Books
Lost and Found:The "Missing Girls" in Rural China
Authors: John James Kennedy and Yaojiang Shi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year of Publication: 2019
In 1979, the Chinese government famously introduced The Single Child Policy to control population growth. Nearly 40 years later, the result is an estimated 20 million "missing girls" in the population from 1980-2010. In Lost and Found: the "Missing Girls" in Rural China, John James Kennedy and Yaojiang Shi focus on village-level implementation of the one-child policy and the level of mutual-noncompliance between officials and rural families. Through in-depth interviews with rural parents and local leaders, they reveal that many had strong incentives not to comply with the birth control policy because larger families meant increased labor and income. In this sober exploration of China's Single Child Policy throughout the reform period, the authors more broadly show how governance by grassroots cadres with greater local autonomy has affected China in the past and the challenges for resolving center-versus-locality contradictions in governance that lie ahead.
Purchase from Oxford University Press
Important Addendum to Book_August 2019
The "Missing" Debate: A Related Discussion Regarding the estimates of the "Missing Girls"
Book Review from Perspectives on Politics, December 2019
Book Review from Journal of Chinese Political Science 2020
The book received the Zhang Peigang Outstanding Achievement Award in Development Economics (第十届“张培刚发展经济学优秀成果奖”评审结果公示) in October 2024.
Articles (Selected)
Haruka Nagao, William Hatungimana, Rigao Liu, and John James Kennedy, “A Party with China: Political Party Affiliation and Perceptions of China in African Countries” Journal of Modern African Studies (2024)
John James Kennedy and Chen Dan, “State Capacity and Cadre Mobilization in China: the Elasticity of Policy Implementation” Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 27, No.111 (2018): 393-405.
John James Kennedy with Shi Yaojiang, “Delayed Registration and Identifying the “Missing Girls” in China” China Quarterly, no. 228, (December, 2016)
the ‘Missing Girls’ in China”. The China Quarterly, 231, (2017), 797-803.
Yong Cai's Comments.” The China Quarterly, 231, (2017), 804-810.
John James Kennedy, “Bygone Days and Ballot Boxes: Previous Democratic Experience and Current Village Elections in Rural Northwest China” Journal of Comparative Asian Development, vol. 5, no. 1, (Spring 2006)
史耀疆，高帆，任保平，John James Kennedy，“中国农村民主选举中的提名方
式及实施绩效分析,” (Analysis of policy implementation and the types of nominations in China’s village elections),《管理世界》(Management World)，2004年, 第1期
Book Chapters
John James Kennedy, “Rural China: Politics and Policy” in William A. Joseph ed. Politics of China, (Oxford University Press, 4th edition 2024)
John James Kennedy “Contained Emancipative Values: Waves of Conservative and Liberal Trends in China” Book Chapter in Ronald F Inglehart and Yang Zhong ed. China as Number One? Evolution of Social and Political Values in China's Society (Routledge 2023)
John James Kennedy and Rigao Liu, “One Country, Many Paradigms”, in Shiping Hua ed. Paradigms Shifts in Chinese Studies, (Palgrave-Macmillan Press, 2022)
John James Kennedy “Contained Emancipative Values: Waves of Conservative and Liberal Trends in China” Book Chapter in Ronald F Inglehart and Yang Zhong ed. China as Number One? Evolution of Social and Political Values in China's Society (Routledge forthcoming 2021)
John James Kennedy and Dan Chen, “Chapter 19: Local and Grassroots Governance” in Handbook on Contemporary China, Sage Publication, 2018
John James Kennedy with Chen, Dan, “Urbanization and Urban Villagers: Institutional Factors and Social Identity in Urban China,” in Edith W. Clowes and Shelly Bromberg editors, Area Studies in the Global Age (Northwestern University Press, 2016)
John James Kennedy with Jenna Mittelmeier, “Adapting Together: Chinese Student Experience and Acceptance at an American University,” In Jindal-Snape, D., Rienties, B., Eds. Multi-dimensional transitions of international students to higher education: New Perspectives on Learning and Instruction, (Routledge 2015)
John James Kennedy and Yaojiang Shi, “Rule by Virtue, the Mass Line Model and Cadre-Mass Relations” in Shiping Hua ed. East Asian Development Model: The 21st Century Perspectives (Routledge, 2015)
John James Kennedy and Yaojiang Shi, “Surveys and learning about village elections and rural China: an analysis of a 2005 national village election survey” in Björn Alpermann ed. Politics and Markets in Rural China (Routledge, 2011)
John James Kennedy, “Uneven Political Reform and Development in the Shadow of the Olympic Games,” in William M. Tsutsui and Michael Baskett ed. The East Asian Olympiads: Building Bodies and Nations in Japan, Korea, and China, Global Oriental Publishers (2011)
John James Kennedy, “Legitimacy with Chinese Characteristics: ‘Two Increases, One Reduction’” in Kevin O'Brien, Suisheng Zhao ed. Grassroots Elections in China, (Routledge, 2010) [Reprinted with permission from Journal of Contemporary China]
Mariya Y. Omelicheva and John James Kennedy, “Reform in China and Russia: A Comparative Perspective” in ISA International Studies Compendium Project, Wiley Blackwell Publishing (2010)
John James Kennedy, “The Implementation of Village Elections and Tax-for-Fee Reform in Rural Northwest China,” in Elizabeth J. Perry and Merle Goldman ed. Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2007)
Book Reviews
John James Kennedy, Book Review of “Voting as a Rite: The History of Elections in Modern China” by Joshua Hill, Forthcoming China International Review (June 2021)
John James Kennedy, Book Review of Tax Reform in Rural China: Revenue, Resistance and Authoritarian Rule by Hiroki Takeuchi, China Quarterly, (Volume 222, June 2015, pp 559-560)
John James Kennedy, “Review of Rightful Resistance in Rural China by Kevin O’Brien and Lianjiang Li” Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 68, Issue 2 (2009)
John James Kennedy, “Review of Mutual Empowerment of State and Peasantry: Village Self-Government in Rural China. By Xu Wang.” Pacific Affairs, Volume 77, No. 3, (Fall 2004)