PDF《Mapping炉he燣andscapes? ?》

?Unger?and?Chan,?1995;

?Unger,?1996),?student?associations? (Wasserstrom? and? Liu,? 1994),? leisure? groups? (Wang,? 1994;

? Chen,? 1994),? or? foundations? (Zhang,? 1995b).? Others? focus? on? associations? located? in? certain? towns? and? cities? (White,? 1993;

? Wang,? Sun,? and? Zhe,? 1993;

? Shue,? 1994;

? White,? Howell,? and? Shang,?1996;

?Chan,?1999).?Still?others?deal?with?civil?associations? 4? ? Shaoguang?Wang?and?Jianyu?He? in?general?(Whiting,?1991;

?Zhang,?1992;

?Whyte,?1992;

?National? Committee?on?U.S.\China?Relations,?1994;

?Howell,?1994;

?Zhang,? 1995a;

?Frolic,?1997;

?Pei,?1998;

?Chan?and?Qiu,?1998).?Those?stud\ ies?are?often?informative?and?insightful.?Together,?they?provide? a?broad?yet?diverse?picture?about?associational?life?in?contem\ porary?China.? Rich? as? it? is,? however,? with? few? recent? exceptions? (Ding,? 1999;

? Wang,? 2000;

? Young,? 2000),? the? literature? suffers? from? three?drawbacks.? ? ? (1)?Approach:?The?central?theoretical?concern?of?the?litera\ ture?has?been?whether?the?growth?of?civic?associations?is? indicative?of?the?emergence?of? civil?society ?in?China.? Some?specialists?conclude?that?elements?of?civil?society? are?already?present?in?such?associations,?and?that?civil? society? may? emerge? more? fully? in? the? future? (Whyte,? 1992;

?White,?1993).?Others?disagree.?In?their?view,?those? associations?can? best? be?explained?as? examples? of? cor\ poratism?(Chan,?1993;

?Pearson,?1994;

?Unger?and?Chan,? 1995;

?Unger,?1996).?Still?others?point?out?that?there?may? be? a?possible?continuum ?of?associational?experiences? stretching?from?those?completely?dominated?by?the?state? at? one? extreme? to? those? relatively? autonomous? at? the? other?(Shue,?1994).?The?civil?society?approach?focuses?its? attention? almost? exclusively? on? trying? to? ascertain? whether?associations?represent?the?emergence?of?a?civil? society? that? can? challenge? the? party\state.? While? it? is? important?to?study?the?extent?to?which?associations?are? Associational?Revolution?in?China:?Mapping?the?Landscapes? ? 5? autonomous? from? the? party\state,? approaching? China? with? a? strictly? civil? society ? lens? may? run? the? risk? of? treating?the?reality?in?a?Procrustean?manner.?No?wonder? that?many?studies?end?up?with?a?disappointing?conclu\ sion?that?there?is?little?resemblance?between?Chinese?and? Western?experiences.?Perry?(1994)?is?right?that?a?simple? state\society?dichotomy?is?of?little?help?in?explaining?as\ sociational? life? in? China.? To? study? the? space? lying? be\ tween?the?state?and?the?market,?we?should?not?force?the? world?to?fit?our?concepts.?Rather,?we?should?adjust?our? concepts?to?fit?the?real?world.? (2)?Coverage:?Perhaps?due?to?the?influence?of?the?civil?soci\ ety?approach,?much?of?the?research?has?focused?on?civic? associations,?especially?on?what?have?come?to?be?known? as?non\governmental?organizations?(NGOs),?not?on?as\ sociations?in?general.?The?concept?of?NGO,?while?quite? useful?for?some?purposes,?embraces?a?very?limited?range? of?associations.?It?excludes?most?associations?that?exist?in? today'

s? China.? Moreover,? NGO? often? functions? as? an? ideological?screen?used?to?differentiate? good ?associa\ tions?from? bad ?ones?along?lines?that?are?often?not?en\ tirely?clear?(Salamon?and?Anheier,?1997a).?Thus,?studies? on?NGOs?may?at?best?supplement,?but?certainly?cannot? substitute,?studies?on?associations.? ? (3)?Data:?Most?studies?are?case?studies?in?nature,?covering? either? certain? types? of? associations? or? associations? in? certain?local?communities.?As?Pei?(1998)?comments,?they? may?have?enabled?us?to?examine?individual? trees, ?but? 6? ? Shaoguang?Wang?and?Jianyu?He? overlooked?the? forest. ?Moreover,?most?of?the?previous? researches? have? been? either? published? before? the? mid\1990s? (Whiting,? 1991;