chinese culture

POSITIONALITY

means your position in society and how that position influences your experiences, opportunities and the way you see the world.In sociology, it can include things like your social class, gender, race, education and social background.

emic vs etic

insider → sharing someting → easier trust

etic → nothing in coman → intitial suspicion → more time for trust

Predatory governance

Leaders exploit ordinary people for money or personal benefit.

Guanxi

Personal relationships and networks that people rely on, in chinese villages.and weakend after collaps system

Agnatic lineage

Family connections traced through the father's side.

Tongcun

People who come from the same village. after collaps people relied more on other ways to build, share and trust. one of does was same villagers.

how was the private lfie under socialism ? before and after the collabs

When China's collective system ended, village life became less communal, local leaders became more self-interested, public services weakened, and villagers increasingly relied on personal relationships instead of collective support.

Heibai heliu

he merging of criminal power (black) and official political power (white).

vb ; The township government protected criminal village leaders because they could collect taxes and fees. This shows that corruption was supported by the political system, not just by individual bad leaders.

state–society relations

: the relationship between government institutions and ordinary people.

Affinal ties

Relationships created through marriage.after collaps people relied more on other ways to build, share and trust. one of does was same villagers.

Renqing

refers to social obligations, human consideration, and the expectation that people should help one another and return favors.

It is not simply being nice. It is a moral expectation about how people should behave toward people with whom they have relationships.

the expectation that help and consideration should be reciprocated.

You do not necessarily have to return the favor immediately or in exactly the same way. The important thing is that the relationship involves mutual obligations.

Endogamy

Marriage within a particular social group or community.

voluntary association

: people could choose to join a group rather than participate in an organization controlled by the state.

vb; new groups, such as Christian communities, provided alternative social connections.

. Symbolic capital inversion

symbolic capital means status, respect, or recognition that gives someone social advantages. inversion is turning around

This meant that being poor could bring political respect, while being wealthy could bring political suspicion. =the official basis for status and legitimacy had changed.

cadre

is an official who works for the Communist Party or the government.

Think of him as a local political administrator who is responsible for putting government policies into practice. =considerable influence over villagers' everyday lives.

chaxugeju -the differential mode of association

explain social relationships in China.=relationships differ according to how close you are to each person.

Context-dependent morality

What someone is expected to do depends on their relationship with the other person and the situation.

For example, you might be expected to prioritize helping a parent over helping an unrelated stranger.

Chaxugeju

means that you relate to different people differently depending on your relationship with them.

The Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong compared social relationships to ripples spreading across a lake when you throw a stone into the water.

Guanxi 3 ways

Type	Meaning	Example
Social support	People help each other.	A neighbour helps you during harvest.
Instrumental guanxi	You use connections to achieve a goal.	You use a personal contact to navigate government bureaucracy.
Asymmetrical guanxi	One person has more power than the other.	A powerful official demands favours from someone who depends on them.

it can therefore provide support, but it can also create pressure, inequality, and opportunities for corruption.

Three ways of studying the Chinese family

Model	What does it focus on?	Simple example
Economic family / corporate family	Money, property, work, and shared resources.	How a family pools its income and divides agricultural work.
Political family	Power and inequality within the family.	How a father controls his wife's or children's decisions.
Cultural family	Traditional values and cultural expectations.	How Confucian ideas about respecting parents influence behaviour.

The problem, according to Yan's argument, is that these approaches can overlook the individual person's emotions, experiences, and desires.

The private life approach

This approach asks:

• What do individual family members feel and want?

• How do people experience love, happiness, conflict, and independence?

• How do personal wishes affect family relationships?

Exam takeaway: Yan wants researchers to study not only what families do as economic, political, or cultural units, but also how individual people experience family life.

Three types of spouse selection

Chinese term	Meaning
Ziyou duixiang (自由对象)	Free spouse selection: the couple chooses each other without third-party involvement in the selection.
Jieshao duixiang (介绍对象)	Introduced partner: a relative, friend, or matchmaker introduces the potential couple.
Fumu baoban (父母包办)	Parent-arranged marriage: parents make the major decisions about marriage.

increase autonomy , why ?

1. socialist state promoted equal rights + more collective work → introduction different genders

2. decreasing patrichaal values = parents + men lost some control because of youth tht worked = more bargaining power

3. private spaces = the vertical relaiton (father -son) was less important → horizontal became more improtant (husbanf + wife )

Incomplete individuality

People gained more freedom in private life, such as choosing a romantic partner, but this did not necessarily mean they became equally independent in public and political life.

Young people gained more freedom to choose romantic partners, while village elections were manipulated by local officials.

Unbalanced individualism:

People increasingly expected their own rights to be respected but did not always show the same respect for other people's rights or accept responsibilities toward the wider community.

"I have the right to do whatever I want, and nobody should interfere with my life."

But that same person ignores other people's rights, refuses to consider how their actions affect others, or refuses to take responsibility for the community.

Ultra-utilitarian individualism

An extreme focus on personal benefits and usefulness, potentially at the expense of others.

Moral vacuum:

Old rules about how people should behave become weaker, but new, widely accepted rules have not fully replaced them.

A moral vacuum does not mean that nobody has morals. It means that the community has lost some shared systems of values and responsibility without developing an equally strong replacement.

State–capital alliance

Cooperation between government authorities and businesses or investors to promote development. Each can benefit: governments can gain revenue and investment, while businesses can gain access to land and profitable opportunities.

urban village (城中村, chengzhongcun)

a former rural village that becomes surrounded by an expanding city.

The village may remain distinctive in its land arrangements, buildings, collective organizations, and local social relationships, even when modern urban development surrounds it.

spatial ambiguity

the neighbourhood occupies a space where rural and urban arrangements overlap.

The concept does not mean every urban village has the same legal status. The specific arrangements have varied by location and period.

othering

.

Othering means portraying a particular group or place as fundamentally different from, and inferior to, the group defining what is normal.

the city may criticize urban villages while depending on them economically and socially.

Internal other

A group or place within a society that is treated as different or inferior to the dominant image of that society.

Co-constitution

Two things help produce and shape one another.

Here, the modern city and the urban village develop together. The city changes the village, while the village helps support the city's workforce and everyday economy.

Linear model of progress:

The assumption that development follows one direction, from rural and traditional to urban and modern.

Urban villages challenge this model because the rural past does not simply disappear. It continues to exist within the modern city.