This book relates the stories of four leaders under very different political regimes: Colonial, Nationalist and Communist. The authors compare Chinese notions of respect and inspiration with their equivalents in other religious and political histories of colonial and post-colonial modernity, thereby producing a thorough re-working of the idea of charisma. The result is an intriguing study of the relationship between religious and political authority in a changing world.

Past studies on the Chinese state point towards the inherent adaptability, effectiveness and overall stability of authoritarian rule in China. The key question addressed here is how this adaptive capacity plays out at the local level in China, clarifying the extent to which local state actors are able to shape local processes of policy implementation.

This book studies the evolution of dam-induced resettlement policy in China, based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Yunnan province. It shows that local governments at the lowest administrative levels are caught in a double bind,...

China s commercial film industry can be used as a map to understand how class is interwoven into the imaginations that inform and influence social change in Chinese society. Film consumption is important in this process, particularly for young adult urbanites that are China s primary commercial cinema patrons.

This book investigates the web between the representation of class themes in Chinese film narratives, local audience reception to these films, and the socialisation of China s contemporary class society. Bringing together textual analyses of narratives from five commercially...

HIV and AIDS have long been problematized in the People's Republic of China as objects of governance in political frameworks and institutions. The state's attitudes towards health programs have, nevertheless, changed significantly during the 21st century. Pilot programs at the beginning of the century, which focused on underground sex workers, have now developed into the roll-out of a nationwide program, with supportive legislation and broadcast media publicity.

This book therefore examines China's evolving AIDS response, providing an up to date investigation into the positions and...