New European Research on Contemporary Conference

Third Edition Beijing, 5-6 July 2016

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Please pay attention to security measures at the EU Delegation.

Please bring your ID/passport.

No electronic devices are allowed to be brought in.

Outside attendees must register – send email to [email protected]

NEW EUROPEAN RESEARCH ON CONTEMPORARY CHINA CONFERENCE

3rd edition

5th – 6th July 2016

Venue: Delegation of the European Union to China and Mongolia Address: 15 Dongzhimenwai Dajie (South Wing) Qiankun Mansion D, Sanlitun Xi Liu Jie (North Wing), Chaoyang District, Beijing

This conference aims to bring together doctoral candidates, post-doctoral researchers and recent PhDs based in China, either European nationals or affiliated with European research institutions, in order to produce an overview of the emerging problematics in Chinese studies. The focus of the conference is on contemporary China, in a multi-disciplinary social science perspective.

Organizers Supported by

French Center for Research on Contemporary China Centrum Tübingen China (CEFC) and Sino-French Academic Delegation of the European Union to China Center (CFC, Tsinghua University) Gis Asie – CNRS Heinrich-Böll Foundation Institut français EURAXESS China ThinkIN China

Scientific Committee

Séverine Arsène (CEFC Hong Kong) Jean-Pierre Cabestan (Hong Kong Baptist University, Department of Government and International Studies) Sébastien Colin (CEFC Hong Kong) Sabine Dabringhaus (University of Freiburg, Southeast Asian Studies at Freiburg) Nicolas Douay (CEFC Hong Kong) Eric Florence (CEFC Hong Kong) Chloé Froissart (CFC Beijing) Hu Yong (Peking University of Hong Kong, School of Journalism and Communication) Jack Qiu (The chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Journalism and Communication) Bu Maoliang (Nanjing University, School of Business) Carine Milcent (CEFC Hong Kong) David O‘Brien (University of Nottingham-Ningbo, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies) Pun Ngai (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Department of Applied Social Sciences) Christoph Steinhardt (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Centre For China Studies) Xie Tao (Beijing Foreign Studies University, American Studies Center, School of English and International Studies) Xiong Yihan (Fudan University, School of International Relations and Public Affairs) Yu Xiaomin (Beijing Normal University, Department of Sociology) Zhao Kejin (Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy)

5th July (Day 1)

8.30 – 9.00

Registration of participants

Venue: South Wing

09.00-09.30

Welcome address

His Excellency Hans-Dietmar Schweisgut, Ambassador of the European Union to China

Eric Florence, Director of the French Center for Research on Contemporary China

Venue: Galileo Room (South Wing)

09.30-10.45

Keynote speech

“Ethnographic intervention: Global production and workers‟ power”

Pun Ngai, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Venue: Galileo Room (South Wing)

11:15 - 13:00

(North Wing) (South Wing, Galileo Room)

PANEL 1: CHINA AS A REGIONAL AND PANEL 2: CONTENTIOUS POLITICS GLOBAL ACTOR

Chair: Xie Tao (Beijing Foreign Studies Chair: Chloé Froissart (The Sino-French University) Research Centre, CFC Beijing) and Christoph Steinhardt (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

So far, so close?: EU-China relations and The pitfall of social mobilisation in the digital network diplomacy - Lucie Qian Xia (University age: Assessing the digital footprints of the of Oxford) „Umbrella Movement‟ in order to understand and learn from their implications – Dominic Lehmann (Institute of Sinology, Munich)

Evolution of China's international human Careers of women in prostitution in rights diplomacy: A view through CEDAW contemporary China: Discriminations, and the issue of gender-based violence - mobility and resistance - Marie-Astrid Gillier Bonny Ling (University of Zurich) (ENS, Lyon)

A struggle for recognition – the US pivot, Media advocacy through the Chinese assertiveness, and regional order - court.Reflections on the rise of John Åberg (Lingnan University, Hong Kong) homosexuality-related lawsuits in China - Tao Hong (Université Paris 8)

14.00-16.00

(North Wing) (South Wing, Galileo Room)

PANEL 3: CHINA AS A REGIONAL AND PANEL 4: CONTENTIOUS POLITICS GLOBAL ACTOR

Chair: Zhao Kejin (Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Chairs: Séverine Arsène (CEFC Hong Kong) and Global Policy) Jack Qiu (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

A critical theory analytical framework to Integration or separation: On the double- understand China's rise - Alejandra Peña mimicry of Chinese internet discourse - Yanning (University of the ) Huang (London School of Economics)

China and the changing : interests and Online mass incidents and the individualisation actors - Martin Kossa (City University of Hong of Chinese society - Li Mengying (King‘s College, Kong) London)

Chinese development assistance in Timor-Leste Jump scale in China‟s feminist activism: A - Cristian Talesco (Hong Kong Polytechnic study based on accounts of feminists in Sina University) Weibo -Yewei Hu (Sciences Po, Paris)

Chair: Matthias Niedenführ (Universität Tübingen, Asien-Orient-Institut, Abteilung für The role of the media in increasing Sinologie und Koreanistik) accountability in China – a case study in the health sector - Yi Zhang (University of Groningen)

16:30-18:30

(North Wing) (South Wing, Galileo Room)

PANEL 6: URBANIZATION AND URBAN PANEL 5: COMMUNITIES, INSTITUTIONS AND PLANNING THE SELF IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA Chair: Judith Audin (EHESS, Paris) Chair: Yu Xiaomin (Beijing Normal University)

Debatable „Chineseness‟ in reconstructing A multiplicity of logics: Spatial planning of the Dao of Confucian classical education in towns in rural Sichuan - Lisa Melcher (Free contemporary China - Canglong Wang University of Berlin) (University of Edinburgh)

Koranic women's schools in China‟s little A comparative study of the impact of two Mecca: Women, sharia and the state in state-led urbanisation strategies on the China's Northwest - Francesca Rosati (Leiden livelihoods of surplus rural labourers: Case University / EHESS) studies from Tianjin and Zhejiang - Sun Jiabao (King‘s College, London)

“Floating identity”? Feelings of belonging in The Master Plan: a planning tool to design contemporary Sinophone literature in environmental cities in China. Case study in Thailand - Rebecca Ehrenwirth (Ludwig- Xiamen, Fujian Province - Lucie Morand Maximilians Universität, Munich) (Université Paris-Est)

Urbanization strategies in Chongqing: A view from below on new style urbanization - Florian Thünken (University of Wuerzburg)

6th July (Day 2)

09.00-11.00

(South Wing, Galileo Room) (South Wing, Prodi Room)

PANEL 7: THE CHINESE ECONOMY PANEL 8: TERRITORIAL AND SOCIAL RECONFIGURATIONS

Chair: Bu Maoliang (Nanjing University School Chair: Guo Weihe (School of Sociology, China of Business) University of Political Science and Law)

Corporate tax aggressiveness, corporate Metropolitan agriculture as a model of governance and firm value: Evidences from development in Shanghai countryside: What China - Tingting Ying (Ningbo University of does it reveal of contemporary agricultural Technology) dynamics in China? - Etienne Monin (Université Paris 8)

Economic complexity and location of foreign firm in Urban development, ethnicity, and daily life: China - Thomas Pernet (Fudan University) Making sense of Wangjing and Korean community - Xiao Ma (Leiden University)

Comparing outward direct investment The transformations of social and residential destinations of Chinese SOEs and POEs: A habits of Chinese families in Thames Town firm-level analysis - Matthew Stephenson Shanghai - Martin Minost (EHESS, Paris) (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva)

11:30-13:00

(South Wing, Galileo Room) (South Wing, Prodi Room)

PANEL 9: THE CHINESE ECONOMY PANEL 10: INTELLECTUAL DEBATES AND CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Chair: Bu Maoliang (Nanjing University Chair: Jeroen Groenewegen (China Policy, School of Business) Beijing)

Voluntary labour turnover of blue collar The relationship between art and power in workers in China - Marina Schmitz (University People‟s Republic of China (1976 – 1989): Study of Goettingen, Germany) of the journal Fine Arts - Armelle Chandelier (INALCO, Paris)

Effect of minimum wage regulation on The technical production of the unofficial income distribution in China: An institutional publication in Beijing (1978-1981) - Linxi Li perspective - Ran Cheng (Freie Universität (King‘s College, London) Berlin, Germany)

Chinese agrarian capitalism in the Russian Pirate music, transnational waste and - Zhou Jiayi (Stockholm International environmental justice: Retelling the story of Peace Research Institute) China's Dakou Generation - Liu Chang (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

Acting out the sensible – socially engaged art questioning urbanisation - Deng Liwen (University of Amsterdam)

14.00-16.00

(South Wing, Galileo Room) (South Wing, Prodi Room) (South Wing, Prodi Room)

PANEL 11: POLITICO-LEGAL INSTITUTIONAL PANEL 12: INTELLECTUAL DEBATES AND PANEL 12: COMMUNITIES, INSTITUTIONS AND BUILDING CULTURAL PRODUCTION THE SELF IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA

Chair: David Kelly (Research director at China Chair: Matthias Niedenführ (Universität Chair: Matthias Niedenführ (Universität Policy, Beijing) Tübingen, Asien-Orient-Institut, Abteilung für Tübingen, Asien-Orient-Institut, Abteilung für Sinologie und Koreanistik) Sinologie und Koreanistik)

A study in manufactured reconciliation: The Globalizing contemporary Chinese theoretical Debatable „Chineseness‟ in reconstructing the central working group of Shanghai as agent writing: The circulation and reception of Wang Dao of Confucian classical education in of transitional justice - Puck Engman, (Freiburg Hui‟s work in European and American contexts contemporary China - Canglong Wang University) - Manuel Pavón Belizón (Open University of (University of Edinburgh) Catalonia)

Delayed justice: The initiation of dealing with “Playing edge ball” and television censorship Koranic women's schools in China‟s little the cultural revolutionary killings in Guangxi in China - How Wee Ng (University of London) Mecca: Women, sharia and the state in China's - Song Guoqing (Freiburg University) Northwest - Francesca Rosati (Leiden University / EHESS)

Regularizing career path training in China‟s The patrimonialization of popular religion in “Floating identity”? Feelings of belonging in public administration: A comparison between China: The case study of Nianli Festival in contemporary Sinophone literature in Thailand the Austrian and Chinese forestry peninsula, province - - Rebecca Ehrenwirth (Ludwig-Maximilians administration - Julia Marinaccio (University of Zheng Shanshan (Université Lumière Lyon 2) Universität, Munich) Vienna)

How Beijing‟s idealistic goal is assimilated into local Reality – the policy implementation of higher education test and admission reform in China - Le Weijing (University of Duisburg-Essen)

16.15-16.30

Concluding remarks

Asad Beg, Minister Counsellor, Head of Political, Press and Information section, Delegation of the European Union to China

Venue: Galileo Room (South Wing)

16.30-18.00

Keynote speech

“Post-nationalist learning for the nation: Variety and self sufficiency in Guoxue”

David Kelly, Research director, China Policy

Venue: Galileo Room (South Wing)

Panel 1: China as a regional and global actor

. So Far, So Close?: EU-China relations and network diplomacy Lucie Qian Xia, Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford

This paper offers a novel understanding of the multifaceted, multi-actor and multidimensional EU-China relationship, shedding light on China‘s role as a global actor in global governance. The first section of the paper examines the importance and development of EU-China relations, underscoring the importance of a diplomatic studies approach to understand the bilateral relationship. The second part of the paper introduces an analytical framework to capture and assess the complexity that characterises the multi-actor and multi-level EU-China relations, and the interactions between the two sides. The third part of the paper presents the findings from the case study of EU-China trade negotiations. Through the prism of the network-based diplomatic theory, it illuminate the different actors, institutions and networks constituting the fabric of EU-China relations and offers a more nuanced understanding of the processes and mechanisms in EU-China relations. The paper contends that the EU and China are building a relationship through a new model of diplomacy – network diplomacy, and that a ‗networked‘ understanding and development of EU-China relations requires this new model of ‗network diplomacy‘ to take the bilateral relationship to new level.

. Evolution of China‟s international human rights diplomacy: A view through CEDAW and the issue of gender-based violence Dr. Bonny Ling, Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Zurich

In the diplomatic history of the People‘s Republic of China (PRC), the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) holds a special place. This is due to the fact that this was the first international human rights treaty signed by the government, following its reengagement with the UN after the political representation for China formally transferred from the Nationalist government on Taiwan to the PRC in 1971. Furthermore, as an international human rights treaty on the promotion of women‘s rights, CEDAW enjoyed considerable and unparalleled support within the government. The PRC government expeditiously ratiTied CEDAW on 4 November 1980, a mere four month after it had signed the treaty and only a year after the country had begun to send observers to the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. Given this long support for CEDAW in China over the last three decades, there is now a total of eight periodic reviews of its domestic implementation of commitments under this treaty. These primary sources of government‘s own reporting and interpretation of its legal commitments provide a rich source of materials to analyse the evolution of China‘s growing presence as a key participant in the international human rights system. This article analyses this evolution by examining how the Chinese government has engaged with the treaty body of CEDAW on the issue of gender-based violence, speciTically domestic violence and the trafficking in women. Since these two problems form an important part of a state‘s obligation to eliminate discrimination against women, particularly in the realm of marriage and family relations, they provide a useful case study to trace how the ratiTication of CEDAW has led to legislative changes undertaken by the government to protect and promote these rights at the domestic level. This article argues that the growing sophistication of China‘s engagement with CEDAW reTlects the increasing assertiveness of the country‘s international diplomacy. Nonetheless, the picture that emerges in terms of domestic effects is still very much evolving and underscores the need for continued progress for the elimination of gender- based violence in China.

. A struggle for recognition – the US pivot, Chinese assertiveness, and regional order John Åberg, PhD Student at Malmö University

The aim of the article is to contribute to the ongoing debate concerning ―Chinese assertiveness‖. The article dissects the central articles on the topic and evaluates their conceptual, theoretical, and analytical insights. The article then ascertains three core themes of the debate: that the concept of assertiveness is poorly substantiated; that proponents of ―Chinese assertiveness‖ largely claim that it derives from realist or structural factors, and that it represents a change in Chinese foreign policy behavior prior to the US ―pivot‖ to ; and ultimately, that critical accounts, since they reject the very concept, lack theories that can explain Chinese assertiveness. The article attempts to address these shortcomings. First, the article conceptualizes assertiveness as an insistence on recognition connected to grand strategy change. Second, this change occurs after, not prior to the US pivot. Third, the preferred theoretical explanation is found in a realist-constructivist modification of status inconsistency theory, in which social closure (i.e. the US pivot) is experienced by China as identity denial and role disavowal. This gives rise to Chinese assertiveness in the form of China‘s insistence to play its long destined regional leadership role.

Panel 2: Contentious politics

. The pitfalls of social mobilization in the Digital Age: Assessing the digital footprints of the “Umbrella Movement” in order to understand and learn from their implication Dominic Lehmann, PhD Student, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Institute of Sinology

In recent years, digital means of communication have become a decisive catalyst of social mobilisation. The 2014 Umbrella Movement protests in Hong Kong are only one example in a series of social movements around the globe where social media played a key role in the process of information gathering and concerted collective action. The contribution of these movements towards their defined political goals nevertheless remain at stake or have hitherto failed to last in any beneficial long-term societal change. As a consequence, stagnation has in many cases fuelled social resignation or, as only recently observable in the 2016 Hong Kong Fish Ball Riot, contributed to a sudden outburst of uncontrolled and violent extremism. Based on these observations the paper examines the role of social media in social mobilisation and collective action over time to render a theoretical framework for an analysis why an increased availability of and access to information has so far not resulted in a higher efficiency and effectiveness of the collective action precipitated. Taking the 2014 Umbrella Movement as an example, a discourse analysis which incorporates ―Natural Language Processing‖ technology investigates both the conceptual coherency and dynamics in digital opinion clusters on the one, and the actual collective action guided by the movement‘s participants and leaders on the other side. Based on the idea of a rift in these relations the paper outlines the pitfalls caused by digital means of communication within social movements and claims that a shift in state-society relation towards an increased rational domination may ultimately be the result.

. Careers of women in prostitution in contemporary in China: Discriminations, mobility and resistance Marie-Astrid Gillier, PhD student at Université Lumière Lyon II

Although prostitution had almost disappeared in Mao era and China has now one of the strictest legislation, the phenomenon did nothing but grow since the 1990s. This paper intends to question its development through the study of biographical careers of prostituted women in major Chinese cities. Its conclusions rely on in-depth interviews conducted between March and July 2015 in Beijing. Even though prostitution can be understood as an answer to the numerous and intertwined discriminations low-skilled migrant women suffer in large cities [Huang Yingying et Pan Suiming, 2004], this strategy means joining a social group all the more discriminated. Their inscription in « the social space of prostitution » [Mathieu, 2015] is thus seen as a means at the service of their experience in their first space of origin. These two social spaces are initially highly disconnected as the displacement from one to the other implies a geographic, professional and moral mobility. The women‘s differentiated capacities to develop resources in this new space, to articulate these spaces one with each other and finally to translate these resources from one space to another shape plural and diversified careers that are nevertheless stamped by uncertainty and reversible situations [Roulleau-Berger, 2010].

. Media advocacy through the Court: Reflections on the rise of homosexuality- related lawsuits in China Tao Hong, Université Paris VIII

LGBTQ activists in China have been engaging in what can be termed ―social advocacy‖ in that their activism primarily adresses public opinion rather than political institutions. However, the recent string of homosexuality-related lawsuits, as arguably the most notable development of China‘s LGBTQ movement, seems to suggest a renewal in its repertoire, both in terms of method and target. Since their first-ever and aborted attempt to take homosexuality-related issues to the court in February 2014, LGBTQ activists have fought five legal battles against private and state institutions, and one of them, targeting the Ministry of Education, made second place on the Top 10 Constitution-related events in 2015 list elected by legal experts and netizens alike. By examining the subjects of legal contention, media framing and discursive production by the activists themselves, this article argues those litigations should not simply be understood as legal events playing out in the court but media advocacy campaigns directed at public opinion and the State, in which the activists strive to engage in dialogue with the State and to leverage the legitimacy and coercive power of official institutions to push the normative boundaries on the treatment of sexual minorities in various professional domains. This article then uses those cases to investigate the complex interplay between social movements, media environment and legal institutions in contemporary China. By observing how media publicity is achieved, it argues that while media institutions play a pivotal role in publicizing the events, online self-publishing platforms such as WeChat do offer activists a chance to generate sustained public attention, especially in case of media blackout, and, perhaps more importantly, social media platforms also give rise to new forms of participatory activism.

Panel 3: China as a regional and global actor

. A critical theory analytical framework to understand China‟s rise Alejandra Peña, University of the Andes, PhD student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona

The rise of China and the change it brings to the international configuration, alongside its worldwide engagement, has opened up the debate in the IR field about China becoming a hegemon and whether its positioning as a rising power challenges the current US global hegemony. Against the backdrop of this debate, a question is posed regarding a possible process of outward extension of the Chinese internal hegemony, and why and how it occurs. This paper attempts to provide an analytical framework based on some elements of the critical theory that can be considered as an appropriate and unexplored approach to understand the subject of China s rise. Thus, through the conjunction of different concepts addressed by the Gramscian and Neo- Gramscian theory, a framework is constructed by combining four categories of analysis: a) alliance between classes, b) coercion and consent, c) ideas and institutions, and d) resistance. To illustrate how this framework can be operationalized, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was chosen as a case study. The developed framework constitutes a contribution to the IR field by providing additional explanations about China s rise; by inquiring a possible process of outward extension of its internal hegemony; and by offering a different analysis from that of orthodox approaches traditionally focused on state actors.

. China and the changing Arctic: Interests and actors Martin Kossa, City University of Hong Kong

The Arctic is characterized by a complex set of socio-economic, political and environmental dynamics connecting actors both within and outside of the . Among the non-Arctic states, China occupies a prominent position due to its growing influence in world politics and expanding military capabilities. Although China has not published any official Arctic policy, over the past decade, it has been steadily increasing its presence there and came to call itself an Arctic stakeholder. My research seeks answers to the following three interrelated questions: What are the motives behind China`s engagement with the Arctic? Who are the main domestic actors influencing China`s foreign policy in the region? What do Chinese activities in the Arctic tell us about its broader international behavior? In answering these, I shall analyze the Chinese engagement with the Arctic first from an international and then from a domestic perspective. Internationally, it is important to assess China`s relative power and its place within the changing structure of the international system as well as its 'cross-regional diplomacy'. Domestically, I will examine the interests of China`s large state owned enterprises and local governments in the Arctic. I will also analyze the works of China`s Arctic scholars and academics written in Chinese since China`s top leaders often consult researchers and leading intellectuals on certain foreign policy topics. The examination of these 'foreign policy actors on the margins' is of utmost importance as they have the power to influence China`s foreign policy decision making. My research will heavily draw on Neoclassical Realism to model China`s behavior. In accordance with this theory, I expect China to increase its scientific and economic presence in the region. Politically, China will seek an increased voice in matters related to Arctic governance, strengthen bilateral relations with small Arctic states and present itself as a partner for Arctic development.

. Chinese development assistance in Timor-Leste Cristian Talesco, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Foreign aid forms an important part of a state‘s identity within the international system. The established dichotomy saw developed countries giving aid, while developing countries were receiving it. Nevertheless, China‘s ‗rise‘, along with that of other ‗emerging economies‘, changed such a dualist view; or at least undermined the traditional concept of aid giving. China is becoming a world power, it is the second largest economy, yet it is still within the group of developing countries. However, it provides a considerable amount of foreign aid worldwide. This is destabilizing the established understandings of aid regimes, as set by the development assistance committee (DAC) donors since 1950s. In particular, the rise of China in Timor-Leste as an important aid contributor, but working outside the leading aid regime, is affecting the most prominent donor in the country, . Moreover, the rapidly growing presence of China in Timor-Leste seems well received by the local government, although criticism arose amongst the population. Thus, this paper requires different levels of analysis. Firstly, it will analyse how China managed to ―break‖ the monopoly of Australian aid by accessing Timor-Leste. It will then explicate the principles and the practice of Chinese aid, and will attempt to establish whether Chinese aid has produced a positive economic impact on Timor-Leste and its people. Finally, this paper suggests that Chinese aid is not challenging, neither threatening the Australian aid assistance in Timor- Leste; rather Chinese aid offers an alternative way of giving aid, which can also inform the Australian aid regime with the possibilities of establishing mutual benefits and effective partnerships with the recipient countries.

Panel 4: Contentious politics

. Integration or separation: On the double-mimicry of Chinese internet discourse Yanning Huang, PhD candidate at London School of Economics

One of the most notable phenomena on Chinese cyberspace has been the creations and disseminations of a kaleidoscope of new words, known as ‗internet hot phrases‘ (网络热词). With the dramatic social transitions in contemporary China where gender and class orders are dramatically reshaped, online terms signifying the two central social relations appear particularly popular. Through defining them as Chinese Internet discourse, the paper will highlight the social conditions of and power relations embedded in the creations, disseminations and changing connotations of online terms signifying gender and/or class. Adopting a critical socio-linguistic perspective, it will first argue that Chinese Internet discourse, on being repeatedly uttered in online and offline interactions of Chinese people, constitutes a variety of namings which are both a site of and a stake in the power struggles of gender and class in contemporary China. Drawing on the concept of mimicry developed by Lacan and Homi Bhabha, the paper will then uncover how Chinese Internet discourse simultaneously challenges and resembles the prevailing social order as it discursively downplays social inequalities at individual levels and articulates with values of patriarchy and consumerism. In addition, by mimicking migrant workers as the other—someone like us but not really, Internet discourse tends to naturalize and contain class conflicts in contemporary China. Two key terms Diaosi (屌丝) and Shamate (杀马特) will be analyzed in this paper through the method of discourse analysis

. Online mass incidents and the individualisation of Chinese society Mengying Li, King’s College of London

The aim of this research is to understand the rise of Weibo online mass incidents in China and further explore what online mass incidents can tell us about the on-going social and political changes in Chinese society. This article is in two parts. First, I develop a theoretical framework to understand Weibo online mass incidents as online crowd behaviours that feature disorganised forms, event-related gatherings and attention-grabbing effects. Instead of building on social movement theories, I propose to bring back the crowd theories. This concept crowd allows for the ambiguous, fragmented and conflicting nature of online mass incidents, which epitomise the Chinese society in a dramatic way. Furthermore, I develop an analytical framework to understand the formation of online mass incidents from two aspects: the role of leaders and the acts of seeking attentions. Second, by situating online mass incidents in the broader social context of China, I put forward an argument that online mass incidents are both reflections of and catalysts to the social trend towards a further individualisation of the Chinese society. On the one hand, the rise of online mass incidents was one of the most apparent manifestations of the

re-politicisation of Chinese public life and the rise of political individuality. One impact of online mass incidents is the establishment of new understandings of ‗collectivism‘ and ‗individualism‘ in social and cultural norms. On the other hand, recent changes in online mass incidents show that China is shifting from a stage marked by state-managed individualism to that of market-swallowed individualism. The short-term rise of political desires is gradually replaced by consumption desires.

. Jump scale in China‟s Feminist Activism: A study based on accounts of feminists in Sina Weibo Yewei Hu, PhD candidate at Sciences Po Paris

In the first half of 2010s, no group in China could be compared to feminist activists who persistently drew a great number of domestic and international attentions. At the same period, this activism launched by Chinese feminist activists entered into the new stage in which according to their self- analysis they were presenting in more visible and even "radical" ways. I am interesting in how this China's feminist activism could go far beyond the boundary and stage in the national and international level. Moreover, followed the approach in the books of Dynamic of Contention and Contentions Politics, I intend to identify and examine some dynamic mechanisms and processes in this process. In this paper, I would like to employ the term of jump scale to study this aspect of China's feminist activism. As I argue that, jump scale is a process the derives from interactions among the following processes and mechanisms: scale shift, transnationalisation and diffusion. In detail, first, the role of social media, which acted as non-relational diffusion, provided platforms that facilitate various episodes of this activism to go beyond the localized settings in which they first developed; second, several factors in relation to jump scale, for example, brokerage, transnational advocacy networks and upward scale shifting on the targets of contention, could be found in their forms of actions; third, innovations in tactics and repertoires of contentions led this activism's scale to shift and to eventually embraced the international "imagined community" where fighting against gender-based violence and discrimination, protecting and defending gender equality and justice became their common identities and goals. Finally, I would conduct a comparative study on cases in China and Cambodia to see how the jumping scale of feminist activism encountered domestic discouragements but obtained international supports. About the methodology, I mainly conduct text analysis on some Chinese feminist accounts in Sina Weibo and also have the in-depth interviews with these activists. Besides, participant observation was utilized to explore the jumping scale of this activism.

. The role of the media in increasing accountability in China – a case study in the health sector Yi Zhang, PhD candidate at the University of Groningen

One of the most pressing issues in contemporary political discourse is how to keep state power under control and prevent state agencies from being unaccountable. Today the term accountability is increasingly used in political and legal discourses to express a continue concern for oversight and restraints on the exercise of power. Extant studies on accountability nonetheless fall into the traditional regime-type dichotomy, mostly addressing accountability in the context of democracies with competitive, free and fair elections or sound legal systems. This paper, instead, seeks to enhance our understanding of accountability in non-democratic states. Taking China as an example, this paper addresses the question of how to hold the State accountable to the society with informal accountability mechanisms. Deriving from the liberal concept of the media as an independent guardian grounded in civil society, this paper deems the media that link both the State and the society as a mechanism for strengthening accountability in China. Through case studies in China‘s healthcare system, this paper first evaluates whether and to what extent the media can empower ordinary citizens and civil society organizations to participate in strengthening accountability. It then analyses how the media engage with the State to discipline government officials and improve accountability in the health sector. This paper concludes that with a state-society synergistic approach, the media have the potential to serve as watchdogs of public interest and foster a more effective and accountable healthcare system in China.

Panel 5: Intellectual debates and cultural production

. Globalizing contemporary Chinese theoretical writing: The circulation and reception of Wang Hui‟s work in European and American contexts Manuel Pavón-Belizón, PhD candidate at Open University of Catalonia

This paper analyses the different dynamics and mechanisms at play in the circulation and reception of Wang Hui (汪晖)‘s work in and . Most of previous research on the transnational circulation of China‘s cultural production has focused on literary works, but research on works of a theoretical nature has been scarce. Besides, these studies have predominantly focused on the unequal international relations of exchange within a centre-periphery system. Instead, our analysis will be based on a multi-level model (Heilbron and Sapiro, 2007) that will take into account those imbalances on the international level, but also the conditions of the publishing field, and dynamics activated by the agents involved in the process of circulation and reception. Finally, we will analyse how those multi-level dynamics are reflected on the finished product of the circulation: the translated text. Our aim is to offer, through this case study, a more complex and multi-layered rendition of the dynamics of cultural and intellectual circulations between China and other locations.

. “Playing edge ball” and television censorship in China How Wee Ng, Senior teaching fellow, SOAS university in London

Playing edge ball (da cabianqiu 打擦边球) is a commonly used expression in Chinese media to describe the attempts to circumvent censorship and bureaucratic hurdles. Through problematising this concept alongside a discussion of the notion of ―pleasing the Three Olds‖ (San lao 三老), and through analysing the allegations of bribery—a supposedly rampant practice in Chinese television production that has been overlooked in Chinese media research—this paper aims to unravel the assumptions and pitfalls of using such a term. At stake is not only who gets to define where the edge is positioned exactly for censorship, whether it shifts in different contexts and for whom it is demarcated, but also whether it is indeed possible to achieve the fine balance of pleasing the ―Three Olds,‖ which consist of lao ganbu (老 干 部 senior cadres, including officials and censors), laoban ( 老板businessmen, including media entrepreneurs and commercial sponsors), and laobaixing (老百姓the ordinary people). If censorship practices can be understood in terms of power relations, then how does power run through the network constituted by practitioners, censors, viewers and critics? With a particular focus on the 1990s, I examine statements made by officials and directors such as Feng Xiaogang and Zheng Xiaolong, seeking to reevaluate the understanding of television censorship in postsocialist China.

. The patrimonialization of popular religion in China: The case study of Nianli festival in Leizhou Peninsula, Guangdong province Shanshan Zhen, PhD candidate at Univerity of Lyon II

With the emergence of the neologism ―intangible cultural heritage‖ (feiwuzhi wenhuayichan, 非物质文化 遗产) in 2003 and then the adoption of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Law of the People‘s Republic of China in 2011, various popular religious practices, which used to be considered as ―feudal superstitions‖, started to be officially recognized as protected cultural heritage. This recent context offers us a new perspective to observe the changes of the popular religious practices in its current cultural and sociopolitical milieu and reviews the concept of ―religion‖ in the popular religious context of contemporary China. The process of patrimonialization illuminates how various stakeholders (different levels of governments, experts, religious organizations, cultural associations, local communities and individuals) comprehend, interpret and represent the Chinese popular religion from the global level to the local‘s. The current research is based on several fieldworks conducted in different selected villages in the Leizhou Peninsula (雷州半岛) in Guangdong province, during Nianli Festival (年例) in 2013, 2015 and 2016(fieldwork started from beginning of February is still in process). We delineate and analyze, in this article, how a local religious tradition (Nianli Festival) is integrated, by various stakeholders, into a globalized system within such a short time, and during this process how the dynamics among stakeholders, such as conflicts, compromises, adaptions, influence the religious practice itself and the individuals involved.

Panel 6: Urbanization and Urban Planning

. A multiplicity of logics: Spatial planning of towns in rural Sichuan Lisa Melcher, Free University of Berlin

When we think about spatial planning and urban development in China, we might think about wide streets, representative architecture and about a real estate bubble; maybe also about forced evictions and the destruction of traditional urban structures or about smart cities and urban greening. Usually, these phenomena are being explained with the overwhelming relevance accorded to local economic growth by government officials as well as with the incentive structure built into the political system. So far, however, there has been very little research on the ideals, visions and societal values lying beyond the decisions for urban spatial development in China. In my research on planning of towns in rural Sichuan, I look for the societal and personal objectives planners follow in their work. I will look for the mechanisms they assume in decision making: If the objective is Z and the situation is Y, then we need to do A and B, because this will lead to C and D and by extension to Z. Using a theoretical framework derived from Boltanski and Thevenot‘s (2006) orders of justification, my basic proposition is that there is a multiplicity of such objectives and mechanisms, which may contradict each other: there certainly are political or economic rationales and the political incentive system, but also ideals of modernization and development, professional discourses, the scientific outlook on development, ideals of local community and identity, and other aspects. The goal of my research is an understanding about how each of these mechanisms provides a different pattern of reducing complexity in planning decision making and to which measures each of them points. The field sites of this research are three rural county towns in Sichuan. Provisions for planning from higher government levels, market-oriented planning institutes as well as textbooks for planners‘ education will be consulted as well. The focus on planning in towns (up to the level of county seats) will provide insights into the work and thinking of professional planners at the mid- and lower-levels of the hierarchy, thereby inviting us not only to think about the state of the art, but also about everyday planning and governance practice.

. A comparative study of the impact of two state-led urbanisation strategies on the livelihoods of surplus rural labourers: Case studies from Tianjin and Zhejiang Sun Jiabao, King’s college of London

This paper compares the impact of two modes of state-led urbanisation on the livelihoods of resettled rural villagers with case studies from Tianjin and Zhejiang. In the ongoing debate over the path for rural development and human welfare in China, it is unclear whether to integrate the rural area into the urban area or whether to develop the rural economy independently. Based on eleven months of fieldwork with resettled villagers in Huaming Town (Tianjin), and Dongheng Village, Wusi Village and Qingyanliu Village (Zhejiang), this research analyses the two different livelihood patterns generated by the two antithetical approaches to rural development, the urban-integration approach and rural indigenous development approach. Focusing on villagers‘ capabilities, possession of assets and activities, this paper examines the imbalances in rural resource redistribution at three levels, among social groups, between villages and across the rural-urban divide. This research shows that the urban-integration approach leads to a livelihood pattern which relies on rental income from ownership of properties, leaving unskilled farmers with very limited livelihood strategies; in contrast, the rural indigenous development approach creates a livelihood pattern with a balanced dependence on labour and ownership income, generating a diversified livelihood pattern for resettled farmers. Furthermore, this paper raises deeper structural questions about the driving forces behind the land rights reforms, which release the liquidity from the rural farming land. It argues that the structure of incentives in the governance system, particularly at the village committee level, plays a key role in reorganising and redistributing rural resources; at the same time, having the space and capacity for village intervention is also critical for the success of the rural development programme.

. The master plan: A planning tool to design environmental cities in China. Case study in Xiamen, Fujian province Lucie Morand, PhD Candidate at Paris-Est University

According to the National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020) released by the Central committee of the Communist Party, China aims to intensify urban growth during the thirteenth five Year Plan while improving urban milieu with environmentally friendly path. This doctoral research investigates how the current Chinese planning approaches can provide new tracks of environmental strategies, with effective planning solutions adapted to the speed and scale of its urbanization. In this perspective, the research intends to analyze the case study of Xiamen City in Fujian Province, China, whose city planning achieved to balance economic and urban growth, meanwhile winning numerous international awards and green labels for its urban living quality. Since 1997, Xiamen is considered as a pioneer in successful environmental planning in China, with smart development strategies represented within an original Master Plan Design. The hypothesis of the study is to consider the key role of Master Plans in the city‘s environmental choices and realizations. In one hand, plans are used as a central tool for creativity, using graphic codes and design strategies in order to develop innovative city concepts. In another hand, plans are no longer designed only for functional or communication purposes, but are also mediator documents between the different actors and protocols of the project, assuring the link between the concept and the built reality. From this point of view, we explore how Xiamen used the Master Plan as a planning tool to engage the city development into environmental strategies which have been successfully realized. The research focuses on three axes of analysis: historical heritages and modern evolution of urban representations in China; innovations in urban design techniques using new codes, tools, or technologies; and assessment of construction sites in accordance with the project plan. The main goal of the research is to elaborate a generic method for environmental planning and seek new conceptualizing tools, based on the Master Plan design strategy.

. Urbanization Strategies in Chongqing: A view from below on new style urbanization Florian Thuenken, University of Würzburg

Against the background of the ongoing push for ‗New Style Urbanization‘ this pa- per focusses on the experiences of new urbanites, peasants and migrant workers in China‘s countryside and on the fringes of big metropolises, taking the municipality Chongqing as a case study. Since 2007, Chongqing has been designated as a national experimental zone for the implementation of urban-rural integration, yielding inno- vations like the land certificate exchange, experimentation with the hukou system, and land use rights, and higher investments in social housing programmes. This paper discusses experiences of those transitioning from rural to urban life, by in situ urbanisation or migration to towns and cities. Based on field research, i.e. interviews and observations, carried out in the urbanizing hinterland and on the fringes of the urban core, an insight into the actual process of urbanization on the grassroots level is given. This process, as the paper argues, is often at odds with official policies and laws, leading to unregulated urbanization, erection of illegal structures, ambiguous land tenures, and fallow fields. An analysis of views on urbanization, urban and rural lifestyles, land ownership, and the value of hukou ownership provides a clearer understanding of how those affected by urbanization see their current situation and future, and what strategies they develop in face of changing policies and local regu- lations. This case-study can provide new insights into the larger questions of social change and identity formation under China‘s breakneck developmental programme and it can be used to test and refine theories of modernization and individualization.

Panel 7: The Chinese economy

. Corporate tax aggressiveness, corporate governance and firm value: Evidences from China Tingting Ying, Ningbo University of Technology

Tax represents a significant cost to shareholders as well as to the firms, and it is generally expected tax aggressiveness are preferred. However, this argument ignores potential non-tax costs that could be associated with tax aggressiveness, especially those arising from agency problems and asymmetric information. This study investigates whether the tax planning activities is valued by shareholders as beneficial upon the nexus of institutional arrangements in place in China. An innovation of this study is making use of available tax reconciliation data to examine the effects of tax planning activities conducted by Chinese listed firms. This study investigates whether the tax planning activities is valued by shareholders as beneficial. Using a hand-collected sample of 229 publicly-listed firms for the financial years 2006-2012, we develop measures of abnormal book-tax differences (BTDs) as proxies for corporate tax aggressiveness. We find that the aggressive tax behaviour is not perceived by shareholders as a value enhancing activity but in fact is value reducing. A consistent negative association between firm value and tax planning activities is found which is robust to a wide number of different controls and specifications as well as the inclusion of corporate governance measures; and the results are consistent with the agency cost theory of tax planning of Desai & Dharmapala (2006)

. Economic complexity and location of foreign firm in China Thomas Pernet, Fudan University

By the end of 2008, China became the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the developing world in mobilizing about 20% of all FDI inward for an amount over $100 billions (world bank1). FDI is expected to support more harmonious balanced development as a mean of creating opportunities for healthy competition jointly with development of institutional capacity but China has chosen to implement gradual and prudent process of liberalization. China‘s circumspect economic policies leads foreign firm to invest in the coastal all in disdaining inner regions. The agglomeration phenomenon is fuelled by the confinement strategy of FDI in selected coastal area, creating strong spatial inequalities within China. To attenuate this ramification, emphasis is placed on the effect of local endowments on FDI compare to previous studies focus on agglomeration. By providing an assessment of the importance of local endowments, this paper can provide some guidance on the kind of policy instruments that can entice FDI in more disadvantages provinces. The main originality of this work is to develop an index of complexity that rely on what a country is producing to induce the amount of knowledge embedded in a location. Previous analysis assumes that every firms respond symmetrically to the knowledge available in a location which lead to inconclusive results. The findings show that the effect of complexity on the determinant of variation in FDI entry is four times larger than agglomeration and able to attract 1.5 more firms than vertical concentration of activities. One possible reason is foreign firms are sensitive to the market interaction and potential spillovers within a sector. The conditional logit estimates are robust to different alternatives in the location decision, different sub-sample, to the inclusion of control variables such as those for industry linkages and others traditional determinants of FDI attraction.

. Comparing outward direct investment destinations of Chinese SOEs and POEs: A firm-level analysis Matthew Stephenson, Doctoral candidate in political economy

This study examines the differences between outward direct investment (ODI) decisions by Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs). Chinese SOEs have played the largest role in ODI over time; however, Chinese POEs are becoming increasingly important actors, a phenomenon not sufficiently appreciated or studied. Until recently, a challenge to investigating Chinese ODI was lack of firm-level disaggregated data. This limited comparisons between the investment activities of different kinds of firms. The Emerging Multinationals Events and Networks DATAbase (EMENDATA) provides data on emerging country firms‘ ODI decisions, including geographical destinations and economic sectors. Using EMENDATA, this study compares the ODI destinations of Chinese SOEs and POEs over time. Controlling for firm size and industry reveals differences in investment patterns between SOEs and POEs. Differences between SOE and POE ODI decisions can shed light on how China uses ODI not just for economic or development goals but also for geopolitical and strategic goals. POE ODI decisions can be seen as reflecting commercial interests, while SOE ODI decisions can be seen as reflecting both commercial and other interests. The study concludes by comparing ODI actual destinations with priority sector areas identified in China‘s Five-Year Plans. This provides empirical evidence to evaluate whether the Five-Year Plan ODI strategic goals are being realized. It also reveals the relative importance of different ODI priority areas. This is important information for governments and firms that wish to better understand Chinese ODI patterns, and potentially collaborate with Chinese partners.

Panel 8: Territorial and Social reconfiguration

. Metropolitan agriculture as a model of development in Shanghai countryside: What does it reveal of contemporary agricultural dynamics in China? Étienne Monin, PhD and Lecturer at Paris VIII

Shanghai city has transformed throughout the 2000 decade into a world metropolis, concentrating economical functions and absorbing urban growth, while extension of urbanization in the municipal

peripheries reinforced the urban network, filled with 23 millions inhabitants in 2010. Nonetheless the municipality still contains rural areas, whom cultivated land covers about the third of its superficy, e.g. 2000 km2 Thus, urban development has come along with a shift in agricultural policy, designating a « metropolitan agriculture » model of development (dushixing nongye fazhan moshi). It has pushed on modernization of agricultural functions while promoting rural agri-tourism and ecological services in Shanghai. This paper assumes a geographical approach for understanding China‘s agricultural transformations in relation with metropolization process in outskirts of big cities. It builds on a doctoral research conducted between 2009 and 2015 in the rural peripheries of Shanghai municipality, combining field surveys conducted with farmers and rural inhabitants, spatial analysis and in-depth exploration of Chinese scientific and political documentary corpuses. It presents the main dimensions behind the Shanghai metropolitan agriculture policy performed since the Xth Five-Year Plan (2001- 2005). It deals with the various issues of agriculture technological modernization, ecological planning and rural social management associated with metropolitan agriculture model, and sketches their institutional framework and socio- economical dynamics at both municipal and local scales. What is at stake in Shanghai contemporary agricultural development? How does it echoe national policies, and, in the same time, underlie the singularities of Shanghai metropolitan context? What links have to be made with the contemporary structuration of Chinese food system? How does it affect locally inherited production patterns and rural communities? Results stress the implications of territorial organization, and interactions with the food market system in the local retructuring of agriculture. They include insights into the differenciated role of municipal and local authorities, the involvement of peasants and agricultural stakeholders in reframing agricultural economy. We will argue that, in China, metropolitan agriculture model of development has entered general policy framework for urban regions, linked to rural-urban integration strategy. It keeps questioning differenciated processes in rural-urban integration under State-versus-market interactions throuhghout the country. As a conclusion, we will further discuss the impact of metropolization on Chinese agricultural development, in the perspective of national food system structuration and its regional dynamics.

. Urban development, ethnicity, and daily life: Making sense of Wangjing and Korean community Xiao Ma, Leiden University

Wangjing is an area northeast of Beijing, which undergoes a rapid development process of urbanization, real estate construction, and international commerce since the 1990s. It has become an academic concern due to the remarkable influx of ethnic Korean population, mainly including middle-class migration from South Korea and Korean Chinese (Chaoxianzu) rural-to-urban migration from Northeast China. Based on eleven months of ethnographic research in Beijing, this paper examines: what does Wangjing area mean to Koreans in their daily life? Do they interpret it as a ―Koreatown‖? And how do ethnic interactions between the two Koreans take place in their daily social and economic life? This paper initially elaborates on the urban development in Wangjing and the presence of the Korean community. It suggests this area has been manipulated by neither Korean capital nor Korean residents, rather its development is determined by the top-down Chinese urban development plans. Despite this, Wangjing area provides South Koreans with a convenient and comfortable residence, due to the various kinds of ethnic or non-ethnic support network, such as real estate agencies, dining and shopping sites, recreation and education facilities. Nevertheless, the Korean community currently confronts various kinds of hardship to maintain, particularly in terms of small-scale businesses, due to the vulnerable and transient cooperation between the two Koreans. Applying the notion of ―ethnic unbonding‖ by sociologist Manuel Castells, this paper suggests the Korean community in Wangjing is an ―unbonding commune‖.

. The transformations of social and residential habits of Chinese families in Thames Town, Shanghai Martin Minost, PhD candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a new fashion has spread across the country, changing the forms and images of Chinese cities. The Chinese middle and upper classes are moving into new neighbourhoods of which the architecture, the names and the atmosphere are inspired by Western patterns or styles – such as Northern American, Spanish, Italian or French –, therefore conveying the image of an exotic way of life (Den Hartog 2010, Bosker 2013). Yet, far from being just an outcome of China‘s integration into the modern World system, a detailed study of the families living habits in the neighbourhood of Thames Town in Shanghai, enable us to get an insight of the complex social transformations the Chinese individuals are currently facing. Though living in a neighbourhood copying different British architectural styles, located in the new city of Songjiang in the Municipality of Shanghai, the residents are not experiencing a mere acculturation process, nor trying to imitate a Western way of life. On the contrary, the Chinese habits encountering new social and modern features generate new social logics of managing their homes and new social relations and hierarchies inside the family (Yan 2009, 2010). Thus, through a detailed ethnographic research of the specialized private and residential practices in Thames Town, this study aims at analysing two important dimensions in the field of contemporary urban life in China. The first goal is to get a better understanding of the peculiar hybridization process happening, and thus moving beyond the ―Americanisation‖ explanations. The second objective is to understand the new social logics and aspirations of the Chinese middle and upper classes (Ren 2013).

Panel 9: The Chinese economy

. Voluntary labor turnover of blue collar workers in China Marina Anna Schmitz, University of Goettingen

As China is still one of the biggest manufacturing locations in the world, an understanding of the reasons behind voluntary labor turnover especially of blue collar workers is vital, being notorious for 30- 70% of turnover, thus having a high impact on firms‘ productivity, quality assurance, and routine processes. As most of the blue collar workers are migrant workers, especially second-generation migrants, I investigate the importance of non-monetary aspects (e.g. self-fulfillment and development), monetary aspects, and other job design facets. Additionally, I intend to link these job design facets to career orientation and perceived discrimination. This is particularly important in this context, since recent developments indicate that migrant workers strive to improve their economic background, therefore settle down in the cities, but find it difficult due to certain institutional discrimination, including the hukou system, or discrimination at work. This model integrates and combines thoughts on social cognitive career theory, realistic conflict theory, and need theories, linking the above mentioned antecedents to turnover intention. I carried out a quantitative survey of 1500 blue-collar workers in 20 Chinese and multinational manufacturing companies in Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang province. Furthermore, I conducted an interview with the respective HR manager of this company who was most familiar with the target group. Based on my findings, I will derive practical and theoretical implications for retention management.

. Effect of minimum wage regulation on income distribution in China: An institutional perspective Ran Cheng, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Since the reform and opening up in late 1970s, China has experienced dramatic transformation in dimensions of the society. As the institutional environment in China has been tremendously changed, institutional theory perspective is started to be broadly used for explaining the great transformation of China, especially the market transformation and economic institution (e.g. Lao, Tse. And Zhou, 2002; Gao, 2008; Candoza, Fornes and Xu, 2012; Alexander, Chen and Doherty 2014). In comparison, the change of labor market in China is seldom analyzed through institutional perspective, although it is also in great institutional change, for example with the introduction of new labour market regulation like minimum wage regulation. This paper analyses the impact of minimum wage policy on wage inequality in China from institutional and firm-centered perspective. Since the formal enactment in 2004, minimum wage policy is an important institutional change in the labour market of China, which is intended to be an effective tool for compressing wage distribution for labour. This paper tries to build up an institutional approach in order to investigate how this institutional change in the labour market affects the labour market outcome of wage distribution and to explain such distribution effect of minimum wage institution. It provides multi-level analysis with the great emphasis of a firm-level study through both qualitative and quantitative method. A glance at firm strategic response to minimum wage regulation could support the policy recommendation for the government and the further labour market and economic transformation in China.

. Chinese agrarian capitalism in the Jiayi Zhou, Stockholm International peace research institute

Since the liberalization of the Sino-Soviet border, Chinese peasants, migrants, and investors have been actively engaged in agriculture in the Russian Far East (RFE). These range from agricultural laborers contracted by labor-exporting firms, to farmers who have set up their own small and medium-sized farms. In the last decade and a half, Chinese presence on Russian rural land has expanded to include agribusinesses and capital-rich investors that have seized on profit-making opportunities, and who cultivate Russia‘s comparatively cheap and abundant arable land on a much larger scale. With the use of wage labor and other capitalized factor inputs, the occurrence of economic differentiation among producers, and strongly commercial drivers, Chinese agriculture in the RFE stands in stark contrast to agriculture in China itself, where institutional and structural constraints still limit the development of full- blown capitalist agriculture. This paper presents Chinese agrarian capitalism as it exists in the RFE, with a focus on Chinese actors and social relations of production. It lays groundwork for more extensive research of Chinese agriculture in Russia, which in academic and policy circles has not yet been studied as its own separate topic.

Panel 10: Intellectual debates and cultural production

. The relationship between art and power in People‟s Republic of China (1976- 1989): The study of the journal Fine Arts Armelle Chandellier, PhD student at INALCO

The death of Mao Zedong 毛泽东 (1893 th of Maand the affirmation of Deng Xiaoping's 邓小平 (1904 - 1997) pragmatic ideas at The 3rd plenary Session of the 11 th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in December 1978 considerably complicated the relationship between Art and Power in The People‘s Republic of China. In the purpose of illustrating this phenomenon, this communication is based on a thorough study of the magazine Fine Arts (美术), an official publication of the ―Chinese Artists Association‖ (中国美术家协会) since 1950. The objective is to study the ideological debates that animated the art world during the period 1976 – 1989 in order to put into perspective the original motivations of the birth of the contemporary Chinese art (中国当代美术). The main principal is to understand to what extent the research of modernity is inextricably linked to political phenomena. Thus, this paper aims to renew the reflections about the relationship between Art and Power exclusively in a Chinese context. Inscribed during the period 1976 – 1989, the investigation explores various fields in the social sciences, including political, cultural, artistic and historical divisions. This study is based on the exploitation of original primary documents set against observations and interviews conducted in 2014- 2015 in the cities of Beijing and Hong-Kong.

. The technical production of the unofficial publication in Beijing (1978-1981) Linxi Li, PhD candidate in King’s college of London

The unofficial publications in China have experienced remarkable ups and downs in reform era. In the late 1978, private publishers in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai aroused both the official and public‘s attentions rather than surviving underground during the Cultural Revolution. Though this prosperity was suppressed by the authority in 1981 after reaching its culmination in the mid-1979 with the toleration of the CPC leaders, the production of unofficial publications played a crucial role in contemporary Chinese intellectual history. Other than political influence, an emphasis on cultural continuity will be concerned. In this essay, I will focus on the technical production – mimeograph printing – of the unofficial publications. By examining the mimeograph printing history in China and the actual mimeograph condition of the publications, I will delineate a complete process of the mimeograph practice. I will also analyse an exceptional breakthrough, to uncover a possible power relationship behind the authority and the unofficial journal Beijing Spring (北京之春 Beijing zhichun) editorial board, who produced the only letterpress issue and successfully delivered it to its readers. Comparing the generality and the exception, it is obvious that at least in contemporary China, the possibility and the degree of technical practice are deeply rooted in the relationship between the editorial board and the authorities.

. Pirate Music, transnational waste and environmental justice: Retelling the story of China‟s Dakou Generation Liu Chang, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Dakou refers to cut cassetts and CDs which were dumped by record companies from Western countries and exported to China as plastic waste for recycling, however, it entered and circulated in China's music market in the 1990s and 2000s before the rise of Chinese pirate copies and free online music, and those who grew up with it are later known as China's dakou generation. In this paper I will reconsider the legacy of China's dakou generation through the lens of environmental justice and demonstrate the importance of the ecological dimension of the music industry.

Based on in-depth interviews with professionals from the music industry and consider matters related to regional authorization and distribution, I will attempt to illustrate how newly released records in Western countries can be both commodities for sale and valueless waste to be recycled, and how it became commodities again and circulated in China's music market, though they entered China as plastic waste. I then extend my focus to the cultural, social, and political implications of dakou products. By examining the narrative functions of dakou products in texts such as memoirs, proses, and essays written by renowned Chinese musicians and rock critics, I will argue that dakou product as one type of transnational waste, despite its negative connotations in environmental justice discourse, can also be used as a tool by the under privileged Chinese to counteract the totalitarian political regime in China and achieve empowerment. I will conclude this paper by urging the necessity of bringing multiple perspectives into the study of China's dakou generation and considering the limit of global environmental justice discourse which frequently runs the risk of denying agency to the underprivileged groups and forging new stereotypes

. Acting out the sensible - socially engaged art questioning urbanisation Liwen Deng, University of Amsterdam

This essay aims to investigate the critical aspects of the socially engaged art project questioning Beijing‘s urbanisation. It looks into the project 5+1=6 that happened in 2014 as its case study. 5+1=6 is an art project investigating with artistic sensibilities and means the fringe of Beijing—the villages and towns between the 5th ring road and the 6th ring road of Beijing. It consists of 40 subprojects. Drawing on Rancière‘s idea of the distribution of the sensible, which means making the invisible visible, and challenging the regime of what can be seen, in my paper I will show two of its subprojects, one by young artist Ma Lijiao, another by architect duo Xiao Kong and Li Mo, are acting out the distribution of the sensible. ―Acting out‖ has two meanings: first, ―to perform in or as if in a play,‖ as I will illustrate with the work of the former; second, ―to realise in action,‖ as I will illustrate with the work of the latter. Acting out the sensible does not only render the invisible visible, the inaudible audible, but through embodied performances/actions also actively engages the people who lived there. The creative and artistic practices create lines of flight, which flee from the narrative of the organised, well-planned and legitimate urbanisation of Beijing and instead show the leakages and fractures of an allegedly linear urban development. These acting outs also manifest the residents‘ agency in resisting the power strategically in the demolition and their agency of claiming back local memory and culture.

Panel 11: Politico-legal institutional building

. A study in manufactured reconciliation: The reconciliation working group of Shanghai as agent of transitional justice Puck Engman, Freiburg University

Following the arrest of the Gang of Four in October 1976, the central leadership of the CCP immediately dispatched a team of high-level cadres to manage the political transition in the gang‘s former power base in Shanghai. The objective was to facilitate transition through a simultaneous policy of lustration and industrial restructuring; ultimately several members of this Central Working Group went on to assume permanent leadership positions in the municipal administration. As the transition was directly administered by an external agent in conflict with local leadership, the Shanghai case may be heuristically classified as one of regime change, thus opening the possibility of straightforward comparison with international cases of transitional justice and contributing to the generalization of post- Cultural Revolution politics. By employing two series of data, this paper lays the foundation for such a comparison. First, it provides a historical analysis of the Shanghai transition through the examination of policy documents and personal accounts collected from both published and archival sources. Second, it maps institutional restructuring and leadership succession in the immediate aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. The preliminary results exposed in this paper suggest that we might not be dealing with an outlier in the postsocialist world, since economic transformation was not disconnected from political transition. Instead, although democratization and international organizations were not direct factors, it seems that Shanghai experienced a political transition that in its key elements is comparable to the regime shifts of the former Soviet Union and .

. Delayed justice: The initiation of dealing with the cultural revolutionary killings in Guangxi Guoqing Song, Freiburg University

After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), there were two main issues that had to be solved. The first dealt with healing the wounds caused by radical political policies in previous years. The second focused on improving the living standards of the people who had fallen into absolute poverty. Clearly, the handling of these two issues was targeted at the goal of regaining legitimacy for the ruling CCP. Dealing with the killings from the Cultural Revolution is essential to the process of healing the wounds. We have selected Guangxi as the case study because it had the highest death toll and delayed dealing with it compared to the rest of China. In this paper, we will mainly focus on the initiation of dealing with the killings. More specifically, we are trying to answer the following questions: Why did the Guangxi authority have to deal with this problem? Why was the Guangxi authority able to deal with this issue and what was the precondition? We start by describing the constant petitions from the family members of the deceased which were considered a threat to the regime. We conclude that this is a very important factor in changing the authority‘s indifferent attitude to the past killings. For the second question, we argue that the adjustment of the power constitution at all levels is undoubtedly a guarantee for dealing with the killings. Finally we draw on the findings from the theory of transitional justice. From the perspective of justice, we will evaluate the role the judiciary plays in regaining the legitimacy of the ruling of the CCP.

. Regularizing career path training in China‟s public administration: A comparison between the Austrian and Chinese forestry administration Julia Marinaccio, University of Vienna

China‘s cadre management system including the training of public employees was first formally regularized at the beginning of the 1950s. Against the background of regime transformation, its institutional framework has been subject to changes over the past 85 years. Similar to public administrations of other countries, career path training has become a formal component of officials‘ careers. However, training of public employees in China is much more extensive and goes beyond formal skill formation and imparting procedural knowledge. By comparing the Austrian and Chinese case, similarities and differences between formal training of public employees in the forestry administration are analyzed. In doing so, the paper reveals a new dimension of China‘s cadre or civil servant training discussing its role in central-local relationships and explaining the reasons for its particular structure and development. The study draws on expert interviews conducted in Austria and China in 2015 and 2016. By means of a qualitative curriculum analysis, career path training of both, Austrian and Chinese, officials in the forestry administration are compared and analyzed.

. How Beijing‟s idealistic goal is assimilated into local reality – the policy implementation of higher education test and admission reform in China Weijing Le, PhD candidate at the INEAST School of Advanced Studies

China faces a serious problem of talent shortage and distorted labor structure. The education system should produce not just more graduates, but more qualified innovators to meet the needs of the economic transition. The Chinese government has come up with new policy directives to guide the reform of the higher education test and admission system, whose implementation is now experimented in Shanghai and Zhejiang Province. This research focuses on the process of policy implementation at these two local places and it tries to apply the process-tracing method to answer the questions: (1) How the central policy goals are perceived, interpreted and fulfilled by specific means created through local government activities? (2) What factors make the process of local implementation different? The collected evidences from interviews with officials and actors contributes to a solid description of causal process observations (CPOs) that gives the theoretical reasoning of the varied implementation outcomes at two places. The study finds out that policy experts participated though actively at central policymaking process, they were, in both cases, not included in the local policy implementation process. The intensity of knowledge and information exchanges and the ability for inter-organizational cooperation of local education authorities strongly affect the content of local implementation plans.

Panel 12: Communities, Institutions and the self in contemporary China

. Debatable Chineseness in reconstructing the Dao of Confucian classical education in contemporary China Canglong Wang, PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh

Since middle 1990s, the resurgence of Confucian classical education has increasingly become a noteworthy phenomenon in contemporary China. Among various types of classical education, the most vastly influential one is called ‗the education of children reading classics‘ (ertong dujing jiaoyu) on which this paper focuses. By interviewing classical education practitioners (from 2012 to 2015) as well as referencing to published speeches and articles, I make a discursive analysis of the debates inside the circle of reading classics education, where although a consensus has been reached to accept the values of reading classics, the pedagogy of how to read/memorize classics has still been intensely disputed. The core of the arguments is at the debatable Chineseness, or say: what kind of classical education is imagined to be as well as discursively constructed as the genuine ‗Chinese‘ one? There are two camps in the debates. While the first claims the authentic ancient Chinese pedagogy is to require students to memorize abundant classics without interpretations of the texts, which is criticized as a thought of ‗examination-oriented‘ education, the second emphasizes the genuineness lies at cultivating students according to their different aptitude and natural ability, which is disapproved to be of the ‗western‘ thought. The two camps draw symbolic boundaries between examination-oriented, western and classical education. The arguable ‗Chineseness‘ implies an uncertainty of in what ways a genuine ‗Chinese‘ (‗Confucian‘) citizen can be cultivated in the revitalizing classical education. In current reflexive modernity, the Dao of Confucian education has no longer been taken for granted with self-evident and clear definitions, but become a rather controversial public issue. Long-term public discussions are necessary to reconstruct a socio-cultural consensus, requiring the advancement of virtual communities and cultural public spheres.

. Koranic women‟s schools in China‟s little Mecca Francesca Roseti, PhD Student

This paper is largely based on the findings of my current fieldwork carried out in Linxia Huizu Autonomous Prefecture (South Gansu province), with particular attention paid to Linxia city, also known as ―Little Mecca‖, the historical and cultural hub of China's north-western Islam. It analyses the ways local Muslim women bring together different visions of shari'a orthopraxy – derived from their exclusive affiliation to competing religious denominations (Chin. zongpai or jiaopai menhuan) – within the walls of the Quranic school. My enquiry attempts to demonstrate how this ―coalescence‖ reflects local inter- denominational tensions but also perpetrates ties of coresponsibility versus a culturally alien Other – the secular state – as a strategy for the preservation of Linxia's Muslim community as a whole, faced with modernisation, rejuvenated ties with the , and the latest CCP's policies on Islam.

To pious, uneducated Muslim women, the Quranic school – flourished between the 1980‘s and the 90‘s following Deng Xiaoping‘s reform policies on gender equality and minorities rights – provides an ―ethical‖ public space for practicing Islam, and also enables women to enter the local job market as teachers, principals or interpreters, that is, as members of a self sustained ―moral economy‖ fostered through a supportive network of semi-professionals fellow Muslims. This study will use an interdisciplinary approach involving discussion of embodiment of gendered religious norms, ideological differences and cultural (in)compatibilities among Linxia's denominations, as well as the schools' response to the state's rhetoric and regulations about religious practice, in the hope to make up for a lack of detail in previous studies on the role of Muslim women in the identity- redrawing process of China‘s ―Little Mecca‖.

. “Floating Identity”? Feelings of belonging in contemporary Sinophone literature in Thailand Rebecca Ehrenwirth, Institute of Sinology, PhD candidate

Centuries ago, their ancestors migrated from China to Thailand searching for work and hoping to return home with the pockets full of money. However, many of them did not return; they stayed in Thailand, and regardless of the circumstances, they managed to keep their Chinese identity alive, passing it on to their children and grandchildren who were born in Thailand. Was this the beginning of a Chinese diaspora in Thailand? In this presentation I want to analyze Sinophone literature written by authors who were born in Thailand in the 1930s as 2nd or 3rd generation Chinese. Even though their parents did not speak Chinese, they learnt Chinese in school and studied at universities in China. Due to the fact that the Chinese in Thailand have always enjoyed far more freedom (culturally and politically) than in other Southeast Asian countries, e.g. in Indonesia or the Philippines, the Chinese minority soon became an assimilated part of Thai society. Nevertheless, these authors write in Chinese, not in Thai. Their topics vary from daily episodes in Thailand to historical happenings like the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 or the Olympic Games in Beijing in

2008. What do choice of topics, point-of-view and characterization tell the reader about the authors‘ feelings of belonging? Does Ackbar Abbas‘ term of ―floating identities‖ apply here? Which implications does their literature have for the literary scene in China? By analyzing some selected short-stories and poems, I want to show that the author‘s identity is hidden in the literary text. I will focus on questions regarding feelings of belonging and the construction of identities in reference to language and history.

1. South Wing 2. North Wing

Prodi Room Enter through the westernmost entrance is inside the main building, in front of you at the corner of Sanlitun Xi Liu Jie and after entering through the main gate. Sanlitun Beixiao Jie (Alstom building), and take the elevator to the 4th floor Galileo Room is outside the main building, in a garden Address: Sanlitun, Sanlitun Xi Liu Jie, house to your left after entering through Qiankun Mansion, Entrance D, 4th Floor the main gate 三里屯，三里屯西六街，乾坤大厦，D 门，4 层 Address: 15 Dongzhimenwai Dajie 东直门外大街 15 号

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The photo on front cover is of the China Pavilion viewed from the elevated Expo Axis, in Zone A of Expo 2010, Shanghai It was taken by bricoleurbanism at flickr.com