After Comradeship: Personal Relations in China Since the Cultural Revolution

Abstract

The year 1985 marks the 20th anniversary of the publication in The China Quarterly of Ezra F. Vogel's classic article, “From friendship to comradeship: the change in personal relations in communist China.” The present article examines personal relations in China in the wake of the intervening two decades of Cultural Revolution (CR) and modernizing reforms. I will describe the major dimensions of personal relations in 1985 and offer a sociological explanation for them. My argument is that these relationships represent a re-emergence of certain traditional patterns as reshaped by both the CR and the current restructuring of state-society relations.

Did send-down experience benefit youth? A reevaluation of the social consequences of forced urban–rural migration during China’s Cultural Revolution

“…As we mentioned earlier, most youth who were sent down had a strong desire to return to their cities (Chen and Cheng 1999;Gold 1985;Rosen 1981;Singer 1971;Zhou and Hou 1999). However, actually returning at an earlier date was highly competitive (Gold 1980;Shi 1995;Unger 1979).…”

“…Not only were the stated criteria hard to meet, but the approval process was also complicated, tedious, and sometimes arbitrary. As a result, family social and political networks played an important role in determining one's chances of moving from rural to urban areas (Gold 1980;Gold 1985;Gold 1991;Pan 1994;Seybolt 1977;Shi 1995;Singer 1971;Unger 1979). Zhou and Hou's (1999) study well documents the extent to which the send-down policy affected youths in all families indiscriminately.…”

Solving the mystery of Guanxi-a sociological explanation of social exchange and social networking in Guanxi practice

“…China from "friendship" to "comradeship" was achieved by using "organization" to destroy and replace the institutional structure of the Chinese traditional social system (Vogel 1965;King 1991;Gold 1985). Walder (1983: 52) refers to this social phenomenon as "organized dependency," which is "the institutional position of subordinates with regard to superiors in an organization."…”

“…Many scholars (Yang 1994;Stockman 2000;Gold 1985) hold that the policy of sending urban youth down to the countryside marked the re-emergence of guanxi practice. To avoid being sent down to the countryside, many youths, and their parents, were engaged in cultivating good guanxi with school leaders.…”

“…On one hand, the reciprocal nature of a guanxi relationship requires the guanxi network members to be committed to the exchanges of gifts and favors (Ang 2000;Yeung and Tung 1996;Yang 1994;Yan 1996;Tsang 1998;Gold 1985;Luol997a). On the other hand, guanxi transactions are not legally or formally institutionalized Walder 1986;Kiong and Kee 1998).…”