Aleksandra Kubat; Canglong Wang; Siv H. Oftedal
Aleksandra Kubat
King's College London, final year PhD Chinese Studies Research
“马体中用”: Marxism, Confucianism, and heterogenization of CCP’s ideational model
While much attention is given to increased popularity of China’s cultural traditions in Chinese society as well as in propaganda messages produced by the party for society’s consumption, our understanding of the functionality of traditional culture for the CCP as political organisation is very limited. This is despite the fact that since 2012 Xi Jinping has demonstrated continuous dedication to referencing traditional ideals, moral values, and governance strategies. Based on original research on cadre training institutions and analysis of party school resources, this paper shows how the CCP rationalizes appropriation of traditional culture and theorizes the political functionality of tradition for the party, with particular reference to contentious areas of party values, governance model, and performance of cadre-officials. In addition, this paper takes a closer look as what type of classical philosophical content and contemporary party references are used to give weight to this effort. It is argued that by attempting to affiliate itself with traditional culture, the CCP aims to expand its ideational model in order to widen party’s appeal amongst Chinese society.
Canglong Wang
University of Edinburgh, Year 4 PhD candidate in Sociology
Critical individuals or submissive citizens? Governing parents’ choice in the rejuvenated domain of Confucian classical education
This article focuses on the Confucian-inspired classical education which is part of the noticeable general revival of "popular Confucianism" (Billioud and Thoraval 2015) in contemporary China. It aims to explore the following two interlinked research questions: (1) what are the factors to govern parents to choose the private Confucian classical school beyond the state education system? (2) How can we understand the relation between the parental individual and the socialist party-state through examining the actions of educational choice? To explore the research questions I draw upon the theory of individualisation in Chinese context (Yan 2009 & 2010) and see the parental choice of education as being embedded in the circumstances remarkably framed by the profound processes of individualisation.
I interviewed 17 Chinese parents involved in a Confucian classical school (whose pseudonym is Yiqian School) located in southeastern China. Most of them came from the urban middle-class families. Also I conducted an ethnographic fieldwork in Yiqian School, where I did participant observations of the pedagogic activities and everyday life practices. I was allowed by the school (which is a full-time boarding one) to live on campus and spend all day with students and teachers. The data collection was done from March to August in 2015.
By showcasing the complexity of how parental choice and desire for Confucian classical education are governed in the profound process of individualisation in post-Mao China, this paper reveals the contradiction of the making of parental subjectivity which swings between critical individuality and citizen submissiveness. It shows how the parents use the technique of critique centring on the keyword moral suzhi (quality) to formulate the determination of having their children leave the state school system and transfer to the private Confucian education. Through describing the accounts and actions parents make to actualize the educational choice, I argue that while many interviewed parents maintain a critical attitude towards the state (compulsory school system), they paradoxically display the loyalty, dependability and submissiveness to the socialist political authority.
Siv H. Oftedal
King's College London, Lau China Institute, year 4 PhD candidate in China Studies
Chinese Communist Party Rhetoric of Continuity: Three Metaphors Bridging Political Transitions
In Chinese politics, there are political and economic transitions between different leadership generations. The economic policies under Mao Zedong and under Deng Xiaoping stand in stark contrast to each other. Xi Jinping's personal power is considerably enhanced compared to his predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. Despite this, the Chinese Communist Party successfully creates a homogeneous narrative from 1949 to 2018 (and beyond) as one political project, one continuous goal, and one political party to do the job. This paper explores the role of three conceptual metaphors in achieving this continuity in political historiography. These metaphors are: 1) the struggle metaphor, 2) the marching metaphor, and 3) the construction metaphor. These are all in contemporary use and underpin the current Secretary General Xi Jinping's goal of Chinese national rejuvenation. The paper evaluates effects of these extended metaphors in: 1) creating narrative continuity, 2) indirectly calling for trust and patience from the Chinese people through long time-lines, and 3) communicating the leadership’s control of the political situation. To analyze how the CCP portrays their nearly 70 years in power as one and the same road, I draw on methodological sources from Political Science, Linguistics and History. An interdisciplinary analysis of extended metaphors can throw new light on how the Chinese Communist Party deconstructs their own heterogeneous transitions in order to achieve a coherent story and a single, homogeneous identity.