MACMILLAN Hegemonic Transformation: The State, Laws, and Labour Relations in Post-Socialist China (Series in Asian Labor and Welfare Policies)

Review “Hegemonic Transformation deftly weaves together breathtaking grand theory, meticulous explication of workers' thinking, and careful middle-range analysis comparing variation amidst the broad similarities. Like a great cubist painting, it produces a multifaceted portrait of the contradictions of workers' politics in China: its activism and passivity, its anger and acceptance, its power and powerlessness, and the coercion and, centrally, consent that shape it. An original, important, persuasive and indispensable account that takes this much-studied topic to a new level.” (Prof. Marc Blecher, Oberlin College) “In a strategy of passive revolution, the Chinese party-state implemented capitalist social relations of production by force from 1978 onwards. As  Elaine Sio-ieng HUI, however, demonstrates in this fascinating book, in view of increasing unrest in industrial relations, the Chinese party-state has moved towards a new strategy recently, attempting to establish capitalist hegemony based on new labour laws and discourses around ‘China’s dream’ and a ‘moderately prosperous society’. While successful with many workers, some only render passive consent. Moreover, radical workers continue challenging capitalist hegemony. In line with Gramsci’s understanding, hegemony is after all a terrain of continuous and open-ended class struggle. A must-read for all scholars and activists, who are interested in the changing Chinese form of state within global capitalism.” (Prof. Andreas Bieler, Nottingham University)“A superb contribution to our understanding of the Chinese state in the reform period! Hui skilfully uses Gramscian concepts to meticulously analyse how the Party/state crafts labour relations through the law to develop hegemonic rule in China. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, she carefully builds her argument that China has undergone a passive revolution. This book has to be essential reading for students and researchers interested in the political economy of China’s market reforms, labour issues and governance.” (Prof. Jude Howell, London School of Economics and Political Science) Product Description This book contends that the Chinese economic reform inaugurated since 1978 has been a top-down passive revolution, in Gramsci’s term, and that after three decades of reform the role of the Chinese state has been changing from steering the passive revolution through coercive tactics to establishing capitalist hegemony. It illustrates that the labour law system is a crucial vehicle through which the Chinese party-state seeks to secure the working class’s consent to the capitalist class’s ethno-political leadership. The labour law system has exercised a double hegemonic effect with regards to the capital-labour relations and state-labour relations through four major mechanisms. However, these effects have influenced the Chinese migrant workers in an uneven manner. The affirmative workers have granted active consent to the ruling class leadership; the indifferent, ambiguous and critical workers have only rendered passive consent while the radical workers has refused to give any consent at all. Review “The rich details and careful and nuanced analysis produce a multifaceted portrait of the various ways Chinese migrant workers engage/disengage, negotiate or challenge the state-constructed legal hegemony. The result is a compelling and nuanced argument that elucidates the wide variety of possibilities and sheds new light … . Hegemonic Transformation makes an important contribution to the literature and will be essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand Chinese labour politics, the political economy of Chinese market … .” (Lu Zhang, Global Labour Journal, Vol. 9 (03), September, 2018)“Hui has produced an important contribution to the literature on labour politics, civil society, and legal reform in China, and her deep and systematic theoretical engagement brings fresh perspective to these issue