1st Edition
Local Clan Communities in Rural China Revolution and Urbanisation since the Late Qing Dynasty
Using data collected in fieldwork and surveys, this book examines China’s clan system and local clan communities in rural Anhui, covering events in two periods: the imperial pattern as seen in the first half of the twentieth century and changes since 1949. Revealed by this research, during the late Qing and the Republic Era, a local clan in the investigated areas was run as a highly autonomous community with a strong religious focus, which challenges the corporate model raised by Maurice Freedman. Through examining single-surname villages, citang constructions, and updating of genealogies, local clans in Huadong, Huizhou and the lower Yangtze River plains in particular, developed earlier than those in the Pearl River Delta Region. Taking a cross-disciplinary viewpoint, this book analyses changes in local clan communities and clan culture as brought by the Chinese Revolution, Mao’s political campaigns, and Deng’s reforms. Starting with the late 1990s, a large migration from villages to cities has rapidly altered rural China. This geographic mobility would undermine the common residence that serves as part of a clan’s foundation. Under such situation, what transformations have taken place or will affect China’s clan system? Will the system continue to revitalise or die out? Local Clan Communities in Rural China reports these events/transformations and attempts to answer these questions. Placing a special emphasis on issues that have been overlooked by prior studies, this book brings to light many new facts and interpretations and provides a valuable reference to scholars in fields of sociology, anthropology, history, economics, cultural studies, urban studies, and population studies.
Part 1 Introduction 1. Introduction Part 2 Traditional Local Clan Communities and Culture-From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic Era 2. Local Clan Communities and Organizations in the Late Qing and the Republic Era 3. Local Culture and Local Clan Culture in in the Late Qing and the Republic Era 4. Comparisons of Local Clan Communities between Huadong and Huanan 5. Merchants and Local Clan Communities in Huizhou and Nearby Regions Part 3 From the Land Reform to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution-Disappearance of Local Clan Communities 6. From the Land Reform to the Agricultural Collectivization Campaign 7. Local Clan Communities in the Four Cleanups Movement and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution Part 4 Modernization, Urbanization, and Local Clan Communities 8. Deng’s Reforms and the Revival of Local Clans and Clan Culture 9. Urbanization and Migrant Peasant Workers 10. Urbanization, Clan Culture and Local Clan Communities 11. Impact on Local Clan Communities and Clan Culture Brought by Urbanization and Modernization-A Comprehensive Analysis
Biography
Zongli Tang is Professor of Sociology at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Auburn University at Montgomery, USA. His research areas cover urban sociology, cultural studies, political economy, and population studies. His research works include China’s Urbanization and Socioeconomic Impact, Maoism and Chinese Culture, Ways of Philosophical Thinking in China and Japan, and China’s Foreign Economic Policy in Post-Mao Time.
