The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History / Edition 1

by Joseph W. Esherick, Paul G. Pickowicz, Andrew G. Walder

Overview

Based on a wide variety of unusual and only recently available sources, this book covers the entire Cultural Revolution decade (1966-76) and shows how the Cultural Revolution was experienced by ordinary Chinese at the base of urban and rural society. The contributors emphasize the complex interaction of state and society during this tumultuous period, exploring the way events originating at the center of political power changed people's lives and how, in turn, people's responses took the Cultural Revolution in unplanned and unanticipated directions. This approach offers a more fruitful way to understand the Cultural Revolution and its historical legacies.

The book provides a new look at the student Red Guard movements, the effort to identify and cultivate potential “revolutionary” leaders in outlying provinces, stubborn resistance to campaigns to destroy the old culture, and the violence and mass killings in rural China.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804753500
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	03/22/2006
Series:	Studies of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Edition description:	1
Pages:	392
Sales rank:	622,840
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

Joseph W. Esherick holds the Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies and is Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. Paul G. Pickowicz is Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. Andrew G. Walder is Professor of Sociology at Stanford Universityand Director of the Asia-Pacific Research Center.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
1	The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History: An Introduction	1
2	Passion, Reflection, and Survival: Political Choices of Red Guards at Qinghua University, June 1966-July 1968	29
3	To Protect and Preserve: Resisting the Destroy the Four Olds Campaign, 1966-1967	64
4	Mass Killings in the Cultural Revolution: A Study of Three Provinces	96
5	The Death of a Landlord: Moral Predicament in Rural China, 1968-1969	124
6	Staging Xiaojinzhuang: The City in the Countryside, 1974-1976	153
7	Labor Created Humanity: Cultural Revolution Science on Its Own Terms	185
8	To Be Somebody: Li Qinglin, Run-of-the-Mill Cultural Revolution Showstopper	211
9	The Sublime and the Profane: A Comparative Analysis of Two Fictional Narratives about Sent-down Youth	240
	Contributors	267
	Character List	271
	Notes	279
	Selected Bibliography	351
	Index	369

Editorial Reviews

"By probing the extent of the revolution across different regions in China and drawing attention to its later development after the Red Guards movement petered out, this work greatly broadens knowledge of the revolution and modern Chinese history in general."—CHOICE

"The questions raised by the painful realities illuminated by these important essays are worth taking seriously."—The Chinese Historical Review

"This volume is a valuable collection of essays on the Chinese Cultural Revolution It enjoys many new sources of information, which [were] not available for the previous scholarship on the history of the Cultural Revolution. The new information and new interpretations of the events as a result of it, alone were enough to make this volume a very useful reference for students of the Cultural Revolution in particular and the Chinese politics in general." —The Journal of Chinese Political Science

From the Publisher

"By probing the extent of the revolution across different regions in China and drawing attention to its later development after the Red Guards movement petered out, this work greatly broadens knowledge of the revolution and modern Chinese history in general."

CHOICE

"The questions raised by the painful realities illuminated by these important essays are worth taking seriously."

The Chinese Historical Review

"This volume is a valuable collection of essays on the Chinese Cultural Revolution It enjoys many new sources of information, which [were] not available for the previous scholarship on the history of the Cultural Revolution. The new information and new interpretations of the events as a result of it, alone were enough to make this volume a very useful reference for students of the Cultural Revolution in particular and the Chinese politics in general."

The Journal of Chinese Political Science