This volume in the CSAC Monographs series is a revised version of a volume entitled Perspectives on Chinese Society: Views from Japan, originally published by the Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan on March 31st, 1994. We are grateful to the Institute for allowing the publication of this revised edition for more general circulation in the University of Kent CSAC Monograph Series.
The idea for the book originated from a panel entitled "Identity and Ritual in the Anthropology of China: Recent Research from the University of Tokyo", organised by Suenari Michio and Jerry Eades and held on December 4th 1992 in San Francisco as part of the 91st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. The panel consisted of papers by Suenari Michio, Han Min, Yokoyama Hiroko, Segawa Masahisa, Shimizu Jun, Nie Lili and Mio Yuko. The chairman was Jerry Eades, and the discussant was Professor Arthur Wolf of Stanford University, to whom we are much indebted for his generous and perceptive comments. We are also much indebted to the Takanashi Gakujutsu Shorei Kikin for their generous financial support for the research workshop and attendance at the conference, as well as for the production of this revised edition.
The 1992 AAA meeting was unusual in that there were three panels totally devoted to work on China, and the American scholars present were clearly interested in the main trends in research on China being carried out in Japan. However, as much of the previous Japanese-based research had only been published in Japanese, it has been difficult for many western scholars to gain easy access to it.
In this book, therefore, we have tried to present a reasonably representative sample of recent work being carried out on Chinese society by scholars currently working in Japan. "Chinese society" should be interpreted broadly: here we include not only the Han Chinese and the minorities within or bordering mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also, the overseas Chinese. "Scholars working in Japan" includes, in addition to the Japanese, four Chinese scholars of varied origin (Wang, Han, Nie and Zeng), a scholar from Australia (Daniels) and one from Britain (Eades).
Chapters 1 (Suenari), 6 (Nie), 9 (Mio), 11 (Yokoyama), 12 (Segawa) and 14 (Shimizu) are longer versions of the papers presented in San Francisco. Han Min, who spoke about peasant women in San Francisco, agreed to include a paper on ritual here, in order to complement others in the book. The list of contributors was then widened to include the other members of the research group organised by Mio Yuko on the theme of "Cultural Dynamics between the Han-Chinese and the surrounding Minority Groups" at the Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. This volume therefore represents the collective work of this group, and it is appropriate that it should have been published by the Institute itself. We are very grateful to the Institute for funding both the research group and the original publication, and to Mio Yuko for dealing with the administration of the entire project.
The papers in the volume fall into three groups. To begin and end with, there are surveys by Suenari Michio and Jerry Eades of recent Japan-based anthropological research on China and its place in the development of the discipline as a whole. In between, the papers in the first half of the volume deal mainly with the Han Chinese, while those in the second half focus mainly on non-Han groups and their relations with the Han. The issues discussed range widely, but can for the most part be grouped under the three broad headings of kinship, ritual and identity.
As for the division of labour between the editors, Professors Suenari and Eades together planned the volume. Suenari Michio was primarily responsible for negotiating with contributors, fixing the order of the chapters, and compiling the appendices and bibliography, in addition to contributing two of the chapters. Most of the copy-editing of the papers on the Han Chinese was the work of Jerry Eades, who also produced the camera-ready copy of the main text and the index. Most of the copy-editing of the papers on the minorities was carried out by Christian Daniels.
We have dealt with the usual problem of the name order for Chinese and Japanese scholars writing in English by retaining the normal Japanese and Chinese order throughout, with surnames first. We have also adopted the common and useful Japanese convention of highlighting surnames of all scholars written in Roman script in small capitals.
It has been impossible to use a uniform transcription system for Chinese words, given that the papers deal with so many regions and dialects, as well as with both the People's Republic and Taiwan. We have, however, included character lists for most of the papers, and we are very grateful to Han Min for the production of these, as well as for the map at the start of the volume.
The main changes made in this second edition of the book are as follows. First, we have been able to correct many of the errors in the text, and to make the transcription of both Chinese and Japanese more uniform where possible. Second, we have been able to incorporate final revisions by the contributors themselves. Third, we have been able to expand the bibliography to include the names of publications, authors and institutions in both Japanese/Chinese characters and Roman script. Finally, we have been able to include an index which we hope will make the volume more useful as a reference source for those with a specialist interest in this body of Japanese-based research on Chinese society.