When peasants live in complex agrarian societies with distinct hierarchies of power, how much are they able to shape their world? In this socio-economic, political, and anthropological history, Helen F. Siu explores this question by examining a rural community in Guangdong Province from the late nineteenth century to the present.

Tracing China’s journey began from exploring rural revolution and reconstitutions of community in South China. Spanning decades of rural-urban divide, it finally uncovers China’s global reach and Hong Kong’s cross-border dynamics. Helen Siu traverses physical and cultural landscapes to examine political tumults transforming into everyday lives, and fathom the depths of human drama amid China’s frenetic momentum toward modernity. Highlighting complicity, Siu portrays how villagers, urbanites, cadres, entrepreneurs, and intellectuals—laden with historical baggage—venture forward. But have they victimized themselves in the process? This essay collection, informed by critical social theories and shaped by careful scrutiny of fieldwork and archival texts, is woven by key historical/anthropological themes—culture, history, power, place-making, and identity formation. Siu stresses process and contingency and argues that culture and society are constructed through human actions with nuanced meanings, moral imagination, and contested interests. Challenging the notion that social/political changes are mere linear historical progressions, she traces layers of the past in present realities. “Helen Siu is one of the world’s leading specialists on Chinese rural and urban society. Her essays, collected here, cover a wide range of topics of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, economists, and political scientists. Siu focuses on the ‘underside’ of social life in South China, a quality so often missing in the work of others. She writes with great skill and empathy.” —James L. Watson, Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society and Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus, Harvard University “No one has woven the threads of ethnography, social structure, and cultural performance so brilliantly together as Helen Siu has in Tracing China. This rich tapestry of her finest scholarship illuminates how culture, power, and history can be deployed to yield wholly original and convincing understandings of southern China.” —James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University

The concept of guanxi is used extensively in Chinese society. Loosely understood as 'connections' or 'networks', it refers to long-term mutually reinforcing exchanges between individuals based on affective and normative commitments. This book comprehensively examines the nature and background of this extremely significant and distinct feature of Chinese social, political, economic, and business relations. It takes account of the major theoretical frameworks that relate to the long-term connections that are developed to pursue instrumental advantage in a society marked by relatively weak legal and regulatory institutions. The book locates such theorizing in the major features of the rapidly evolving Chinese market society. Yet it also pays attention to the historical origins and cultural sources of a highly particularistic approach to the acquisition of social and material resources -- an approach which relies on obligatory relations of favour exchange between persons who self-consciously and strategically select their associates and goals. This sociological treatment of guanxi challenges many dominant conventions and introduces a novel research approach which captures the pertinent psychological dispositions, cultural expressions, and institutional frameworks that underpin the phenomenon.

The Qing dynasty (1636–1912)—a crucial bridge between “traditional” and “modern” China—was remarkable for its expansiveness and cultural sophistication. This engaging and insightful history of Qing political, social, and cultural life traces the complex interaction between the Inner Asian traditions of the Manchus, who conquered China in 1644, and indigenous Chinese cultural traditions. Noted historian Richard J. Smith argues that the pragmatic Qing emperors presented a “Chinese” face to their subjects who lived south of the Great Wall and other ethnic faces (particularly Manchu, Mongolian, Central Asian, and Tibetan) to subjects in other parts of their vast multicultural empire. They were attracted by many aspects of Chinese culture, but far from being completely “sinicized” as many scholars argue, they were also proud of their own cultural traditions and interested in other cultures as well. Setting Qing dynasty culture in historical and global perspective, Smith shows how the Chinese of the era viewed the world; how their outlook was expressed in their institutions, material culture, and customs; and how China’s preoccupation with order, unity, and harmony contributed to the civilization’s remarkable cohesiveness and continuity. Nuanced and wide-ranging, his authoritative book provides an essential introduction to late imperial Chinese culture and society.

A Companion to Chinese History presents a collection of essays offering a comprehensive overview of the latest intellectual developments in the study of China’s history from the ancient past up until the present day. Covers the major trends in the study of Chinese history from antiquity to the present day Considers the latest scholarship of historians working in China and around the world Explores a variety of long-range questions and themes which serves to bridge the conventional divide between China’s traditional and modern eras Addresses China’s connections with other nations and regions and enables non-specialists to make comparisons with their own fields Features discussion of traditional topics and chronological approaches as well as newer themes such as Chinese history in relation to sexuality, national identity, and the environment

Using sources in Japanese, Chinese and American archives, this text reassesses Woodrow Wilson's agenda at the Paris Peace Conference. It argues Wilson did not "betray" China, but negotiated a compromise with the Japanese to ensure that China's sovereignty would be respected in Shandong Province.

This text focuses on the relationship of Hong Kong with the adjacent Chinese province Guangdong, the territories most directly involved in the 1997 transfer of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. The socio-economic, political and cultural impact of this crucial link and the implications for the future of both Hong Kong and China are studied. A multi-disciplinary approach is taken to examine the complexity of economic, political and cultural transformation of the Hong Kong-Guangdong link and this book presents a historical perspective to trace the long-term structural transformation. The dynamics of the integration process between the two territories is also explored.

Annotation. Historians and anthropologists have long been interested in South China where powerful lineages and gendered hierarchies are juxtaposed with unorthodox trading cultures, multi-ethnic colonial encounters, and market-driven consumption. The divergent paths taken by women in Hong Kong and Guangdong during thirty years of Maoist closure, and the post-reform cross-border fluidities have also gained analytical attention.

In this sumptuously illustrated history, now in its second edition, Patricia Buckley Ebrey traces the origins of Chinese culture from prehistoric times to the present.