China's local councils in the age of constitutional reform, 1898-1911

Dazzled by the model of Japan's Western-style constitutional government, Chinese officials and elite activists made plans to establish locally elected councils.

Throughout the period, local data on self-government reforms were compiled in provincial capitals, then summarized and archived in Beijing. Simultaneously, directives were being sent from the capital to the provinces. From this wealth of previously unexamined material, Roger R. Thompson draws a portrait-in-motion of the reforms.

He demonstrates the energy and significance of the late-Qing local-self-government movement, while making a compelling case that it was separate from the well-studied phenomenon of provincial assemblies and constitutionalism in general. He also finds the first steps in the estrangement of rural China from the treaty ports and major cities that came to typify modern China. Finally, he shows tensions and factional tendencies within the local self-government movement.