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School of Culture History and Language · ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Social Power in China shows how the family is the basic structure of power, authority, and survival through history and in modern Chinese society. The family proper is an institution within which people can shelter from state intrusion, but also through which people are mobilised to state ends. So convincing is the moral authority of the family that this power structure resonates at all levels of the polity, from biological blood-relatedness to the ideological common blood of the nation-state. The family and its hierarchies, ideals, and propositions can be seen in laws, social norms, and cultural practices. Networks of kin and kin-like relatedness form the very foundation of Chinese society. Through an in-depth exploration of the Chinese family and the transdisciplinary application of social theory and critical thinking, students will recognise that these characteristics are not limited to the Chinese world. The family, indeed, is an essential power structure across the globe, in every cultural and national context.
Concept Log Entries (Weeks 1-10; max. 200 Words / entry)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Tutorial Leadership (max. 5 minutes / student)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Annotated Bibliography (max. 1000 Words)
Learning outcomes 3, 4, 5
Final Essay (UG 2000 Words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
The course will be structured around 30-36 hours of contact time (the equivalent of three hours a week for 12 weeks). Reading loads will average roughly 50-70 pages per three hours of contact time. Other Information This is a co-taught course. Any cap on enrolments in one course applies to both courses combined.
All texts for this course are available on the course page and/or in the library. Preliminary Reading Readings include: Ang, Yuen Yuen 2020. China's Gilded Age Bell, Catherine 2009. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. Boretz, Avron 2011. Gods, Ghosts and Gangsters. Bourdieu, Pierre 1986 “The Forms of Capital.” Brandtstädter, Susanne, and G. Santos. 2009. “Chinese Kinship Metamorphoses,” in Chinese Kinship: Contemporary Anthropological Perspectives.Bary and Irene Bloom, 751–754. New York: Columbia University Press. Deng, Yanhua, and K. O'Brien. 2013. "Relational Repression in China: Using Social Ties to Demobilize Protesters." China Quarterly Faure, David 2007. Emperor and Ancestor: State and Lineage in South China Fei, Xiaotong 1992. From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society Fong, Vanessa L. 2002. China's One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters. American Anthropologist Gold, Thomas, et al (eds). 2002. Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture and the Changing Nature of Guanxi. Goodman, Bryna. 1995. Native Place, City, and Nation: Regional Networks and Identities in Shanghai, 1853-1937. Granovetter, Mark 2005 "The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes." Hershatter, Gail 2011 The Gender of Memory: Rural Women and China’s Collective Past. Hillman, Ben. 2010. "Factions and Spoils"The China Journal Kipnis, Andrew B. 1996. "Managing Guanxi in a North China Village." Modern China Kuhn, Philip A. 1975. 'Local Self-Government under the Republic: Problems of Control, Autonomy, and Mobilization.' inConflict and Control in Late Imperial China. California. Mann, Michael. 1986. The Sources of Social Power North, Douglass 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance Osburg, John 2013. Anxious Wealth Sangren, P. Steven 2017 Filial Obsessions: Chinese Patriliny and Its Discontents Szonyi, Michael 2017 The Art of Being Governed Tsai, Kellee S. 2000. "Banquet Banking: Gender and Rotating Savings and Credit Associations in South China.” The China Quarterly Wolf, Margery 1968 The House of Lim: A Study of a Chinese Farm Family.