Reform /Huang Chang-chien --Reform Through Study Societies in the Late Ch'ing Period, 1895-1900: The Nan hsueh-hui /Sung Wook Shin --Chang Chih-tung after the "100 Days": 1898-1900 as a Transitional Period for Reform Constituencies /Daniel H. Bays --Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Closing Discussion /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Notes /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker --Glossary /Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker.




Reform in Nineteenth-Century China


Book Description

An edited volume consisting of 33 papers presented at Harvard University 's East Asian Research Center's 1975 workshop on reform in China in the nineteenth century. The book is divided into eight parts, each with a general thematic introduction, several essays on more specialized topics, and a summary of the discussion that took place at the conference.




Speaking of Profit


Book Description

"In the first half of the nineteenth century the Qing Empire faced a crisis. It was broadly perceived both inside and outside of government that the “prosperous age” of the eighteenth century was over. Bureaucratic corruption and malaise, population pressure and food shortages, ecological and infrastructural decay, domestic and frontier rebellion, adverse balances of trade, and, eventually, a previously inconceivable foreign threat from the West seemed to present hopelessly daunting challenges.This study uses the literati reformer Bao Shichen as a prism to understand contemporary perceptions of and proposed solutions to this general crisis. Though Bao only briefly and inconsequentially served in office himself, he was widely recognized as an expert on each of these matters, and his advice was regularly sought by reform-minded administrators. From examination of his thought on bureaucratic and fiscal restructuring, agricultural improvement, the grain tribute administration, the salt monopoly, monetary policy, and foreign relations, Bao emerges as a consistent advocate of the hard-nosed pursuit of material “profit,” in the interests not only of the rural populace but also of the Chinese state and nation, anticipating the arguments of “self-strengthening” reformers later in the century."










Between Tradition and Modernity


Book Description

A study and critical analysis of the late nineteenth century journalist and reformer, Wang T’ao, and the process of reform in Late Ching China .







The Compelling Ideal


Book Description

In this groundbreaking volume, based on extensive research in Chinese archives and libraries, Jan Kiely explores the pre-Communist origins of the process of systematic thought reform or reformation (ganhua) that evolved into a key component of Mao Zedong’s revolutionary restructuring of Chinese society. Focusing on ganhua as it was employed in China’s prison system, Kiely’s thought-provoking work brings the history of this critical phenomenon to life through the stories of individuals who conceptualized, implemented, and experienced it, and he details how these techniques were subsequently adapted for broader social and political use.




China Experiments


Book Description

All societies face a key question: how to empower governments to perform essential governmental functions while constraining the arbitrary exercise of power. This balance, always in flux, is particularly fluid in today's China. This insightful book examines the changing relationship between that state and its society, as demonstrated by numerous experiments in governance at subnational levels, and explores the implications for China's future political trajectory. Ann Florini, Hairong Lai, and Yeling Tan set their analysis at the level of townships and counties, investigating the striking diversity of China's exploration into different governance tools and comparing these experiments with developments and debates elsewhere in the world. China Experiments draws on multiple cases of innovation to show how local authorities are breaking down traditional models of governance in responding to the challenges posed by the rapid transformations taking place across China's economy and society. The book thus differs from others on China that focus on dynamics taking place at the elite level in Beijing, and is unique in its broad but detailed, empirically grounded analysis. The introduction examines China's changing governance architecture and raises key overarching questions. It addresses the motivations behind the wide variety of experiments underway by which authorities are trying to adapt local governance structures to meet new demands. Chapters 2–5 then explore each type of innovation in detail, from administrative streamlining and elections to partnerships in civil society and transparency measures. Each chapter explains the importance of the experiment in terms of implications for governance and draws upon specific case studies. The final chapter considers what these growing numbers of experiments add up to, whether China is headed towards a stronger more resilient authoritarianism or evolving towards its own version of democracy, and suggests a serie




China's Gilded Age


Book Description

Why has China grown so fast for so long despite vast corruption? In China's Gilded Age, Yuen Yuen Ang maintains that all corruption is harmful, but not all types of corruption hurt growth. Ang unbundles corruption into four varieties: petty theft, grand theft, speed money, and access money. While the first three types impede growth, access money - elite exchanges of power and profit - cuts both ways: it stimulates investment and growth but produces serious risks for the economy and political system. Since market opening, corruption in China has evolved toward access money. Using a range of data sources, the author explains the evolution of Chinese corruption, how it differs from the West and other developing countries, and how Xi's anti-corruption campaign could affect growth and governance. In this formidable yet accessible book, Ang challenges one-dimensional measures of corruption. By unbundling the problem and adopting a comparative-historical lens, she reveals that the rise of capitalism was not accompanied by the eradication of corruption, but rather by its evolution from thuggery and theft to access money. In doing so, she changes the way we think about corruption and capitalism, not only in China but around the world.