Person-centred rhetoric has proliferated in the political sphere and in the newly created social work community in socialist China since the last decade, as social work was affirmed by the Chinese party-state as an alternative strategy for easing social discontent arising from ground-breaking economic reform. Based on a study of the conception of social work in Mainland China, this paper discusses the extent to which the ‘person-centred’ rhetoric conceived by the party-state and the new breed of social workers in China resembles Rogers's person-centred theory espoused in Western social work. The study finds that the popularity of this person-centred vocabulary has not challenged the collectivist orientation embraced by the party-state since the Maoist era, despite its claim to respect individual needs and the intrinsic worth of the person. Neither does it draw the attention of the social work community to the politics of relationships and the political causes of personal problems that Rogers emphasised in his person-centred approach. In the budding respect for the integral worth and uniqueness of the person, and within the orbit of person-to-person engagements in social work practice, it remains to be seen whether the political potential of social work in renewing societal values can be realised.
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