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iChina: The Rise of the Individual in Chinese Society
Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS Press), June 2010, Pages: 296
This book comes out of years of cooperative research into concepts and practices of the individual in China, relations between individual and collective, and – inspired by the works by Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck- Gernsheim – the process of individualization in the specific context of the Chinese state and society. The project included scholars from Europe (most from the Nordic countries) and China: senior scholars and PhD students, scholars from the disciplines of history, literary studies, anthropology, political science, and sinology.
The book reflects this diversity. As highlighted in Yunxiang Yan’s Introduction, all the authors contribute from their different perspectives and academic backgrounds with empirical research that (hopefully) brings us a step further in understanding not only changing Chinese perceptions of the individual, expressed for instance in literature and law, but also how rising demands and expectations for individual freedom, choice and individuality result in the emergence of new forms of collectivities and negotiations with the state. As argued by, for instance, Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, individualization is a social condition which is not arrived at by a free decision of individuals. One of the decisive features of the process of individualization is precisely that it not merely permits but demands an active contribution by individuals. How this process evolves in the context of a state and society that lacks two of the defining characteristics of European individualization – a culturally embedded democracy and a welfare system – is one of the questions that the articles in this volume engage with.
The book, and the research that led to it, was made possible by contributions from the various universities in Europe, China and the US that the participating scholars are affiliated with. It was first of all the generous support from The Research Council of Norway in the period 2006–2009 that made it possible to bring these scholars together in order to develop the xii Mette Halskov Hansen and Rune Svarverud research and this book into more than just the sum of the individual contributions. Our hope is that the volume will help to spur further research into the processes of individualization in China, and contribute to new comparative research where Chinese experiences may serve to redefine theories developed in the European or North American context, as pointed out also by Ulrick Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim in their Foreword
to this book.
Four of the articles (by Thøgersen and Ni; Delman and Yin; Rolandsen; Hansen and Pang) have previously been published in somewhat different versions in the European Journal of East Asian Studies, vol. 7 no. 1, 2008, and we thank the journal for granting the right to republish. We would also like to point out that all the articles have been going through long processes of revisions based on constructive debates and comments from all the other participants in the project and network.
Key points:
- Explores the growing individualization permeating all areas of Chinese social, economic and political life.
- Offers a conceptually acute and empirically sensitive analysis.
- Essential contribution to current debates in sociology on ‘modernity’.
In spite of the intense preoccupation with individual and self in modern Western thought, the social sciences have tended to focus on groups and collectives and downplay (even disregard) the individual. This implicit view has also coloured the study of social life in China where both Confucian ethics and Communist policies have shaped collective structures with little room for individual agency and choice.
What is actually happening, however, is a growing individualization of China – not only changing perceptions of the individual but also rising expectations for individual freedom, choice and individuality. The individual has also become a basic social category in China, and a development has begun that permeates all areas of social, economic and political life. How this process evolves in a state and society lacking two of the de? ning characteristics of European individualization – a culturally embedded democracy and a welfare system – is one of the questions that the volume explores.
A strength of this volume is that its authors succeed in depicting the individualization process in conceptually acute and empirically sensitive terms, and as something with its own distinctively Chinese pro? le. That makes this book a ‘must read’ for all those wanting to understand present-day Chinese society, with all of its ambivalences, contingencies and contradictions.
Moreover, the volume makes an essential contribution to the current debate in sociology about how the meaning of ‘modernity’ should be conceptualized and rede? ned from a cosmopolitan perspective
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