Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance (review)

This volume is an exciting new review of major issues in contemporary China. Its thirteen chapters cover a range of topics that deal with contemporary political activism. Each chapter highlights a topic that relates to the institutional contexts and pathways of collective protest, and various forms of resistance.

Several of the chapters stress the incomplete nature of the institutional frameworks in a China that is undergoing rapid change. Contradictions emerge between these institutional frameworks and the need for social order and control. Chapter 4, "Contesting Rural Spaces," by Peter Ho, gives us a full and fairly clear outline of the complex land laws and tenure systems that we need to know in order to understand rural land disputes. The hukousystem was still firmly in place when chapter 6, "Migration, Hukou, and Resistance," was written by Hein Mallee. Mallee describes the lack of urban institutions for rural migrants in the cities (estimated at 120 million), ranging from safe residential areas to schools. Although new government pronouncements are now suggesting the possible end of the hukousystem, there are many who oppose its demise. If rural migrants were to have the same rights as city dwellers, there would be a sharp increase in wages and in the number of schools and other important improvements in the lives of rural migrants, but the costs would have to be born by employers and municipal governments. The decision to do away with the hukou is politically delicate. If the hukoudisappear, urban workers will lose the last distinctive institution that they can rely upon.

Chapter 3, "Pathways of Labor Insurgency," by Ching Kwan Lee, along with chapter 6, takes up the issue of weak labor unions. Unions affiliated with the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) are not sufficiently developed to enter the new private sector, prompting many workers to engage in grassroots organizing in order to establish their own voice. And migrant workers are mar-ginalized by the ACFTU-affiliated unions.

With economic development, the old accepted legal and institutional frameworks no longer cover all interest groups, and clashes between special interests give rise to social protest. The increased value of land provides one example. Chapter 4 and chapter 5, "To the Courts or to the Barricades …," by David Zweig, discuss how the legal system lags behind the growth of the market, and this encourages rapacious investors and cadres to usurp the rights of those who occupy the land or to take advantage of loopholes in existing but informal land agreements in order to appropriate land.

Finally, the book chapters document a loosening of the institutional fabric. New institutions and structures provide new contexts for popular action. The once well-defined boundaries of old institutions are no longer fixed. New agencies, actors, and spokespersons are emerging to support collective action, and divisions are appearing that are caused by the rise of interest groups within leadership and other major social structures.

Several chapters attest to the importance of the legal system as a new institutional context. For instance, chapter 5 discusses how the courts and new political institutions are providing the necessary space for collective action, such as the filing of grievances. As a result there is an increasing awareness of the existence of legal rights. Chapter 1, "Rights and Resistance," by Minxin Pei, is a study of democratic "The Revolution of Resistance," by Geremie Barmie, discusses cultural forums and the publication of broad-based political and cultural critiques. Writers are dealing with the issue of isolation versus collective action; although those who engage in protest now have new legitimate legal contexts in which to raise their concerns, there is still a problem of isolation for the individual protester. In previous mass struggles, workers banded together to make their concerns known to officials and the general public alike, or took control of a space...