Guobin Yang
This is an excellent book, carefully researched, well argued, and well written, and it makes important contributions to the field. Protest with Chinese Characteristics is original and theoretically provocative, and I am not aware of any other book that has done the same work.
Jack A. Goldstone
Ho-fung Hung's book is for early modern China what Charles Tilly's Vendee was for early modern Francea pathbreaking, quantitative study of political protest and the social conditions behind it. Hung demonstrates that the evolution of popular protest in China did not simply recapitulate that of Western Europe; his detailed archival research shows that Chinese society for centuries wrestled with its own unique concepts of state/market and peasant/worker/state relationships, independent of Western influence. This landmark study will change the way we view protest in China, from imperial times to the present day.
R. Bin Wong
This engaging effort to explain the characteristics of three kinds of Chinese social protest across a century when the empire moved from effective government, some economic prosperity, and general social stability to a period of reduced government capacities, economic difficulties, and growing social unrest should be welcomed by all students of collective action.