The Chinese Cultural Revolution As History

by Esherick, Joseph W.

• ISBN13: 9780804753500
• ISBN10: 0804753504
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-30
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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 University and Director of the Asia-Pacific Research Center.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History: An Introduction	1	(28)
Joseph W. Esherick
Paul G. Pickowicz
Andrew G. Walder
Passion, Reflection, and Survival: Political Choices of Red Guards at Qinghua University, June 1966-July 1968	29	(35)
Xiaowei Zheng
To Protect and Preserve: Resisting the Destroy the Four Olds Campaign, 1966-1967	64	(32)
Dahpon David Ho
Mass Killings in the Cultural Revolution: A Study of Three Provinces	96	(28)
Yang Su
The Death of a Landlord: Moral Predicament in Rural China, 1968-1969	124	(29)
Jiangsui He
Staging Xiaojinzhuang: The City in the Countryside, 1974-1976	153	(32)
Jeremy Brown
Labor Created Humanity: Cultural Revolution Science on Its Own Terms	185	(26)
Sigrid Schmalzer
To Be Somebody: Li Qinglin, Run-of-the-Mill Cultural Revolution Showstopper	211	(29)
Elya J. Zhang
The Sublime and the Profane: A Comparative Analysis of Two Fictional Narratives about Sent-down Youth	240	(27)
Liyan Qin
Contributors	267	(4)
Character List	271	(8)
Notes	279	(72)
Selected Bibliography	351	(18)
Index	369