China Perspective Issues

ABSTRACT: The notion of happiness has been extended in recent decades from a quality of well-being to a value-laden concept employed in political campaigns, development plans, commercial advertising, and transnational psychology. In China, the term xingfu has extended through this tendency, articulated as an equivalent of deep-seated individualised “happiness,” while also carrying elements of livelihood and social welfare. Drawing on fieldwork in psychological workshops and diverse academic and political texts, this article conceptualises the semiotic and communicative attributes of xingfu in Chinese society today. I define xingfu as a contemporary dao, in the sense that it emerges as a consensual priority that alludes to seeming universal humanity, which may be employed to validate other political agendas, while it also activates diverse interactions and imaginaries that extend beyond preexisting or fixed priorities.

KEYWORDS: happiness, xingfu, China, positive psychology, Xi Jinping, Sara Ahmed, self-improvement.

ABSTRACT: Covid-19 has affected everyone in China, but not equally. Previous studies have mostly focused on the more severe income loss experienced by socio-economically disadvantaged groups during the pandemic, ignoring income disparities within elite groups. Using data from the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey, this paper finds that administrative elites experienced relatively less income loss during the pandemic, while market elites faced more severe losses, even exceeding those of the non-elite group. The disparity between the two elite groups in their resilience to income risk, represented by the type of pay, is an important mechanism behind their divergence in income loss. Additionally, in regions where the redistribution system was further strengthened, the income losses of administrative elites decreased further, while in areas with more severe market closures, the income losses of market elites increased further. This study enhances our understanding of the heterogeneity within China’s elites and the tension between the market system and the redistribution system in contemporary China.

KEYWORDS: Covid-19, China, administrative elites, market elites, income loss.

ABSTRACT: Existing studies have shown how, under the policy agenda of agricultural modernisation, the Chinese government has promoted the large-scale transfer of rural land from smallholders to new agricultural operators (NAOs) such as agribusinesses, family farms, and professional cooperatives. Despite this national trend, there are important local variations in the extent and dynamics of land transfer, a topic that has remained underexplored in the literature. Using multiple-case methodology, this paper compares three cases of land transfer in a rural township in Shandong Province to examine how and why patterns of land transfer and management differ. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork and interviews, we reveal how trajectories of land transfer and agrarian transition are shaped by the different background and strategies of individual NAOs, which in turn structure the land and labour arrangements at each locality and give rise to distinct dynamics of interactions between the state, NAOs, and local communities. Our findings highlight the need to go beyond national statistics to explore the local politics of land transfer as well as the agency of NAOs in shaping diverse trajectories of agrarian transition.

KEYWORDS: land transfer, new agricultural operators (NAOs), local politics, agrarian transition, agricultural modernisation, Shandong Province, rural China.

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses and conceptualises the notion of Chineseness as related to infrastructure projects in Ghana and Africa more generally. Based on fieldwork in Ghana and secondary literature, our study combines two aspects. On the one hand, we undertake a nationality and origin-based analysis of all the elements (ownership, financing, design, consulting, construction standards, materials and equipment, labour practices) making up Chinese infrastructure projects in Ghana. On the other hand, we include perceptions of such projects as Chinese. Our analysis identifies different degrees of Chineseness in Ghana’s infrastructure projects, what we also describe as “diluted Chineseness.” We find that even projects perceived as “fully Chinese” are populated by other international and local actors. Our study further reveals how portrayals of such infrastructure projects as “fully Chinese” are used by different actors to push different agendas – at times expressing opposite views about the Chinese presence in Africa.

KEYWORDS: Chineseness, Ghana, Africa, China, Chinese companies, infrastructure projects.