Books for Chinese Culture & Society Courses

Understanding Chinese Society

Edited by Xiaowei Zang

As China gains power – economically, politically, and militarily – and interaction between the Chinese and people outside China increases, it becomes more and more important that we understand the social factors that influence the daily lives of China's population. This new...

Published October 9th 2011 by Routledge

Learning Chinese, Turning Chinese

Challenges to Becoming Sinophone in a Globalised World

By Edward McDonald

Series: Asia's Transformations

In this book Edward McDonald takes a fresh look at issues of language in Chinese studies. He takes the viewpoint of the university student of Chinese with the ultimate goal of becoming 'sinophone': that is, developing a fluency and facility at operating in Chinese-language contexts comparable to...

Published February 6th 2011 by Routledge

State and Society Responses to Social Welfare Needs in China

Serving the people

Edited by Jonathan Schwartz, Shawn Shieh

Series: Routledge Contemporary China Series

This volume examines the shifting role of the state and social organizations (e.g. NGOs) in providing social services in contemporary China. A series of case studies identifies a dynamic whereby the state increasingly withdraws from social service provision with social organizations taking up the...

Published August 14th 2010 by Routledge

Chinese Society

Change, Conflict and Resistance, 3rd Edition

Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry, Mark Selden

Series: Asia's Transformations

This bestselling introduction to Chinese society uses the themes of resistance and protest to explore the complexity of life in contemporary China. An interdisciplinary and international team of China scholars draw on perspectives from sociology, anthropology, psychology, history and political...

Published March 9th 2010 by Routledge

Reclaiming Chinese Society

The New Social Activism

Edited by You-tien Hsing, Ching Kwan Lee

Series: Asia's Transformations

Reclaiming Chinese Society analyses the mechanisms, processes and actors producing a wide spectrum of social and cultural changes in reform China. Contrary to most literature that emphasizes economic and political processes at the expense of Chinese society, this volume argues for the centrality of...

Published September 28th 2009 by Routledge

The New Rich in China

Future rulers, present lives

Edited by David SG Goodman

Three decades of reform since 1978 in the People’s Republic of China have resulted in the emergence of new social groups which have included new occupations and professions generated as the economy has opened up and developed and, most spectacularly given the legacy of state socialism, the...

Published April 24th 2008 by Routledge

China's New Consumers

Social Development and Domestic Demand

By Elisabeth Croll

Exploring China's consumer revolution over the past three decades, this book shows a continuing cycle leading to excess supply and disappointing demand, at the centre of which lies exaggerated expectations of China's new consumers. Combining economic trends with the author’s anthropological...

Published September 28th 2006 by Routledge

Working in China

Ethnographies of Labor and Workplace Transformation

Edited by Ching Kwan Lee

Series: Asia's Transformations

After a quarter of a century of market reform, China has become the workshop of the world and the leading growth engine of the global economy. Its immense labour force accounts for some twenty-nine per cent of the world's total labour pool but all too little is known about Chinese labour...

Published August 29th 2006 by Routledge

Critical Issues in Contemporary China

Edited by Czeslaw Tubilewicz

This informative and up-to-date text takes a multidisciplinary approach in examining contemporary China. It provides students with a comprehensive analysis of a number of the social, political and economic problems that China faces as it enters the twenty-first century. The chapters cover key...

Published August 29th 2006 by Routledge

Commerce and Capitalism in Chinese Societies

By Gary G. Hamilton

This informative book discusses the effects of the rise of Chinese capitalism on both China itself, and on its neighbours. Incorporating empirical data collated from interviews in several Asian societies and from historical Chinese sources, this renowned author analyzes, discusses and applies...

Published May 22nd 2006 by Routledge