Focusing on the collective memories and life stories of local people regarding their courtyard ho... more Focusing on the collective memories and life stories of local people regarding their courtyard house siheyuan in the old town of Beijing, this article examines how the dramatically shift ing state discourses infl uence inheritance practices and perceptions of kinship over time in modern China. Narratives of the siheyuan constructed by the elderly residents feature extended family vis-àvis a 'Confucian state', favouring male heirs during pre-revolutionary times. Siheyuan were nationalised during the following period of high socialism, when men and women were granted equal rights in property. Aft er being returned to their former owners in the post-Mao reform era, the dilapidated siheyuan were confronted by neoliberal privatisation and commercialisation. Despite the physical survival of the siheyuan, it is now common for siheyuan siblings to turn against each other, as people struggle over shares of their suddenly valuable but neglected ancestral home. Departing from Freedman's lineage theories and Lévi-Strauss's house society, this article explores house and relatedness in the sense of 'de-kinning' as part of China's modernising process. While drawing attention to the subtle continuities and the emergence of new forms of relatedness, it also suggests that the siheyuan dwellers have demonstrated high degrees of resilience and adaptability when coping with the vicissitudes of life.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought new uncertainties to state–society relations in urban China.... more The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought new uncertainties to state–society relations in urban China. Arguably, China’s containment of the pandemic can largely be attributed to the state’s effective, but controversial, governance of society. At the grassroots level of Chinese cities, local stateshequ(‘communities’ centred on the Residents’ Committees) have played a vital role in terms of both surveillance and service provision. However, rather than establishing an intimate relationship with civil society as the state intended, the latter’s handling of the pandemic resulted in contested views on the extent to which the state should intervene in society. This article engages with the ongoing debate on state–society relations, and argues that in urban China we are now seeing the advance of the state.
Taking as its point of departure the traditions associated with the Olympic Games, this essay d... more Taking as its point of departure the traditions associated with the Olympic Games, this essay discusses the sentiments and aspirations of a nation ‘betwixt and between;’ one that is recovering from a traumatic modern history; is promulgating the ideology of harmony as part of the formation of an intangible social structure; and is experiencing uncertainties in the government about how to fulfil its political vision of establishing a ‘harmonious society.’ Specifically, drawing on both anthropological theories of ritual and data collected in Beijing as part of long-term multi-sited fieldwork, the essay looks at three displays of cultural performance during the 2008 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies: ‘Footprints and Five Rings,’ ‘Harmony’ and ‘The Memory Tower.’ Through analysing how China attempted to use the opening and closing ceremonies as public rituals for realizing its dream of reinventing itself as a nation state, and how this ambition has been frustrated and promoted, the essay hopes to demystify China's coming-of-age rite of passage from an anthropological perspective, and to bring a new dimension to the development of concepts of ritual by using Beijing as a case
study.
This talk explores the concept of the ‘civilisation state’ through the building of imperial Beiji... more This talk explores the concept of the ‘civilisation state’ through the building of imperial Beijing as the national capital in the 13th century according to the principles of “ruler’s city” (wangcheng) construction established in ancient China. Following the founding of New China, however, the 1950s and 60s witnessed the reconstruction of Beijing as a socialist city, characterised by the rise of ‘work unit’ compounds surrounding the old city centre. In the era of Reform and Openness, Beijing has taken on a modernistic look, with skyscrapers and examples of avant-garde architecture towering above the vanishing low-lying old-town neighbourhoods. Through discussing the rationale behind such dramatic spatial changes at pivotal historical moments, this talk draws attention to external influences, which have contributed to China’s urban transformations. It offers a new perspective on understanding the civilisation state of China in the contexts of intercultural transmission since imperial times.
"Jialing Luo (Univeristy of Oxford)
Rethinking Maoist Modernism:
An anthropological gaze o... more "Jialing Luo (Univeristy of Oxford)
Rethinking Maoist Modernism:
An anthropological gaze on socialist life in a Beijing old-town neighbourhood
Date: Thursday 06 January
Time: 5-6.30pm
Venue: Institute of Chinese Studies (Walton St) room 207
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in one of Beijing’s surviving hutongs, this talk focuses on the organisational structure of the old-town neighbourhood and the elderly hutongers’ oral accounts of their lived experience under state socialism. It examines the ways in which a series of political campaigns were launched in the hutong setting, and reveals a dominant state discourse of transforming Beijing into an industrial base as an exemplary socialist city and of creating in corresponding fashion new socialist subjects. It unpacks those issues central to the Maoist vision of modernity through situating it in the contexts of ‘the socialist world system’ as described by Susan Bayly (2007), and ‘techno-cosmopolitan’ discourse in Paul Rabinow’s (1989) sense."
Focusing on the collective memories and life stories of local people regarding their courtyard ho... more Focusing on the collective memories and life stories of local people regarding their courtyard house siheyuan in the old town of Beijing, this article examines how the dramatically shift ing state discourses infl uence inheritance practices and perceptions of kinship over time in modern China. Narratives of the siheyuan constructed by the elderly residents feature extended family vis-àvis a 'Confucian state', favouring male heirs during pre-revolutionary times. Siheyuan were nationalised during the following period of high socialism, when men and women were granted equal rights in property. Aft er being returned to their former owners in the post-Mao reform era, the dilapidated siheyuan were confronted by neoliberal privatisation and commercialisation. Despite the physical survival of the siheyuan, it is now common for siheyuan siblings to turn against each other, as people struggle over shares of their suddenly valuable but neglected ancestral home. Departing from Freedman's lineage theories and Lévi-Strauss's house society, this article explores house and relatedness in the sense of 'de-kinning' as part of China's modernising process. While drawing attention to the subtle continuities and the emergence of new forms of relatedness, it also suggests that the siheyuan dwellers have demonstrated high degrees of resilience and adaptability when coping with the vicissitudes of life.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought new uncertainties to state–society relations in urban China.... more The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought new uncertainties to state–society relations in urban China. Arguably, China’s containment of the pandemic can largely be attributed to the state’s effective, but controversial, governance of society. At the grassroots level of Chinese cities, local stateshequ(‘communities’ centred on the Residents’ Committees) have played a vital role in terms of both surveillance and service provision. However, rather than establishing an intimate relationship with civil society as the state intended, the latter’s handling of the pandemic resulted in contested views on the extent to which the state should intervene in society. This article engages with the ongoing debate on state–society relations, and argues that in urban China we are now seeing the advance of the state.
Taking as its point of departure the traditions associated with the Olympic Games, this essay d... more Taking as its point of departure the traditions associated with the Olympic Games, this essay discusses the sentiments and aspirations of a nation ‘betwixt and between;’ one that is recovering from a traumatic modern history; is promulgating the ideology of harmony as part of the formation of an intangible social structure; and is experiencing uncertainties in the government about how to fulfil its political vision of establishing a ‘harmonious society.’ Specifically, drawing on both anthropological theories of ritual and data collected in Beijing as part of long-term multi-sited fieldwork, the essay looks at three displays of cultural performance during the 2008 Olympic opening and closing ceremonies: ‘Footprints and Five Rings,’ ‘Harmony’ and ‘The Memory Tower.’ Through analysing how China attempted to use the opening and closing ceremonies as public rituals for realizing its dream of reinventing itself as a nation state, and how this ambition has been frustrated and promoted, the essay hopes to demystify China's coming-of-age rite of passage from an anthropological perspective, and to bring a new dimension to the development of concepts of ritual by using Beijing as a case
study.
This talk explores the concept of the ‘civilisation state’ through the building of imperial Beiji... more This talk explores the concept of the ‘civilisation state’ through the building of imperial Beijing as the national capital in the 13th century according to the principles of “ruler’s city” (wangcheng) construction established in ancient China. Following the founding of New China, however, the 1950s and 60s witnessed the reconstruction of Beijing as a socialist city, characterised by the rise of ‘work unit’ compounds surrounding the old city centre. In the era of Reform and Openness, Beijing has taken on a modernistic look, with skyscrapers and examples of avant-garde architecture towering above the vanishing low-lying old-town neighbourhoods. Through discussing the rationale behind such dramatic spatial changes at pivotal historical moments, this talk draws attention to external influences, which have contributed to China’s urban transformations. It offers a new perspective on understanding the civilisation state of China in the contexts of intercultural transmission since imperial times.
"Jialing Luo (Univeristy of Oxford)
Rethinking Maoist Modernism:
An anthropological gaze o... more "Jialing Luo (Univeristy of Oxford)
Rethinking Maoist Modernism:
An anthropological gaze on socialist life in a Beijing old-town neighbourhood
Date: Thursday 06 January
Time: 5-6.30pm
Venue: Institute of Chinese Studies (Walton St) room 207
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in one of Beijing’s surviving hutongs, this talk focuses on the organisational structure of the old-town neighbourhood and the elderly hutongers’ oral accounts of their lived experience under state socialism. It examines the ways in which a series of political campaigns were launched in the hutong setting, and reveals a dominant state discourse of transforming Beijing into an industrial base as an exemplary socialist city and of creating in corresponding fashion new socialist subjects. It unpacks those issues central to the Maoist vision of modernity through situating it in the contexts of ‘the socialist world system’ as described by Susan Bayly (2007), and ‘techno-cosmopolitan’ discourse in Paul Rabinow’s (1989) sense."
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Beijing’s fast disappearing district of Qing and Republican Era... more Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Beijing’s fast disappearing district of Qing and Republican Era courtyard housing, known as hutong, this thesis examines the entanglement of urban spatial transformation with modernising processes in China from the mid-19th century to the period of the 2008 Olympic Games by exploring concepts and discourses of the state, social transformations and urban (re)construction. I situate these processes in the global contexts of colonialism, the Cold War and more recent ‘neoliberal’ globalisation, and compare and contrast the Chinese variant of modernism with that of France, drawing on its colonial urban experiences, and that of Brazil, in light of the construction of Brasilia as a modernist utopian city.
In particular, the thesis is concerned with the emergence of a new perspective on urban modernism, comparable to that which Paul Rabinow (1989) refers to as ‘techno-cosmopolitanism’ in the context of 19th and early 20th century France. I argue that during the Republican Era and throughout the period of early state socialism, the plan for Beijing proposed by the first generation of Western-trained architect-modernisers reflected techno-cosmopolitan norms and forms. That vision, however, was incommensurate with then-dominant Maoist discourses, and was abandoned in favour of a Soviet model of urban industrialisation. The Maoist vision of modernity turned Beijing into a ‘productive,’ as opposed to a ‘consumptive’ city, predominantly organised around the ‘work unit’ (danwei) system and prioritising the cultivation of socialist subjects.
I explore the notion of ‘milieu,’ in Rabinow’s terms, emphasising its social dimensions, to contextualise how Beijing and the state in China have been constructed and re-constructed discursively and concretely. I examine the surviving old-town neighbourhood of South Gong and Drum as a site where generations of local residents have come into contact with changing forms of the state and its various modernising projects. I attempt to bring an alternative form of modernism into view by drawing attention to the appearance of neo-siheyuan (‘courtyard housing’) compounds in the hutong as evidence of an experiment in housing reform and urban renewal, and positing this as a resurgence of techno-cosmopolitanism in the post-Mao era of consumerism.
In recent years, anthropologists have employed a variety of terms to describe the workings of China’s post-Mao state and society, in an attempt to go beyond the Chinese Communist Party label ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ (Feuchtwang 2002; Pieke 2009; Hann and Hart 2011). My work engages with this ongoing conceptual debate about how to describe contemporary China. It challenges a substantial body of existing literature across a number of disciplines which either approaches modernisation as paradigmatic or uses a conventional periodisation of history into modern and pre-modern time periods.
Uploads
study.
Rethinking Maoist Modernism:
An anthropological gaze on socialist life in a Beijing old-town neighbourhood
Date: Thursday 06 January
Time: 5-6.30pm
Venue: Institute of Chinese Studies (Walton St) room 207
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in one of Beijing’s surviving hutongs, this talk focuses on the organisational structure of the old-town neighbourhood and the elderly hutongers’ oral accounts of their lived experience under state socialism. It examines the ways in which a series of political campaigns were launched in the hutong setting, and reveals a dominant state discourse of transforming Beijing into an industrial base as an exemplary socialist city and of creating in corresponding fashion new socialist subjects. It unpacks those issues central to the Maoist vision of modernity through situating it in the contexts of ‘the socialist world system’ as described by Susan Bayly (2007), and ‘techno-cosmopolitan’ discourse in Paul Rabinow’s (1989) sense."
study.
Rethinking Maoist Modernism:
An anthropological gaze on socialist life in a Beijing old-town neighbourhood
Date: Thursday 06 January
Time: 5-6.30pm
Venue: Institute of Chinese Studies (Walton St) room 207
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in one of Beijing’s surviving hutongs, this talk focuses on the organisational structure of the old-town neighbourhood and the elderly hutongers’ oral accounts of their lived experience under state socialism. It examines the ways in which a series of political campaigns were launched in the hutong setting, and reveals a dominant state discourse of transforming Beijing into an industrial base as an exemplary socialist city and of creating in corresponding fashion new socialist subjects. It unpacks those issues central to the Maoist vision of modernity through situating it in the contexts of ‘the socialist world system’ as described by Susan Bayly (2007), and ‘techno-cosmopolitan’ discourse in Paul Rabinow’s (1989) sense."
In particular, the thesis is concerned with the emergence of a new perspective on urban modernism, comparable to that which Paul Rabinow (1989) refers to as ‘techno-cosmopolitanism’ in the context of 19th and early 20th century France. I argue that during the Republican Era and throughout the period of early state socialism, the plan for Beijing proposed by the first generation of Western-trained architect-modernisers reflected techno-cosmopolitan norms and forms. That vision, however, was incommensurate with then-dominant Maoist discourses, and was abandoned in favour of a Soviet model of urban industrialisation. The Maoist vision of modernity turned Beijing into a ‘productive,’ as opposed to a ‘consumptive’ city, predominantly organised around the ‘work unit’ (danwei) system and prioritising the cultivation of socialist subjects.
I explore the notion of ‘milieu,’ in Rabinow’s terms, emphasising its social dimensions, to contextualise how Beijing and the state in China have been constructed and re-constructed discursively and concretely. I examine the surviving old-town neighbourhood of South Gong and Drum as a site where generations of local residents have come into contact with changing forms of the state and its various modernising projects. I attempt to bring an alternative form of modernism into view by drawing attention to the appearance of neo-siheyuan (‘courtyard housing’) compounds in the hutong as evidence of an experiment in housing reform and urban renewal, and positing this as a resurgence of techno-cosmopolitanism in the post-Mao era of consumerism.
In recent years, anthropologists have employed a variety of terms to describe the workings of China’s post-Mao state and society, in an attempt to go beyond the Chinese Communist Party label ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ (Feuchtwang 2002; Pieke 2009; Hann and Hart 2011). My work engages with this ongoing conceptual debate about how to describe contemporary China. It challenges a substantial body of existing literature across a number of disciplines which either approaches modernisation as paradigmatic or uses a conventional periodisation of history into modern and pre-modern time periods.