Press Accounts and the Study of Chinese Society

1979 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 568-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew G. Walder
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Dominant Feature ◽  
Analytical Work ◽  
Total Immersion ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Good Research

Students of contemporary Chinese society must confront early in their training a problem that has become a dominant feature of their area of interest: the scarcity and crudity of useful information. Most successful efforts to cope with this central problem have been based on the sound strategy articulated by such practitioners as Michel Oksenberg and Martin Whyte: intimate familiarity with the variety of sources available, and a careful cross-checking between them for consistency. Good research on China, as a result, is often a function both of total immersion in existing sources and of an active sociological imagination. The field has apparently been blessed with people who have both of these attributes in abundance: not only is there a large body of sound descriptive and analytical work, but there also exists a number of competing, theoretically-important hypotheses about social processes in China since the Revolution.

The Politics of Hsia-hsiang Youth

1974 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 491-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Gordon White
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Social System ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Ideological And Political Education ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Transitional Stage ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

This paper sets out to examine various aspects of the contemporary Chinese social system and their political implications by studying the social and political attitudes of a subgroup of Chinese society. The general area of interest is social stratification in China: the bases of social differentiation in the new society and how these are perceived by its citizens; the extent to which changes in the structure of society have been accompanied by changes in social attitudes; the extent to which ideological campaigns to change attitudes have been successful; the limitations placed by the stratified nature of society in its transitional stage of socialism on the effectiveness of ideological and political education.

Exploration of factors leading to successful mediation

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafei Zhang ◽  
Li Chen
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Information Dissemination ◽  
Gold Medal ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Effective Factors ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore possible factors leading to a successful mediation in Chinese mediation shows. In China, media always play an indispensable role in information dissemination, morality advocacy and policy explanation. Design/methodology/approach This paper employed content analysis of 166 episodes of one representative mediation show, Gold Medal Mediation, and regression technique in data analysis. Findings Results of ordinal regression suggested that “secret talking”, rather than transparency, between disputants had significant influence on successful mediation. Function of mediators is limited in reaching full mediation. The effective factors leading to full mediation include compromise of rights, secret talking, attitude of the observer cohort. It suggests that the role of mediator is limited, rather than being over-exaggerated, in successful mediation. The successful mediation is largely dependent on disputants’ motivations. Additionally, “compromise of rights” by disputants is a key factor in solving disputes. Research limitations/implications Findings of this study revealed the role of Chinese mediation shows in propagating mediation in contemporary Chinese society and supporting upheld morality values. Due to the nature of the chosen mediation show, some disputes take more than one episode to solve. However, this study looks at each episode without considering the integrity of the dispute. That is, if the disputes take two episodes, the coder codes the two episodes as two separate disputes instead of looking at it as one dispute. Originality/value By exploring various aspects of mediations shows, including the role of mediators, disputants and a cohort of observers, this study can both explicitly show predicted factors to successful mediations on the shows, and can implicitly examine the power and perceived justification of mediation in contemporary China via media.

scholarly journals Becoming Christians

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianbo Huang ◽  
Mengyin Hu
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Society ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Subject Formation ◽  
Urban Church ◽  
Chinese Christians ◽  
The Status ◽  
Open Issue ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Collective Construction ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

Prayers in Christianity are often considered to be a theological or pastoral topic; while social scientific studies generally tend to reduce them, like prayers in other religious contexts, to the status of psychological responses bringing comfort to the practitioner, or a collective construction connected with social and cultural institutions. However, what prayer actually is, and what it means to Christians who practise it remains an open issue for further, more intensive and thorough study. Based on fieldwork in an urban church in China, this article provides some perspectives on contemporary Chinese Christians and their prayer life, attempting to elaborate its possible significance, especially in terms of subject-formation processes within these Christians. Meanwhile, this article argues that, in working towards a better understanding of Christians, it is more efficacious to take ‘Christians’ as those who are, rather than a given or acquired identity, or a status of being, engaged in a process of becoming through a practice, or set of practices, which in this case is prayer,. Moreover, in the case of this Chinese Christian church, the practise of prayer also indicates some reflections on the cultural and religious diversity of contemporary Chinese society.

History Lessons

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-145
Author(s):  
Chris White
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Local State ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Church Congregations ◽  
State Actors ◽  
China Today ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

This article contends that Chinese Protestant history is increasingly produced and consumed by various interest groups in China today. Protestant families, church congregations, and local state actors are all involved in reassessing and promoting local Protestant history. These processes reveal vibrant, organic forms of acculturation of Christianity into Chinese society. This article further argues that it would be prudent for scholars of contemporary Chinese Protestantism to focus greater analytical attention on Chinese Protestant history.

Towards the distinctive Islamic mode of leadership in business

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 882-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aikaterini Galanou ◽  
Dalia Abdelrahman Farrag
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Style ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Organizational Innovation ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Transactional Leadership Style ◽  
Islamic Leadership ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The paper provides some fundamental observations on leadership from an Islamic perspective and the Islamic revealed knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to measure the association between Islamic leadership and the most common western forms of leadership namely; transactional, transformational, authentic, and ethical leadership styles as well as its relationship on leader’s effectiveness and organizational innovation. Design/methodology/approach – An empirical investigation was conducted using portrait value questionnaire recommended by Schwartz (1994b), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) followed by structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings – The results indicated that Islamic leadership is positively and significantly associated with perception of leader effectiveness and innovation outcomes. In addition the findings revealed that Islamic leadership is positively correlated with transformational, ethical, and authentic leadership as well and not with the transactional leadership style. Practical implications – Among the practical implications of this research is that while a large body of leadership research has adopted a variation of leadership theories, our results suggest that we should seize to pay attention to the influential Islamic leadership. Originality/value – The originality of this paper is that it extends scholarly understanding on Islamic perspectives of management which is a relatively new and growing area of interest for academics and practitioners, in terms of both theory and practice.

Strategy to motivate and facilitate compromise in Chinese mediation

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiheng Deng ◽  
Kaibin Xu
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Chinese Society ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
Language Strategies ◽  
Contemporary Chinese ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
External Reasons

Purpose – This paper aims to explore language strategies and techniques in Chinese mediation that are adopted by mediators to motivate and facilitate compromise among disputants. Design/methodology/approach – Ten cases were audio-recorded on the spot, transcribed for analysis in their Chinese form, and then translated into English for English readers. The translation of excerpts used in this paper to demonstrate points was double checked to ensure accuracy. Discourse analysis was adopted to explore the meanings and functions of the utterances in these excerpts. Findings – It is found that power is embedded in the mediator's position and in his/her role in the mediation. Furthermore, neutrality is less of a concern as compared to justice in the mediator's terms. Finally, socio-cultural indications of the language strategies and techniques were drawn about contemporary Chinese society. Practical implications – When dealing with Chinese people in conflict, one may emphasize common goals and bring in external reasons such as seniority, face, and status to motivate and facilitate compromise. Originality/value – Studying transcripts of cases that were recorded in real time and recently is rare in studies of Chinese mediation. Studying what people actually say provides us data in reality, in contrast to the ideals as well as what they say they do in mediation.

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