Abstract
In the modern Chinese political imagination and cultural landscape, revolution established itself first as an idea, and then as a set of political practices, from the end of the nineteenth century, reflecting the interweaving of global and local transformations that shaped Chinese culture, society and politics in the context of Western imperialism and the crisis of imperial institutions.
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Notes
- 1.
For a recent work see, Rebecca E. Karl, China's Revolutions (London: Verso, 2020); Peter Zarrow, ‘One, Two, Many Revolutions’, Journal of Modern Chinese History 7/2 (2013), pp. 254–257.
- 2.
Interpretations of the revolution have actually reflected the shifts in historiography of modern China. One significant passage in this perspective dates to the 1990s and early 2000s. A summary of the revisionist interpretations of Chinese modern history, revolution included, in Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Twentieth-Century China. New Approaches, (Oxon, New York: Routledge).
- 3.
On the importance of transnationalism in Chinese modern history see the seminal works of Prasenjit Duara, as the collected essays in, The Global and the Regional in China's Nation Formation. The exploration of transculturalism as a paradigm to investigate Asian history is exemplified in the essays published by the Journal of Transcultural Studies, avalaible at: https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/index. Recent research on the transnational and transcultural dimensions of Chinese revolution has focussed on Maoisms significance at global level. See for example Alexander Cook, Mao’s Little Red Book. A Global History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Julia Lovell, Maoism. A Global History (London: Bodley Head, 2019). For some recent research on the transnational dimensions of Chinese Communist revolution, see the essays in China in Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay (eds.), Left Transnationalism. The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Question (Montreal, Kingston et. al.: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019).
- 4.
After the Cultural Revolution, Chinese and foreign perspectives on revolution have become increasingly critical. An example of this attitude is the book of Lucien Bianco, La récidive. Révolution russe, révolution chinoise. Recently, Chinese historians have revaluated the meaning of revolution in Chinese contemporary history. See Yang Kuisong ‘Revolutions in China. Historical Origins and Contemporary Relevance’ Journal of Modern Chinese History 7/2 (2013), pp. 258–261; Wang Quisheng, ‘Rocks Rolling Downhill. The continuity and Progress of the Chinese Revolution in the Twentieth Century’ Journal of Modern Chinese History 7/2 (2013), pp.135–155.
- 5.
Classic works in Western languages on the Republican Revolution of 1911 are Joseph W. Esherick, Reform and Revolution in China. The 1911 Revolution Hunan and Hubei (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1976); Edmund S. K. Fung, The Military Dimension of the Chinese Revolution (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1980); Michael Gasster, Chinese Intellectuals and the Revolution of 1911. The Birth of Modern Chinese Radicalism (Seattle, WA and London: University of Washington Press, 1969). On the uses and interpretation of the Revolution, see Rana Mitter, ‘1911. The Unanchored Chinese Revolution’ The China Quarterly 208 (2011), pp. 1009–1020; Guido Samarani, ‘Recent Trends in Chinese Historiography and the Debate on the 1911 Revolution’, in Rosa Caroli and Pierre Francois Souyri (eds.), History at Stake in East Asia (Venezia: Cafoscarina, 2012), pp.119–129; Wang Guo, ‘The “Revolution” of 1911 Revisited. A Review of Contemporary Studies in China’, China Information 25/3 (2011), pp. 257–274.
- 6.
Joshua A. Fogel and Peter Zarrow, Imagining the People. Chinese Intellectuals and the Concept of Citizenship 1890–1920 (London: Routledge, 2015).
- 7.
For a general overview, see, Marianne Bastid-Bruguière, ‘Self-Strengthening Movement’, in Brill’s Encyclopedia of China, see: https://doi.org/10.1163/1877-0339_bec_SIM_0021.
- 8.
On the role of the new Press in this context see for example, Barbara Mittler, A Newspaper for China? Power, Identity, and Change in Shanghai’s News Media, 1872–1912, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004); Christopher A. Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai. Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876–1937 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004).
- 9.
On translation, see Benjamin I. Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power. Yen Fu and the West (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964); Lydia H. Liu, Translingual Practice. Literature National Culture and Translated Modernity, China, 1900–1937 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995).
- 10.
For the intellectual or cultural receipt of foreign examples and images of revolution see for example Bastid, Marianne, ‘L’ouverture aux idées d’occident. Quelle influence de la revolution française sur la revolution républicaine de 1911?’, Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident 2 (1983), pp. 21–39; Xiong Yuezhi, ‘George Washington's Image in China and Its Impact on the 1911 Revolution’, Journal of Modern Chinese History 6/1 (2012), pp. 45–63.
- 11.
Xiaobing Tang, Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity. The Historical Thinking of Liang Qichao (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996).
- 12.
Jianhua Chen, ‘Chinese ‘Revolution’ in the Syntax of World Revolution’, in Lydia H. Liu (ed.), Tokens of Exchange. The Problem of Translation in Global Circulations (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), pp. 355–374, henceforth: Jianhua Chen, ‘Chinese ‘Revolution’ in the Syntax of World Revolution’; for a general analysis see J.H. Cheng, Geming de xiandai xing: Zhongguo geming huayu kaolun (A Study of Chinese Revolutionary Discourse and Modernity) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2000); a detailed analysis of the concept of “revolution” in China at the turn of the Twentieth Century is Daniel Leese, ‘“Revolution”: Conceptualizing Political and Social Change in the Late Qing Dynasty’, Oriens Extremus 51 (2012), pp. 25–61.
- 13.
Jianhua Chen, ‘World Revolution Knocking at the Heavenly Gate. Kang Youwei and His Use of Geming in 1898’, Journal of Modern Chinese History 5/1 (2011), pp. 89–108, henceforth: Jianhua Chen, ‘World Revolution Knocking at the Heavenly Gate’.
- 14.
Luke S. K. Kwong, A Mosaic of the Hundred Days (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984).
- 15.
Rebecca E. Karl, ‘Staging the World. Chinese Nationalism at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Durham DC: Duke University Press, 2001).
- 16.
Don C. Price, Russia and the Roots of the Chinese Revolution, 1896–1911 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974); James D. White, ‘The Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Chinese Intellectuals’, Sibirica. Journal of Siberian Studies 2/2 (2002) , pp. 131–151.
- 17.
Joan Judge, Print and Politics. “Shibao” and the Culture of Reform in Late Qing China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997).
- 18.
L. Eve Armentrout Ma, Revolutionaries, Monarchists and Chinatowns. Chinese politics in the Americas and the 1911 Revolution (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1990).
- 19.
Paula Harrell, Sowing the Seeds of Change. Chinese Students, Japanese Teachers, 1895–1905 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992).
- 20.
For a biography see Marie-Claire Bergère, Sun Yat-sen (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000).
- 21.
Marie-Claire Bergère, Sun Yat-sen (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000), p. 6.
- 22.
Jianhua Chen, ‘Chinese “Revolution” in the Syntax of World Revolution’.
- 23.
Sun Yat-sen, ‘The Three People’s Principles’, Encyclopædia Britannica, see: https://www.britannica.com/event/Three-Principles-of-the-People.
- 24.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Yidi Wu, ‘You Say You Want a Revolution. Revolutionary and Reformist Scripts in China 1894–2014’, in Keith M. Baker and Dan Edelstein (eds.), Scripting Revolution. A Historical Approach to the Comparative Study of Revolutions (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015), pp. 231–250.
- 25.
Edward M. Rhoads, Manchus and Han. Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928 (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2001).
- 26.
Jianhua Chen, ‘World Revolution Knocking at the Heavenly Gate D. Leese, ‘“Revolution”: Conceptualizing Political and Social Change’.
- 27.
Peter Zarrow, ‘Zhang Binglin’s Revolutionary Nationalism. Letter Opposing Kang Youwei’s Views on Revolution’, in William Theodore de Bary and Richard Lufrano (eds.), Sources of Chinese Tradition. From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2000), pp. 308–313.
- 28.
Zou Rong on Revolution 1903. For a full translation of Zou’s pamphlet, see Tsou J., The Revolutionary Army. A Chinese Nationalist Tract of 1903.
- 29.
On the transnational dimensions of Sun Yat-sen’s revolution see, L.T. Lee and H.G. Lee (eds.), Sun Yat-Sen, Nanyang and the 1911 Revolution (Singapore: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, 2011).
- 30.
Arif Dirlik, Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991); Arif Dirlik, ‘Anarchism in Early Twentieth Century China. A Contemporary Perspective’, Journal of Modern Chinese History 6/2 (2012), pp. 131–146.; Rebecca E. Karl, ‘Feminism in Modern China’, Journal of Modern Chinese History 6/2 (2012), pp. 235–255; Peter Zarrow, Anarchism and Chinese Political Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).
- 31.
Louise Edwards and Lili Zhou, ‘Gender and the “Virtue of Violence”. Creating a New Vision of Political Engagement Through the 1911 Revolution’, Frontiers of History in China 6/4 (2011), pp. 485–504. For a historical overview of women’s role, see Gail Hershatter, Women and China's Revolution (New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).
- 32.
Jiang Sun, ‘Secret Societies and the 1911 Revolution’, Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies 3/1 (2014), pp. 7–21.
- 33.
Paula Harrell, Sowing the Seeds of Change. Chinese Students, Japanese Teachers, 1895–1905 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992).
- 34.
Sun, ‘The Three People’s Principles’.
- 35.
Q. Edward Wang, ‘The 1911 Revolution and the New Cultural History’, Chinese Studies in History 46 (2012), pp. 3–5.
- 36.
Henrietta Harrison, The Making of the Republican Citizen. Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911–1929 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); Henrietta Harrison, Inventing the Nation. China (London: Hodder Education, 2001).
- 37.
Liu Shilong, ‘Speech Activities and Social Mobilization’, Chinese Studies in History 46/1 (2012), pp. 6–29.
- 38.
Rudolf G Wagner, ‘Living Up to the Image of the Ideal Public Leader. George Washington’s Image in China and Sun Yat-sen’, The Journal of Transcultural Studies 10/2 (2019), available at: https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/24035.
- 39.
Zuo Yuhe, ‘Populism During the Period of the 1911 Revolution’, Journal of Modern Chinese History 6/1 (2012), pp. 33–43, Li Ling, ‘Terrorism in Chinese History’, Contemporary Chinese Thought 42/1–2 (2010), pp. 35–64.
- 40.
Henrietta Harrison, Inventing the Nation. China (London: Hodder Education, 2001).
- 41.
Peter Zarrow, ‘Chinese Press Accounts of the 1911 Revolution. Seeing “Revolution”’, China Information 25/3 (2011), pp. 233–256.
- 42.
Joseph W. Esherick, ‘Reconsidering 1911. Lessons of a Sudden Revolution’, Journal of Modern Chinese History 6/1 (2012), pp. 1–14.
- 43.
For the relevance of the dynamics between centre and periphery, see Tu-ki Min, National Polity and Local Power. The Transformation of Late Imperial China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989); Mizoguchi Yūzō, ‘The Chaotic Late Qing and Early Republican Periods’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 17/4 (2016), pp. 574–605.
- 44.
Zhang Shiying, ‘Subversive Laughter’, Chinese Studies in History 46/1 (2012), pp. 30–70.
- 45.
Arif Dirlik and Roxann Prazniak, ‘The 1911 Revolution. An End and a Beginning’, China Information 25/3 (2011), pp. 213–231.
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De Giorgi, L. (2023). Imagining, Scripting and Enacting Revolution in Early Twentieth-Century China: The Xinhai Revolution of 1911. In: Berger, S., Weinhauer, K. (eds) Rethinking Revolutions from 1905 to 1934. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04465-6_3
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