Debating Human Rights in China A Conceptual and Political History

by Svensson, Marina

• ISBN13: 9780742516960
• ISBN10: 0742516962
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-14
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Tracing the concept of human rights in Chinese political discourse since the late Qing dynasty, this comprehensive history convincingly demonstrates that_contrary to conventional wisdom_there has been a vibrant debate on human rights throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on little-known sources, Marina Svensson shows how these largely forgotten debates provide important perspectives on and contrasts to the official PRC line. By exploring the relationship between domestic and international human rights discourses, this study offers new insights not only into the Chinese but the Western human rights debate as well. Students and scholars of China and of human rights will find this work an important tool for understanding one of the great issues of our time.

Author Biography

Marina Svensson is assistant professor in the Department of East Asian Languages, Lund University

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
Debating Human Rights in China: Introductory Perspectives	1	(20)
The Conception of Human Rights in the West: Historical Origin and Contemporary Controversies	21	(26)
Culture and Human Rights: Between Universalism and Relativism	47	(24)
China and the Introduction of Western Thought	71	(27)
Ideas of Human Rights in the Early Twentieth Century: The Quest for National Salvation	98	(31)
The New Culture Movement and Beyond: Human Rights and the Liberation of the Individual	129	(30)
The Nanking Decade, 1927-1937: Liberal and Radical Voices on Human Rights	159	(28)
Human Rights Debates in Wartime China: Between Individual Freedom and National Salvation	187	(26)
The 1950s: Human Rights Debates on Two Sides of the Taiwan Strait	213	(20)
The Domestic Challenge over Human Rights: The Democracy Wall Activists and the Official Reaction, 1978-1982	233	(28)
A Contested and Evolving Discourse: Human Rights Debates since the Late 1980s	261	(36)
The Chinese Human Rights Debate: Conclusion and Prospects	297	(22)
Glossary	319	(6)
Bibliography	325	(48)
Index	373	(16)
About the Author	389