Synopses & Reviews
Behind the profound social and economic changes now taking place in China is a complex history of communism's invention and loss of meaning. This history, from 1949 to the present, has been extensively studied by scholars using the methods of history and political science. Dialectic of the Chinese Revolution makes an innovative departure from these studies through a series of reflections on the history of communist China as a history of consciousness.
It focuses on important aspects of the Chinese experience - such as memory and amnesia, energy and meaning, and the center and periphery mentality - that are amenable more to a philosophical and psychological approach than to an empirical one.
The author goes beyond the concept of utopianism that is customarily applied to the Chinese communist experience by viewing this epoch in terms of the movement from utopianism to nihilism to hedonism. He traces the path of Chinese communism from the early belief that denial and hard work combined with Marxism and Maoism would create a utopia of material and spiritual abundance to the disappointment of this belief and the ensuing search for individual pleasure and prosperity.
In this progression, which the author describes as the unfolding of the hedonistic potential of utopianism, Marxism became China's road to capitalism and consumerism.
The book consists of essays that approach the trajectory of utopianism-nihilism-hedonism from six different viewpoints: the impact of Marxism on China's relationship to itself and to the West, the manipulation of language and cultural memory, the effects of founding morality on a revolutionary teleology, the tension between the ascetic and the hedonistic aspects of utopianism, the paralysis of the will resulting from continual mobilizations and failures, and the relationship of past, present, and future as mirrored in constantly shifting beliefs.
Synopsis
Looking at the history of communist China as a history of consciousness, this book makes an innovative departure from previous studies. It charts a journey that led from utopianism to nihilism and then to the hedonism and consumerism that pervade China today.
Synopsis
“Chinese thinkers and western sinologists alike document the corruption and depravity of post-Mao China and survey the cataclysmic events of recent history which brought about that crisis. Ci Jiwei, however, probes its spiritual dimension, and he does it masterfully. . . . He has produced a work of profound philosophical reflection and great analytical sophistication.”—Canadian Journal of History
Synopsis
Traces the path of modern Chinese history, since the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949.
Synopsis
This collection of six essays traces the path of modern Chinese history from the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949 to the present day. It describes the transition from the early belief that denial and hard work combined with Marxism and Maoism would create a utopia of material abundance, to the disappointment of this belief and the growth of nihilism (the belief that failure is the only possible outcome of revolutionary endeavour). In this transition, which the author describes as the path from faith to cynicism, Marxism became China's road to capitalism. Each essay approaches the topic from a different viewpoint: the consequences of creating revolutionary expectations, the destruction of historical memory and traditional culture, the paralysis of will resulting from continual failures, the contradiction between means and goals, the effects of continually deferring returns on one's effort to future generations, and the results of basing commitments on constantly shifting beliefs.
Synopsis
This book traces the path of modern Chinese history from the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949 through an examination of the complex history of communism's invention and loss of meaning. It describes the transition from the early belief that denial and hard work combined with Marxism and Maoism would create a utopia of material abundance, to the disappointment of this belief and the growth of nihilism.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. The detour of the road to capitalism; 2. The revenge of memory; 3. Teleology as morality; 4. The ascetic pursuit of hedonism; 5. Meaning and fatigue; 6. On the far side of the future; Conclusion; Notes; Index.