ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 applies the cultural resonance framework to four environmental advocacy cases in China. The first two cases show how the dominant symbolic codes have helped the environmental groups to achieve their advocacy agenda, followed by a more complex case illustrating how environmental groups have made less effective advocacy more efficacious by incorporating symbolic codes from the cultural background. In the last part of the chapter, a failed case illustrates how the process of cultural resonance can be interrupted when actors fail to incorporate the right codes into their performance. These case studies show that the results of civil society advocacy depend largely on whether actors can achieve cultural resonance with their audiences through social performance. In the particular context of Chinese civil society, successful policy advocacy occurs when the Chinese state identifies with the civil society actors and incorporates their proposals into policy and law making or implementation. Whether the state incorporates the policy and law or not depends on the level of cultural resonance.
