Fudan-LSE Lecture Series No.52

Title: 

Charity with Chinese Characteristics: Chinese Charitable Foundations Between State and Society

Speaker: 

Associate Prof. Katja Levy, Political Science Department, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Host: 

Prof. Yijia Jing, IGPP, Fudan University

Discussant:

Prof. Jialiang Xu, School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Time: 

12:00-13:20 (Beijing Time), April 3rd

Venue: 

Room 805E, 8thFloor，West Sub-building of Guanghua Towers

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The Speaker：

Katja Levy is an associate professor in the political science department of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She is trained in Chinese studies and political science. Her research is focused on Chinese domestic politics and foreign policy. She is particular interested in state-society relations in the former and EU-China relations in the latter field. She has taught and researched at Freie Universität Berlin, University of Manchester and others. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of Chinese Political Science, Journal of Chinese Current Affairs, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Policy Forum and others.

Abstract: 

This presentation is about a book project that I conducted with my colleague, the legal scholar Knut Benjamin Pissler from 2016 and 2020. We interviewed staff of charitable foundations and experts in China and analysed publicly available statistical data on Chinese national foundations, in order to determine the functions these organisations have in China's society. Our theoretical starting point were Western understandings of the functions of foundations in Western countries. The aim was to identify similarities and differences between different societies. Our conclusion is that China's charitable foundations share some typical functions with Western foundations but also have specific Chinese characteristics. Against the background of the then newly introduced Charity Law (2016) and the General Provisions of Civil Law of the PRC (2017), we have also examined the legal-political environment that facilitates and restricts foundation establishment in China. We see this research as a contribution to the larger picture of the diversity of social actors in China on the one hand and a cross-cultural theorising of foundations on the other.