Stages of Development in Charity Researches in China: A Keywords Analysis of the Literature
Ning Yumei1, Lin Ka1,2
1.School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China 2.Center of Social Welfare and Governance, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Abstract：An important issue faced by charity researches today concerns how to achieve a pertinent understanding of the phased development process and characteristics of China’s charity studies. Existing researches made on the issue mainly attempted to reveal the features of this process in regard to the motivation of charity behaviors and relations among the agents and the systems. However, the major problems of these efforts are overwhelmed by the excessive subjectivity in the division of development phases, lack of empirical support, and shadowed with their grand historical perspectives. Given such limitations, the present study aims at investigating the development with its phases and features by reviewing research literature in relation with the historical events of this process. A bulk of literature on charity issues is presented with interpretations on the significant meaning of these events in this evolution.Based on frequency analysis and cluster analysis of the keywords of the 1,774 academic papers indexed in CNKI between 1993 and 2019, we conclude with three phases of development for the enterprise of charity in China. The first phase of research (1993-2007) placed great emphasis on the system development, which reflects the strength of the state-promoted nature of the Chinese philanthropy. The second phase (2008-2015) laid stress on the need of transparency, credibility and supervision for the operation of the charity system. People began to have increasingly higher requirements regarding the standardization, systemization and legalization of charity, while charity on the whole has evolved from government-administration affairs to the field of public affairs with mass engagement. The current phase (from 2016 onward) is the third stage of evolution that strengthens the efforts of raising standardization and legalization of charity activities, promoted by the newly published China’s Charity Law, and the subjects of research are extended to issues of social governance of charity activities, online platform of charity, and philanthropy, etc.Meanwhile, this study also demonstrates the effectiveness of adopting the methods of literature research into charity-related issues, which is able to supply empirical grounds and evidences to reveal the changes and trends in the field. For instance, we compare the topic clusters based on the calculation of the used keywords. As the general trend of this three-phrase development charity research is mainly centered on three major issues, namely, charity systems, charitable organizations, and corporate charity, less concerns are given to the key issues of philanthropy ethnics, voluntary behaviors and online charity at the individual and group levels. The situations indicate some shortcomings in the academic climate for the narrow scope of concerning but giving preferences in organizational and institutional aspects of charity activities.Still, the evolutionary process of charity researches echo with the development process of charity action in China, but reflect the underlying changes in the Chinese philanthropy in multiple dimensions (such as charitable behaviors, relationship among charity agents and charity systems across different historical periods and social backgrounds). This development process highlights the transition from “government-administrated charity” to “charity of public engagement”, as a result of complex interactions between the government and multiple social subjects, while also reflecting some of the objective requirements for charity development posed by the Internet ear. It is anticipated that in the next phase of development, charity research will see its scope and research issues further extended, and the research content will keep updated with the times.
宁玉梅, 林卡. 中国慈善研究发展的阶段性及其解释[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2021, 51(3): 196-207.
Ning Yumei, Lin Ka. Stages of Development in Charity Researches in China: A Keywords Analysis of the Literature. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2021, 51(3): 196-207.
2021, Vol. 51 
