Dilemmas of Victory: The Early Years of the People's Republic of China

by Jeremy Brown, Paul G. Pickowicz, Frederic Wakeman Jr., Elizabeth J. Perry, Nara Dillon

Overview

This illuminating work examines the social, cultural, political, and economic dimensions of the Communist takeover of China. Instead of dwelling on elite politics and policy-making processes, Dilemmas of Victory seeks to understand how the 1949-1953 period was experienced by various groups, including industrialists, filmmakers, ethnic minorities, educators, rural midwives, philanthropists, stand-up comics, and scientists.

A stellar group of authors that includes Frederic Wakeman, Elizabeth Perry, Sherman Cochran, Perry Link, Joseph Esherick, and Chen Jian shows that the Communists sometimes achieved a remarkably smooth takeover, yet at other times appeared shockingly incompetent. Shanghai and Beijing experienced it in ways that differed dramatically from Xinjiang, Tibet, and Dalian. Out of necessity, the new regime often showed restraint and flexibility, courting the influential and educated. Furthermore, many policies of the old Nationalist regime were quietly embraced by the new Communist rulers.

Based on previously unseen archival documents as well as oral histories, these lively, readable essays provide the fullest picture to date of the early years of the People's Republic, which were far more pluralistic, diverse, and hopeful than the Maoist decades that followed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674047020
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2010
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	852,223
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Jeremy Brown is Associate Professor of History at Simon Fraser University.

Paul G. Pickowicz is Distinguished Professor of History and Chinese Studies at the University of California, San Diego and inaugural holder of the UC San Diego Modern Chinese History Endowed Chair.

Elizabeth J. Perry is Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

Nara Dillon is a Lecturer in the Departments of Government and East Asian Studies at Harvard University.

Jeremy Brown is Associate Professor of History at Simon Fraser University.

A leading scholar of the Cold War and the history of modern China, Chen Jian is Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at New York University and NYU Shanghai; Hu Shih Professor of History Emeritus at Cornell University; and Zijiang Distinguished Visiting Professor at East China Normal University.

Perry Link is retired from a career teaching at Princeton University and now is Chancellorial Chair for Teaching Across Disciplines at the University of California, Riverside. He publishes on Chinese language, literature, and cultural history, and also writes and speaks on human rights in China.

Paul G. Pickowicz is Distinguished Professor of History and Chinese Studies at the University of California, San Diego and inaugural holder of the UC San Diego Modern Chinese History Endowed Chair.

Sherman Cochran is Hu Shih Professor of Chinese History at Cornell University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

1 The Early Years of the People's Republic of China: An Introduction Jeremy Brown Paul G. Pickowicz 1

I Urban Takeover 19

2 "Cleanup": The New Order in Shanghai Frederic Wakeman Jr. 21

3 Masters of the Country? Shanghai Workers in the Early People's Republic Elizabeth J. Perry 59

4 New Democracy and the Demise of Private Charity in Shanghai Nara Dillon 80

II Occupying the Periphery 103

5 From Resisting Communists to Resisting America: Civil War and Korean War in Southwest China, 1950-51 Jeremy Brown 105

6 The Chinese Communist "Liberation" of Tibet, 1949-51 Chen Jian 130

7 Big Brother Is Watching: Local Sino-Soviet Relations and the Building of New Dalian 1945-55 Christian A. Hess 160

8 The Call of the Oases: The "Peaceful Liberation" of Xinjiang, 1949-53 James Z. Gao 184

III The Culture of Accommodation 205

9 The Crocodile Bird: Xiangsheng in the Early 1950s Perry Link 207

10 "The Very First Lesson": Teaching about Human Evolution in Early 1950s China Sigrid Schmalzer 232

11 Acting Like Revolutionaries: Shi Hui, the Wenhua Studio, and Private-Sector Filmmaking, 1949-52 Paul G. Pickowicz 256

12 Creating "New China's First New-Style Regular University," 1949-50 Douglas A. Stiffler 288

IV Family Strategies 309

13 The Ye Family in New China Joseph W. Esherick 311

14 Birthing Stories: Rural Midwives in 1950s China Gail Hershatter 337

15 Capitalists Choosing Communist China: The Liu Family of Shanghai, 1948-56 Sherman Cochran 359

Notes 387

Contributors 445

Index 449

What People are Saying About This

Strongly recommended. This rich and textured book brings to life a complex period, filling a major gap in our understanding of the early years of the People's Republic of China. In discussing the viability of "New Democracy," the book will provoke debate about how and under what circumstances the transition to socialism began. The many thoroughly researched stories in this important book will be of interest to a large audience.

Editorial Reviews

The authors of the essays contained in this volume bring with them an extraordinarily wide range of different disciplinary and personal interests ranging from Chen Jian's political history of the takeover of Tibet, through Perry Link's literary analysis of comic skits, to Gail Hershatter's accounts of the changing lives of rural midwives...[It's] a fascinating read sparking a whole variety of new ways of looking at the 1949 revolution and the early People's Republic.

Chinese Historical Review - Henrietta Harrison

The history of the early People's Republic is one of the more exciting frontiers in the study of modern China. These essays show that it is possible to address many central issues in the history of the early 1950s from perspectives other than those of the central government or party. Very well researched and well written, Dilemmas of Victory will receive wide attention, and I recommend it with enthusiasm.

William C. Kirby

Strongly recommended. This rich and textured book brings to life a complex period, filling a major gap in our understanding of the early years of the People's Republic of China. In discussing the viability of "New Democracy," the book will provoke debate about how and under what circumstances the transition to socialism began. The many thoroughly researched stories in this important book will be of interest to a large audience.

Thomas P. Bernstein

This important book opens up a critical, and virtually unresearched, period in PRC history in strikingly original ways. Combining strong essays by leading specialists with the creative work of a new generation of scholars, it will be widely discussed by China specialists and comparativists across history, the social sciences, and the humanities.

Mark Selden

Taking advantage of access to new sources in Chinese and even U.S. archives, personal papers, and oral interviews with surviving individuals, these essays compel a reconsideration of the early communist period...Indispensable reading for understanding Chinese society and the nascent communist state in 1949-1953.

Choice - L. Teh