Richard H. Solomon, Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971, pp. xix, 604. - Thomas W. Robinson, ed., The Cultural Revolution in China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971, pp. xiv, 509.

1972 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 462-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Melby
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Chinese Political Culture ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

Thought Reform and Cultural Revolution: An Analysis of the Symbolism of Chinese Polemics

1977 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lowell Dittmer
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Major Purpose ◽  
Thought Reform ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Chinese Political Culture ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

Although the major purpose of the Cultural Revolution was to transform Chinese political culture, the way in which this transformation took place has remained unclear. This paper attempts to understand cultural transformation as a process of interaction within a semiological system, consisting of a network of communicators and a lexicon of political symbols. The pragmatic aspect of this process is the outcome of an interplay among the intentions of the elites, the masses, and the target of criticism: political circumstances during the Cultural Revolution were more benign to the cathartic and hortatory intentions of the masses and elites than to the expiatory needs of the target. The syntactic aspect of the system concerns the relationship among symbols: These were found to form a dichotomous structure divided by a taboo barrier, which elicited strong but ambivalent desires to achieve a revolutionary breakthrough. The semantic aspect of the symbolism refers to problematic dimensions of experience in Chinese political culture–the psychological repression imposed by a system of rigid social censorship, the political discrimination practiced against certain social categories, the persistence of differences in income or educational achievement in a socialist system–and suggests that these “contradictions” may be resolved by bold frontal assault.The symbolism of Cultural Revolution polemics has now become part of Chinese political culture. Its impact seems to have been to inhibit social differentiation (particularly hierarchical), to encourage greater mass participation, and to foster more frequent and irreconcilable conflict among elites.

scholarly journals LIU ZEHUA 劉澤華 (1935–2018)

Early China ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Yuri Pines
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Chinese Political Culture ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

AbstractThis obituary surveys the biography and major works of Liu Zehua, a leading scholar of China’s intellectual history, political thought, and political culture. It explores the impact of Liu Zehua’s personal experience, in particular the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, on his conceptualization of Chinese political culture as subjugated to the overarching principle of monarchism. Liu Zehua’s critical engagement with China’s past distinguished him from proponents of revival of traditional values and made him one of the powerful opponents of cultural conservatives in China.

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