Table Of ContentSocial Transformations in Chinese Societies
Social Transformations in
Chinese Societies
The Official Annual of the
Hong Kong Sociological Association
Editors
Bian Yan-jie, Chan Kwok-bun and Cheung Tak-sing
VOLUME 1
2005
Editorial Board
Alatas, Syed Farid, National University of Singapore; Cai, He, Zhongshan University;
Chan, H.N., Annie, Lingnan University; Chiu, Chiu-hing, Catherine, City University
of Hong Kong; Chiu, Hei-yuan, Academia Sinica; Chiu, Wing-kai, Stephen, The
Chinese University of Hong Kong; Chu, Yin-wah, Cindy, University of Hong Kong;
Davis, Deborah, Yale University; Hamilton, Gary, University of Washington; Hook,
Brian, Middlesex University; Hsiao, H.H., Michael, Academia Sinica; Kao, Cheng-
shu, Tunghai University; King, Yao-chi, Ambrose, The Chinese University of Hong
Kong; Lau, Siu-kai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Lee, James, University
of Michigan; Lee, Ming-kwan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Lee, Pui-leung,
Rance, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Leung, Hon-chu, Hong Kong Baptist
University; Leung Sai-wing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Li, Lulu, People’s
University; Li, Peilin, Academy of Social Science, Beijing; Li, S., Peter, University
of Saskatchewan; Li, Qiang, Tsinghua University; Li, Youmei, Shanghai University;
Lin, Nan, Duke University; Madsen, Richard, University of California at San Diego;
Mok, Ka-ho, University of Bristol; Pan, Ngai, Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology; Postiglione, Gerard A., University of Hong Kong; Qiu, Haixiong,
Zhongshan University; Salaff, Janet, University of Toronto; So, Y.W., Alvin, Hong
Kong University of Science and Technology; Song, Linfei, Jiangsu Academy of
Social Science; Thireau, Isabelle, National Center for Scientific Research, Paris;
Vogel, Ezra F., Harvard University; Walder, Andrew G., Stanford University; Wong,
M.H., Odalia, Hong Kong Baptist University; Wong, W. P., Thomas, University
of Hong Kong; Wright, Tim, University of Sheffield; Zhou, Min, University of
California at Los Angeles; Zhou, Xiaohong, Nanjing University.
Social Transformations in
Chinese Societies
The Official Annual of the
Hong Kong Sociological Association
Editors
Bian Yan-jie, Chan Kwok-bun and Cheung Tak-sing
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2005
Printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISSN 1871–2673
ISBN 13 978 90 04 14967 0
ISBN 10 90 04 14967 8
© Copyright 2005 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprint Brill Academic
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CONTENTS
From the Editors ........................................................................ vii
Authors’ Biographies .................................................................. viii
Public Trust in a Transitional Democracy:
Modeling the Changes in Taiwan, 1990–2003 .................. 1
Tony Tam and Chang Ly-yun
Material Rewards to Multiple Capitals Under
Market-Socialism in China .................................................. 31
Deborah Davis, Bian Yan-jie and Wang Shaoguang
Body Disabled? Rethinking Disability and Social
Integration in Hong Kong .................................................. 59
Agnes Ku S. M. and Jenifer Tam P. Y.
Observations on the Design and Implementation of
Sample Surveys in China .................................................... 81
Donald J. Treiman, William M. Mason, Lu Yao,
Pan Yi, Qi Yaqiang and Song Shige
Family Customs and Farmland Reallocations in
Contemporary Chinese Villages .......................................... 113
Jonathan Unger
Chinese NGOs Strive to Survive .............................................. 131
Chan Kin-man, Qiu Haixiong and Zhu Jiangang
The Chinese Diaspora and International Migration .............. 161
Zhou Min
The Stranger’s Plight, and Delight .......................................... 191
Chan Kwok-bun
vi contents
Book Reviews
The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 1921–1969, by Cindy
Chu Yik-yi. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
213 pp. ISBN 1–4039–6586–2 ...................................... 221
Chu Yin-wah
A Research Report of Social Stratification in Contemporary China,
edited by Lu Xueyi. Beijing: Social Sciences
Documentation Publishing House, 2001. 411 pp.
ISBN 7–80149–632–9/D.099 .......................................... 224
Liu Xin
God and Caesar in China: Policy Implications of Church-State
Tensions, edited by Jason Kindopp and Carol Lee
Hamrin. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press,
2004. vii + 200 pp. ISBN 0–8157–4937–6 .................. 226
Chan Shun-hing
Remaking Citizenship in Hong Kong: Community, Nation, and
the Global City, edited by Agnes Ku S. and Pun Ngai.
London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. xxvi + 261 pp.
ISBN 0–415–33209–5 ...................................................... 228
Hung Ho-fung
Notice to Contributors .............................................................. 234
FROM THE EDITORS
The focus of this Annual is on the examination of social change and social trans-
formations in Hong Kong and other Chinese societies from sociological perspec-
tives. The economic might of Hong Kong and the cultural influence that it exerts
on the Chinese all over the world are so enormous that they have surpassed the
magnitude of influence that Venice once had on the Western world. Since the trans-
fer of sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong has been undergoing a profound process
of social transformation from a British colony to an integrated part of China ruled
by a communist party. Under China’s policy of “one country, two systems”, Hong
Kong is allowed to run on its own course by adhering to a capitalist system. Its
citizens still enjoy their usual ways of life and the rights and freedoms that they
once enjoyed under British rule, but the policy is unprecedented in political his-
tory. Over the years, issues after issues have emerged to test the limit of Hong
Kong’s autonomy vis-à-vis China’s national sovereignty. The massive demonstration
in Hong Kong on July 1, 2003 when half a million people protested against a pro-
posed national security law is a case in point. What happened was by no means
a local event, but one of universal significance, in the sense that whether the “one
country, two systems” policy is successful will provide a precedent for the peaceful
resolution of international disputes and a model for the coexistence of two systems
of diametrically opposed ideologies.
At the same time, China is undergoing a social transformation that is unparalled
in the history of mankind. As a renowned economist put it, the most spectacular
event in the 20th century was not the sudden collapse of the communist bloc, but
the dramatic rise of China, which will become a dominant force in the world of
the 21st century. The capital, international networks, and management skills of
Hong Kong entrepreneurs have played and continue to play a major role in China’s
spectacular economic development. In addition, a sizeable number of Hong Kong
people now work and live in China, mostly in the Pearl River Delta. Over the
years, China and Hong Kong have affected each other to such an extent that one
can hardly understand one side without first understanding the other.
Another phenomenon that captures the world’s attention is the Chinese diaspora,
which entered a new stage of development in 1984 when China declared its inten-
tion to take back Hong Kong from Britain in 1997. Facing an uncertain future, it
was estimated that more than half a million Hong Kong citizens, mostly belong-
ing to the middle class, emigrated to other countries between 1984 and 1997; many
of them have come back to Hong Kong as return migrants. Together with the
loosening of China’s restriction on migration, emigrants of Chinese ethnicity are
now spreading to virtually every corner of the world, carrying with them traces of
one of the greatest civilizations that have ever existed.
At this historical juncture, an Annual devoted to sociological studies of the great
transformations in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Mainland China, and other Chinese
societies has a niche in the community of academic journals for the following rea-
sons: 1) the spectacular rise of China is attracting world attention; 2) there are few
quality academic journals about China; 3) Hong Kong studies have been largely
neglected in these journals; 4) the Chinese overseas, though studied for decades,
are by and large under-theorized; and 5) as far as China studies are concerned,
our Annual has a distinct advantage over other journals because it looks at China
from Hong Kong. For a long time, Hong Kong has been an ideal place for China
watchers, not only because of its physical proximity, but also because of the free-
dom of expression that its citizens enjoy and the cultural similarity that it shares
with the Chinese population in the mainland, and the Chinese overseas.
AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Bian Yan-jie is Head and Professor of the Division of Social Science and Director
of the Survey Research Center at the Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology. His main areas of research are social stratification and mobility, eco-
nomic sociology, social networks, and contemporary Chinese societies. He is the
author of Work and Inequality in Urban China (SUNY Press 1994), co-editor of Social
Survey Research in Chinese Societies (Oxford University Press 2001), co-editor of Market
Transition and Social Stratification ( Joint Publishing House 2002), and co-editor of
Social Survey Research in Practice: Chinese Experience and Analysis (Oxford University
Press 2004). Currently, he is leading a research team to conduct the General
Social Survey of China.
Chan Kin-man is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Chinese University of
Hong Kong. He is also a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the Sun Yat-sen
University of Guangzhou and a founding member of the Research Center for NGOs
in South China. His main areas of research are corruption, civil society, and
democratization in Hong Kong and China. He is the author of “The Development
of NGOs under a Post-Totalitarian Regime: The Case of China” in Civil Life,
Globalization, and Political Change in Asia: Organizing Between Family and State, edited
by Robert Wellner (Routledge, 2005: 20–41) and co-author of “Social Organizations,
Social Capital, and Political and Economic Development” in Sociological Research
(Shehuixue Yanjiu) No. 4, July, 1999, 20: 64–74.
Chan Kwok-bun is Head and Professor of the Department of Sociology and Director
of the David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies at the Hong Kong Baptist
University. His recent books are Chinese Business Networks: State, Economy and Culture
(Prentice Hall and Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2000), (with Tong Chee-
kiong) Alternate Identities: The Chinese of Contemporary Thailand (Times Academic Press
and Brill Academic Publishers, 2001), (with Tong Chee-kiong) Past Times: A Social
History of Singapore (Times Editions, 2003), Chinese Identities, Ethnicity and Cosmopolitanism
(Routledge, 2005), and Migration, Ethnic Relations and Chinese Business (Routledge,
2005). He has published essays in International Migration Review, Diaspora, Canadian
Ethnic Studies, Social Science and Medicine, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast
Asia, Global Change, Peace and Security, Revue Europeenne des Migrations Internationales,
Revista de Occidente, Asia Pacific Business Review and the Asian Journal of Social Sciences.
In the past year, he has begun to publish in the Chinese language in China’s
sociological journals such as Society (Shanghai) Shandong Social Science (Shandong)
and Zhejiang Academic Journal (Zhejiang). His current research interests are in migra-
tion, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, and diasporas; ethnic identities and eth-
nicities; business networks and ethnic capitalism; medical sociology; and family
and marriage.
Chang Ly-yun is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica.
Her research interests include organizational sociology, medical sociology (espe-
cially the hospital industry, the sociology of mental health, and health inequal-
ity), social networks, and gender inequality. She is the author of two monographs
and editor of three Chinese books. Her English papers have recently been pub-
lished in Current Sociology, the International Medical Journal, the International Journal of
Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, Volume 1
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2005
authors’ biographies ix
Social Psychiatry, and in edited volumes. She was the principal investigator of “The
Organization-Centered Society” project (1996–1999), a large-scale project based
on the positional capital approach to explaining inequality and the impersonal
trust approach to understanding trust-building. She is currently the principal
investigator of the “Taiwan Education Panel Survey” (2001–2007).
Deborah Davis, Professor of Sociology at Yale University, specializes in the study
of contemporary Chinese society. She joined the Yale faculty in 1978 and has
served as Chair of the Department of Sociology, Chair of the Council on East
Asian Studies, and Faculty Director of the Yale Center for the Study of
Globalization. She has also chaired the Joint Committee on Chinese Studies of
the ACLS and the National Screening Committee for Fulbright awards in China.
Her publications include The Consumer Revolution in Urban China (University of
California, 2000), Urban Spaces in Contemporary China (Cambridge University Press,
1995), Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era (University of California Press, 1993),
Long Lives (Stanford University Press, 1991), and Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen
(Harvard, 1990). She is currently completing a book entitled A Home of Their
Own that investigates how the re-privatization of real estate in China has trans-
formed urban property relations and the meaning of citizenship. Another project
begun in summer 2004 compares the impact of family wealth and community
assets in determining school completion rates among boys and girls in rural
China.
Agnes Ku S. M. is an Associate Professor of Social Science at the Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include cultural
sociology, civil society, citizenship, Hong Kong studies, gender and disability.
Her essays have appeared in Sociological Theory, Theory, Culture and Society, International
Sociology, The China Quarterly, and Modern China. She is the editor of Remaking
Citizenship in Hong Kong—Community, Nation, and the Global City (Routledge, 2004,
co-edited with Ngai Pun), and the author of Narratives, Politics, and the Public
Sphere—Struggles Over Political Reform in the Final Transitional Years in Hong Kong
(1992–1994) (Ashgate 1999).
Lu Yao is a fourth year graduate student in sociology at the University of California,
Los Angeles. Her research focuses on demography and social stratification. She
is particularly interested in studying the causes and consequences of internal
migration in developing countries and modeling the educational attainment
process. The article published in this issue is her first publication.
William M. Mason is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and in the
Department of Statistics, and a Faculty Affiliate of the California Center for
Population Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. His current
research interests center on the demography of China and on sexually trans-
mitted diseases. His ongoing research includes the study of sexually transmitted
diseases in the United States, and analysis of the social impact of the SARS epi-
demic in China in 2003. He and the other authors of the paper published in
this Annual are in the process of organizing a new national survey in China
that will compare differences in the level of living in general and health dis-
parities in particular of migrants and permanent residents.
Pan Yi is a third year graduate student in sociology at the University of California,
Los Angeles. She is a social demographer with a particular interest in health
disparities in China.
