Organizer: Xin Zhang, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis
Chair and Discussant: Frederic Wakeman, Jr., University of California, Berkeley
This part of the panel focuses especially on the relationship of local elites to higher level elites in the reconstruction of local elite identity. It deals with the political interplay between elites at different levels of the polity and the effects of that dialogue on both lower and higher levels; in this way it also contributes to the discussion on the relationship between state and society during the Republic. These papers share with the first part of the panel concern about specific contexts and social structures in the process of identity reconstruction.
The geographical coverage of these papers complements that of the first part of the panel by focusing on cases in central and north China. The elite spheres that are analyzed are mainly socio-political and cultural-political; and the papers' coverage ranges from the early to the late Republic. Pomeranz' essay probes cases involving local elite efforts at identity reconstruction through imitation of higher level elites; he shows how local context and social structures shaped the conflicts that resulted in the public redefinition of elite identities. Zhang's paper explores the relationship and interpenetration of lower and higher level elites through personal networks which afforded particular identities to participants; this essay offers a detailed view of the consequent dynamics of elite activism. McCord's essay, based on a close analysis of local power structures, focuses on how the role of erstwhile upper level military elites helped to redefine local elite status.
Imitation and Independence: Changing Relations among Different Levels of
"Local" Elites in Late Qing and Republican North China
Kenneth Pomeranz, University of California, Irvine
The large size of Chinese counties (xian) created several layer of "local" elites. There was considerable social distance between the elites of county capitals and larger market towns, standard market towns, and rural villages; however, their strategies for reproducing authority at their different levels has been little studied. Duara has suggested that the imitation of higher levels of "local" elites was an important way that elites at the lowest levels of society ritually empowered themselves. But imitation can also threaten the identities of higher level elites, and imitation of forms with altered content can seem like dangerous misappropriations.
This paper uses cases from late Qing and Republican North China to probe when "imitation" by the lowest level elites was or was not welcomed by county-level elites. One central case involves a rural shrine which commemorated the local role in a famous episode from classical history. Other cases involve disputes over the use and patronage of temples in the county capital by lower level elites and attempts to invoke the symbolic authority of county capital elites and institutions to guarantee settlements of rural disputes.
The paper shows how differences in local structure shaped elite conflicts and how their dynamics changed over time, particularly in response to changes in bureaucratic penetration of localities and changing opportunities for elite employment and service. Thus, the paper ties together aspects of local status competition and class structure, the grass-roots impact of state formation, and the recasting of local and national identities.
Society as the Organization of Power Networks: The Northern Henan Case
Xin Zhang, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis
An important question for the social historian on China is how local elites contributed to the shaping of state/societal relationships through personal networking during the early twentieth century. In the recent literature, much attention has been paid to their roles within a larger scheme (such as state-making) and to their status as a social group (as in the public sphere debate). Little observation has been made upon their functions in the framework of person-to-person interaction with state officials. This study offers a fresh look at this particular aspect.
Based upon personal diaries, biographies, unpublished and published county gazetteers, and local archives, my paper investigates a local group of literary society members in northern Henan to discover their methods of transcending the local scene and becoming capable of influencing provincial and even national political leaders. The key element of this development was the extension of personal networks, first among these elite leaders and then to government officials, including Yuan Shikai. Through an examination of the mechanism and intricacy of the network that the local elites relied upon to influence the course of the Second Republican Revolution in Henan, we will be able to understand the dynamics of local elite activism that often went beyond the local boundary to affect changes in the relationship between state and society in the Republican era.
Military Office and Local Elite Power in Guomindang China
Edward A. McCord, George Washington University
The frequency of war, civil and foreign, was a defining feature of Republican China (1911-1949). One result of this nearly continual state of war was a significant increase in the status and importance of military men in Chinese society and politics. While the military's new political dominance at higher levels is well known (as seen in the warlordism of the early Republic and in the leading role of military men in central and provincial offices in the Guomindang period from 1926-1949), very little research has been done on how, or even whether, the increased status of military men impacted on the structure of elite power in local society.
This paper draws attention to this issue by a case study of Qiyang county in Hunan province. The paper shows how several military professionals who held a series of high military and political offices in the Guomindang period, became the foci of two dominant, and competing, local power groupings. Although military office, usually held outside the county, was crucial to the elite power wielded by these men in the county, the local groupings that organized around them were also linked to other local associations-including family ties, educational and political factions, military associations, and even secret societies. Thus while focusing on the role of military office in redefining local elite status, the paper also shows how local power structures in the Republic adapted to new political contexts and opportunities.