The ordinary and the extraordinary : an anthropological study of Chinese reform and the 1989 People's Movement in Beijing

First Published in 1996. This study is the outcome of eight-months' fieldwork in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China (PRC), from 8 November 1988 to 17 June 1989. The original purpose of the fieldwork had been to acquire a grass-roots perspective on the dynamics of Chinese state socialist society under the impact of ten years of reform. This was extended to include People's Movement. The central questions this book therefore tries to answer are: how can these two different fieldwork experiences be reconciled with each other, and what do they tell us about the dynamics of Chinese culture and society? "An anthropologist caught up in a momentous historical event presents a unique study in which the unprecedented 1989 Chinese People's Movement is analyzed against the background of eight months of anthropological fieldwork in Beijing." "The fieldwork began as a study of the dynamics of Chinese state socialist society under the impact of ten years of reform, approaching the problem from the perspective of the common Beijing resident. Pieke established that the increased role of the market economy and the use of personal connections forced Beijing citizens to engage in actions going against the grain of socialist ideology in which many still believed. Ideology and practice had increasingly little to do with each other and a deeply-felt moral crisis of society was the result." "Then came the People's Movement, a 'total event' which sucked people into its vortex and which cut them off from all other concerns, suspending them in a state of disequilibrium. Commonplace activities which normally filled their day were replaced by an active involvement in the affairs of the nation. The People's Movement gave the opportunity to translate mounting frustration into focused political action. In the end, this process could only be stopped by violent repression on June 4th. During that fateful night, the Chinese Communist Party showed that socialism as a viable ideological system was dead in China. Disenchantment had been turned into contempt for politics and a seasoned cynicism about society. Materialism and self-serving behaviour had become the norm." This work began as a study of the dynamics of Chinese state socialist society under the impact of ten years of reform. Workers, lower level state cadres and private entrepreneurs were interviewed on the ordinary strategies of daily life in China; on such phenomena as corruption, the use of kinship and friendship networks, relations with superiors and colleagues at work and the rapidly increasing use of money for legal and illegal purposes. Approaching the problem from the perspective of the common Beijing resident illuminated the dynamic interaction between the fabric of daily life and the. First Published In 1996. Routledge Is An Imprint Of Taylor & Francis, An Informa Company.