HICCS 2025

This panel organized by Dominik Mierzejewski explores the dynamics of governance and policy implementation in China, examining center-province relations under the Belt and Road Initiative, regional strategies for patriotic education, and the influence of Tuanpai within subnational party committees.

Dominik Mierzejewski
University of Lodz, Associate Professor

Title:
Quasi-Centralization of Local Interests and Centre-Province Relations under the Belt and Road Initiative “Umbrella"

Abstract:
This paper addresses the critical issue of the domestication of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Most analyses present the BRI as China's grand strategy, based on imperial approaches supported by the PRC government. This, however, is only part of the complex picture. From a domestic perspective, the BRI is illustrated by discussing central-local dyadic relations from a post-1978 viewpoint. In the first part, the author sheds light on central-provincial government relations by discussing the continuity of fragmentation in China and the horizontal relations between provinces. The second part delves into theoretical debates over China's decentralisation-centralisation cycles, emphasising the post-Tiananmen debates initiated by Wang Huning, Wang Shaoguang, and Hu Angang, known as the new-left movement, which has been further developed under Xi Jinping. The empirical part of the paper presents a case study of practical interactions between Sichuan province and Chongqing municipalities. The paper concludes that, while the central government has taken extra measures to integrate China's fragmented economy, the question of the future 'united market' remains unanswered. As argued in the paper, the international actorness of China’s provinces allows Beijing's government to quasi-centralize local players' interests and navigate their horizontal competition in more coordinated directions. However, the fully integrated direction is seen as a possible threat to the central government's paramount position.

Joanna Nawrotkiewicz
University of Warsaw, PhD Student

Title:
Patriotic Education Across China: Comparing Local Implementation Strategies

Abstract:
Patriotic education policies play a crucial role in maintaining stability in authoritarian regimes. In the PRC, the current version of ideological teachings emerged as a response to the Tian’anmen Square events in 1989; it is aimed at fostering pro-motherland sentiments among the younger generation and mitigating the influence of Western ideologies that could threaten the communist regime. The significance of these initiatives has been underscored by various policy frameworks, including the Outline for Implementing Patriotic Education in 1994, the Outline for Implementing Patriotic Education in the New Era in 2019, and the Patriotic Education Law in 2024.

Despite extensive literature on the subject, a significant gap remains in understanding the local implementation of patriotic education and its variance from national directives. To address this, the paper compares how three provinces — Guangdong, Heilongjiang and Jiangxi — interpret and enact central government guidelines on patriotic education. These provinces have been chosen based on their geographic, economic, historic, and cultural differences.

This comparative analysis focuses on the qualitative review of key policy documents issued by central and local authorities, as well as the quantitative assessment of memory sites designated as “patriotic education bases.” The author examined over 450 memory sites and conducted in-depth analyses in 20 of them during fieldwork in 2023. The content of these bases was categorized into six thematic areas: 1) external conflicts, 2) the history of the CCP until 1949, 3) socialist development and modernization, 4) national history excluding CCP events, 5) traditional cultural heritage, and 6) nature.

Findings highlight significant regional variations in the implementation of patriotic education. In Guangdong, the focus is on collectivism and socialist values, alongside an emphasis on Lingnan culture, influenced by, i.a., the province's proximity to Hong Kong and the need to strengthen national identity. In Jiangxi, there is a strong alignment with national directives, with local authorities leveraging the province's revolutionary history to promote "red tourism" as part of an economic development strategy. Heilongjiang's approach centers on themes of external conflict and socialist modernization, emphasizing national unity against external threats and integrating the region's development into broader national goals.

These findings underscore the complex relationship between central and local governments in China, showing how regional authorities adapt and reinterpret national patriotic education policies to suit regional contexts. Such adaptations not only modify the central government's vision of patriotism but also reveal potential areas of local resistance and innovation within the framework of ideological control. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of governance in authoritarian regimes, offering insights into how regional differences shape the implementation of national policies in China.

Adrian Brona
Jagiellonian University, Research and Teaching Assistant

Title:
The Prevalence of Tuanpai within Subnational Party Committees in China

Abstract:
This paper examines the political career progression within China, focusing on the representation of tuanpai, former members of the Communist Youth League (CYL), within the provincial-level party committees of the Chinese Communist Party. Using a comprehensive dataset of profiles from all 31 provincial-level units (provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) selected during two seasons of provincial party congresses in 2016/2017 and 2021/2022 (n=6207), this study investigates the prevalence of former CYL members in these committees. Additionally, it explores the correlation between appointing former CYL members as provincial Party Secretaries and the broader representation of former CYL members within those provincial committees.
The analysis is conducted on three levels: 1) an overview of the population of all committees (“global approach”) 2) comparison of tuanpai prevalence across provincial-level committees (“provincial approach”) 3) examination of the provincial party standing committees, which include 10-14 most influential officials in each province (“core groups approach”).
This study aims to reveal changes in recruitment preferences for subnational political elites during Xi Jinping's administration and demonstrate the potential influence of CYL networks on power distribution at the provincial level after a decade of his leadership.

This panel delves into Chinese literary and cultural studies, exploring the emotional dimensions of Mudan Ting through Luo Rufang’s thought, the representation of Ming imperial imagination, and the symbolic role of water in The Story of the Stone.

Jonah Katz
Harvard University, Ph.D Student

Title:
Learning with Feeling: A New Reading of Mudan Ting through the Thought of Luo Rufang

Abstract:
The playwright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) was fortunate to have called himself a student of one of the most influential Confucian scholars of his era, Luo Rufang (1515-1588). Literary scholars have speculated that Luo's thought may have had an influence observable in Tang Xianzu's plays, an important piece of evidence for the broader claim that intellectual trends during the Ming dynasty had a significant influence on contemporary literature. Most scholars have made such speculations about Luo Rufang and his student's plays, however, primarily by relying on the brief summary of Luo's thought given in Huang Zongxi's (1610-1695) biographies of Ming scholars. Deeper engagement with Luo’s recorded discourses, in fact, reveals many more shared ideas between Luo and Tang than previously suggested. Tang Xianzu, like his teacher, was a scholar who could discourse on learning, and especially on the value of emotions, but was also able to do so using his
dramatic works as a vehicle for his thought. This presentation attempts a reading of Tang's masterwork, Mudanting (The Peony Pavilion) alongside a new critical analysis of concepts core to Luo Rufang's thought: 1. Feeling as a basis for Confucian learning and practice, 2. The "Scene" (guangjing), and 3. Heavenly Knowledge. By reading these texts side-by-side, one can make sense of some of Mudan ting's most idiosyncratic aspects and show both how Tang Xianzu absorbs and questions ideas from Luo Rufang, thus giving a fuller account of the play's philosophical significance.

Tsz Wing Giovanna WU (胡梓穎）
The Education University of Hong Kong, Assistant Professor

Title:
The Inner Palace Edition of Feng Tianming Sanbao Xia Xiyang and the Imagination of Great Ming in the Court Drama of the Ming Dynasty

Abstract:
The Inner Palace edition of Feng Tianming Sanbao Xia Xiyang (or Eunuch Sanbao Sailing to the West Seas under Heaven’s Mandate) is the only Ming court drama preserved today that narrates the history of the Ming dynasty. Previous studies were conducted either to determine whether the drama describes the official history from a historiographical perspective or compare it with the plots of the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as Luo Maodeng’s Sanbao Taijian Xiyang Ji Tongsu Yanyi (or the Romance of the Eunuch Sanbao Sailing to the West Seas) and Peng Heling’s Sanbao Taijian Xia Xiyang (or Eunuch Saobao Sailing to the West Seas). However, it has neither been analyzed in the context of court drama of the Ming Dynasty nor positioned in the history of Ming drama. As a court drama compiled by the anonymous playwright(s) of the Inner Palace, the ideology and aesthetics of the Ming court inevitably constrained the plots and performing methods of Sailing to the West Seas. All these constraints not only show the Ming court’s attitudes toward the “distinction between Hua and Yi” after the overthrow of the Mongolian rule of the Yuan Dynasty but also reflect their impression and even imaginings of the prosperous era of the Great Ming. For this reason, I will investigate the extent to which the court drama shows the ideological form of the rule of the Ming Dynasty. I will also analyze the aesthetics of the royal family of the Ming Dynasty from the court drama from the perspective of material culture.

Peng Liu
Rutgers University, Assistant Teaching Professor

Title:
Water in The Story of the Stone

Abstract:
This paper examines how water serves as a philosophical, religious, and aesthetic foundation within The Story of the Stone (aka. Dream of the Red Chamber). The novel indisputably bears Buddhist undertones, due to numerous Buddhist ideas, temples, and professionals in the story. In addition to teaching the achievement of enlightenment through passion, how does the novel represent Buddhist ideas about space and material reality? Conversely, how do Buddhist perspectives on space and material reality influence the novel’s fictional space? To answer these questions, this paper draws attention to the relationship between the novel and the concept of “Water Meditation” from the Surangama Sutra. I argue that the novel’s Grand View Garden is modeled upon Buddhist meditative practice. In particular, through storytelling, the novel transforms meditative space into physical space. During the time the novel was conceived, the Surangama Sutra enjoyed popularity among intellectuals. The sutra features “Water Meditation,” a meditative practice aimed at altering perceptions of reality. Practitioners are encouraged to view the material world as consisting of nothing but water. Water embodies purity of the mind, whereas stone represents a danger obstructing the achievement of mental tranquility. The Buddhist opposition of water and stone not only contributes to configuring the novel’s fictional space but also foretells the destinies of its major characters. The male protagonist Jia Baoyu is a reincarnation of a precious jade; his female companions in the garden embody the essence of water. As a stone in the Buddhist way, Baoyu must disappear from the garden and the narrative.