Princeton Studies in Contemporary China

Kyle A. Jaros is associate professor in the political economy of China at the University of Oxford. An exploration of how key provinces in China shape urban and regional development The rise of major metropolises across China since the 1990s has been a double-edged sword: although big cities function as economic powerhouses, concentrated urban growth can worsen regional inequalities, governance challenges, and social tensions. Wary of these dangers, China's national leaders have tried to forestall top-heavy urbanization. However, urban and regional development policies at the subnational level have not always followed suit. China's Urban Champions explores the development paths of different provinces and asks why policymakers in many cases favor big cities in a way that reinforces spatial inequalities rather than reducing them. Kyle Jaros combines in-depth case studies of Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, and Jiangsu provinces with quantitative analysis to shed light on the political drivers of uneven development. Drawing on numerous Chinese-language written sources, including government documents and media reports, as well as a wealth of field interviews with officials, policy experts, urban planners, academics, and businesspeople, Jaros shows how provincial development strategies are shaped by both the horizontal relations of competition among different provinces and the vertical relations among different tiers of government. Metropolitan-oriented development strategies advance when lagging economic performance leads provincial leaders to fixate on boosting regional competitiveness, and when provincial governments have the political strength to impose their policy priorities over the objections of other actors. Rethinking the politics of spatial policy in an era of booming growth, China's Urban Champions highlights the key role of provincial units in determining the nation's metropolitan and regional development trajectory. "Jaros masterfully applies a striking range of qualitative and quantitative methods to explain convincingly why some Chinese provinces have focused their investment, while others spread their investment more equitably. His results undermine commonly held assumptions about equality and fairness, the dynamics of development and urbanization, and the essence of politics-who gets what, when, and how."-John A. Donaldson, Singapore Management University "This book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the multilevel politics of spatial development in contemporary China. Its in-depth coverage of four provinces is rare and impressive."-Jae Ho Chung, Seoul National University "This is an important, powerful, and original book, demonstrating admirably intensive research and a masterly research design. The quantitative conclusion is especially convincing and the major finding about why provincial leaders concentrate resources in provinces' capitals is a compelling formulation. The work is provocative and has the potential to become definitive."-Dorothy J. Solinger, professor emerita, University of California, Irvine "Which Chinese cities grow, and which ones are allowed to wither? This book navigates the convoluted policies and contested priorities that shape these decisions across different levels of China's government. Using nuanced case studies from four provinces, Jaros highlights how the abstract politics of development are remade by considering space."-Jeremy Wallace, Cornell University "This solid work of original research makes a substantial contribution to the literature on China's spatial development. Focusing on four provincial cases, Jaros looks at how provincial governments interact with central and subprovincial governments. This book's arguments are convincing." -You-tien Hsing, University of California, Berkeley

"Honorable Mention for the Dennis Judd Book Award, Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" "Winner of the Robert E. Park Award, Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association" Xuefei Ren is associate professor of sociology and global urban studies at Michigan State University. She is the author of Building Globalization and Urban China. An in-depth look at the distinctly different ways that China and India govern their cities and how this impacts their residents Urbanization is rapidly overtaking China and India, the two most populous countries in the world. One-sixth of humanity now lives in either a Chinese or Indian city. This transformation has unleashed enormous pressures on land use, housing, and the environment. Despite the stakes, the workings of urban governance in China and India remain obscure and poorly understood. In this book, Xuefei Ren explores how China and India govern their cities and how their different styles of governance produce inequality and exclusion. Drawing upon historical-comparative analyses and extensive fieldwork (in Beijing, Guangzhou, Wukan, Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata), Ren investigates the ways that Chinese and Indian cities manage land acquisition, slum clearance, and air pollution. She discovers that the two countries address these issues through radically different approaches. In China, urban governance centers on territorial institutions, such as hukou and the cadre evaluation system. In India, urban governance centers on associational politics, encompassing contingent alliances formed among state actors, the private sector, and civil society groups. Ren traces the origins of territorial and associational forms of governance to late imperial China and precolonial India. She then shows how these forms have evolved to shape urban growth and residents' struggles today. As the number of urban residents in China and India reaches beyond a billion, Governing the Urban in China and India makes clear that the development of cities in these two nations will have profound consequences well beyond their borders. "[An] invaluable addition to the literature that advances the agenda of comparative urban studies."---Yue Zhang, American Journal of Sociology "A foundational work that future comparative studies on urban China and India will build on."---Outi Luova, Eurasian Geography and Economics " This ambitious book will be of interest to all scholars of urban politics.-Zachary Levenson, Contemporary Sociology"---Zachary Levenson, Contemporary Sociology "The rise of China and India is a major global development and represents a shift in our Western understanding of the world. In Governing the Urban in China and India, Xuefei Ren examines these two countries in ways that bring to the fore what is usually overlooked. This is a must-read book that addresses the growing interest in the differences and similarities between these two emerging powers."-Saskia Sassen, author of Expulsions "In this comparative study of China and India, Xuefei Ren shows how inequality thrives in two very different economic and political systems. At a time when many academic works are siloed into disciplines or country studies to the point where they seem relevant to only diehard specialists, Ren has taken the bold step of familiarizing herself with two enormously complex countries and bringing their challenges to life."-Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of The Souls of China "This book boldly compares the two demographic and urbanizing behemoths of this century, China and India. Drawing from documentary, secondary, and ethnographic data, Xuefei Ren argues that differences in urban governance can be attributed to the distinction between a Chinese territorial model and an Indian associational model. The writing is excellent and the presentation and interpretation of sources are exemplary."-Deborah Davis, author of The Consum

Dong Guoqiang is professor of history at Fudan University in Shanghai. Andrew G. Walder is the Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor of Sociology at Stanford University, where he is also a senior fellow in the Freeman-Spogli Institute of International Studies. A revealing exploration of political disruption and violence in a rural Chinese county during the Cultural Revolution A Decade of Upheaval chronicles the surprising and dramatic political conflicts of a rural Chinese county over the course of the Cultural Revolution. Drawing on an unprecedented range of sources-including work diaries, interviews, internal party documents, and military directives-Dong Guoqiang and Andrew Walder uncover a previously unimagined level of strife in the countryside that began with the Red Guard Movement in 1966 and continued unabated until the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Showing how the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution were not limited to urban areas, but reached far into isolated rural regions, Dong and Walder reveal that the intervention of military forces in 1967 encouraged factional divisions in Feng County because different branches of China's armed forces took various sides in local disputes. The authors also lay bare how the fortunes of local political groups were closely tethered to unpredictable shifts in the decisions of government authorities in Beijing. Eventually, a backlash against suppression and victimization grew in the early 1970s and resulted in active protests, which presaged the settling of scores against radical Maoism. A meticulous look at how one overlooked region experienced the Cultural Revolution, A Decade of Upheaval illuminates the all-encompassing nature of one of the most unstable periods in modern Chinese history. "A Decade of Upheaval contributes enormously to the study of the Cultural Revolution. It offers a rare micro-history of the movement in a rural area and challenges the urban-dominated discourse. It interrogates the reductionist picturing of the time as a juxtaposition between impetuous student militants and disciplined military pacifiers."---Hanzhi Dai, LSE Review of Books "Based on rich grassroots and interview sources, A Decade of Upheaval looks at how the politics of the Cultural Revolution shaped a single rural county between 1966 and 1976. This is a unique and captivating work, and there is nothing like it."-Jeremy Brown, author of City versus Countryside in Mao's China "The first study on a rural county during the Cultural Revolution, A Decade of Upheaval provides a much-needed corrective to many assumptions held about this period. Making use of vast amounts of previously unavailable materials, this significant and effectively organized book dispels common misperceptions and will be enormously influential in how the legacies of contemporary conflicts are understood."-Daniel Leese, author of Mao Cult "Dong and Walder have outdone themselves with this incredibly rich and nuanced account of the Cultural Revolution in Jiangsu's Feng County. Deftly weaving together an unusually wide range of documentary sources and interview material, they shed important new light on this tumultuous period in a remote rural area, and challenge longstanding models of factional conflict during the late Mao era."-Patricia M. Thornton, University of Oxford

"Winner of the Luebbert Best Book Award, Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" Yuhua Wang is the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Harvard University. He is the author of Tying the Autocrat's Hands: The Rise of the Rule of Law in China. How social networks shaped the imperial Chinese state China was the world's leading superpower for almost two millennia, falling behind only in the last two centuries and now rising to dominance again. What factors led to imperial China's decline? The Rise and Fall of Imperial China offers a systematic look at the Chinese state from the seventh century through to the twentieth. Focusing on how short-lived emperors often ruled a strong state while long-lasting emperors governed a weak one, Yuhua Wang shows why lessons from China's history can help us better understand state building. Wang argues that Chinese rulers faced a fundamental trade-off that he calls the sovereign's dilemma: a coherent elite that could collectively strengthen the state could also overthrow the ruler. This dilemma emerged because strengthening state capacity and keeping rulers in power for longer required different social networks in which central elites were embedded. Wang examines how these social networks shaped the Chinese state, and vice versa, and he looks at how the ruler's pursuit of power by fragmenting the elites became the final culprit for China's fall. Drawing on more than a thousand years of Chinese history, The Rise and Fall of Imperial China highlights the role of elite social relations in influencing the trajectories of state development. "A profound examination. . . . [and] a remarkable piece of scholarship."---Peng Peng, The Developing Economies "Compelling. . . . [The Rise and Fall of Imperial China] is essential reading for scholars of the Chinese state."---Guillaume Beaud, The International Spectator "This rigorous and innovative examination of the state in China shows how states can be durable even when they are weak. Yuhua Wang's analysis of how elite networks mediated the relationship between rulers and society transforms our understanding of state formation and survival."-Anna Grzymała-Busse, author of Sacred Foundations "The Rise and Fall of Imperial China offers up a readable, persuasive, and provocative account of state success and failure that taps into major debates in social science and history. Ambitious, wide-ranging, and theoretically innovative, this superb book makes important contributions to the literatures on state building, historical political economy, and Chinese politics."-Daniel Mattingly, author of The Art of Political Control in China "Drawing on network theory to suggest which linkages between state and society are most likely to lead to durable rule, The Rise and Fall of Imperial China covers more than a millennia of history to suggest when and why the Chinese state was most solid. This is a most impressive work of political science."-David Stasavage, author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy

Yi-Lin Chiang is assistant professor of sociology at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. Twitter @chiang_yilin Instagram @yilin.chiang How privileged adolescents in China acquire status and why this helps them succeed Study Gods offers a rare look at the ways privileged youth in China prepare themselves to join the ranks of the global elite. Yi-Lin Chiang shows how these competitive Chinese high schoolers first become "study gods" (xueshen), a term describing academically high-performing students. Constant studying, however, is not what explains their success, for these young people appear god-like in their effortless abilities to excel. Instead, Chiang explores how elite adolescents achieve by absorbing and implementing the rules surrounding status. Drawing from eight years of fieldwork and extensive interviews, Chiang reveals the important lessons that Chinese youth learn in their pursuit of elite status. They understand the hierarchy of the status system, recognizing and acquiring the characteristics that are prized, while avoiding those that are not. They maintain status by expecting differential treatment and performing status-based behaviors, which guide their daily interactions with peers, teachers, and parents. Lastly, with the help of resourceful parents, they rely on external assistance in the face of potential obstacles and failures. Chiang looks at how students hone these skills, applying them as they head to colleges and careers around the world, and in their relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Highlighting another facet of China's rising power, Study Gods announces the arrival of a new generation to the realm of global competition. "The importance of this study is . . . that while most research so far om social inequality and status reproduction (as distinct from upward social mobility) has considered thewe phenomena as restricted to one country, it is now shown that the elite students of China are part of the dynamics of elite status reproduction on a global scale."---Bart Dessein, Journal of the European Association for Chinese Studies "Beautifully written, vividly detailed, and hard to put down, Study Gods takes us on a fascinating journey into the test-centered world of selective Chinese high schools, where high-performing students have exalted status. Remarkably, Chiang followed these young people for several years as they moved through Ivy League colleges and into high-status jobs in Europe and the United States. Highly recommended!"-Annette Lareau, author of Unequal Childhoods "Highly significant, Study Gods follows a group of socioeconomically elite students from China over several years. With nuanced discussions and drawing from interdisciplinary literature in sociology, education, and anthropology, this accessible work will appeal to readers interested in the rise of China."-Yingyi Ma, author of Ambitious and Anxious "With conceptual clarity and rigorous analysis, this fascinating book unfolds the complex process through which adolescents of privileged parents in China strategically navigate the education systems to maximize their chances of achieving academic success and winning global competition. Chiang also dispels the myth of the 'tiger mother,' drawing attention to the paramount importance of social class in shaping values, norms, practices, and socioeconomic outcomes."-Min Zhou, coauthor of The Asian American Achievement Paradox "This highly engaging and beautifully written book offers a rich analysis of the lives, perspectives, and experiences of the 'study gods.' Chiang's holistic, longitudinal approach provides a deep understanding of the world's most academically and socioeconomically elite Chinese students."-Vanessa Fong, Amherst College

How the world's largest e-commerce market highlights a digital path to development How do states build vital institutions for market development? Too often, governments confront technical or political barriers to providing the rule of law, contract enforcement, and loan access. In From Click to Boom, Lizhi Liu examines a digital solution: governments strategically outsourcing tasks of institutional development and enforcement to digital platforms-a process she calls "institutional outsourcing." China's e-commerce boom showcases this digital path to development. In merely two decades, China built from scratch a two-trillion-dollar e-commerce market, with 800 million users, seventy million jobs, and nearly fifty percent of global online retail sales. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Liu argues, this market boom occurred because of weak government institutions, not despite them. Gaps in government institutions compelled e-commerce platforms to build powerful private institutions for contract enforcement, fraud detection, and dispute resolution. For a surprisingly long period, the authoritarian government acquiesced, endorsed, and even partnered with this private institutional building despite its disruptive nature. Drawing on a plethora of interviews, original surveys, proprietary data, and a field experiment, Liu shows that the resulting e-commerce boom had far-reaching effects on China. Institutional outsourcing nonetheless harbors its own challenges. With inadequate regulation, platforms may abuse market power, while excessive regulation stifles institutional innovation. China's regulatory oscillations toward platforms-from laissez-faire to crackdown and back to support-underscore the struggle to strike the right balance. Lizhi Liu is assistant professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, where she is also a faculty affiliate of the Department of Government. She was named one of Poets&Quants Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors. "How did China's e-commerce market emerge and thrive in the absence of strong, formal institutions? In From Click to Boom, Lizhi Liu offers fresh answers to classical debates in the twenty-first century context, blazing a new path for future studies on China's digital economy."-Yuen Yuen Ang, author of China's Gilded Age "From Click to Boom is a fascinating account of how Chinese big tech rose to such powerful heights and put China in the forefront of many new digital industries. An essential read for understanding China's enormous success in e-commerce and answering larger questions about China's development path and its future trajectory."-Mary Gallagher, University of Notre Dame "From Click to Boom is a masterful and captivating work of scholarship that poses – and persuasively resolves – crucial puzzles regarding the successful development of China's e-commerce markets in the absence of strong legal institutions. Liu's provocative insights offer an innovative approach to understanding institutional development in China and beyond."-Brian S. Silverman, University of Toronto "From Click to Boom will quickly become the leading English-language research monograph on the governance functions performed by China's e-commerce platforms, and a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand how and why this occurred. Its combination of research methods is cutting-edge and sets a new standard in the field."-Kellee Tsai, Northeastern University "From Click to Boom is a landmark book, one of the best books I have read on political economy and Chinese politics in the last two decades."-Yuhua Wang, Harvard University "One of the Best Books on China, China-Britain Business Council Magazine" "Winner of the Axiom Silver Medal in International Business, Globalization Category"

"Winner of the 2018 Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Association" "Winner of the 2018 Gordon Hirabayashi Human Rights Book Award, Human Rights Section of the American Sociological Association" Ya-Wen Lei is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and an affiliate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? In The Contentious Public Sphere, Ya-Wen Lei shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China-one the state must now endeavor to control. Lei examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. Using interviews, newspaper articles, online texts, official documents, and national surveys, Lei shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. She demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere-and its uncertain future-is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. Investigating how individuals learn to use public discourse to influence politics, The Contentious Public Sphere offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state-society relations. "China, a modernizing and authoritarian state, is determined to contain a politically awakened citizenry keen to expand its access to information in a contentious, unauthorized public sphere. Ya-Wen Lei delineates this paradoxical drama with remarkable skill, sensitivity, and fluency. With a wealth of resources, she deploys an impressive mix of methods and strategies to unravel this globally significant problem. This brilliant book is indispensable not only for specialists and laymen interested in China's political development, but also for students of the state and civil society."-Orlando Patterson, author of Freedom: Freedom in the Making of Western Culture "Demonstrating the existence of an unruly public sphere in China's authoritarian state, this important book argues that this sphere grew paradoxically from the nation's imperative to modernize itself in the post-Mao era, through the institutionalization of modern law, commercialization of media, and embracing of new information technologies. This sophisticated, balanced, and wide-ranging book makes significant contributions to the political and media sociology of China, and offers insights for rethinking liberal theories of the public sphere and the realities of public expression in authoritarian regimes."-Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania "Ya-Wen Lei has written an important and exciting book that ought to be read by anyone interested in the interplay of politics, law, and media not just in China and other authoritarian countries, but anywhere in the world. Much of what's written about the digital revolution will prove to be of ephemeral interest. This book offers a model for a more durable understanding of the forces shaping the public sphere."-Paul Starr, Princeton University "Ambitious and accomplished, this is a major interpretive synthesis concerning the public sphere in China-complete with valuable new findings. The book's arguments are clear, competent, and or