Abstract
The story of twentieth-century China has been written, particularly in retrospect, as the collapse of various hegemonic systems, in particular the ‘traditional’ Confucian society and the imperialism of the western (and Japanese) powers, in the face of an ultimately victorious Chinese Communist Party. The grand narrative of Chinese modernization through radicalization of the peasantry and the establishment of a Chinese state that, in Mao’s words, ‘stood up’ has been a staple of liberation discourse in the global South for decades, even at a time when the Maoist economy has long since disappeared under a corporatist marketization in both urban and rural China.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
One of the most important texts on the era remains Chow Tsetsung, The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in China ( Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960 )
Important later works include Lin Yu-sheng, The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness ( Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979 )
Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese Enlightenment ( Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986 )
A recent overview of the Movement and its legacy is Rana Mitter, A Bitter Revolution: China’s Struggle with the Modern World ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004 ).
Chen Tu-hsiu (Chen Duxiu), ‘Call to Youth’, in John Fairbank and Ssu-yu Teng, China’s Response to the West: A Documentary Survey ( Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1979 ), p. 240.
See, for instance, James Pusey, China and Charles Darwin (Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University Press, 1983 ).
Lu Xun, ‘Diary of a Madman’, in Call to Arms ( Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1981 ), p. 4.
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1992), Vol. 1, p. 125.
Prasenjit Duara, ‘Superscribing Symbols: The Myth of Guandi, God of War’, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 47, No. 4 (November 1988), pp. 778–95.
Prasenjit Duara, Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995 ), pp. 100–1
See also John Fitzgerald, Awakening China: Politics, Culture, and Class in the Nationalist Revolution ( Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998 ).
Zou Taofen, ‘Zenyang huifu minzu diwei’ (How to recover our national position), Shenghuo, Vol. 2, No. 33 (19 June 1937 ).
On this topic, see Arif Dirlik, The Origins of Chinese Communism ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1989 )
Hans van de Ven, From Friend to Comrade: The Origins of the Chinese Communist Party,1921–1927 ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991 )
S. A. Smith, A Road is Made ( Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000 ).
On alternative political parties, see for instance Roger Jeans ed., Roads Not Taken:The Struggle of Opposition Parties in Twentieth-century China ( Boulder, CO: Westview, 1992 ).
Pei-yi Wu, The Confucian’s Progress: Autobiographical Writings in Traditional China ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990 ).
Guan Dongsheng, ed., Taofen ‘duzhe xinxiang’ (Taofen’s ‘Readers’ mailbox) (Beijing: n.p., 1998), p. 137.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2007 Rana Mitter
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mitter, R. (2007). Hegemony and Liberation: Mao Zedong and Zou Taofen in Early Twentieth-century China. In: Chalcraft, J., Noorani, Y. (eds) Counterhegemony in the Colony and Postcolony. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230592162_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230592162_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-28547-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-59216-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)