Since the early 1980s, China has witnessed a progressive Confucian revival, especially in the academic and cultural spheres. In particular, since the early 2000s, there has been a progressive expansion of Confucian groups arising from local initiatives all over China in the form of local colleges and study halls. Using four previously unexplored sites, this article studies the multiple modalities of local Confucian revival in the province of Shandong. Through interviews and extensive discussion with members of these groups, we have uncovered a strong adherence to Confucian elements and a convenient religiosity through ritual performances. Therefore, this article not only agrees with previously conducted studies on the revival of Confucianism in China but also adds new empirical elements supporting their conclusions. Finally, this article introduces the ‘Countryside Confucianism experiment’, its current meaning and ties to the ongoing local Confucian resurgence in the province of Shandong as well as its shared identity ‘closure’ characteristics, prevalent among some of these local sites’ narrative.
Policy legacies are an important factor explaining how, regardless of the nontraditional discourse, previously implemented laws and policies have greatly influenced the state of eldercare arrangements in both China and Taiwan. On the one hand, Taiwan has been shifting eldercare responsibilities from the family to the public through a series of social policy reforms fueled by political demands from the civil society since its democratic transition, whereas the Chinese Party-State enacted a series of filial laws in addition to reform policies, which inflated the demand and supply for familial care while at the same time impacting the development of institutional eldercare. While the issue often framed as the prevalence of filial culture in Chinese societies, this article argues, through a path dependency-based perspective, that legal provisions, policies and the structure of the political competition are largely responsible for shaping current eldercare arrangements on both sides of the strait.
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