This article examines the intersection of established traditions and emerging novelties in contemporary Chinese grassroots governance reforms through a historical and ethnographic study of the Fengqiao Model, a Mao-era policing discourse that has now been digitally revived. Drawing on the concept of iteration 迭代, we identify three phases of the Fengqiao Model from its inception. Contrary to perspectives emphasizing “window dressing” in studies of Chinese politics, we provide evidence that the iterations of the Fengqiao Model involved genuine intellectual work, relying upon bottom-up forms of knowledge “bricolage” for improvisation and problem solving. We argue that these processes sustain a distinctive mode of revolutionary governmentality characterized by political commitments to continual innovation and refinement, resulting in knowledge production with endless potential for renewal. This iterative character provides useful insights into the inner workings and consequences of bureaucratic practices for knowledge production in China’s “New Era” under Xi Jinping.
BENNEYJONATHAN (2020) “Aesthetic resources in contemporary Chinese politics.” Critical Inquiry 46, 3: 605–26.
3.
BROWNJEREMY (2015) “Moving targets: changing class labels in rural Hebei and Henan, 1960–1979.” Pp. 51–76 in BrownJeremyJohnsonMatthew D. (eds.), Maoism at the Grassroots: Everyday Life in China’s Era of High Socialism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
4.
BUQINGPING 卜清平 (2020) “‘枫桥经验’何以长青?” (Why has the Fengqiao Model been so successful for so long?). 开放时代1: 134–60.
5.
DUTTONMICHAEL (2005) Policing Chinese Politics. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.
6.
DUTTONMICHAEL (2008) “Passionately governmental: Maoism and the structured intensities of revolutionary governmentality.” Postcolonial Studies 11, 1: 99–112.
7.
GREENHALGHSUSAN (2008) Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
8.
SUSANGREENHALGHWINCKLEREDWIN A. (2005) Governing China’s Population: From Leninist to Neoliberal Biopolitics. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
9.
GUODEHONG 郭德宏 and LINXIAOBO 林小波 (2005) 四清运动实录 (A record of the Four Clean-Ups Movement). Hangzhou: 浙江人民出版社.
10.
HEILMANNSEBASTIANMELTONOLIVER (2013) “The reinvention of development planning in China, 1993–2012.” Modern China 39, 6: 580–628.
11.
SEBASTIANHEILMANNPERRYELIZABETH J. [eds.] (2011) Mao’s Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Asia Center.
12.
HUWEIMIN 胡伟民 (2021) “以社会治理共同体理念为指引着力构建现代警务模式” (Building a modern policing model based on the social governance community principle). 浙江警察学院学报3: 11–14.
13.
JIANGZHENGYANG (2022) “Understanding bureaucratic involution through Weber’s bureaucracy: China’s central inspection teams in practice.” Modern China 48, 6: 1179–1207.
14.
LEEHAIYAN (2023) A Certain Justice: Toward an Ecology of the Chinese Legal Imagination. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.
15.
LEESEDANIEL (2023) “The CCP information order in the early People’s Republic of China: the case of Xuanjiao dongtai.” Modern China 49, 2: 135–58.
16.
LÉVI-STRAUSSCLAUDE (1966) The Savage Mind. London: Trafalgar Square.
17.
LÜJIANGUANG 吕剑光 (1997) “枫桥经验的前前后后” (The before and after of the Fengqiao Model). 人民公安19: 46–48.
18.
LÜXIAOBO (2002) Cadres and Corruption: The Organizational Involution of the Chinese Communist Party. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.
MARTINJEFFREY T.ZHOULINGXIAO (2023) “Restoring justice or maintaining control? Revolutionary roots and conservative fruits in Chinese police mediation.” Asian J. of Criminology 18, 2: 133–53.
22.
MURPHYRACHEL (2007) “The paradox of the state-run media promoting poor governance in China: case studies of a party newspaper and an anticorruption film.” Critical Asian Studies 39, 1: 63–88.
23.
PERRYELIZABETH J. (2002) “Moving the masses: emotion work in the Chinese Revolution.” Mobilization7: 112–28.
24.
PERRYELIZABETH J. (2021) “The 1960s: Wang Guangmei and Peach Garden Experience.” Pp. 89–107 in CheekTimothyMühlhahnKlausvan de VenHans (eds.), The Chinese Communist Party: A Century in Ten Lives. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
25.
PERRYELIZABETH J. (2024) “Blurring the boundaries of governance: China’s work teams in comparative perspective.” Comparative Political Studies. doi:10.1177/00104140241283205.
26.
RAOURSULA (2022) “Policy as experimentation: failing ‘forward’ towards universal health coverage in India.” Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale 30, 2: 81–100.
27.
RUSSOALESSANDRO (2020) Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.
28.
SEWELLWILLIAM H. (1996) “Historical events as transformations of structures: inventing revolution at the Bastille.” Theory and Society 25, 6: 841–81.
29.
SMITHAMINDA (2021) “Long live the mass line! Errant cadres and post-disillusionment PRC history.” Positions: Asia Critique 29, 4: 783–807.
30.
TANGBEIBEI (2020) “Grid governance in China’s urban middle-class neighbourhoods.” China Q. 241: 43–61.
31.
TANNERMURRAY SCOTT (2000) “State coercion and the balance of awe: the 1983–1986 ‘Stern Blows’ anti-crime campaign.” China J. 44: 93–125.
32.
Traffic Police Unit No. 3 of Shizuishan Public Security Bureau 石嘴山交警三大队 (2018) “这位枫桥派出所副所长来自公安部” (This deputy director of the Fengqiao paichusuo was dispatched from the Ministry of Public Security). 163.com, Oct. 23. https://www.163.com/dy/article/DUQGA5FJ0514K0CH.html.
33.
TREVASKESSUSANLINDELIA (2024) “Integrating stability maintenance into comprehensive governance: the burgeoning ‘Safe China’ behemoth.” Modern China 50, 6: 671–701.
34.
TSAIWEN-HSUANCHUNGYEN-LIN (2017) “A model of adaptive mobilization: implications of the CCP’s ‘diaoyan’ politics.” Modern China 43, 4: 397–424.
WANGHUI (2006) “Depoliticized politics, from East to West.” New Left Rev. 41: 29–45.
37.
WANGSHIRONG 汪世荣 (2018) 枫桥经验—基层社会治理的实践 (The Fengqiao Model: a practice of grassroots social governance). Beijing: 法律出版社.
38.
Work Team of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the CCP 中共浙江省委工作队 and Zhuji County Committee of the CCP 中共诸暨县委 (1964) “诸暨县枫桥区社会主义教育运动中开展对敌斗争的经验” (The experience of the struggle against class enemies in the Socialist Education Movement in Fengqiao district, Zhuji county). Pp. 10–14 in Xu and Chen, 2000.
39.
XUGENXIAN 许根贤 (2004) 枫江红叶: 枫桥经验产⽣和发展纪实 (Maple Leaves in Fengjiang—a documentary on the emergence and development of the Fengqiao Model). Beijing: 群众出版社.
40.
XUJIANHUA (2018) “Legitimization imperative: the production of crime statistics in Guangzhou, China.” British J. of Criminology 58, 1: 155–76.
41.
XUJIANHUAHESIYING (2022) “Can grid governance fix the party-state’s broken windows? A study of stability maintenance in grassroots China.” China Q. 251: 843–65.
42.
LINZHANGXU 许林章 and SHANPINGCHEN 陈善平 [eds.] (2000) 枫桥经验实录 (A record of the Fengqiao Model). Beijing: 中共党史出版社.
43.
XUXIANFU 徐贤辅 (2000a) “起草‘枫桥经验’的经过” (The experience of drafting the “Fengqiao Model”). Pp 135–38 in XuChen, 2000.
44.
XUXIANFU (2000b) “回忆在诸暨枫桥对四类分子摘帽试点” (Recalling the pilot program for “removing the hats” from the four elements in Fengqiao, Zhuji). Pp. 148–54 in XuChen, 2000.
45.
YIXIANGDONG 衣向东 (2018) 桥——“枫桥经验”55周年风雨历程 (Bridge—the 55th anniversary of the Fengqiao Model: the journey through wind and rain). Beijing: 群众出版社.
46.
YINSHUSHENG 尹曙生 (2014) “谢富治与‘枫桥经验’” (Xie Fuzhi and the Fengqiao Model). 炎黄春秋7: 46–49.
47.
Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department 浙江省公安厅 (2023) “枫桥经验”志 (Fengqiao Model gazetteer). Beijing: 中国人民公安大学出版社.
48.
ZHOULI’AN 周黎安 (2007) “中国地方官员的晋升锦标赛模式研究” (Governing local officials: an analysis of the promotion tournament model). 经济研究7: 36–50.
49.
ZHOULINGXIAO (2023) “Mediation and grassroots policing in China: conflict resolution or social control?” China Information 37, 2: 165–84.
50.
ZHOULINGXIAO (2024) “Algorithmic policing: the datafication and categorization of everyday life in China’s pandemic technogovernance.” New Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/14614448241277193.
51.
ZHOUXUEGUANG (2020) “Organizational response to COVID-19 crisis: reflections on the Chinese bureaucracy and its resilience.” Management and Organization Rev. 16, 3: 473–84.
