Constructing China: Clashing Views of the People's Republic

by Mobo Gao

Overview

For years now, China’s economic and political rise has provoked fear—even paranoia—around the world. But how do we get our information about China, and how are our understandings of it actually produced?
            Constructing China presents a detailed examination of the means through which our knowledge of China is created. Rejecting the supposed objectivity of empirical statistics and challenging the assumption of a dichotomy between Western liberal democracy and Chinese authoritarianism, Mobo Gao dissects the political agenda and conceptual framework of commentators on China and urges those on the right and the left alike to be carefully critical of their own views on the nation’s politics, economics, and history.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745399829
Publisher:	Pluto Press
Publication date:	05/20/2018
Edition description:	1
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mobo Gao is professor of Chinese studies at the University of Adelaide and the author of The Battle for China’s Past, also published by Pluto Press.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Scholarship, National Interest and Conceptual Paradigm 2. China, What China? 3. Chinese? Who are the Chinese? 4. Intellectual Poverty of the Chinese Neo-Enlightenment 5. The Coordinated Efforts in Constructing China 6. Why is the Cultural Revolution Cultural? 7. Why Is the Cultural Revolution Revolutionary?: the Legacies 8. Clashing Views of the Great Leap Forward 9. National Interest and Transnational Interest: Political and Intellectual Elite in the West 10. Geopolitics and National Interest I: Chinas Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics 11. Geopolitics and National Interest II: The South China Sea Disputes Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Mobo Gao is one of the most creative and stimulating thinkers on contemporary Chinese issues today. This splendid book on fundamental questions about what China is maintains his ability to target key questions which might often be asked, but are seldom treated in such elegantly provocative fashion.”
 

Kerry Brown

Mobo Gao is one of the most creative and stimulating thinkers on contemporary Chinese issues today. This splendid book on fundamental questions about what China is maintains his ability to target key questions which might often be asked, but seldom treated in such elegantly provocative fashion' Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies and Director, Lau China Institute

From the Publisher

"A bold, revisionist account citing much historical evidence and presenting interpretations that challenge mainstream views of China…Gao makes a provocative case that will spark vigorous debate about the country and its leaders’ motives."

Dorothy Solinger

In this book, Mobo Gao intervenes in the increasingly tense ideological exchange that has accompanied China’s challenge to the global hegemony of the West. Intimately familiar with the intellectual terrain in both worlds, Gao offers unique insights, at once indignant and introspective.

Joel Andreas