‘From Those Flames No Light’

2020 ◽  
pp. 195-220
Author(s):  
Chris Murray
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Victor Hugo ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
Opium War ◽  
Summer Palace ◽  
The Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Military Discipline

The Second Opium War concluded in 1860 with Anglo-French forces looting and sacking the Summer Palace at Yuanmingyuan. Commentators such as Victor Hugo delighted that these incidents occurred under the leadership of Lord Elgin, whose father instigated the Parthenon Sculptures controversy. Memoirists and journalists show that the Summer Palace incident was divisive: looting posed a threat to military discipline, and the wanton destruction occasioned a debate over whether Britain was civilized or barbaric. To some, the melancholy victory evoked the Aeneid. Inevitably debates over repatriation of Summer Palace treasures have invoked discussion of the Parthenon Sculptures. Yet commentators like artist Ai WeiWei show that sculptures that the Chinese Communist Party made emblematic of National Humiliation are not really Chinese and were probably not removed by Europeans. Chinese efforts to retrieve the sculptures demonstrate that modern China, like Victorian Britain, reaches to the cultural past for stability amidst bewildering change.

scholarly journals Modern Confucian Objection against Communism in China

Asian Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Téa SERNELJ
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Modern China ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Chinese Communist Party

The article investigates the political views of one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called second generation of Modern Confucianism, Xu Fuguan. It reveals his unique position within this intellectual movement. Even though all other adherents of Modern Confucianism were focused upon metaphysics and ontology rather than political theory, Xu believed that these lines of thought could not contribute enough to solving the various urgent social and political problems of modern China. In this regard, the present article focuses upon a critical analysis of Xu’s critique of the Chinese Communist Party. The author presents and evaluates his critique mainly with regard to his search for a resolution of the problematic and chaotic political and social situation of China during the first half of the 20th century. In conclusion, the author provides a critical evaluation of Xu’s social democratic thought and particularly of his attitude towards the Chinese Communist Party.

MODERNITY, INTERNATIONALIZATION, AND WAR IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN CHINA

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
RANA MITTER
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
The West ◽  
Chinese Modernity ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Chinese Communist Party

Twenty years ago, the study of modern China in the west was heavily focused on rural China. It used the rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party as its overarching narrative, and treated the communist victory of 1949 as a watershed. This review surveys several recent trends in the writing of Chinese history in the west which have challenged these models. Among the changes of emphasis in the field that are noted are: a new interest in China's place in global history, urban history, and the history of consumption; a rethinking of the significance of nationalism and imperialism; warfare as a vehicle of sociocultural change; and a reinterpretation of Chinese modernity that stresses the similarities, as well as the differences, between the Chinese Communist Party and its predecessors, the Nationalists, and also stresses continuities as well as changes across the ‘barrier’ date of 1949. The review highlights areas of interest to non-specialists in Chinese history, and concentrates on studies of the Republican period (1912–49) published since the 1990s, although it also covers work covering topics in the late imperial and early People's Republic periods.

Hunan: Laboratory of Reform and Land of Revolution: Hunanese in the Making of Modern China

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1113-1136
Author(s):  
ZHENG YANGWEN
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
Communist Revolution ◽  
The Chinese Communist Party

AbstractHunan produced the largest number and most able leaders for the Chinese Communist Party. How could this land-locked, sleepy and conservative province produce so many revolutionaries? This article examines the consequences of three consecutive political theatres and their actors that turned Hunan into a laboratory of reform and land of revolution. It focuses on what three generations of Hunanese did that pushed Hunan into and kept the province in the national spotlight. The Hunanese, be they Qing loyalists, constitutional reformers, Han nationalists or communists, dominated China's political stage from the 1850s to the 1980s. They were patriotic and pragmatic in their patriotism. Would the Communist Revolution have been so fundamental and bloody had Champagne liberals or those with no militarist tradition controlled the helm? With the tide of Hunan gone, we must re-examine this province to see how it had shaped and changed the course of modern China.

Flesh Searches in China

Asian Survey ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Contemporary China ◽  
Chinese State ◽  
The Chinese Communist Party ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores the relationship between netizens and the Chinese Communist Party by investigating examples of “flesh searches” targeting corrupt officials. Case studies link the initiative of netizens and the reaction of the Chinese state to the pattern of management of social space in contemporary China.

scholarly journals Student governments in Chinese higher education: reflection on college students’ and student cadres’ political trust

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Huang ◽  
Panpan Yao ◽  
Fan Li ◽  
Xiaowei Liao
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Power Distribution ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Chinese Higher Education ◽  
Student Government ◽  
Party Membership ◽  
The Chinese Communist Party

AbstractThis paper documents the structure and operations of student governments in contemporary Chinese higher education and their effect on college students’ political trust and party membership. We first investigate the structure and power distribution within student governments in Chinese universities, specifically focusing on the autonomy of student governments and the degree to which they represent students. Second, using a large sample of college students, we examine how participating in student government affects their political trust and party membership. Our results show that student government in Chinese higher education possesses a complex, hierarchical matrix structure with two main parallel systems—the student union and the Chinese Communist Party system. We found that power distribution within student governments is rather uneven, and student organisations that are affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party have an unequal share of power. In addition, we found that students’ cadre experience is highly appreciated in student cadre elections, and being a student cadre significantly affects their political trust and party membership during college.

Control and Style: Discipline Inspection Commissions Since the 11th Congress

1984 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 24-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Young
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Chinese Politics ◽  
Party Organization ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
The Chinese Communist Party ◽  
The Cultural Revolution

The legacies of the Cultural Revolution have been nowhere more enduring than in the Chinese Communist Party organization. Since late 1967, when the process of rebuilding the shattered Party began, strengthening Party leadership has been a principal theme of Chinese politics; that theme has become even more pronounced in recent years. It is now claimed that earlier efforts achieved nothing, and that during the whole “decade of turmoil” until 1976, disarray in the Party persisted and political authority declined still further. Recent programmes of Party reform, therefore, still seek to overcome the malign effects of the Cultural Revolution in order to achieve the complementary objectives of reviving abandoned Party “traditions” and refashioning the Party according to the new political direction demanded by its present leaders.

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