DOCSLIB.ORG

Divisive Elites: State Penetration and Local Autonomy in Mei County, Guangdong Province, 1900S-1930S

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Divisive Elites: State Penetration and Local Autonomy in Mei County, Guangdong Province, 1900S-1930S Divisive Elites: State Penetration and Local Autonomy in Mei County, Guangdong Province, 1900s-1930s DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Wenjuan Bi Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Christopher A. Reed, Advisor Patricia Sieber Ying Zhang Copyright by Wenjuan Bi 2015 Abstract This dissertation focuses on the rise of a group of new elites in Mei County, northeastern Guangdong, and their conflict with the local traditional gentry caused by the Chinese state’s new attempt to strengthen and modernize itself from the late Qing to the Republican periods (roughly from the 1900s to the 1930s). From the 1900s, the Chinese state, facing a series of internal and external threats, rather than prioritizing a stable social system, sought to achieve economic growth and national strength as soon as possible. Since the weak government had no ability to plunder external resources to support the expensive reform agendas, the government turned to more aggressive approaches to extract resources from local society. The state’s attempt to strengthen itself by extracting local resources, however, created sharp conflict between the central government and traditional autonomous communities. It also led to the estrangement of the traditional gentry, who, having consolidated their dominance over local society by controlling lineages and militias, were not enthusiastic about collaborating with the state to promote reform. In order to conscript resources to support the state’s reform agendas and to weaken the local gentry’s control of local resources, the late Qing government promoted a new group of elites with commercial backgrounds and Western knowledge who could better serve the state’s goal of mobilization. The new elites, most of whom had accumulated wealth but had not established cultural authority, vigorously sponsored the reforms in an ii attempt to enhance their status in local society. The new elites continued their collaboration with the government when the post-Qing regimes respected their agency. However, as the reform agenda became increasingly aggressive under the Nationalist Party’s rule, and after the new elites gained control of the political platforms and accumulated their own cultural capital, they, like the traditional gentry, tended to defend their vested interests by monopolizing local reform projects. The new elites thus passed beyond the control of the central government too. Drawing on previously untapped country archives, and through an in-depth study of how the various state-strengthening agendas were implemented in rural Mei County, this dissertation reveals a continuous theme in Chinese modern politics: the modernizing state, in order to enlist local support for national goal, closely collaborated with a minority of local population who were willing to serve the state’s goal while sparing no effort to eliminate any power holder who was concerned about local interests. Different from previous studies which either stress the weakness or the obedience of local communities, this dissertation argues that despite the state’s effort at penetrating, local elites, including both the traditional gentry and new elites, well defended their sectional interests and undermined the state’s attempt of extortion based on their control of various local organizations. By studying how local leaders foiled the state’s attempt to extend authority in local society, this dissertation provides a bottom-up perspective to understand why China’s modern regimes became increasingly authoritarian. As shown here, the state’s inclination to eliminate local power holders and establish direct control of local society, which reached a climax under the Communist rule after 1949, rather than iii being merely the result of the state’s choice of political ideologies, was more a response to deep-rooted local autonomy and pervasive resistance to state-penetration efforts. iv Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to Xiangyu. v Acknowledgments I would not have had the chance to spend my last nine years working on a topic – China’s state-society relationship – that has intrigued me since I was an undergraduate student if I had not been admitted as a Ph.D student by the History Department of The Ohio State University. Professors Cynthia Brokaw and Christopher A. Reed not only gave me this opportunity but also provided me with numerous forms of assistance during my study here. Professor Brokaw introduced me to the world of academia in America. Before I came to OSU, I had rarely read academic works or written an essay in English. She taught me how to read books and write essays efficiently. In my second year at OSU, she took me to the Annual Conference of the Association for Asian Studies and taught me how to present myself in an academic conference. Though she left OSU for career reasons, I am deeply grateful to her for her guidance and assistance in my early years in the U.S. Professor Reed is a sharp and inspiring scholar. I enjoyed all the heated discussions in his classes and benefited greatly from his strict requirement in writing. Without his straightforward and sincere critiques, my writing could not have achieved its current shape. His detailed and informative comments on my dissertation not only helped me correct historical errors, but also enlightened me on how to clearly present and organize my arguments. As my primary advisor, Professor Reed has also exerted great effort in helping me building my career. He has always been willing to share with me his knowledge about vi academia and his personal experience as a teacher in various academic settings. Most importantly, he has always given me generous encouragment when I made progress in writing. His approval kept me hanging on in the writing stage of this dissertation, especially when I was buried in my materials and doubted my ability to finish this project. I will be forever greateful to him for his constant encouragement and support. I am also grateful for guidance and support from my other two committee members, Professors Patricia Sieber and Ying Zhang. Professor Sieber, though being an expert on Chinese literature, has broad interests in different disciplines. Her understanding of the most up-to-date topics and questions in different fields broadens my views on my current project. My interest in the connections among the people in south China and Southeast Asia is owed to her introduction to the issue of transnational cultural exchange. A warm person, she always sends students the most supportive words when we encounter difficulty or are assailed by self-doubt. Professor Ying Zhang arrived at OSU when I began my dissertation writing. Her class on the Chinese gentry broadened my view of Confucianism and Confucian scholars. Her comments on my dissertation prospectus also helped me sharpen the thesis of this dissertation. Without my talks with her, I would not have been able to push myself to think about the broader implications of this project. Other professors in Department of History in OSU, though not sitting on my committee, have also provided generous support in the past years. Professor Philip Brown, stressing that he could not forget those hard days when he just arrived in Japan, always provided extra care and patience to foreign students. Professor Judy Wu introduced the vii classic works on women’s history, a field that has long interested me and on which I plan to work in the future. I have also benefited greatly from my friends and colleagues at OSU: Yan Xu, Di Luo, John Knight, Austin Dean, Man He, Mengjun Li, and Qiong Yang. They not only offered inspiring ideas during and after classes, but also provided the companionship which helped me survive this long and lonely journey. I also want to mention that I was fortunate to have begun my study in history at Sun Yat-sen University, where professors such as Liu Zhiwei, Chen Chunsheng, Cheng Meibao, Huang Guoxin, and Wen Chunlai taught me the basic skills of the historian, such as how to read classic Chinese texts, how to combine methods of institutional study and cultural research, and how to collect materials through field work. Those interesting field trips clinched my decision to pursue an academic career in history. When I started this project on Mei County, they also provided countless support, such as writing me recommendation letters and introducing me to the local notables in northeastern Guangdong. In Meizhou, the scholars and students of the Hakka Research Center in Jiaying University, such as Xiao Wenping and Zhou Jianxin, and the officials in the Mei County Archives, such as Cai Meisheng, were all of great help. Their knowledge of the area was indispensable to my research. They provided clues about how to collect information about the pratogonists in my dissertation and accompanied me to local villages personally. I cannot name the many people who provided introductions when I visited the villages in Mei County. Without their assistance, I would not have been able to finish this project. viii Finally, my deepest appreciation goes to my husband Xiangyu Yang. He is a scientist who always pays a close attention to the logic of any argument and writing. In the past several years, my dissertation has become the major topic of conversation during our dinners. Xiangyu could always pick out the logical flaws in my argument and pushed me to reorganize my writing. These discussions enabled me to understand the historical figures from the perspective of themselves, rather than making judgments based on my personal preference or hindsight reasoning. If I show both sympathy and suspicion to most figures in my dissertation, it should be ascribed to those dinner discussions. So this dissertation is dedicated to Xiangyu.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Guide to the Asian Collections at the International Institute of Social History
    Guide to the Asian Collections at the International Institute of Social History Emile Schwidder & Eef Vermeij (eds) Guide to the Asian Collections at the International Institute of Social History Emile Schwidder Eef Vermeij (eds) Guide to the Asian Collections at the International Institute of Social History Stichting beheer IISG Amsterdam 2012 2012 Stichting beheer IISG, Amsterdam. Creative Commons License: The texts in this guide are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license. This means, everyone is free to use, share, or remix the pages so licensed, under certain conditions. The conditions are: you must attribute the International Institute of Social History for the used material and mention the source url. You may not use it for commercial purposes. Exceptions: All audiovisual material. Use is subjected to copyright law. Typesetting: Eef Vermeij All photos & illustrations from the Collections of IISH. Photos on front/backcover, page 6, 20, 94, 120, 92, 139, 185 by Eef Vermeij. Coverphoto: Informal labour in the streets of Bangkok (2011). Contents Introduction 7 Survey of the Asian archives and collections at the IISH 1. Persons 19 2. Organizations 93 3. Documentation Collections 171 4. Image and Sound Section 177 Index 203 Office of the Socialist Party (Lahore, Pakistan) GUIDE TO THE ASIAN COLLECTIONS AT THE IISH / 7 Introduction Which Asian collections are at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam? This guide offers a preliminary answer to that question. It presents a rough survey of all collections with a substantial Asian interest and aims to direct researchers toward historical material on Asia, both in ostensibly Asian collections and in many others.
    [Show full text]
  • Hwang, Yin (2014) Victory Pictures in a Time of Defeat: Depicting War in the Print and Visual Culture of Late Qing China 1884 ‐ 1901
    Hwang, Yin (2014) Victory pictures in a time of defeat: depicting war in the print and visual culture of late Qing China 1884 ‐ 1901. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18449 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. VICTORY PICTURES IN A TIME OF DEFEAT Depicting War in the Print and Visual Culture of Late Qing China 1884-1901 Yin Hwang Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the History of Art 2014 Department of the History of Art and Archaeology School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 2 Declaration for PhD thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person.
    [Show full text]
  • View / Download 7.3 Mb
    Between Shanghai and Mecca: Diaspora and Diplomacy of Chinese Muslims in the Twentieth Century by Janice Hyeju Jeong Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Engseng Ho, Advisor ___________________________ Prasenjit Duara, Advisor ___________________________ Nicole Barnes ___________________________ Adam Mestyan ___________________________ Cemil Aydin Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 ABSTRACT Between Shanghai and Mecca: Diaspora and Diplomacy of Chinese Muslims in the Twentieth Century by Janice Hyeju Jeong Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Engseng Ho, Advisor ___________________________ Prasenjit Duara, Advisor ___________________________ Nicole Barnes ___________________________ Adam Mestyan ___________________________ Cemil Aydin An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 Copyright by Janice Hyeju Jeong 2019 Abstract While China’s recent Belt and the Road Initiative and its expansion across Eurasia is garnering public and scholarly attention, this dissertation recasts the space of Eurasia as one connected through historic Islamic networks between Mecca and China. Specifically, I show that eruptions of
    [Show full text]
  • Guangdong-Guangxi War & Sun Yat-Sen's Return to Canton
    Sun Yat-sen's Return To Canton After Expelling Gui-xi by Ah Xiang Excerpts from “Tragedy of Chinese Revolution” at http://www.republicanchina.org/revolution.html For updates and related articles, check http://www.republicanchina.org/RepublicanChina-pdf.htm In Southern Chinese Province of Guangdong, Sun Yat-sen and Chen Jiongming would be entangled in the power struggles. (Liu Xiaobo mistakenly eulogized Chen Jiongming's support for so-called "allying multiple provinces for self-determination" as heralding China's forerunner federationist movement.) Yue-jun (i.e., Guangdong native army), headed by Chen Jiongming, was organized on basis of Zhu Qinglan's police/guard battalions in Dec of 1917. To make Chen Jiongming into a real military support, Sun Yat-sen originally dispatched Hu Hanmin and Wang Zhaoming to Governor Zhu Qinglan for making Chen Jiongming into the so-called "commander of governor's bodyguard column". Governor Zhu Qinglan was forced into resignation by Governor-general Chen Bingkun of Gui-xi faction (i.e., Guangxi Province native army that stationed in Guangdong after the republic restoration war). Sun Yat-sen asked Cheng Biguang negotiate with Lu Rongding for relocation of Chen Bingkun and assignment of twenty battalions of Zhu Qinglan's police/guard army into 'marines' under the command of Cheng Biguang's navy. On Dec 2nd of 1917, Chen Jiongming was conferred the post of "commander of Guangdong army for aiding Fujian Province" and was ordered to lead 4000-5000 'marine' army towards neighboring Fujian Province where he expanded his army and developed it into his private warlord or militarist forces.
    [Show full text]
  • © 2013 Yi-Ling Lin
    © 2013 Yi-ling Lin CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT IN MISSIONARY CHINA: AMERICAN MISSIONARY NOVELS 1880-1930 BY YI-LING LIN DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral committee: Professor Waïl S. Hassan, Chair Professor Emeritus Leon Chai, Director of Research Professor Emeritus Michael Palencia-Roth Associate Professor Robert Tierney Associate Professor Gar y G. Xu Associate Professor Rania Huntington, University of Wisconsin at Madison Abstract From a comparative standpoint, the American Protestant missionary enterprise in China was built on a paradox in cross-cultural encounters. In order to convert the Chinese—whose religion they rejected—American missionaries adopted strategies of assimilation (e.g. learning Chinese and associating with the Chinese) to facilitate their work. My dissertation explores how American Protestant missionaries negotiated the rejection-assimilation paradox involved in their missionary work and forged a cultural identification with China in their English novels set in China between the late Qing and 1930. I argue that the missionaries’ novelistic expression of that identification was influenced by many factors: their targeted audience, their motives, their work, and their perceptions of the missionary enterprise, cultural difference, and their own missionary identity. Hence, missionary novels may not necessarily be about conversion, the missionaries’ primary objective but one that suggests their resistance to Chinese culture, or at least its religion. Instead, the missionary novels I study culminate in a non-conversion theme that problematizes the possibility of cultural assimilation and identification over ineradicable racial and cultural differences.
    [Show full text]
  • The Jesuit Role As “Experts” in High Qing Cartography and Technology∗
    臺大歷史學報第31期 BIBLID1012-8514(2003)31p.223-250 2003年6月，頁223~250 2003.1.7收稿，2003.5.29通過刊登 The Jesuit Role as “Experts” in High Qing Cartography and Technology∗ Benjamin A. Elman∗∗ Abstract Earlier accounts have generally overvalued or undervalued the role of the Jesu- its in Ming-Qing intellectual life. In many cases the Jesuits were less relevant in the ongoing changes occurring in literati learning. In the medical field, for example, before the nineteenth century few Qing physicians (ruyi 儒醫) took early modern European “Galenic” medicine seriously as a threat to native remedies. On the other hand, the Kangxi revival of interest in mathematics was closely tied to the introduc- tion of Jesuit algebra (jiegen fang 借根方), trigonometry (sanjiao xue 三角學), and logarithyms (duishu 對數). In the midst of the relatively “closed door” policies of the Yongzheng emperor and his successors, a large-scale effort to recover and col- late the treasures of ancient Chinese mathematics were prioritized in the late eight- eenth and early nineteenth century. Despite setbacks during the early eighteenth century Rites Controversy, the Jesuits in China remained important “experts” (專家) in the Astro-Calendric Bureau (欽天監) and supervisors in the Qing dynasty’s imperial workshops. Earlier Adam Schall (1592-1666) and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) had not only championed the role of mathematics in Christianizing literati elites, but they also produced in- struments and weapons at the behest of both the Ming and Qing dynasties. The tech- nical expertise of the Jesuits in the China mission during the eighteenth century also ranged from translating Western texts and maps, introducing surveying methods to producing cannon, pulley systems, sundials, telescopes, water-pumps, musical in- struments, clocks, and other mechanical devices.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Evaluating the Communist Guomindang Split of 1927
    University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School March 2019 Nationalism and the Communists: Re-Evaluating the Communist Guomindang Split of 1927 Ryan C. Ferro University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Scholar Commons Citation Ferro, Ryan C., "Nationalism and the Communists: Re-Evaluating the Communist Guomindang Split of 1927" (2019). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7785 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Nationalism and the Communists: Re-Evaluating the Communist-Guomindang Split of 1927 by Ryan C. Ferro A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-MaJor Professor: Golfo Alexopoulos, Ph.D. Co-MaJor Professor: Kees Boterbloem, Ph.D. Iwa Nawrocki, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 8, 2019 Keywords: United Front, Modern China, Revolution, Mao, Jiang Copyright © 2019, Ryan C. Ferro i Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………….…...ii Chapter One: Introduction…..…………...………………………………………………...……...1 1920s China-Historiographical Overview………………………………………...………5 China’s Long
    [Show full text]
  • Uva-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)
    UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Behind the Banner of Unity: Nationalism and anticolonialism among Indonesian students in Europe, 1917-1931 Stutje, K. Publication date 2016 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Stutje, K. (2016). Behind the Banner of Unity: Nationalism and anticolonialism among Indonesian students in Europe, 1917-1931. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:23 Sep 2021 Chapter 4 Nationalising a revolt, globalising a struggle Hatta and Semaoen in Brussels This chapter discusses the breakthrough of Indonesians at the international stage: their appearance at the Kongress gegen Imperialismus in Brussels 1927. This breakthrough was long pursued by the students, but external developments in the Dutch Indies and in the international communist world were decisive catalysts.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Poetry of the Nineteenth Century
    “Modern” Science and Technology in “Classical” Chinese Poetry of the Nineteenth Century J. D. Schmidt 㕥⎱䐆 University of British Columbia This paper is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Daniel Bryant (1942-2014), University of Victoria, a great scholar and friend. Introduction This paper examines poetry about science and technology in nineteenth- century China, not a common topic in poetry written in Classical Chinese, much less in textbook selections of classical verse read in high school and university curricula in China. Since the May Fourth/New Culture Movement from the 1910s to the 1930s, China’s literary canon underwent a drastic revision that consigned a huge part of its verse written after the year 907 to almost total oblivion, while privileging more popular forms from after that date that are written in vernacular Chinese, such as drama and novels.1 The result is that today most Chinese confine their reading of poetry in the shi 娑 form to works created before the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), missing the rather extensive body of verse about scientific and technological subjects that began in the Song Dynasty (960-1278), largely disappeared in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and then flourished as never before in the late Qing period (1644-1912). Except for a growing number of specialist scholars in China, very few Chinese readers have explored the poetry of the nineteenth century—in my opinion, one of the richest centuries in classical verse— thinking that the writing of this age is dry and derivative. Such a view is a product of the culture wars of the early twentieth century, but the situation has not been helped by the common name given to the most important literary group of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Qing Dynasty Song School (Qingdai Songshi pai 㶭ẋ⬳娑㳦), a term which suggests that its poetry is imitative of earlier authors, particularly those of the Song Dynasty.
    [Show full text]
  • Submitted for the Phd Degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
    THE CHINESE SHORT STORY IN 1979: AN INTERPRETATION BASED ON OFFICIAL AND NONOFFICIAL LITERARY JOURNALS DESMOND A. SKEEL Submitted for the PhD degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1995 ProQuest Number: 10731694 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731694 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 A b s t ra c t The short story has been an important genre in 20th century Chinese literature. By its very nature the short story affords the writer the opportunity to introduce swiftly any developments in ideology, theme or style. Scholars have interpreted Chinese fiction published during 1979 as indicative of a "change" in the development of 20th century Chinese literature. This study examines a number of short stories from 1979 in order to determine the extent of that "change". The first two chapters concern the establishment of a representative database and the adoption of viable methods of interpretation. An important, although much neglected, phenomenon in the make-up of 1979 literature are the works which appeared in so-called "nonofficial" journals.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Current Chinese Affairs
    China Data Supplement March 2008 J People’s Republic of China J Hong Kong SAR J Macau SAR J Taiwan ISSN 0943-7533 China aktuell Data Supplement – PRC, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Taiwan 1 Contents The Main National Leadership of the PRC ......................................................................... 2 LIU Jen-Kai The Main Provincial Leadership of the PRC ..................................................................... 31 LIU Jen-Kai Data on Changes in PRC Main Leadership ...................................................................... 38 LIU Jen-Kai PRC Agreements with Foreign Countries ......................................................................... 54 LIU Jen-Kai PRC Laws and Regulations .............................................................................................. 56 LIU Jen-Kai Hong Kong SAR ................................................................................................................ 58 LIU Jen-Kai Macau SAR ....................................................................................................................... 65 LIU Jen-Kai Taiwan .............................................................................................................................. 69 LIU Jen-Kai ISSN 0943-7533 All information given here is derived from generally accessible sources. Publisher/Distributor: GIGA Institute of Asian Studies Rothenbaumchaussee 32 20148 Hamburg Germany Phone: +49 (0 40) 42 88 74-0 Fax: +49 (040) 4107945 2 March 2008 The Main National Leadership of the
    [Show full text]
  • Rewriting the Cultural Revolution: from Centre to Periphery
    Review Essay Rewriting the Cultural Revolution: From Centre to Periphery Christopher Hughes Chen Boda zuihou koushu huiyi Chen Boda's Last Oral Recollections) Revised Edition). By CHEN XIAONONG. [Hong Kong: Sun Global Publishing, 2005. 445 pp. HK$120.00. ISBN 988-98295-1-7.] Xizang jiyi Memories of Tibet). By WEISE. [Taipei: Locus, 2006. 424 pp. N380.00. ISBN 986-7291-85-9.] Although 2006 marked the 40th anniversary of the launching of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, understanding of this trau- matic event in mainland China is still largely limited within the parameters established by the 1981 Resolution on CPC History.1 Yet as even those who were teenagers at the time move into old age, oral history is being used to explore some of the most sensitive issues. This is shown by the appearance of two books written by mainland authors and published in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chen Boda's Last Oral Recollections is an attempt by Chen Boda's son, Chen Xiaonong, to rehabilitate his father's reputation after he was condemned in 1980 by the reformist leadership as a counter-revolutionary for his part in the Cultural Revolution. In the process it provides new versions of the key events that took place at the centre of power. Memories of Tibet,by the leading Tibetan literary figure, Weise, Woese, born 1966), gives a view far removed from Beijing by bringing together interviews with 23 grass-roots activists from various ethnic groups and setting these in the context of the debate over how much responsibility the indigenous population of Tibet should bear for the destruction wrought on its heritage.
    [Show full text]