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Politically-Engaged Intellectuals in the Deng-Jiang Era: A Changing Relationship with the Party-State*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Merle Goldman
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Extract

During the regime of Mao Zedong (1949–76), a number of Western scholars described Chinas modern history as moving from one orthodoxy, the Confucianism of the Qing dynasty, to the Marxism–Leninism– Maoism of the Peoples Republic. The cultural and intellectual pluralism of the intervening years of die early decades of the 20th century, the May Fourth movement, and even the more limited pluralism during the weak Leninist state and watered–down Confucianism of the Kuomintang Republic (1928–49) looked like an interregnum between two orthodoxies.1 When Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1978 and established a milder form of authoritarianism than that of his predecessor, a number of Western scholars revised their views of 20th–century Chinese history. As Deng carried out economically pragmatic policies and relaxed controls over the intellectual community as well as over peoples personal lives and geographic regions, they pointed out that the 1949 divide of the Chinese Communist revolution was not as sharp and as singular a break in modern Chinese history as it had been presented. Rather, it should be seen as part of the ongoing effort to build a strong Chinese state and modern economy, inspired by nationalist pride, going on since the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 145 , March 1996 , pp. 35 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1996

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References

1 "Change and continuity in Chinese fiction,” in Merle, Goldman (ed.),Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977), pp. 385–04.Google Scholar

2 Views expressed at “Chinas Mid–Century Transition”, conference at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University, summer 1994.

3 Ding Xueliang, The Decline of Communism in Chinas Legitimacy Crisis, 1977–1989 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).Google Scholar

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5 Joseph, Fewsmith, Dilemmas of Reform in China: Political Conflict and Economic Debate(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1994).Google Scholar

6 See Merle, Goldman, Sowing the Seeds of Democracy in China(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), pp. 25–57Google Scholar

7 Su, Shaozhi, Democratization and Reform(London: Spokesman, 1988)Google Scholar

8 Wang Ruoshui, Wei rendao zhuyi bianhu (In Defence of Humanism)(Beijing: Sanlian t shudian, 1986).

9 A transcript of Fang Lizhis speech was reprinted in the Washington Post,18 January 1987, p. C4.

10 Ruan, Ming, Deng Xiaoping: Chronicle of an Empire(Boulder: Westview, 1992).Google Scholar

11 Xu Liangying, “Meiyou zhengzhi minzhu, gaige bu neng chenggong" ("Reform cannot succeed without political reform"), Weilai yu fazhan(Beijing), May 1992.

12 Yu Guangyuan, Hu Jiwei et al.(eds.), Mengxing de shike (The Moment of Awakening)(Beijing: Zhongwai wenhua chuban gongsi, April 1989), pp. 246–278.

13 Jingjixue zhoubao (Economic Weekly),5 March 1989, p. 5

14 For full biographies ofChen, Ziming and Juntao Black Hands of Beijing(New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993). Also Goldman, Sowing the Seeds,pp. 338–354.Google Scholar

15 See Geremie, Barme, In the Red: Contemporary Chinese Culture(New YorkColumbia University Press, 1996).Google Scholar

16 See Hu Ping, Wang Juntao et al.(eds), Kaituo – Beida xueyun wenxian (Exploration – Beijing University Student Movement Materials)(Hong Kong: Taiyuan shuwu, 1990).

17 The Wall Street Journal,13 February 1991, p. 20 reported the 250,000 students were enrolled in these correspondence schools, with tuition bringing in more than US$2 million.

18 Min Qi, Zhongguo zhengzhi wenhua (Chinas Political Culture)(Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe, 1989).

19 "China: defense statement of Chen Ziming,” News from Asia Watch, 10 June 1992, p. 7.

20 See Orville Schell, The Mandate of Heaven(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994); Geremie Barme, “Notes on Chinese culture in the 1990s,” Current History,September 1994

21 Xinhua release, 19 July 1995.