Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Katja Levy and Knut Benjamin Pissler offer a comprehensive overview of the contemporary legal and political frameworks within which Chinese charitable foundations operate, as well as an assessment of their historical and traditional contexts. They re-evaluate the existing literature on China's civil society, and provide a new, functional perspective on the role of foundations, complementing mainstream civil society and corporatist perspectives.

This incisive book will be invaluable reading for scholars researching the third sector in China, as well as practitioners working in this sector. Scholars and students of contemporary Chinese law, politics and society will also find its insights useful.