The Politics of Doing Gongyi: an Ethnographic Study of Chinese NGOs Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Hailing Zhao School of International Development University of East Anglia Jan 2020 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who results it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Abstract NGO development in authoritarian states has long been seen as an important indicator of state-society relations. The past decade has witnessed great changes in China’s NGO sector: withdrawing international donors, increasing government funding of social service delivery, rising domestic donors from the private sector, and so forth. Researchers have investigated the dynamics of the relationship between the authoritarian state and NGOs in China and the survival strategies of grassroots organizations, given the policy changes. However, few studies have looked at the internal politics and structure of China’s NGO sector, particularly, language changes and knowledge production. This thesis aims to fill this gap as reflected in the ways in which “gongyi”, translated as ‘public interest’ or ‘philanthropy’, has been used by the Chinese state and non-state actors. It focuses in particular on the relationship between the state, Chinese entrepreneurs, and NGOs. The changing use of gongyi both in official state discourse and in China’s NGO sector shows a shift from a state-centric discourse in the late 1980s towards a more market-oriented discourse in the past decade, alongside a process of commercialization. Re-examining Chinese NGOs in epistemological terms, through the language of gongyi, suggests that China’s NGO sector has become increasingly heterogeneous. The market and rising entrepreneurship, with the help of the local state, are shaping the sector not just financially but in terms of knowledge production. Moreover, Chinese NGOs, given such changes in the past decade, have strengthened corporatism and social inequality in their daily operation, rather than challenge them. In this sense, my study of gongyi understands corporatism in China in two ways: how the local corporatism contributes to a more fragmented authoritarian state in China; and how it connects to a rapidly unequal society in people’s daily life. Based on my yearlong multi-sited ethnography of an entrepreneur-founded foundation and its partner organizations in China, this research reveals how gongyi, a language that popularly used by most of the organizations in China’s NGO sector, has been firstly reinvented by the Chinese business elites, applied in the office of their own foundations, and then widely disseminated, learned, and negotiated in different grassroots organizations in other parts of China. This research presents the normalization of different forms of corporatism in Chinese NGO sector under the name of “doing gongyi”. At the same time, my ethnographic study of the everyday life of Chinese NGO workers reveals how gongyi and corporatism has been performed, negotiated, and challenged in various ways. Based on the findings at both organizational and individual levels, the thesis argues that gongyi contributes to and increasingly depoliticized and commercialized culture in Chinese NGOs, while also helping to reproduce social inequalities in today’s Chinese society at large, particularly in terms of gender and family labor division. II TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements I Acronyms II Glossary (with original Chinese characters) III Preface 1 Chapter 1 Introduction: Studying gongyi and Chinese NGOs 7 1.1 What this thesis is about 16 1.2 The Analytical Framework 19 1.2.1The civil society framework 20 1.2.2 The corporatism framework 23 1.2.3 Gongyi and corporatism in China 26 1.2.4 Language and everyday life in reformist China 29 1.3 The organization of this thesis 38 Chapter 2 Gongyi as NGO work in China: the historical context 41 2.1 Gongyi and the socialist state 44 2.2 Gongyi and Chinese NGOs in the post Tiananmen era 49 2.3 The emerging ‘gongyi market’ in the absence of gongmin shehui 54 2.4 “Don’t call me gongyi worker”: the divided Chinese NGO community in the past decade 58 Chapter 3 Research methods: “This is Dr. Zhao and she can drink” 65 3.1 Enter the field: researching Chinese NGOs in a dynamic context 68 3.2 Working as an AF intern 73 III 3.3 Producing situated knowledge: ‘failures’ I had made at AF 78 3.4 Researching AF’s partner organizations in the local society 81 3.5 How I deal with research ethics in this thesis 84 3.5 Conclusion 86 Chapter 4 The Making of modern gongyi in Shenzhen 87 4.1 becoming a wolf: the making of a new man 92 4.1.1 Chinese entrepreneurs and wolf-spirit 93 4.2 Competing for what? 99 4.3 Learning to be a ‘modern gongyi worker’ at AF 105 4.3.1 “Donors are our God”: the changing languages in the office 105 4.3.2 “Bringing more wolves to AF” 107 4.4 Chinese state and the creation of wolf-spirit 111 4.4.1 Moving between Beijing and Shenzhen: the moments when an ambitious Chinese NGO could be a problem 116 Conclusion 120 Chapter 5 The making of a ‘professional gongyi worker’: everyday life of AF workers 122 5.1 The organizational hierarchy of AF 124 5.2 Workers at the top: the senior managers 127 5.2.1 Tim: a “professional gongyi manager” 127 5.2.2 Justin: a busy manager 129 5.3 Workers at the bottom 133 5.3.1 Lisa and her sleepless nights 134 5.3.2 Jerry: the eliminated good husband 139 5.4 The making of a ‘professional gongyi worker’: discussing NGO workers in China 141 IV Conclusion: Cindy’s “mistake” 143 Chapter 6 Everyone can do gongyi: AF and its partner organizations145 6.1 National Policy Change 149 6.2 “Everyone can do gongyi”: AF and its partner organizations 156 6.3 GVC: a true friend of gongyi 160 6.4 GH: who is the “true friend (zhen pengyou)”? 162 6.5 “We should do gongyi together!” 167 Discussion and conclusion 169 Chapter 7 The making of a ‘gongyi people’: everyday life in the local society 172 7.1 Humphrey: the life of “poor philanthropist” 175 7.1.1 Humphrey’s early years 176 7.1.2 Getting to know the business circle: a failed attempt 178 7.2 Perry’s life: a successful ‘gongyi people’ in the local society 180 7.3 The making of a ‘gongyi people’ 186 7.3.1 Building and managing social relations 187 7.3.2 Performing Buddhism 188 Conclusion 190 Chapter 8 Conclusion 192 8.1 Revisiting the research questions 193 8.2 The theoretical contributions of this research 195 8.2.1 Corporatism 195 8.2.2 Everyday life in reformist China 198 8.3 The never-ending gongyi 199 V References 203 Appendix A: Interviews with NGO workers in Shenzhen 219 Appendix B: Interviews with NGO workers in Beijing 220 Appendix C: Interviews with NGO workers in other places 221 VI Acknowledgements This thesis is a product of my interactions with a number of supportive and inspiring people. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Dr. Vasudha Chhotray and Dr. Ben Jones. When I just started my PhD journey back in the 2015 in Norwich, I could never imagine that I would be so fortunate to have so much help, supports, encouragements, and friendship from these two supervisors. The PhD journey is not easy, but it is a really rewarding and life changing experience by working with these two wonderful supervisors. In China, my thanks are due to Sarah, Jason, Giddeon, and Sue. This research cannot be done without their help and advice during my yearlong fieldwork in China. Not only did they help me with my ethnographic work, but also, they shared many valuable insights and observations with me as close friends. I learnt a lot by discussing with them throughout my whole PhD, for which I am really grateful. I would like to thank my big family for their love, patients and generosity during my study. Thanks in particular to my cousin Yingying for her meticulous proofreading. Finally, to my husband Feilong: thanks for all your company, love, and supports in the past few years. I know that this PhD degree is our shared dream. The thesis is dedicated to you. Acronyms AF A Foundation (a domestic donor) CAB Civil Affairs Bureau (a governmental department in charge of NGO issues) CRC China Red Cross CSSC Construction of Socialist Spiritual Civilization CYDF China Youth Development Foundation GBP British Pound GH Gongyi Heart (a Chinese NGO, in partnership with AF) GONGO Government-organized non-governmental organizations GVC Gongyi Volunteer Centre (a Chinese NGO, in partnership with AF) INGO International non-governmental organization NGO Non-governmental organization RMB Renminbi (Chinese Yuan) ROC Republic of China WDC Women Development Centre (a Chinese NGO, in partnership with AF) YCL Youth Communist League YVA Youth Volunteers Associations 1 British Pound=9 Chinese Yuan (exchange rate as of 01/06/2016) II Glossary (with original Chinese characters) chuxin original heart 初心 cishan fa charity law 慈善法 dage elder brother 大哥 dajie elder sister 大姐 dalao big boss 大佬 fanzhengfu zuzhi anti-government organization 反政府组织 feizhengfu zuzhi NGO 非政府组织 fu qiang wealthy and powerful 富强 gongmin shehui civil society 公民社会 gongyi public interest 公益 gongyi ren a person working for gongyi 公益人 guanxi relationship 关系 huo Lei Feng living Lei Feng 活雷锋 jieji class 阶级 langxing wolf spirit 狼性 laoshi teacher 老师 liudong renkou floating people 流动人口 minjian among the people 民间 minjian zuzhi guanli ju bureau of civil organizations administration 民间组织管理局 minzu yingxiong national hero 民族英雄 III qinghuai mentality or passion 情怀 qunzong the common people 群众 rencai talent 人才 renren gongyi everyone can do gongyi 人人公益 shehui jieceng social strata 社会阶层 shehui tuanti social groups 社会团体 shehui zuzhi social organization 社会组织 sushi human quality 素质 tian zhi jiao zi God’s favored ones 天之骄子 wuzhengfu zuzhi anarchic organization 无政府组织 xiansheng Mr.