The Chinese person between relationality and the market | Analysis

The article analyzes the specificity of the individualization process in contemporary China, which does not lead to Western social atomization but to a hybrid model. The author points to the phenomenon of "individualization without atomization," where increased individual autonomy and spatial mobility coexist with strong family obligations in the form of so-called network families. Using the perspective of Michael Sandel and the research of Yunxiang Yan, the text describes the transition from hierarchical duty to negotiated responsibility. This process is termed selective individualization—a mechanism in which Chinese people consciously combine elements of Western egalitarian patterns with traditional relationality and Confucian role ethics, creating a new, reflexive identity rooted in community but free from total determinism.