Searching for Chinese characteristics: a tentative empirical examination

Abstract

In the mid‐1980s, social work, which had been practised in China in the years before 1949, was reintroduced as a newly imported social discipline. Like many other imported social ideas and practices, such as the free market, it was not well‐adapted to the socialist ideology of China and, therefore, was required to exhibit ‘Chinese characteristics’, (a term proposed by Deng Xiaoping to justify the economic reform in the early 1980s). In this paper, we first examine the discourse relating to Chinese characteristics in selected social work literature published in China. Then we report the findings of a qualitative study of 32 social work graduating students to gain an empirical understanding of these students' perception of the Chinese characteristics of social work. The implications of social work development in China and international social work are also discussed.

在20世纪80年代中期，社会工作在中国再度恢复了在社会科学中的学科地位。正如许多其它外来的思想和实践方法，如自由市场等概念一样，都没有被调整以适应“中国特色”的社会主义意识形态（(此概念在20世纪80年代初由邓小平提出)。在本文中，作者首先根据一些在中国出版的中文文献，研究有关中国社会工作特色的论述。然后，作者通过对32名社会工作毕业生的定质研究去了解这些学生对中国社会工作特色的看法。本文也讨论了中国社会工作发展对国际社会工作的影响与含义。

Keywords:

• China
• Chinese characteristics
• indigenization
• indigenous
• bentuhua
• bentude
• social work
• international social work
• qualitative research
• Jinan

Acknowledgement

This study was made possible by the University of British Columbia HSS Large Grant.

Notes

1. We are using the term ‘Western’ loosely, as it is often used in China, to signify something foreign and modern.

2. We would like to thank one of the reviewers for reminding us of this important intellectual connection.