Social Issues in China

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Gender, Ethnicity, Labor, and the Environment as Social Issues and Public Policy Challenges

   • Sheying Chen, Zhidong Hao

   Pages 1-20

3. Gender Relations in China

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-21

      PDF

   2. Rural Chinese Women’s Political Participation: Problems and Prospects

      • Chiew-Siang Bryan Ho, Qin Li

      Pages 23-44

   3. Self-Assertive Mistresses and Corrupt Officials: The Complex Interdependencies

      • Helen Xiaoyan Wu

      Pages 45-65

   4. Domestic Labor, Gendered Intergenerational Contract, and Shared Elderly Care in Rural South China

      • Clara Wai-chun To

      Pages 67-84

   5. The Growth and Dilemma of Women’s NGOs in China: A Case Study of the Beijing Zhongze Legal Consulting Service Center for Women

      • Jun Li

      Pages 85-105

4. Ethnic Relations in China

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

      PDF

   2. Language, Learning, and Identity: Problematizing the Education for Tibetans

      • Chung Dolma

      Pages 109-126

   3. Interpreting the Ethnicization of Social Conflict in China: Ethnonationalism, Identity, and Social Justice

      • Grace Cheng

      Pages 127-144

   4. A Harmonious Society: National Policies and Ethnic Relations

      • A. Tom Grunfeld

      Pages 145-161

   5. NGO Development in China’s Ethnic Areas

      • Xu Liu

      Pages 163-180

5. Labor Relations in China

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181

      PDF

   2. Labor Contract, Trade Union Membership, and Workplace Relations: A Study of Migrant Workers in Guangdong Province, China

      • Zhiming Cheng, Haining Wang, Yuanyuan Chen

      Pages 183-206

   3. Labor Protection for Migrant Workers in China: A Perspective of Institutional Reform

      • Qingwen Xu

      Pages 207-226

   4. From Societization of Workers’ Rights Defending to the Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Experience of Yiwu City’s General Trade Union

      • Xinjun Gao

      Pages 227-237

   5. The Role of Intellectuals in Contemporary China’s Labor Movement: A Preliminary Exploration

      • Zhidong Hao

      Pages 239-253

6. The Environmental Movement

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 255-255

      PDF

   2. Environmental Problems in China: Issues and Prospects

      • Peter Zabielskis

      Pages 257-280

   3. The Struggle for Survival: A Case Study of an Environmental NGO in Zhejiang Province

      • Hao Xin, Jing Yang

      Pages 281-289

Since 1978, the opening up and reform in China has brought tremendous economic and social changes. While China’s economic progress has been commendable, the social problems that go with economic changes have raised serious concerns. Some of those concerns are related to gender, ethnic, labor, and environmental issues. This book is about what has happened in these arenas in China since the opening up and reform in 1978.   The study of gender, ethnicity, labor, and environment touches on some of the fundamental problems of modernization, especially the development of individuals and groups. So even though gender, ethnicity, labor, and environment seem to be separate issues, they are in fact related in some fundamental ways. That’s what this book will explore as well.   To understand is one thing and to do is another. This book also incorporates studies of NGO practices to see how NGOs have helped in transforming gender, ethnic, labor, and environment interplay. Our study of NGOs in helping improve such interplay sheds light on how specifically civil society can prod the state to transform social relations for the better. This book is an attempt to assess the changes, both positive and negative, in gender, ethnic, ethnic, and environmental relations in China especially in the past 30 years of opening up and reform, especially regarding national identity formation. ​

• Environmental issues in China
• Ethnicity in China
• Gender issues in China
• Labor issues in China
• Social issues in China
• Social policy in China

• Department of Sociology, University of Macao, Taipa, Macao

  Zhidong Hao

• Pace University, New York, USA

  Sheying Chen

Zhadong Hao is professor in the Department of Sociology and academic manager of the Social Science Research Center on Contemporary China at the University of Macao.

Sheying Chen is professor of social policy and associate provost for academic affairs at Pace University in New York. He is series co-editor, as well as co-editor of Springers series International Perspectives on Aging. He has also co-edited a special issue of Ageing International and recentlyjoined that journal as an associate editor.

Policies and ethics