The paper examines ??red packets?? ?? a form of informal payment ?? in the Chinese health-care system from the perspectives of power and ??inxit?? theories. Drawing on qualitative data collected from focus groups, interviews and documentary sources, the research investigates, from doctors?? perspective, the giving, taking, declining and disciplining of and solutions for red packets. Findings testify to four hypotheses developed from the theoretical perspectives, leading to the conclusion that red packets emerged from and can exert an influence on the power relationships between doctors, the Party-state and patients, and are a response to distrust and quality shortage in the health-care system.

In present Taiwan society, ethnic issue is the most sensitive and unavoidable issue. The ¡§Taiwanese - Provincial¡¨ concept divides people in Taiwan into two ethnic groups, and these two groups have different ethinic memories and specific political attitudes. But the classification isn¡¦t preexistent. People learn to recognize the society and political affairs in Taiwan by using ¡§Taiwanese - Provincial¡¨ concepts when they grow up with political socialization. Some people consider that KMT regime give Provincial some preferential treatments in economic side. Therefore, the article hopes to depict the basic appearance of ¡§party-state system¡¨ by KMT regime, and find the provincial discriminating system in economic side under the special historical background. Furthermore, the article hopes to find the relationship between the Provincial ethnicity construction and the discriminating system. The research detects KMT regime constructed provincial discrimination in economic side after withdrawing to Taiwan and building party-state system. KMT regime constructed these discrimination and enforced the historical memories of ¡§withdraw from mainland China¡¨, and made separate provincial crowd forming the ethnic consciousness of ¡§Provincial¡¨. Finally Provincial become a new ethnic group, and inter-verify with ethnic theories

The Confucius Institutes (CIs) are part of a major new Chinese Government initiative promoting the learning of the Chinese language and culture internationally. They operate through a network of institutes located in learning institutions around the world, and while they have an education focus, they also reflect political changes in China’s relationship with the rest of the world. A transformation in China’s approach to foreign relations has been evident since the belligerence and self-sufficiency of the Mao era, and cautious engagement of the Deng era. In the early 21st century, China’s new foreign policy is more confident and engaged behaviour than it has ever been. The conceptual sources of China’s foreign policy have broadened from Marxism-Leninism to include some contemporary international values and traditional Chinese norms. However, managing the sphere of ideas both domestically and externally, and securing the nation’s economic development, are the main means the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintains its legitimacy in the early 21st century. While China’s leadership has given the CIs considerable political independence, they are part of the Party’s propaganda system. Despite some foreign concerns about the Confucius Institutes being a propaganda tool, many other countries have similar programmes; the difference is China’s political system. Through the CIs, China is building the architecture of a major power, and has succeeded in improving its international influence. But because of the lack of international attractiveness of China’s political system, this is likely to be slow. The CIs reflect a more confident and effective Chinese foreign policy; and one that offers greater opportunities for engagement.

The paper examines ??red packets?? ?? a form of informal payment ?? in the Chinese health-care system from the perspectives of power and ??inxit?? theories. Drawing on qualitative data collected from focus groups, interviews and documentary sources, the research investigates, from doctors?? perspective, the giving, taking, declining and disciplining of and solutions for red packets. Findings testify to four hypotheses developed from the theoretical perspectives, leading to the conclusion that red packets emerged from and can exert an influence on the power relationships between doctors, the Party-state and patients, and are a response to distrust and quality shortage in the health-care system.

Comment l’Etat-Parti chinois renouvelle-t-il son élite et maintient-il sa cohésion dans la période post-Maoïste ? Il s’agit d’une question fondamentale pour comprendre l’évolution du système politique chinois. Or, les explications fournies par la littérature sur la question sont loin d’être satisfaisantes. J’aborde ces questions à travers une étude unique du rôle joué par la Ligue des Jeunesses Communistes dans le recrutement et la promotion des cadres de l’Etat-Parti depuis les années 1980. Je montre que du fait de la situation politique de l’après Révolution Culturelle et des besoins en jeunes soutiens de certains dirigeants, un système de « mobilité sponsorisée » s’est développé afin de renouveler l’élite politique chinoise. Des étudiants sont recrutés dès l’université et formés par les organisations de jeunesse du Parti. Ils sont alors placés sur une filière de promotion rapide, avec des opportunités de carrière et de formation uniques. Ce qui les conduit à des postes de dirigeants au sein de l’Etat-Parti. Par ailleurs, à travers les différentes étapes du processus de « mobilité sponsorisée », les jeunes recrues développent un rôle spécifique en tant que futurs cadres dirigeants et transforment leurs cercles de sociabilité. En conséquence, ils renforcent leur engagement politique et donc leur intérêt personnel à la survie du régime. Enfin, la nature décentralisée de l’Etat-Parti, et de ses organisations de jeunesse ; rend difficile pour les jeunes recrues d’établir des groupes cohésifs qui pourraient s’organiser contre l’Etat-Parti lui-même. / How does the Chinese Party-State renew its political elite and maintain its cohesion in the post-Mao era? This is a key question in order to understand the evolution of China’s political system and still the explanations one can find in the literature are far from satisfactory. I approach these questions through a unique account of the role played by the Chinese Communist Youth League (CYL) in terms of cadres’ recruitment and promotion since the 1980s. I show that due to post-Cultural Revolution politics and the need for leaders at the time to recruit loyal young cadres, a “sponsored mobility” system was developed to renew the Party-State’s elite. College students are recruited and trained through the Party’s youth organizations. They are put then on a unique promotion path, which includes specific opportunities and trainings, and which leads them to leadership position in the Party-State. In addition, through the various steps of the sponsored mobility process, the young recruits develop a specific social role as future officials and transform their social circles. As a result, they cultivate a political commitment to their career in the Party-State and to the survival of the regime. Finally, the decentralized nature of the Party-State and its youth organizations make it difficult for the young recruits to establish cohesive groups which could organize against the Party-State itself.

This thesis is purposefully limited to examining the status of China’s professional guohua (Chinese national painting) painters and their relation to the Party-State. It tackles the above subject by studying the contents of important official documents issued by the party-state, by retelling the interactions between professional guohua painters and the party-state in several crucial social-political contexts, and by analysing the experiences, opinions, observations and critiques of four professional guohua painters. The time span of this study extends from 1949 to the late 1990s, while acknowledging the year of 1978, when China officially launched its reform program, as a critical dividing juncture for comparative reasons. This thesis finds that a new favorable partnership was forged between the party-state and the professional guohua painters in the reform era. This was due to the impact of China’s political culture, changes in the ideology and policies of the ruling elite, the commercialization of art, and an emerging need to preserve guohua that is more instrumental to promote China’s cultural heritage and national soft power. It argues that the sustainability of such a partnership has been reinforced through a conscious differentiation between categories of art -- elite and non-elite, official and non-official, high and popular, public and non-public -- by Chinese cultural authorities as well as the artists themselves. This thesis further asserts that the significantly improved economic conditions and the social status that professional guohua painters enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s did not reflect on their cultural and political autonomy. Most of them consciously chose to be part of the institutional establishments under the party-state and showed limited aspiration in the quest for cultural and political autonomy. The “organized dependence” of professional guohua painters prior to the reform era was replaced by “conformity” of these artists towards the party-state. Finally it suggests that, although China’s changing political environment will eventually give way to economics and the scale of ideological movements and cultural control will continue to decline, many professional guohua painters are likely to stay within the ideological and aesthetic boundaries set by the party-state and to be part of official arts agencies and institutions.

This thesis is purposefully limited to examining the status of China’s professional guohua (Chinese national painting) painters and their relation to the Party-State. It tackles the above subject by studying the contents of important official documents issued by the party-state, by retelling the interactions between professional guohua painters and the party-state in several crucial social-political contexts, and by analysing the experiences, opinions, observations and critiques of four professional guohua painters. The time span of this study extends from 1949 to the late 1990s, while acknowledging the year of 1978, when China officially launched its reform program, as a critical dividing juncture for comparative reasons. This thesis finds that a new favorable partnership was forged between the party-state and the professional guohua painters in the reform era. This was due to the impact of China’s political culture, changes in the ideology and policies of the ruling elite, the commercialization of art, and an emerging need to preserve guohua that is more instrumental to promote China’s cultural heritage and national soft power. It argues that the sustainability of such a partnership has been reinforced through a conscious differentiation between categories of art -- elite and non-elite, official and non-official, high and popular, public and non-public -- by Chinese cultural authorities as well as the artists themselves. This thesis further asserts that the significantly improved economic conditions and the social status that professional guohua painters enjoyed in the 1980s and 1990s did not reflect on their cultural and political autonomy. Most of them consciously chose to be part of the institutional establishments under the party-state and showed limited aspiration in the quest for cultural and political autonomy. The “organized dependence” of professional guohua painters prior to the reform era was replaced by “conformity” of these artists towards the party-state. Finally it suggests that, although China’s changing political environment will eventually give way to economics and the scale of ideological movements and cultural control will continue to decline, many professional guohua painters are likely to stay within the ideological and aesthetic boundaries set by the party-state and to be part of official arts agencies and institutions.

The distinctive household registration (hukou or huji) system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) divides the population into two groups whose political rights and legal status are unequal. This thesis focuses on Shanghai to examine the establishment of the hukou system in the 1950s in the course of the rural and urban reforms led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although the system has been explained as a result of the CCP’s industrialization strategy, my investigation has led me to conclude that the hukou system was an indirect rather than direct consequence of industrialization. My examination also shows that “rural” and “urban” in the PRC are essentially neither residential nor occupational categories; rather they are closely connected with political privileges. The first part of this study focuses on the consequences of the CCP’s land reform and collectivization campaigns after 1949. During this period, a large number of people who had moved freely between urban and rural areas, playing active roles in both, were uprooted from the countryside. At the same time, the CCP carried out a series of expulsions from Shanghai and other cities. Hundreds of thousands of urban residents, particularly those lacking secure employment, were removed after being labeled as “undesirable.” Thus CCP policies turned the cities and the countryside into two separate worlds. Next the dissertation outlines how the PRC state evolved after 1949, focusing on those directly maintained on the government’s payroll in Shanghai. This group was small in the beginning but soon began to expand. During the 1950s, after taking over almost all public-service institutions, the state took steps to absorb private enterprises through the policy of “public-private joint operation.” A large cohort of workers was thus added to the state payroll. Following these changes, the cities had become home mainly to employees of the party-state, together with their dependents. The state provided various benefits to its insiders. At the same time, it reduced most of the rural population to a kind of serfdom, while putting in place a set of mechanisms to secure the boundary between insiders and outsiders. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2012-06-27 09:01:49.88

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal