ABSTRACT
Is there a civil society in China? Despite the traditional culture featuring a “big government, small society,” there has been development resembling a burgeoning of civil society in modern China. This chapter begins with a discussion of those features of Chinese society influenced by traditional Chinese culture and introduces the development of Chinese society in the early twentieth century and right after the establishment of “People's Republic of China.” It then discusses how the “Reform and Opening-Up” process since 1978 has contributed to the development of the Chinese market economy and how it has empowered society in general. This discussion is followed by an overview of the development of social organizations in China, focusing on the debate on its numbers. The last parts discuss the state-society relations in China and state-non-governmental organization (NGO) relations to be specific.
