Contesting illegitimate situations, reassessing shared norms in contemporary China

Isabelle Thireau (1)

1 CECMC-CCJ - Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

This paper is based on the analysis of a corpus of letters sent to a specific Chinese institution: the Letters and Visits Administration created in 1951. Its main focus is to analyze the recent trends of this particular space of direct address to State and Party representative. This is indeed a space where situations considered to be unjust, illegitimate, unacceptable are exposed, whether individually or collectively. The article begins by stressing the importance not only of the grievances expressed but of the type of relationship posited by complainants between themselves and those they appeal to, which is also between the ruled and the rulers. It then considers how letters and visits enable those who take such initiatives to step outside the private realm and tell public authorities who they are and, more precisely, how they perceive themselves. Finally, I will try to explain why the shared arguments put forward by petitioners, although they often rely on official commitments, cannot be understood as expressing a mere inclination towards rule compliance.

Mots clés: China; legitimacy; Letters and Visits; Administration; norms; sense of justice

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Isabelle Thireau. Contesting illegitimate situations, reassessing shared norms in contemporary China. Revue européenne des sciences sociales (Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto), 2014, 52 (2), pp.133-159. ⟨halshs-01108440⟩