| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Merle Goldman and Elizabeth J. Perry, editors. Changing Meanings of Citizenship in Modern China. (Harvard Contemporary China Series, number 13.) Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2002. Pp. viii, 462. Cloth $49.95, paper $24.95.
In this conference volume of fourteen chapters, several historians join a group of political scientists, legal professionals, and journalists to consider the changing meanings of citizenship in China's twentieth century. Editors Merle Goldman and Elizabeth J. Perry offer T. H. Marshall's studies of late modern European citizenship to help organize the Chinese discussion. The contributors present empirical studies on subjects that range from the political press, civic textbooks, public speech, civil associations, social protests, democracy movements, village elections, constitutional law, minority identities, and women's status to Taiwan's latest quest for international recognition of its independence as a nation. The Chinese scenario, the editors conclude, reverse the European experience in that "a commitment to social citizenship predated political citizenship by many centuries" (p. 6). Citizenship practices do exist in China, although Western-style democracy does not. The task of the collection is thus to describe that middle ground of the "neither-this-nor-that." It is both to show what can or cannot be found in modern Chinese political lives in terms of rights and participation and to consider their points of origin.	1
The chapters are grouped under three headings: "Imperial and Republican China," "The People's Republic of China," and (one chapter) "Taiwan." Chronologically they focus on two periods: the decades prior to 1927 and the years after 1978. Part one provides the historical background with instances of earlier Chinese citizenship. It shows that between the fall of the Qing (1911) and the establishment of the Nationalist government (1927) reformers, revolutionaries, entrepreneurs, and workers, women included, have found various ways in words and action to participate politically. These activities were evident in urban centers such as Shanghai, where there was also a heavy colonial presence. This Westernizing interlude, measured in decades, does not offer the depth of centuries to test the thesis of Chinese social citizenship. But it gives evidence of citizenship precedents from the perspectives of the present.	. . .

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