Disentangling the Myth of Nonprofit–Government Relations in China

The evolving nonprofit–government relations in China have attracted increasing attention from scholars over the past four decades. The complexity and fluidity of the relations, however, pose substantial challenges to analysis. Recently, to disentangle the myth of the important relationships, research has been progressing primarily in three directions toward greater methodological diversity, stronger focus on the behaviors of nonprofit organizations vis-à-vis the governments, and more research synthesis. This symposium brings together three studies that represent these trends. After providing a brief historical overview of the study on nonprofit–government relations in China, individual contributions to this symposium are characterized.