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This is the first book-length treatment of the Paoge--a violent secret society located in a rural village near Chengdu, China. The book uses a filicide within the society as a starting point to examine the environment, history, culture, and organization of the Paoge and the structures of local power in 1940s rural Sichuan

To understand a city fully, writes Di Wang, we must observe its most basic units of social life. In The Teahouse under Socialism, Wang does just that, arguing that the teahouses of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, are some of the most important public spaces—perfect sites for examining the social and economic activities of everyday Chinese.Wang looks at the transformation of these teahouses from private businesses to collective ownership and how state policy and the proprietors' response to it changed the overall economic and social structure of the city. He uses this transformation to illuminate broader trends in China's urban public life from 1950 through the end of the Cultural Revolution and into the post-Mao reform era. In doing so, The Teahouse under Socialism charts the fluctuations in fortune of this ancient cultural institution and analyzes how it survived, and even thrived, under bleak conditions.Throughout, Wang asks such questions as: Why and how did state power intervene in the operation of small businesses? How was "socialist entertainment" established in a local society? How did the well-known waves of political contestation and struggle in China change Chengdu's teahouses and public life? In the end, Wang argues, the answers to such questions enhance our understanding of public life and political culture in the Communist state.

A small business -- The Teahouse Guild -- Labor and workplace culture -- Public life -- Entertainment -- All walks of life -- Conflicts in public -- A political site

During the 2020 Two Sessions of Chinese Government, national representatives debated 'single women's' reproductive rights (SWRR), a cause spearheaded by a coalition of queer feminist activists and lawyers in China. In light of state retaliation against feminist and LGBTQ movements since 2015, why have feminist activists, LGBTQ activists, and legal activists been able to coalesce around SWRR? My analysis shows a differential coalescing process, in which Chinese queer feminist activists have driven the coalition to constantly re-center queer women's lived reality. I argue that these activists' movements between and around different dominant strategies for challenging China's state-family project and their commitment to rallying others who may differ in their approach have made SWRR a site around which to coalesce in post-2015 Chinese civil society. (J Contemp China / GIGA)

Abstract
Thirteenth-century sources provide us with striking images of Mongol noblewomen, which are not eclipsed by the heroic conquests and military exploits of their men. While recognising the complexity of gender roles in pre-imperial Mongol society, this article aims to explore the specific responsivities carried by Hö'elün and Börte in the narrative of The Secret History of the Mongols. The selective presentation of their characters and duties further reveals the goal of the Secret Historian to create a ruling model, which includes a brave widowed mother and an intelligent wife for the Qan of the empire.

The Chinese state acts in concert with the patriarchal family to sustain its authoritarian legitimacy, and both institutions are grounded in paternalistic cultural norms. The state also harnesses the "quality" of Chinese families through the law, which often saddles women with more burdens and responsibilities than it does men. From the 1950 Marriage Law to the 2015 Universal Two-Child Policy, the state has directly politicized the family through explicit mandates on marriage and reproductive control as well as repressive deployment of families as a tool for social stability and national security. To unpack this state-family project, this article addresses how the patriarchal state constructs and manages a filial nationalist population in order to secure its authoritarian rule. Through the lens of emerging Chinese feminist and queer scholarship on families, this article also asks how the state-family project has affected people and families that are intersectionally marginalized by gender, sexuality, class, household registration [hukou 户口], and so on. Lastly, this article spotlights new developments in feminist and lgbtq movements as they advocate for marginalized individuals and families.

Through an examination of issues arising from mahjong playing, this article explores changes in daily life and popular culture at the turn of the twenty-first century and argues that these changes reflect political, economic, social, and cultural transformations, in which conflicts between individual rights and collective interests have become increasingly prominent. This study discusses issues relating to mahjong from stories at four different levels: individual, community, the city, and the nation, which, respectively, look at conflicts among neighbors, examine the role of the Residential Committee in the neighborhood, observe the responses of the municipal government and official media to the city's image, and reveal the dilemma when the socialist state confronts mahjong issues. From the specific issues arising from mahjong, we can see how the new culture of the market economy in today's China coexists with elements from a more traditional lifestyle.

This article, which is based on fieldwork carried out within a Residents' Committee in Beijing, explores the way in which this low-level urban society management authority functions. More precisely, it analyses the relationships established by these administrators with the higher echelons and likewise with the residents and the way in which these relationships develop, depending on the activities in question. It describes in particular how the expectations of the upper echelons, and the way in which they are expressed, orient and limit the practices adopted within these authorities and the operating norms that result. Particular attention is paid to the management by numbers imposed by the upper echelons, and its impact on the functioning of Neighbourhood Communities. (China Perspect/GIGA)

AbstractThis article reveals that teahouses were the scene of a variety of conflicts, from verbal disputes and petty thefts to violence and murder. The author argues that the teahouse, although mainly a place for leisure, business and public life, also became an arena for struggle for livelihood. The teahouse was a microcosm of Chengdu, and anything undertaken there reflected the larger society. Conflicts in the teahouse to a large extent reflected current social issues. Fights broke out when people found it difficult to solve their problems, to make a living and to survive, or when they were anxious or unhappy in the face of injustice, the deteriorating economy, hunger, insecurity and war. On the other hand, conflicts also arose from the abuse of power and privilege and the tyrannical response to social turmoil by thugs, soldiers and outlaws. We can see such unfortunate periods during the first half of the twentieth century. The author also tries to point out that the teahouse functioned as a stage where all kinds of people performed roles that were both good and evil, but all became part of teahouse culture and teahouse life.