Co-constituting modernity with the deceased : dynamics of interaction between Chinese state and clan institutions

Abstract

The post-1978 era has witnessed a steady stream of research discussing tradition-modernity dialectic in Chinese development discourse; however, neither macro nor micro paradigms alone can arrive at a comprehensive, cross-temporal analysis of the dialectic and its underlying institutional dynamics. Supported by a multi-level framework to cross paradigms, this research conducted a case study on a Chinese clan surnamed Yun, with ancestral origin in ancient Guangdong and current worldwide influence. It adopts a historical-structural approach to examine the development of clan institutions across time and space, the implications are combined with an institutional analysis of interactions between the clan and the post-1949 Chinese state. The analysis is deepened with an application of the ‘post-Confucian’ thesis. The empirical findings suggest that as China incorporated into the capitalist world economy, traditionallyderived clan institutions have been developed into ‘globalised clans’ with modern organisational agency and transnational networks. Secondly, entering the modern era during which the sovereign state takes shape and interacts with clan institutions, the following factors are the keys to a shift from suppressive to auxiliary institutional interactions: 1) the agency retained by clan institutions; 2) institutionalised networks between state and overseas Chinese; 3) personal ‘guanxi’ networks. This highlights the potential contributions to be made by Confucian-derived values, including family or group orientation, the worldview of ‘grand harmony or unity’ and preference for ‘guanxi’. Therefore, the role of traditions in Chinese development should be approached from a dynamic rather than a static point of view. A better set of institutional arrangements could be enabled by democratic openness that draws its strength and character from Chinese traditions, to work through the ongoing tensions between traditions and modernity.