Reflecting on Rethinking Modern Chinese Elites: A Brief Overview

From June 10 to 12, 2024, scholars and researchers from Europe, United States, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong convened at Aix-Marseille University for an international conference titled “Rethinking Modern Chinese Elites: From Print to Computational Methods.” This event brought together a very diverse group of historians to explore the multifaceted dimensions of Chinese elites, examining them through historical, social, and computational perspectives. It was made possible by the generous support of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, the Tseng Family Trust, and the French Academic Network on Asian Studies. The conference unfolded in a very open-minded and congenial atmosphere of genuine intellectual engagement.

 

 

Day 1: Historical and Social Dynamics of Chinese Elites

The conference commenced on June 10 with an introduction by Christian Henriot, who set the tone for the sessions to follow. Henriot emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in understanding the complexities of Chinese elites and the need for historians to get ready for a future made up of massive digital historial sources.

Morning Sessions:

• Cameron Campbell kicked off the presentations with his paper on the kin networks of late Qing jinshi and juren degree holders. Campbell’s research, based on extensive data from the Tongnian Chilu (Classmate Books), provided a detailed analysis of the familial connections of degree holders. His findings challenged previous assumptions about social mobility by revealing that many degree holders who appeared to be “new” elites had extensive kin networks with other degree holders, thus highlighting the role of broader family connections in elite formation.
• Thorben Pelzer followed with a fascinating discussion on simulating historical transport networks through archival maps, focusing on geographic mobility in late Republican China. Pelzer introduced a quantitative approach to reconstruct and simulate historical transport networks, enabling modeling of travel times, identification of critical routes, and analysis of regional connectivity. Using late Republican China as a case study, Pelzer’s research revealed how select critical routes facilitated interregional travel and supported nation-building efforts, albeit with limited integration of peripheral areas. The study underscored the potential of transport simulations for historical research.

After a short break, the sessions resumed with:

• Matthew Sommer presented a detailed examination of the sexual exploitation of actors and servants by Qing elites. Sommer’s paper highlighted the phenomenon of erotic connoisseurship of young males, particularly actors who played female roles in opera, among the Qing elite. This connoisseurship, while framed within a context of refined aesthetic appreciation, masked the underlying sexual exploitation. Through analyzing sex scandals and legal cases from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Sommer revealed how elite male privilege extended to the systematic exploitation of young male actors and servants. Sommer argued that these relationships were characterized by profound asymmetry and were often coercive, challenging the more romanticized views of elite connoisseurship. The officials involved in these cases were punished because their behaviors was judged immoral and inadequate to their rank and to the moral virtues and responsibilities they were supposed to represent.
• Daniel Knorr then presented on the translocal imperial public in late Qing Jinan. Knorr’s paper examined elite activism in Jinan, Shandong, particularly focusing on the collaboration between local elites and centrally appointed officials in addressing hydraulic administration and humanitarian relief in the 1880s. Knorr argued that this activism did not necessarily lead to the elite’s participation in the revolution that overthrew the Qing in 1911-12. His analysis underscored the persistent entanglement of state and society in Jinan, contributing to a broader understanding of elite engagement and its implications for late Qing politics.
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• The morning session concluded with Baptiste Blouin‘s presentation on transitioning from text to images to data, demonstrating innovative methods for transforming, formatting, and analyzing historical texts issued from scanned images through computational techniques.

Afternoon Sessions:

• The afternoon began with Christian Henriot‘s analysis of three merchants in modern Shanghai. Henriot offered a microhistorical perspective on their influence and legacy. He focused on Zhu Baosan (1848-1926), Yu Qiaqing (1867-1945), and Wang Xiaolai (1886-1967), examining their social worlds and political networks. His study utilized a wealth of documentation, including biographies, academic papers, and thousands of articles from the Shenbao newspaper to examine the process that led them from near social obscurity to become central brokers in Shanghai society. Henriot’s research highlighted the cumulative process of building extensive networks from their initial role in company finance, then through philanthropy, and lastly through major professional or community organizations. Yet Henriot’s work emphasized also how these merchants’ participation in singluar events, and interactions with the state shaped their trajectory.

• Jie Jiang continued the discussion with a paper on the roles of Shanghai business elites in modern China. Jiang employed a data mining approach based on HistText to analyze the influence of Shanghai’s business elites. Jiang’s motivation stems from a desire to understand how computational methods can provide breakthroughs in historical analysis. This project aims to verify the efficacy of these methods, given the ENP-China project’s context and recent publications. By focusing on the biographies of merchants and the Shenbao, Jiang addresses the limitations of previous group biographical analyses, highlighting the advantages of Shenbao’s extensive historical data. However, the research faced significant challenges. The massive amount of data required meticulous handling to avoid errors, and unexpected issues within the corpora complicated historical research. These difficulties underscored the importance of accurate data processing and analysis in leveraging computational methods for historical studies.
• Bryna Goodman rounded out the afternoon with a paper focused on the early proliferation of Chinese stock exchanges during the early republican era, particularly the Shanghai-centered exchange bubble from 1920 to 1922. She highlighted how approximately 150 Chinese stock exchanges in Shanghai and 50 in other coastal and riverine cities rose on a tide of economic nationalism amidst Japanese financial expansion in China. Goodman explored elite involvement in financial speculation through a close reading of the novel Jiaoyisuo xianxingji (Stock Exchanges Unmasked) by Jiang Hongjiao. This novel, serialized in the early 1920s, provided an insider’s view of the social and economic disruptions caused by the stock exchange bubble, offering valuable insights into the behaviors, motivations, and social networks of financial elites. Goodman’s analysis underscored the complex interplay of economic, social, and political factors that influenced the early Chinese stock exchanges and the elites who operated within them.

After another brief break, the day concluded with:

• Yiqiao Yan‘s exploration of the role of religious rituals among Sichuan’s military elites in the 20th century. Yan examined Yuan Shikai’s 1914 ritual reforms and the practice of Confucian Spring-Autumn sacrifices, discussing how Sichuan military elites adapted these rituals as a means of reconfiguring Confucianism through liturgical practice. His research delved into various religious rituals, including spirit writing, Buddhist Dharma assemblies, and Daoist grand offerings, highlighting their importance in the formation and consolidation of military elites’ power. Yan’s analysis revealed how these rituals were not merely traditional practices but strategic tools for political and social influence, providing a unique perspective on the interaction between religion and elite formation in early 20th-century Sichuan.
• Paul Katz presented a case study on the Lianzuoshan Guanyin Temple in Taiwan. Katz examined the growth of local elite networks centered around temple cults during the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945). Using the Lianzuoshan Guanyin Temple as a case study, Katz detailed how elites from various social, economic, and religious backgrounds formed networks through their patronage of the temple. These networks included commercial, transportation, irrigation, and marriage connections, as well as educational, literary, and spirit-writing associations. Katz highlighted how these networks evolved over time and used Gephi to map the relationships and influence of different elites. His analysis provided insights into the ways temple cults served as focal points for elite interactions and community formation in colonial Taiwan.

Day 2: Statistical Methods and Elite Networks

The second day of the conference, June 11, focused on the intersection of statistical methods and elite networks, highlighting the role of compiling and printing statistical data in shaping elite identities and practices.

Morning Sessions:

• Tim Salzer opened the day with an analysis of the politics of price in the Republic of China from 1919 to 1928. Salzer’s paper focused on the introduction and management of price statistics during a time of significant economic and social upheaval. He examined the efforts of state and non-state actors to monitor prices in response to the transnational inflation caused by World War I. Salzer highlighted the roles of the Shanghai Bureau of Markets (財政部駐滬調查貨價處) and the Canton Department of Peasantry and Labor (廣東省政府農工廳統計科), detailing how these agencies incorporated new statistical and economic concepts into their analysis. The paper explored how officials attempted to make these foreign concepts operable within the Chinese context, thus transforming the understanding and control of price changes. Salzer’s research underscored the broader transformation of bureaucratic practices in the early Republic of China, showing how these new forms of knowledge and administrative routines were domesticated and how they influenced economic policy and governance.
• Gus Chan continued with a discussion on the introduction of statistics to China and its impact on modern Chinese elites. Chan’s research explored the relationship between education and vocation in China, which began to be quantified by the Chinese state and elites in the early twentieth century. He traced the development of educational statistics through three case studies: Meng Sen, Huang Yanpei, and Jennings Chu. Chan analyzed materials such as periodicals, diaries, and textbooks to test two hypotheses: (1) the macro-statistics of education were increasingly tied to China’s statecraft, and (2) the micro-statistics of education introduced mathematical statistics into Chinese academia. His findings highlighted how educational statistics, although fragmented and not up to modern standards, played a significant role in shaping public perception and policy regarding education and employment. Chan emphasized the heuristic impact of these statistics, which made people anxious about the imagined unemployed population, or “educated vagabonds (高等游民),” in early twentieth-century China.
• Xavier Paulès examined the political dimensions of statistical yearbooks, focusing on the Zhonghua minguo zongji tiyao 中華民國總計提要 (Statistical Abstract of the Republic of China) published in 1936 by the Bureau of Statistics of the Nationalist government. Paulès introduced the concept of the “Little statistical golden age” of the Nanking decade, characterized by an unprecedented production of statistical data across various sectors. His paper highlighted how these yearbooks were not just compilations of data but conveyed significant political messages. Paulès argued that the publication of yearbooks served to showcase national unity during a time of political disunity and to claim Qing boundaries, including regions like Tibet and Mongolia, despite their de facto independence. The statistical data included in the tiyao involved extensive collaboration between central authorities and local warlord administrations, illustrating the semi-dependent nature of local power holders. Paulès’ analysis provided insights into how these statistical yearbooks were used as political tools to assert national sovereignty and promote state-building efforts during the Nanking decade.

Following the morning break:

• Gregory Scott‘s paper explored how mechanized movable type printing technology, introduced in China in the late nineteenth century, transformed the dissemination of Buddhist teachings. This technology allowed Buddhist ideas to be printed and distributed in mass quantities, enabling Buddhist monastics and laypeople to gain widespread recognition during their lifetimes. Scott argued that this new print culture sidelined those who could not or would not embrace it, while propelling self-promoting individuals to new heights of power. He examined the rise of monastic and lay authors who became prominent through their publications and the role of publishers in establishing these elites through advertisements, monographs, book series, and periodicals. Scott’s analysis highlighted how this mass print culture created opportunities for new types of Buddhist elites to emerge and how these elites influenced the publishing world to reflect their own values and goals.
• Christopher Reed’s contribution focused on a selection of articles published by Dai Jitao in the Nationalist Party (KMT) journal, Central Weekly (Zhongyang zhoubao 中央週報), an internal circulation-only machine-printed publication by the party propaganda department from June 1928. Reed explored how Central Weekly provided the ruling party a means of educating its membership, particularly at the lower levels, in party ideology and history, thereby contributing to Republican China’s “tutelary” or “pedagogical” state. Drawing on internal documents from Taipei’s KMT Archives, Reed addressed issues of party-state organization, inner party dynamics, and mobilization in the early 1930s. His analysis shed light on state-building by China’s early pedagogical state and contributed to discussions of elite circulation, power and governance.
• Seungjoo Yoon concluded the morning with a study on the place of the Book of Changes (Yi Jing 易經) in the age of telegraphy. Yoon’s research explored the intersection of ancient wisdom and contemporary challenges through the lens of the I Ching, or Book of Changes. Yoon argues that the I Jing, with its rich philosophical underpinnings and adaptable interpretative frameworks, remains relevant in addressing modern existential and ethical dilemmas. By tracing the historical applications of the I Ching in political and intellectual discourse, Yoon illustrated how its principles could be applied to contemporary issues such as environmental sustainability, social justice, and global interconnectedness.

Afternoon Sessions:

• The afternoon sessions began with Cécile Armand‘s corpus-driven comparative analysis of Japanese- and American-returned students Armand’s research focused on the varied discourses surrounding Chinese students who studied abroad in Japan and the United States.  Armand relied on HistText (the data mining tool developed by ENP-China) and combined computational text analysis with close reading to explore how these discourses emerged and evolved in DFZZ (a major intellectual journal published by the Commercial Press from 1904 to 1948). Her study questioned three levels of conflicting interpretations: social, political, and moral. Socially, students were viewed as modernizers versus high investment/low gain for the nation. Politically, they were seen as patriots versus traitors. Morally, they were perceived as denationalized and culturally alienated versus arrogant and selfish. Armand’s methodology combined computational text analysis with close reading, utilizing the HistText tool for data mining. Her findings showed that discourses on foreign-educated students depended on the country of education, political and social context in China and internationally, and the authors’ backgrounds. The study revealed that Japanese-returned students generally faced more negative discourses than American-returned students, reflecting both their perceived qualities and the international situation. Armand concluded that generation and education were primary determinants shaping authors’ perspectives, and she advocated for integrating computational methods with traditional close reading for a more comprehensive understanding of historical texts.
• Zuoye Wang followed with a paper on Chinese transnational scientific elites, focusing on their choices during the Chinese Civil War and the Cold War. Wang’s research examined the complex decisions faced by elite Chinese scientists between 1945 and 1955, as they navigated the turbulent geopolitical landscape of the Civil War and the Cold War. Utilizing the diary of Zhu Kezhen, a leading Chinese meteorologist and president of Zhejiang University, along with other sources, Wang explored how these scientists formed transnational networks across mainland China, Taiwan, the United States, Europe, and other regions. The scientists’ choices were informed by a combination of geopolitical, professional, and personal considerations, impacting not only their careers but also national science and technology policies in China and the US. Wang highlighted the significant contributions of Chinese American physicists to American science and technology, noting the political and racial challenges they faced. Wang’s study underscored the lasting impact of these early transnational networks and the crucial role of Chinese scientists in both national and international scientific developments.
• Chih-wen Kuo examined the establishment of the Chinese Medical Association and the role of medical elites in shaping modern healthcare in China. Kuo’s research utilized comparative research and geographical information systems to investigate the two primary systems of physician training in China: church medical schools and government-run medical schools. The development of Chinese doctors was significantly influenced by these two distinct systems, each with its own objectives and regional disparities. Church medical schools, established primarily in southern China, focused on meeting the demand for medical missionary work and emphasized individual medical treatment. In contrast, government-run medical schools, which began in North China, were driven by national imperatives to address manpower shortages in various sectors, including the military and infrastructure. Kuo traced the historical development of these schools, highlighting how church medical schools expanded from the south along the coastline to the north and inland regions, while government-run medical schools spread from the north to other parts of China. The membership attributes of the National Medical Association of China reflected these regional differences, with doctors in the north more engaged in public health initiatives, whereas those in the south focused more on individual treatments. Kuo’s study provided a comprehensive overview of the evolution of medical education in China and its impact on the formation of medical elites and public health policies.
• Robert Bickers and Jiayi Tao wrapped up the day with a discussion on the transition of China hands into aid workers, illustrating how foreign elites adapted to new roles in a changing China. This study provided a preliminary report on the extent to which the foreign staff of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) China Office (1944-47) drew on men and women with existing experience of living and working in China. The China aid program, UNRRA’s largest operation, was distributed through a parallel structure involving UNRRA and the Chinese National Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (CNRRA). The study examined the backgrounds of UNRRA personnel, drawing on datasets of individuals employed in the Chinese Maritime Customs, municipal administrations, interned allied nationals, and a new dataset of CNRRA staff. The research aimed to understand how former ‘China hands’ and other foreign nationals refashioned themselves to find opportunities in the new organizations of the postwar world. The paper highlighted the role of UNRRA in transferring expertise to postwar China, contributing to both immediate relief efforts and the longer-term development of technical assistance as a key function of the UN system in the era of decolonization and Cold War competition.

After a brief break, the day concluded with a hands-on session by the ENP-China Team, providing attendees with practical introduction to HistText and the use of computational tools for historical research.

Day 3: Local Governance and Cultural Networks

The final day of the conference, June 12, focused on local governance, cultural networks, and the impact of elites on Chinese society from the late Qing period to the modern era.

Morning Sessions:

• Henrike Rudolph opened the day with a paper on China’s semi-bureaucratic networks and the constructive engagement of non-communist elites. Rudolph’s research delved into the intricate strategies employed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to engage with non-communist elites through semi-bureaucratic networks during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Focusing on Chongqing, the wartime capital, Rudolph examined how the CCP’s Southern Bureau, under Zhou Enlai, forged connections with China’s scholars and scientists, portraying the CCP as a guardian of scientific progress in contrast to the weakening Guomindang (GMD) government. Rudolph’s study highlighted the establishment of various scientific organizations, such as the Natural Science Forum (Ziran kexue zuotanhui 自然科学座谈会) and the Chinese Scientific Research Association (Zhonghua ziran kexueshe 中华自然科学社), which served as platforms for the CCP to exert influence and gain trust among intellectuals. Using social network analysis and previously neglected Chinese sources, Rudolph reconstructed the wide-spanning networks among China’s leading scholars and scientists, identifying central agents and their roles in these networks. The paper also discussed the transformation of these networks into organizational structures, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Jiusan Study Society (Jiusan xueshe), which became a significant component of the PRC’s political system after 1949.

• Victor Louzon presented his research focused on the life and career of Shi Mingru, a low-ranking officer in the Manchukuo Army, to illustrate the complexities of collaboration and resistance during the Japanese occupation. Louzon introduced digital techniques to analyze Shi Mingru’s diary, shedding light on Shi Mingru’s dual roles as a collaborator and a resistance leader. The study explored Shi’s involvement with the Manchukuo Army, his training at the Central Army Training School and Manchukuo Military Academy, and his later activities with the River Army and the National Salvation Anti-Japanese Society of the KMT in exile in the Northeast. Louzon’s approach demonstrated the potential of digital tools in elite studies, offering a better understanding of the conflicting loyalties and identities of lower-level elites in colonial contexts.
• Simon Lam‘s presentation focused on the principle of local self-governance and the role of elites in postwar Shunde (Guangdong) from 1945 to 1949. His study examined  how local self-governance was seen as essential for political transition, as envisioned by Sun Yat-sen. Lam highlighted that the population in Shunde had the right to vote for county officials and representatives, leading to a system where citizens could directly elect and recall officials, and conduct initiatives and referendums. The concept was reinforced by figures such as Lieutenant General Zhang Ming and cadet Qiu Shiru, who emphasized the urgency of self-governance for reconstruction. However, Lam also pointed out the challenges and failures, including financial constraints, reluctance to take up duties, and conflicts with lineage groups. Despite the committed efforts by the Guomintang to implement self-governance policies, these obstacles hindered the full realization of local self-governance, revealing the complexities and limitations of political reforms in postwar Guangdong.

After the morning break:

• Ling-ling Lien and Yeh Wen-chun explored the cultural and social networks of modern Chinese translators, examining how these networks facilitated the flow of ideas and cultural exchanges. Utilizing data from the “Modern Women’s Journal Database” (MWJD) of Academia Sinica, which includes 202 journals and 147,748 articles, Lien and Yeh identified 3,612 translated articles from 138 journals, with 39 journals having more than 5% of their content translated. The analysis was split into two parts: categorizing translated works into seven genres and tracking their changes over time, and using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to map relationships between authors and translators. They found that translation served as a means to introduce new ideas, with an emphasis on education, entertainment, and practical knowledge. Lien and Yeh’s research highlighted the centrality of certain clusters of translators and authors, particularly in journals like The Ladies’ Journal (婦女雜志), which promoted discussions on public issues, scientific knowledge, and social reforms. They observed how translation practices during wartime, especially by Communist translators, emphasized Soviet realist literature, reflecting political intentions.
• Helena Lopes presented a global microhistory of wartime cultural diplomacy, focusing on the life of Guo Jingqiu, also known as Helena Kuo, a woman who operated across three continents during the 1930s and 1940s. Guo Jingqiu had a significant but now largely forgotten career as a journalist, writer, public speaker, and translator in China, Britain, France, and the United States. Lopes’s paper highlighted how Guo used her multilingual skills and personal narratives to present China’s wartime resistance to global audiences, merging national and global perspectives. The study emphasized Guo’s role in cultural diplomacy, her efforts to challenge discriminatory assumptions, and her contributions to the international visibility of Chinese resistance. Lopes’s work demonstrated the intricate web of elite interactions and the importance of women in China’s cultural diplomacy during the Second World War.
• Anne Kerlan delved into the socio-cultural complexities of Ruan Lingyu’s life, examining her rise to stardom and the socio-cultural pressures that led to her tragic end. Utilizing periodicals, photographs, and personal records, Kerlan traced Ruan’s journey from her living places and social relations as reported in the press to her roles in films and the public’s perception of her life. Kerlan highlighted the dichotomy between Ruan’s on-screen characters, often from impoverished backgrounds or fallen social statuses, and her real-life struggles with fame and societal expectations. The research provided a nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by cultural elites in Republican China and the impact of public scrutiny on their personal lives.

Afternoon Sessions:

• The next panel was preceded by a special session devoted to the presentation of two biographical databases. Nora Ven den Bosch introduced the Modern China Biographical Database, with an emphasis on the elaborate and delicate workflow that underpins the cleaning, formatting, and import of data from historical sources to the database. Thorben Pelzer presented the Chinese Engineers Relational Database, highlighting its sepcific content and the main features of the database.

 

• Lena Henningsen discussed formative experiences during the Chinese long 1970s, examining how the reading practices of educated youth during the late 1960s to early 1980s impacted the formation and transformation of the intellectual elite that shaped China in the early post-Mao era. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative data from the ReadAct database, which collects autobiographical accounts of reading acts, Henningsen highlighted the diverse and often clandestine reading activities that occurred during this period. Her study revealed that despite the tight control and censorship of the Cultural Revolution, educated youth found ways to engage with a wide range of literature, including internal publications, foreign literature, and forbidden texts. Henningsen illustrated how these reading practices were formative for individuals who later became part of China’s literary, cultural, and intellectual elite. Henningsen concluded by discussing the methodological challenges of studying historical reading practices and the importance of these practices in understanding the formation of post-Maoist elites.

• James Lee and Han Haozhe’s research provided an in-depth analysis of human capital development in China by examining elite university students from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou during the early 20th century. Using a big data approach, they analyze nearly 91,000 student records from fifteen universities. Their findings highlighted significant regional differences in university student composition, reflecting the societal and economic contexts of each region. While universities in Beijing attracted a nationally diverse student body, those in Shanghai and Guangzhou primarily drew from local and regional populations. The family occupational backgrounds of students also varied significantly. Shanghai had a higher proportion of students from business-oriented families, reflecting its commercial nature. Conversely, many students in Beijing and Guangzhou had parents involved in farming, indicative of their agrarian economies. Additionally, social networks and guarantor relationships varied: Beijing students often relied on friends as guarantors due to national diversity and fewer local ties, while Shanghai students preferred friends despite having many local families. In Guangzhou, students typically nominated close family members, reflecting stronger familial ties and local customs. Lee and Han’s research emphasized how regional characteristics and historical contexts influenced educational pathways and socio-economic development.

After a final break:

• Xueguang Zhou analyzed personnel flow patterns in the Chinese bureaucracy from 1990 to 2020, illustrating the mobility and opportunities available to Chinese elites. Zhou proposed a model of dual mobility regimes, highlighting the bifurcation of spatial mobility (movement of officials across administrative jurisdictions) and local mobility (job shifts within the boundaries of administrative jurisdictions). His empirical study, based on data from Jiangsu Province, revealed that spatial mobility was limited to top officials, while extensive local mobility was prevalent among lower-level officials. This bifurcation produced two distinct mobility regimes, each with its own network structures, thereby providing the organizational basis for variable coupling between central control and local agency. Zhou argued that the centralization of authority, while intended to strengthen top-down integration, also led to the formation of locality-based identities and strategic alliances among local officials. The study illustrated how these dual mobility regimes influenced bureaucratic governance in China, showing that while spatial mobility enforced vertical integration, local mobility fostered dense, overlapping social networks within jurisdictions, contributing to localism.
• Junyan Jiang concluded the conference with a paper titled “From Kin to Comrade: Rural Clan Society and the Rise of Communist Revolution in China.” Jiang’s research examined how traditional identities and institutions, particularly clan and kinship networks, were instrumental in the mobilization of peasants during the Chinese Communist Revolution from 1927 to 1936. Utilizing newly digitized data on over 65,000 family genealogies, 2,800 revolutionary organizers, and 500,000 martyrs from 637 uprisings, Jiang and his co-author Xingchen Lan analyzed the role of clan-based networks in the early stages of the revolution. They found that co-clan networks were crucial for recruiting initial participants, with the effectiveness of this mobilization depending on the organizers’ social status within their clans and the clans’ position in the local social ecology. Their findings highlighted the significant linkage between agrarian institutions and modern revolutions, offering a new perspective on the origins of Chinese communism. Jiang’s study provided a comprehensive analysis of how traditional social structures were repurposed for revolutionary activities, emphasizing the dual role of clans in both supporting and suppressing uprisings. This research deepened the understanding of the mechanisms of mass mobilization in revolutionary movements and the interplay between traditional institutions and modern political change.

Conclusion

The “Rethinking Modern Chinese Elites” conference successfully fostered an interdisciplinary dialogue, blending historical research with modern computational methods. It highlighted the evolving nature of elite studies in China, offering new insights and methodologies that promise to enrich future research in the field. The diverse topics and innovative approaches presented over the three days underscored the importance of understanding the past to inform contemporary studies of elite networks and their influence on society.

In a tongue-in-cheek conclusion to the conference, Christian Henriot and Cécile Armand produced an MCA analysis and visualization of all the presentations, categorizing them by scope, time period, population, and methodology.

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