150025 PS Anthropological perspectives to the study of the family and the state in contemporary China (M2 PR) (2021W)

The main aim of the course is to further develop the students’ skills in finding a strong and analytically relevant research question and choosing the related theoretical frameworks and methodologies for addressing that question. The final term paper is called an ‘analytical research paper’ to highlight that the aim to (as far as possible) analyse information in context, such as the social, political, cultural, and economic changes taking place in China since the start of the so-called reform and opening up period.

The content and different weekly topics for this course is drawn from social sciences approaches to the study of law and politics in contemporary China, in large part from the perspectives of the everyday lives of people. Most of the social sciences materials will be anthropological studies, also introducing students to the ethnographic approach as a distinctive qualitative research method.

Taking an anthropological perspective, the course proposes to see the study of everyday lives of people, including their family and community relations, as a particularly interesting way into studying the Chinese state. Such a grassroots perspective into the state and the effects of laws and regulations for example will complement a more macro or systems-based approach to studying Chinese politics that the students might be familiar with from previous studies.

In recent years, the state has increasingly become interested in legislating such ‘private’ issues as family relations and gender issues for example, thus more deliberately formalising certain aspects of the state/society relationships previously thought to mainly fall under the purvey of local bureaucracies. This relates to the larger recent aim in Chinese political discourse to develop a ‘rule of law’ (fazhi) based mode of governance. The seminars will look at such case studies as the amended marriage law (and related property issues), elderly care, as well as the passing of regulations related to traditional practices such as rural funerals. Such case studies will be looked at as indications and ‘ways in’ for analysing what kind of a state and legal system is being constructed and what values might underlie them.

Another seminar topic will look at family and community conflict and the emphasis in Chinese legal theory and practice on the use dispute mediation (jiufen tiaojie) as a way to bring in so called Chinese tradition and morality into conflict resolution, in stead of law.

Some of the overall questions for the whole term include: what roles do politics, law and the state have in people’s everyday lives, including in family matters? What are the moving boundaries between what is private and where the state can become involved? How do values embedded in Chinese kinship systems interact with laws? The idea of ‘tradition’ and ‘rural culture’ as being both obstacles to ‘modernity’ and ‘progress’ as well as sources of so called ‘true Chineseness’ will also be explored in the context of the ongoing reforms.

One section of the readings for this course will be drawn from recent and classical works in social anthropology on China. Another section of the readings will be drawn from Chinese legal scholars and anthropologists of law. Students are also encouraged to bring in other relevant examples of the topics to share with the group (or include it in the presentation). This can include multimedia sources such as podcasts, films or blog posts in English or Chinese.

The course will also include some practical exercises with official Chinese language (or English, where available) databases, to gain an introductory knowledge for how to find relevant laws and regulations as well as certain types of court cases.

The seminars are conducted in English and are also open to Global Studies students. Sinology students and others with comparable Chinese language skills will be given weekly readings in both Chinese and English.