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This volume illuminates the relationship of China's radical past to its reformist present as China makes its way forward through contested visions of the future. Is China's history of revolutionary socialism an aberration soon to be forgotten, or can it serve as a resource for a more fully human and radically democratic China, with implications for all of us? Representing a spectrum of current scholarship, the essays collected here look at China's past and present with a view toward better understanding the ideas, ideals, and people who have dared to imagine radical transformation of their worlds and assessing the limitations of these visions and their implementations.
The first half of the book brings new insight to understanding how twentieth-century intellectuals interpreted ideas that allowed them to break with China's past and to envision new paths to a modern future. It treats of communists Chen Duxiu and Mao Zedong, and of Mao in relation to non-communists Liang Shuming and the Dalai Lama. With continuing threads of nation and nationalities, of peasants, utopias and dystopias the book's second half looks broadly at the consequences of radical ideas, at the same time critiquing accepted frameworks of analysis. Chapters investigate the effects of recent reforms on environmental degradation and the emergence of a capitalist rural economy. Independent films give an unsparing view into local society. The book concludes with an analysis of the persistent shibboleth, "the rise of China," and argues for the importance of taking seriously the twentieth-Century history of radicalism in China and its significance for understanding China's present and future potentials.
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Chinese Radicalism in Historical Context Catherine Lynch Robert B. Marks Paul G. Pickowicz 1
1 Individualism and Nationalism in the Thought of Chen Duxiu, 1904-1918 Sooyoung Kim 11
2 Radical Visions of Time in Modern China: The Utopianism of Mao Zedong and Liang Shuming Catherine Lynch 29
3 Peasant and Woman in Maoist Revolutionary Theory, 1920s-1950s Tina Mai Chen 55
4 Mao and Tibet Lee Feigon 79
5 Chinese Communists and the Environment Robert B. Marks 105
6 Post-Socialist Capitalism in Rural China Thomas D. Lutze 133
7 Independent Chinese Film: Seeing the Not-Usually-Visible in Rural China Paul G. Pickowicz 161
8 The "Rise of China"? Brace Cumings 185
Index 209
About the Contributors 221
Overview
This volume illuminates the relationship of China's radical past to its reformist present as China makes its way forward through contested visions of the future. Is China's history of revolutionary socialism an aberration soon to be forgotten, or can it serve as a resource for a more fully human and radically democratic China, with implications for all of us? Representing a spectrum of current scholarship, the essays collected here look at China's past and present with a view toward better understanding the ...