Shuang Chen

State-Sponsored Inequality (eBook, ePUB)

The Banner System and Social Stratification in Northeast China

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

This book explores the social economic processes of inequality in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century rural China. Drawing on uniquely rich source materials, Shuang Chen provides a comprehensive view of the creation of a social hierarchy wherein the state classified immigrants to the Chinese county of Shuangcheng into distinct categories, each associated with different land entitlements. The resulting patterns of wealth stratification and social hierarchy were then simultaneously challenged and reinforced by local people.

The tensions built into the unequal land entitlements shaped the identities of immigrant groups, and this social hierarchy persisted even after the institution of unequal state entitlements was removed. State-Sponsored Inequality offers an in-depth understanding of the key factors that contribute to social stratification in agrarian societies. Moreover, it sheds light on the many parallels between the stratification system in nineteenth-century Shuangcheng and structural inequality in contemporary China.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 368
• Erscheinungstermin: 11. April 2017
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781503601635
• Artikelnr.: 49941468

Autorenporträt

Shuang Chen is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Iowa.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
1Social Formation Under State Domination in Modern China: An Introduction
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces the methodological and historical background that
supports the narrative presented in the rest of the book. The Shuangcheng
settlement is a case of state-initiated projects of social engineering by
which the state used policies to proactively plan or design social orders.
Thus, the case offers an opportunity for exploring the mechanisms through
which the state-designated social hierarchy played out on the ground. After
introducing the Banner system and the settings of Shuangcheng, the chapter
integrates theories in state-building and social stratification to provide
a conceptual framework surrounding the question: how a state-dominated
system of social formation influences life opportunities. Within the
framework, state registration and resource allocation created the
structural inequality; customary practices made possible local agency; and
the interplay of local agency with the multiple structures - economic
conditions, state entitlements, and family demography - eventually
constructed and sustained the boundaries between social categories.
2Clearing Boundaries: The Founding of Shuangcheng Society
chapter abstract
By examining the entire process of Shuangcheng settlement-from site
selection, residence planning, settler recruitment, to final
settlement-this chapter offers one of the first detailed studies of a
government planning of a migrant society. While previous studies treat the
Qing state as a passive figure in the frontier settlement in Manchuria,
this chapter provides evidence of the Qing state's active participation in
and capacity for planning and settling a frontier. The chapter highlights
one important strategy used by the state: during the settlement stage, the
state eliminated existing social organizations among the settlers by
scattering households from the same place of origin or same descent group
among different villages. This boundary-clearing procedure provided a
foundation for the state to build a two-tier hierarchy with metropolitan
bannermen at the top and rural bannermen on the bottom.
3Building Boundaries: Land Allocation and Population Registration
chapter abstract
This chapter examines the ways the state built new boundaries among
immigrants. It analyzes the four population categories recorded on state
household registers-metropolitan, rural, and floating bannermen, and
civilian commoners-as well as the unregistered population. Through land
allocation, the state assigned these population categories differentiated
entitlements. Each metropolitan banner household received twice as much
land as a rural banner household did. Floating bannermen and civilian
commoners had no entitlement to land and could only work as tenants and
laborers. Moreover, the state purposefully used population registration to
manipulate the entitlements of its subject population, as it intentionally
left a large size of unregistered population outside of the system. The
chapter concludes with an assessment of the distribution of registered land
ownership among the four population categories a half century after the
initial settlement, showing the enduring inequality created by state land
allocation.
4Consolidating Power: Banner Government and Local Control
chapter abstract
This chapter uncovers a forgotten history of local agency in the first
thirty years after the initial settlement. In this period, Shuangcheng saw
the consolidation of both local administration and society. Although the
state built the society from the top down, local government developed in
response to localized social processes that marked the early years of
settlement. These include local identity construction by different waves of
migrants, conflicts between metropolitan and rural bannermen, and private
cultivation of unassigned land by immigrants. It was not until 1852 that
the central government embedded the local administration into the imperial
system. This chapter enriches the understandings of local governance and
state-society relations by emphasizing that the different interests of
state representatives offered savvy settlers multiple channels to appeal to
state authority to pursue their interests.
5Community and Hierarchy: Banner Villages
chapter abstract
This chapter sheds light on the social processes at the village level that
shaped the social hierarchy in Shuangcheng. The banner villages planned by
the state evolved into territorial communities as village temples and
communal lands became symbols to hold migrants of various backgrounds
together. In the early stage of settlement, government land allocation
shaped the village hierarchy in the absence of countervailing institutions.
At the same time, village communities gradually played important roles in
organizing private land cultivation and land transfer. Through these
private activities of land accumulation, a significant number of rural
bannermen gained wealth comparable to that of metropolitan bannermen. This
situation allowed them to challenge the state-mandated social hierarchy. At
the same time, metropolitan bannermen also acted to maintain their elite
status in the villages. In this way, village communities created their own
hierarchies based on settlers' perception of the state-mandated hierarchy.
6Reinventing Hierarchy: Metropolitan Bannermen Family Strategies
chapter abstract
By tracing the development of a single metropolitan banner family from the
time of initial settlement to the end of the Qing, this chapter asks how
the strategies used by individual families to survive and to expand their
wealth shaped the social structure of Shuangcheng. It shows that, over
time, some capable metropolitan banner households accumulated large amounts
of land through private land cultivation and land sales. Moreover, because
they lacked the support of a powerful kinship organization, metropolitan
banner families acted collectively to negotiate with the state authority
for their benefits. By the end of 1870s, wealth accumulation has
transformed metropolitan bannermen from a state-defined population category
to a powerful and wealthy social group in Shuangcheng society.
7Sustaining Hierarchy: Wealth Stratification
chapter abstract
By examining changes in land distribution between 1870 and 1906, this
chapter explains at the macro-level why the state-mandated social hierarchy
endured in Shuangcheng. It shows that, despite the upward and downward
wealth mobility at individual household level, the state land allocation
policies still effectively maintained a relatively equal land distribution
within each of the metropolitan and rural bannermen population category.
Thus, land distribution among these entitled bannermen exhibited a pattern
of stratification without concentration. This pattern of land distribution
sustained a stable landowner class. By presenting one of the first
empirical studies of land distribution in early modern China, this chapter
shows the resilient nature of the social hierarchy created by state land
allocation. It challenges the view that, when the Qing government
privatized the state land in Manchuria, the majority of bannermen lost
their land ownership to civilian commoners.
8Social Formation in the Early Republic
chapter abstract
By examining a rent-resistance movement in Shuangcheng in the early
Republic of China (1912-49), this chapter reveals that the tensions built
into the unequal land entitlements in the Qing continued to shape the
formation of social and political groups after the collapse of the dynasty.
This process took place along with a tide of elite activism following the
fall of the Qing in 1911. Seeing the regime change an opportunity to
overthrow the legacy of unequal land entitlement, rural bannermen living in
80 of the 120 villages launched a rent-resistance movement. The conflict
soon escalated into a political struggle. Using the rhetoric of
"citizenship" - a new discourse offered by the Republican regime - to
attack the privileges of metropolitan bannermen, these rural bannermen
articulate their identity as a distinct social group. This event also
marked the completion of the social construction of categorical boundaries
in this immigrant society.
Epilogue: Epilogue
chapter abstract
This chapter provides an overview of the structural inequality created by
the People's Republic of China in the 1950s, especially that produced by
the hukou household registration system. It shows that the processes of
inequality under the hukou system has many parallels with that in the
Qing-dynasty Shuangcheng. In order to develop heavy industry, the state
used hukou registration to classify people into urban and rural categories,
with urban hukou holders enjoying better economic and political
entitlements than rural houkou holders do. This structural inequality not
only defined the socioeconomic statuses of people in the socialist period
but also produced profound consequences in social inequality in the
post-socialist era. These parallels reveal that the stratification system
in PRC, which people tend to consider as a socialist extension, has existed
in the past. Thus, the Shuangcheng case offers a distinct perspective on
how people typically conceive 'modern' phenomena.