Professional Autonomy and Private Education

Abstract

In the post-Mao era, some regions of China have achieved the characteristics of a middle-income country in terms of many social and economic indicators. The boom of the market economy and the inflow of foreign capital have greatly improved living standards and life quality for many people (Ash and Kueh, 1996; Zhu, 1998). Real income increases, coupled with significant changes to the social structure, have not only enriched the general public but also enabled them to negotiate a new relationship with the state (White, 1993; Goodman and Segal, 1994). Living in a less regulated context, Chinese citizens are becoming more assertive, critically assessing the legitimate scope of the state in relation to its control over the public domain (Black and Munro, 1993; Hook, 1996). China scholars have attempted to analyse current social and political developments on the mainland in the light of a nascent ‘civil society’, arguing that the post-Mao society has become far more autonomous, strong enough to redefine distinctions between public and private (Mok, 1997b; He, 1993; Sidel, 1995; White et al., 1996).