Abstract
Introduction
The aims of this book are laudable, with the editors stating in their first page that the book ‘considers if there might be an emerging professionalism with Chinese characteristics and how this might have an impact on the professions elsewhere’. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, the People’s Republic of China is the most populous nation in the entire world. Hence, they set themselves a great challenge with this stated focus.
Summary
The book arose as the result of Harvard University convening a conference to discuss professions in China. The book consists of four parts, as well as an introduction. Part 1 (three chapters) concerns the legal profession in China, part 2 (four chapters) has three chapters about medicine and nursing and one about clergy. Part 3 (three chapters) is about accountability in relation to accountants, journalists and advisors to rulers. Part 4 (three chapters) reviews the future and discusses architecture, engineers and business professionals.
There are 15 contributors, drawn from various academic institutions. However, the main representation is seemingly that of US academics, with Chinese academic interests and/or Chinese heritage. It would have been useful to have had a synopsis about the background of each author, since the perspective that they write from is of obvious importance in this instance. For example, do the US scholars have experience of researching professionals in China itself or do they have an American approach without direct experience within China itself?
Critique
We are now moving from ‘West leads East’ to ‘West meets East’ (Chen and Miller, 2010: 17) scenario, with a growing influence on the world stage of China, both in economic and political terms. As the power dynamics shift, so it is opportune for this book to explore the professions within China itself, as a way for the West to understand China more fully, yet also for self-reflection as well on the part of China, as they prepare for the next 10 year tenure of the new Party officials. Chen and Miller discuss whether an ‘ambicultural’ philosophical approach may be preferable, whereby a combination of the two approaches is used rather than a monocultural approach. This is a theme that pervades Prospects for the Professions in China. Do the various professions create their own ways of operating or do they adopt a Western approach? The backdrop to this discussion is obviously one of the key differentials, namely, the one-Party system of government in China, which clearly divides the nation from the West. Trying to map out the prospects for professions in China, with one of the largest land masses in the world, does necessitate generalisation.
Discussing the book as a whole, it appears that there are contributions from both Chinese and American authors. However, there is a pervading sense of the American perspective throughout most of the chapters. Given the subject matter, it is surprising that only one mainland author’s expertise was drawn upon, namely that of Linying Hu from Beijing University. Other contributors who were not based in America were instead in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. One could argue that such perspectives are valid and indeed meet the requirements of addressing the brief. However, there is a distinct lack of the mainland Chinese voice, and this particular voice would have added substantially to the book.
It is obviously challenging to define a profession, even more so with the emerging nature of newer professions. Yet, the seven criteria they use are suitably all-encompassing and they include public value, client service, collective identity and public trust. This pervading sense of what they term ‘social obligations’ is central to the various discussions. This enables the authors to include some newer professions as well. However, although the overall criteria are suitably wide to encompass most professions, it is perhaps overly simplistic and they could be used in relation to many other jobs in society that would not necessarily be acknowledged as professions. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a profession as ‘a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification’. A better approach may have been to have selected a more stringent definition such as this, coupled with academic definitions, with a focus on some key professions. There is an obvious focus on law and medicine in the book and indeed, together with the clergy, these three professions can be recognised as some of the oldest and most traditional ones, requiring extensive training and membership of a key body to ensure compliance with a set of regulations. Yet, the 19th-century focus on these three professions fails to address the need to explore many other key professions (some of which are more modern), which are neglected from the book, such as teaching/lecturing, dentistry, human resources and marketing.
Part 4 of the book seeks to address the future and uses examples from architecture, engineering and business to illustrate this possible direction in China. By including business, Margaret Pearson enters the fray. Indeed, there has been notable discussion about this in Harvard Business Review with professors Khurana and Nohria (2008), both calling for management to be made a profession. They have called for a code of professional conduct and explained the need for clear guidelines and governance. However, it is debatable whether management itself will be a profession of the future. Pearson concedes herself that ‘there is “no professionalizing mechanism” equivalent to a societal bar exam to serve as an entry gate’ (Pearson, 2011:325). She concludes that this is not yet a professional class. The inclusion, therefore, of the subject of business in this book is somewhat circumspect, albeit that this debate is current in academic journals and is looking for future prospects of professions in China.
The introduction provides a well-reasoned backdrop to the book. To further enhance the book, a conclusion by the editors would have been highly interesting, since it would have been positive to draw together some of the main themes of the book in a cohesive fashion.
Conclusion
This book is a welcome addition to the current books being published about China. By drawing on the expertise of so many authors with varying perspectives, the editors have succeeded in providing us with a wide variety of views about various professions.