Personalism and Backstage Bosses in Rural China: A Study on the Fabric of Chinese Rural Life

Weber's concept of “Personalismus” is a key to understanding social change in Chinese society. This essay is an attempt to apply the concept of personalism in analyzing the dynamism of contemporary Chinese society through reviewing previous studies on the fabric of Chinese rural life, focussing on the role of “backstage bosses” (houtai ren) in China's rural society. This paper emphasizes that social relationships based on the principle of personalism was the most important aspect of peasant life, and that changes in the social network, where backstage bosses exercised their influences, clearly reflect social changes in China. In Republican China, the indispensable relationships for peasants were those of the “peasant-middlemen (that is, backstage bosses whose foundation of power and prestige were based on clan lineage, status in religious organization, or land holding) -market town, ” and “peasant-production team cadres” in the Mao era. After the 1978 reforms, the backstage boss was usually a village cadre, who was known among peasants as a capable worker (nengnai de ren), whose status has been rising formally or informally, and whose social network extended in and around the village, accumulating connections in the upper level of local governments as social resources. Peasants seek to get acquainted with backstage bosses to further their personal interests by applying the principle of personalism in everyday life. This paper finds that further in depth discussions on the personality of backstage bosses, especially regarding their motivation, values, and the human resources that they command, are necessary to explain the peculiarities of social change in Chinese society.