Spring 2008 news

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New publication: 
Articulating Citizenship: Civic Education and Student Politics in Southeastern China, 1912—1940

By Robert Culp (Harvard University Asia Center, December 2007)

Robert Culp is the author of this new book published in December 2007 by the Harvard University Asia Center with funds from the Fairbank Center. Dr. Culp was an An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fairbank Center during the 2003-2004 academic year, and he currently is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at Bard College, New York.

At the genesis of the Republic of China in 1912, many political leaders, educators, and social reformers argued that Republican education should transform China’s people into dynamic modern citizens—social and political agents whose public actions would rescue the national community. Over subsequent decades, however, they came to argue fiercely over the contents of citizenship and how it should be taught. Moreover, many of their carefully crafted policies and programs came to be transformed by textbook authors, teachers, administrators, and students. Furthermore, the idea of citizenship, once introduced, raised many troubling questions. Who belonged to the national community in China, and how was the nation constituted? What were the best modes of political action? How should modern people take responsibility for “public matters”? What morality was proper for the modern public?

This book reconstructs civic education and citizenship training in secondary schools in the lower Yangzi region during the Republican era. It also analyzes how students used the tools of civic education introduced in their schools to make themselves into young citizens, and explores the complex social and political effects of educated youths’ civic action.

New publication: 
Some Assembly Required: Work, Community, and Politics in China’s Rural Enterprises

By Calvin Chen (Harvard University Asia Center, March 2008)

Calvin Chen is Luce Assistant Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College. Dr. Chen was an An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fairbank Center during the 2005–2006 academic year; this book is based on the manuscript he prepared during that period.

One linchpin of China’s economic expansion since 1978 has been the township and village enterprises (TVEs), a vast group of firms with diverse modes of ownership and structure. This study, based on the author’s fieldwork in Zhejiang province, explores the emergence and success of rural enterprises and also examines how ordinary rural residents have made sense of, and participated in, the industrialization of recent decades. How much does TVE success depend on the ruthless exploitation of workers? How did peasants-turned-workers develop such impressive skills so quickly? To what extent do employees’ values affect the cohesion and operations of companies? And how long can peasant workers sustain these efforts in the face of increasing market competition?

The author argues that the resilience of these enterprises has as much to do with how authority is defined and how people interact as it does with the ability to generate profits. How social capital was deployed and replenished at critical moments was central to the eventual rise and consolidation of these enterprises as effective, robust institutions. Without mutual respect, company leaders would have found it impossible to improve their firms’ productivity, workplace stability, and long-term viability.


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