The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society
How the Chinese liberal intellectuals launched the civil society movement and how it later disintegrated
Description
The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society examines how a group of Chinese intellectual elites referred to as the liberals or ziyou pai edified the civil society project beginning in the 1990s to build an independent space to constrain state power, increase political participation, and promote China’s democratization. In the early 2000s, activists in movements such as the environmental and the AIDS movements identified with the liberals and regarded their activism as part of the project of building civil society. However, since the late 2000s the liberals’ influence has gradually declined. In prominent social movements in the 2010s such as the labor and feminist movements, activists have openly criticized the liberal interpretation of civil society and regarded liberals’ civil society agenda as irrelevant.
Mujun Zhou employs the concept of interstitial space, or the space where the exercise of power has not been fully institutionalized, to examine the history of the civil society project over the past three decades and its changing relationship with other social movements. Zhou suggests that by advocating for civil society the liberals gained allies and thematized many social problems rising during China’s economic reform; however, liberals’ activism also produced new forms of power inequalities.
Mujun Zhou is Associate Professor of Sociology at Zhejiang University.
Reviews
“The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society offers a compelling analysis of the rise and fall of Chinese liberals’ 'civil society' project, how that project tried to encompass subaltern social reform efforts, how reformers gradually parted ways with the liberals, and how both streams were ultimately co-opted or fragmented by state suppression. The book not only explains debates in China in a convincing way, it also has the potential to shape those debates at a crucial point in Chinese political development.”
- Manfred Elfstrom, University of British Columbia
“The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society will make an invaluable contribution to the literature on civil society development and the public sphere in China. Much attention has been given to the topic since the 1989 student-led protests began in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, but the focus of that literature has to date largely been on state-society relations and the potential for civil society to nurture a democratic transition in China. This book takes us into the divisions within civil society itself to show the strengths, weaknesses, vision, and blind spots of individual activists and organizations. For this alone, the book will stand out.”
- Anthony J. Spires, The University of Melbourne
“Mujun Zhou’s The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society is an insightful and important study not to be missed. Its rich and sophisticated sociological analysis illuminates previously understudied aspects of civil society development, especially ideational debates in the ‘thought sphere’ and the functions of interstitial spaces and publics.”
- Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania
“In The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society, Mujun Zhou describes the 30-year evolution of the liberal intellectuals' project of building a civil society by tracing five social movements, namely the environmental movement, the homeowners' movement, the labour movement, the feminist movement and the New Rural Reconstruction movement…Although this was a challenging book to review because [of] the ambitious historical, theoretical and ideational scope, it is also one of the best books that I have read about civil society in China.”
- Jessica Teets, The China Quarterly
“Zhou offers a refreshing account of the rise and fall of Chinese civil society as an advocacy project from the 1990s to the present. Adopting the concept of the interstitial space, Zhou underscores the fragmented, fluid, and intertwined dynamics surrounding advocacy groups, state agents, and commercial forces. Well-researched and accessible, this is a must-read volume for anyone interested in Chinese politics and activism, intellectual history, and intersectionality. Summing up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals.”
- L. Ma, Choice
“Mujun Zhou's The Death and Life of Chinese Civil Society provides a detailed, analytical, and sometimes saddening account of the civil society movement in China from the 1990s to Xi Jinping's ”new era." For anyone interested in social movements and intellectuals in China, Zhou's book offers invaluable insights about their struggles, hardships, and perseverance."
- Clyde Yicheng Wang, China Perspectives