CIN0010.1177/0920203X18760416China InformationShi et al. 760416research-article2018 Research dialogue chiINFORMATION na The recasting of Chinese socialism: The Chinese New Left since 2000 China Information 2018, Vol. 32(1) 139 –159 © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Shi Anshu https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X18760416DOI: 10.1177/0920203X18760416 Tsinghua University, China journals.sagepub.com/home/cin François Lachapelle University of British Columbia, Canada Matthew Galway University of British Columbia, Canada Abstract In post-Mao China, a group of Chinese intellectuals who formed what became the New Left (新左派) sought to renew socialism in China in a context of globalization and the rise of social inequalities they associated with neo-liberalism. As they saw it, China’s market reform and opening to the world had not brought greater equality and prosperity for all Chinese citizens. As part of China Information’s research dialogue on the intellectual public sphere in China, this article provides a historical survey of the development of the contemporary Chinese New Left, exploring the range of ideas that characterized this intellectual movement. It takes as its focus four of the most prominent New Left figures and their positions in the ongoing debate about China’s future: Wang Shaoguang, Cui Zhiyuan, Wang Hui, and Gan Yang. Keywords contemporary China, market reform, end of history, New Left, Chinese socialism, Maoism, democracy, statism Corresponding author: Shi Anshu, School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing, 100084, China. Email:
[email protected] 140 China Information 32(1) By the Cold War’s end, people suddenly discovered ‘the end of history’, and there appeared to be no alternative to the liberal economic order of or as envisaged by Francis Fukuyama.