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The Chinese Discourse on Civil Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Shu-Yun Ma
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Extract

In recent years the concept of civil society has gained scholarly attention world-wide. It has found numerous advocates in the West, such as John Keane who suggested democratizing European socialism by defending the distinction between civil society and the state; Michael Walzer who proposed synthesizing socialist, capitalist and nationalist ideals under the rubric of civil society; and Daniel Bell, who called for a revival of civil society in the United States as a protection against the expanding state bureaucracies. In 1992 alone, at least three books on the subject appeared. In Eastern Europe, proponents of the civil society concept – like Vaclav Havel, George Konrad and Adam Michnik – have been credited with developing an extremely useful theoretical tool for overthrowing Stalinist authoritarianism. A volume consisting of case studies of seven former or present socialist countries found that the notion of civil society is generally applicable to the study of Communist systems, as long as the influence of different cultures and traditions of individual countries are fully acknowledged. The civil society paradigm, despite its basic European orientation, has also been recognized as applicable to the study of developing countries.

Type
Research Notes
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 137 , March 1994 , pp. 180 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1994

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References

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48. Part of the information used in this section was obtained from personal interviews with a group of Chinese intellectuals in exile in Princeton, New Jersey, October 1991. I wish to thank the Associates of the University of Toronto Travel Grant Fund for providing financial support for the research trip to Princeton University, Lorraine Spiess (co-ordinator of the Princeton China Initiative) for arranging the interviews, and Martin He and Simon Wong for their assistance in the project.

49. A similar change of focus, according to Chamberlain, can also be found in the Western literature on China's civil society. This is his major argument in “On the search for civil society.”

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56. The strongest voice in this regard is that of Peng Wenyi, a Taiwanese intellectual who migrated to the United States some 20 years ago. According to him, the success of the newly industrializing countries in South-East Asia has demonstrated the ability of Confucian-type collective societies to achieve modernization. Endowed with the same cultural asset, China should also utilize this traditional advantage in its quest for development. Peng condemned the Chinese proponents of the Western individualistic concept of civil society for blind import of foreign ideas, just like the Communists’ introduction of Marxism into China several i. decades ago. See his “Zuqun shehui yu gongmin shehui” (“Collective society and civil society”), Jiushi niandai, June 1990, pp. 106–107; “Zai tan zuqun shehui” (“On collective society again”), Jiushi niandai, June 1991, pp. 69–71; and “Zhongguo bi wang lun zhi er” (“On the view that China will definitely perish, part 2”), Jiushi niandai, May 1992, pp. 88–S9. Peng's argument is not discussed in the main text because, as a Taiwanese, he is beyond the scope of this paper which is on the views of the mainland Chinese intellectuals. For a critique of Peng's opinion, see Chen Kuide, “On the misleading notion,” pp. 23–25.

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58. The assistance given by Triad Society in the escape of Su and other dissidents from China was featured in the British Broadcasting Corporation's television documentary Operation Yellowbird. I am indebted to Paul Ng for providing me with a chance to watch this film.

59. Su Xiaokang, “Dangdai Zhongguo,” p. 36; personal interview conducted at Princeton University, 18 October 1991.

60. Xiaokang, Su, “Ban diao zi de shimin shehui” (“A half-made civil society”), Minzhu Zhongguo, August 1992, pp. 1–3, at 3.Google Scholar

61. The inclusion of Triad Society into the concept of civil society can find its root in traditional Chinese thought. See Don Price, “Late Ch'ing images of civil society and the public sphere in the West,” paper prepared for Symposium on Civil Society in East Asia, Montreal, 23–25 October 1992; and Gray, Jack, “China: Communism and Confucianism,” in Brown, Archie and Gray, Jack (eds.). Political Culture and Political Change in Communist States (New York: Holmes & Meier; second ed. 1979), pp. 197–230CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 208. Reportedly, during the 1989 Pro-Democracy Movement secret societies showed support to the students by voluntarily suspending their clandestine activities. See Wei-Ming, Tu, “Intellectual effervescence in China,” Daedalus, Vol. 121, No. 2 (Spring 1992), pp. 251–292Google Scholar, at 278. On the I' government's side, China's Minister of Public Security, Tao Siju, admitted that the Chinese I government has maintained contacts with Triad Society in Hong Kong. According to Tao, mere are “patriots” and “good persons” in Triad Society. His statement has shocked the Hong Kong public. See Chi, Song, “Hong yu hei” (“Red and black”), Kaifang (Open Magazine), April 1993, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

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63. Shils, “Virtue,” pp. 5–9; Taylor, Charles, “Modes of civil society,” Public Culture, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Fall 1990), pp. 95–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 108.

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65. Interview with Zhang Langlang at Princeton University on 16 October 1991.

66. Vladimir Tismaneanu, “Unofficial peace activism in the Soviet Union and East-Central Europe,” in Tismaneanu, In Search of Civil Society, pp. 1–53, at 4.

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68. Interview with Kong Jiesheng, conducted at Princeton University on 18 October 1991. The historian Philip Huang, however, argued that the Habermas’ notion of development of civil society from public sphere is basically a European formula that may not be applicable to China. According to him, the history of Ming-Qing China demonstrated a dissociation, rather than association, between expansion of public realm of life and assertion of civic power against the state. See Huang, Philip C. C., “The paradigmatic crisis in Chinese studies,” Modern China, Vol. 17, No. 3 (July 1991), pp. 299–341CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 320–22.

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70. Shaoguang, Wang, “Guangyu ‘shimin shehui’ de jidian sikao” (“Some thoughts on ‘civil society’”), Ershiyi shiji (Twenty-First Century), December 1991, pp. 102–114.Google Scholar This argument is the opposite of that of Adam Smith and many others, who thought that civil society could clean up the feudal evils of the state. See Albert Hirschman, The Passions and the I' Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism before its Triumph (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979). I am indebted to an anoymous referee for pointing this out.

71. Hirst, Paul, “The state, civil society and the collapse of Soviet Communism,” Economy and Society, Vol. 20, No. 2 (May 1991), pp. 217–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

72. In Western literature there is also a tendency to conflate “civil society” with “society,” and make the term “civil” redundant. See Chamberlain, “On the search for civil society,” pp. ‘ 205–209; and White, “Prospects for civil society,” p. 66. it.

73. Tester, Civil Society p. 9.

74. Madsen, “Public sphere,” p. 190. I.

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