Danwei "Society" In The Transition Of The Danwei System

The aim of establishing of the "Danwei" system is to integrate the Chinese society.The country has completed early industrial accumulation and actualized large-scale social mobilization through this system.Therefore,"Danwei" is essential for investigating into the so-called Chinese "society".Early Danwei research focused on analyzing the Danwei system’s influence in shaping the Chinese society,which found a "Danwei Society" in general.Actually,in the mere concept of "neo-traditionalism",there has two meanings:Chinese society is shaped by the Danwei system while it also incorporates some of its original features into Danwei.The combination of producing and living is the main characteristic of "Danwei",which fits the traditional Chinese"family" culture.People in Danwei form their own society and consciousness through their own social actions based on the formal system.Once this kind of consciousness is formed,it will continuously restrict the reform of the Danwei system.Especially for those state-owned enterprises with a deep"Danwei" atmosphere,the reform of the Danwei system must be accompanied by the reconstruction of the Danwei "society".This dissertation was based on a case study of LA,a large state-owned coal mine enteprise,and focused on the re-organization process of the Danwei "society".The essential of state-owned enterprise reform is to institutionally change the social situation of enterprises,and this reform has fundamentally touched the premise of the formation of Danwei.In the research,it was found that even though the enterprise has systematically separated the producing and living of Danwei,the original "relationship"of Danwei people still plays an important role in the daily operation of the company.Compared with the past,the way in which "relationship" permeates to "institution" has shifted from a universal "structure" to a more "private" action,from frequent daily interactions to one that has become private and consistent.It is the highlight of the principle of "renqing"(Human affection)in communication.The source of this"renqing" is the "emotion" of the "man of ourselves" formed by the early Danwei people because of frequent daily interactions.But when the principle of "renqing" becomes the norm of communication,this kind of "renqing" and "emotion" have been completely separated.LA’s development process represents the reconstruction of the "social"relationship between the Danwei and the Danwei People-it is the individualization of the Danwei "society".The essence of "individualization" is that an individual loses ownership of the Danwei as a whole,but still retains the common Danwei"identity"and also inherits the original relationship network.In the process of changes in the Danwei system,the "relationship" between the Danwei people is constantly adjusting the relationship among the individual,the country and the market.In the field of production,the relationship maintains to mobilize the Danwei system;in the field of administration,the relationship guarantees the "convenience" of the Danwei people to act;in the field of life,the relationship maintains the social communication of the Danwei people and overcomes the isolation in individual’s life.Danwei experienced from emergence to expansion,then to transformation.The process has reflected the interests of the state and society in different periods.The Danwei,as a microcosm of the history of New China,is itself a history of nation and society.It is only in its history that China’s state and society have not shown a game of confrontation in the Western sense,but have taken a mutually fused approach.The case of LA reveals that the traditional Chinese "society" has always maintained a cpmprehensive nature of the modernization system.In the process of China’s modernization,the "blood" ties has never perished,from which the early Danwei has benefited to integrate,control and mobilize the urban society.How to maintain and display the comprehensiveness of the traditional "society" in the Danwei system changes today will be the difficulty in re-organizing the Danwei "society." The end of a Danwei society does not necessarily imply an "atomicization" of the Danwei people,but how to integrate the "individualized" relationship network into the country’s modernization process is the biggest challenge we face today.