• Foreword: Varieties of individualization / Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim
• Introduction: Conflicting images of the individual and contested process of individualization / Yunxiang Yan
• Idealizing individual choice: work, love and family in the eyes of young, rural Chinese / Mette Halskov Hansen and Cuiming Pang
• He is he and I am I: individual and collective among China's elderly / Sig Thoegersen and Ni Anru
• Individualization and the political agency of private business people in China / Joergen Delman and Yin Ziaoqing
• A collective of their own: young volunteers at the fringes of the party realm / Unn Malfrid H. Rolandsen
• Between self and community: the individual in contemporary Chinese literature / Anne Wedell-Wedellsborg
• Individual self-discipline and collective freedom in the minds of Chinese intellectuals / Rune Svarverud
• 'Friendly pressure': law and the individual in modern China / Klaus Muhlhahn
• Collective symbols and individual options: life on a state farm for returned overseas Chinese after decollectivization / Li Minghuan.

In spite of the intense preoccupation with individual and self in modern Western thought, the social sciences have tended to focus on groups and collectives and downplay the individual. This implicit view has also coloured the study of social life in China where both Confucian ethics and Communist policies have shaped collective structures with little room for individual agency and choice. What is actually happening, however, is a growing individualization of China - not only changing perceptions of the individual but also rising expectations for individual freedom, choice and individuality. The individual has also become a basic social category in China, and a development has begun that permeates all areas of social, economic and political life. How this process evolves in a state and society lacking two of the defining characteristics of European individualization - a culturally embedded democracy and a welfare system - is one of the questions that the volume explores. A strength of this volume is that its authors succeed in depicting the individualization process in conceptually acute and empirically sensitive terms, and as something with its own distinctively Chinese profile. That makes this book a 'must read' for all those wanting to understand present-day Chinese society, with all of its ambivalences, contingencies and contradictions.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• 1. Social Categories Under Tibetan and Chinese Rule
• 2. Expressions of Rank in Daily Life
• 3. Marriage
• 4. Keepers of Cultural Knowledge
• 5. The Value of Inherited Knowledge
• 6. Morality and Rank: Self-presentation in Contemporary Lhasa.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This study explores how Tibetans manoeuvre within two contradictory value systems - those of old Tibet and the new People's Republic of China - balancing between ideals and pragmatism. More specifically, it asks how it is that the social categories of pre-communist Lhasa persist and are relevant in daily life despite decades of Chinese rule and the comprehensive restructuring of Tibetan society.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Foreword: Varieties of individualization / Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim
• Introduction: Conflicting images of the individual and contested process of individualization / Yunxiang Yan
• Idealizing individual choice: work, love and family in the eyes of young, rural Chinese / Mette Halskov Hansen and Cuiming Pang
• He is he and I am I: individual and collective among China's elderly / Sig Thoegersen and Ni Anru
• Individualization and the political agency of private business people in China / Joergen Delman and Yin Ziaoqing
• A collective of their own: young volunteers at the fringes of the party realm / Unn Malfrid H. Rolandsen
• Between self and community: the individual in contemporary Chinese literature / Anne Wedell-Wedellsborg
• Individual self-discipline and collective freedom in the minds of Chinese intellectuals / Rune Svarverud
• 'Friendly pressure': law and the individual in modern China / Klaus Muhlhahn
• Collective symbols and individual options: life on a state farm for returned overseas Chinese after decollectivization / Li Minghuan.

In spite of the intense preoccupation with individual and self in modern Western thought, the social sciences have tended to focus on groups and collectives and downplay the individual. This implicit view has also coloured the study of social life in China where both Confucian ethics and Communist policies have shaped collective structures with little room for individual agency and choice. What is actually happening, however, is a growing individualization of China - not only changing perceptions of the individual but also rising expectations for individual freedom, choice and individuality. The individual has also become a basic social category in China, and a development has begun that permeates all areas of social, economic and political life. How this process evolves in a state and society lacking two of the defining characteristics of European individualization - a culturally embedded democracy and a welfare system - is one of the questions that the volume explores. A strength of this volume is that its authors succeed in depicting the individualization process in conceptually acute and empirically sensitive terms, and as something with its own distinctively Chinese profile. That makes this book a 'must read' for all those wanting to understand present-day Chinese society, with all of its ambivalences, contingencies and contradictions.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface-- Contributors-- Notes to the Reader-- Introduction (Vibeke BA rdahl and Margaret B. Wan)--
• 1. Jin Ping Mei and the Art of Storytelling (Andre Levy)--
• 2. In Search of a 'Common Storehouse of Convention': Narrative Affinities between Shuihu zhuan and the Judge Bao cihua Cluster (Liangyan Ge)--
• 3. Audiences and Reading Practices for Qing Dynasty Drum Ballads (Margaret B. Wan)--
• 4. Storytelling, Stock Phrases and Genre Conventions: The Case of 'Wu Song Fights the Tiger' (Vibeke BA rdahl)--
• 5. Folk Epics from the Lower Yangzi Delta Region: Oral and Written Traditions (Anne E. McLaren)--
• 6. Chinese Performing Arts and Popular Prints (Boris Riftin)-- Bibliography-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Although the interrelationship between oral (or performing) and written traditions in Chinese popular literature is an issue that concerns practically everybody who reads or teaches Chinese literature, surprisingly it has never been properly treated in a scholarly forum before. For that reason alone, this volume is especially important and deserves serious consideration from scholars and students in the field. Through subjects ranging from Ming vernacular fiction to popular prints and contemporary storytelling and folk ballads, this volume examines the interplay of oral and written traditions in China from interdisciplinary perspectives. Literary criticism, linguistic analysis, fieldwork, folklore studies, and visual sources all bring out vital perspectives on central questions, offering enquiries into new material and giving astonishing responses to old controversies.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Chapter 1: Setting the Scene.
• Chapter 2: The Human Rights Regime.
• Chapter 3: Social Policy Theory.
• Chapter 4: How to Find a Job.
• Chapter 5: Housing Reform.
• Chapter 6: Health Care and Pensions: The Right to Social Security.
• Chapter 7: The Right to Free Primary Schooling.
• Chapter 8: Reactions and Perceptions.
• Chapter 9: Consequences.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

With the implementation of economic reforms in China from 1979 came the abolition of the "iron rice-bowl", the social and employment guarantees underpinning communist rule in Maoist China. This study analyses changes in the protection of social rights in China since 1979 for the middle-income level of the urban population, based on family interviews and documentary studies. It treats how conditions foremployment, housing, social security and education have undergone a complete transformation as a consequence of the transition to a market economy. While the Chinese population has benefited from more freedom of choice and movement for the individual citizen, there is less stable protection of the right to work, health care, housing and education. Moreover, channels of popular participation in the decision-making process remain fragile and knowledge of complaints mechanisms and legal remedies is poor.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• 1. Social Categories Under Tibetan and Chinese Rule
• 2. Expressions of Rank in Daily Life
• 3. Marriage
• 4. Keepers of Cultural Knowledge
• 5. The Value of Inherited Knowledge
• 6. Morality and Rank: Self-presentation in Contemporary Lhasa.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This study explores how Tibetans manoeuvre within two contradictory value systems - those of old Tibet and the new People's Republic of China - balancing between ideals and pragmatism. More specifically, it asks how it is that the social categories of pre-communist Lhasa persist and are relevant in daily life despite decades of Chinese rule and the comprehensive restructuring of Tibetan society.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface-- Contributors-- Notes to the Reader-- Introduction (Vibeke BA rdahl and Margaret B. Wan)--
• 1. Jin Ping Mei and the Art of Storytelling (Andre Levy)--
• 2. In Search of a 'Common Storehouse of Convention': Narrative Affinities between Shuihu zhuan and the Judge Bao cihua Cluster (Liangyan Ge)--
• 3. Audiences and Reading Practices for Qing Dynasty Drum Ballads (Margaret B. Wan)--
• 4. Storytelling, Stock Phrases and Genre Conventions: The Case of 'Wu Song Fights the Tiger' (Vibeke BA rdahl)--
• 5. Folk Epics from the Lower Yangzi Delta Region: Oral and Written Traditions (Anne E. McLaren)--
• 6. Chinese Performing Arts and Popular Prints (Boris Riftin)-- Bibliography-- Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Although the interrelationship between oral (or performing) and written traditions in Chinese popular literature is an issue that concerns practically everybody who reads or teaches Chinese literature, surprisingly it has never been properly treated in a scholarly forum before. For that reason alone, this volume is especially important and deserves serious consideration from scholars and students in the field. Through subjects ranging from Ming vernacular fiction to popular prints and contemporary storytelling and folk ballads, this volume examines the interplay of oral and written traditions in China from interdisciplinary perspectives. Literary criticism, linguistic analysis, fieldwork, folklore studies, and visual sources all bring out vital perspectives on central questions, offering enquiries into new material and giving astonishing responses to old controversies.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)