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A Bitter Revolution

China's Struggle with the Modern World

Author: Rana Mitter   Series: Making of the Modern World

Paperback

Part I: Shock 1. Flashpoint - Beijing, May Fourth, 1919 2. A Tale of Two Cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and the May Fourth Generation 3. Experiments in Happiness: Life and Love in New Culture China 4. Goodbye Confucius: New Culture, New Politics Part II: Aftershock 5. A Land of Death: Darkness over China 6. Tomorrow the Whole World Will Be Red: The Cultural Revolution and the Distortions of May Fourth 7. Ugly Chinamen and Dead Rivers: Reform and the 'New May Fourth' 8. Learning to Let Go: The May Fourth Legacy in the New Millennium

China is poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. This book goes back to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world.

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Summary

Part I: Shock 1. Flashpoint - Beijing, May Fourth, 1919 2. A Tale of Two Cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and the May Fourth Generation 3. Experiments in Happiness: Life and Love in New Culture China 4. Goodbye Confucius: New Culture, New Politics Part II: Aftershock 5. A Land of Death: Darkness over China 6. Tomorrow the Whole World Will Be Red: The Cultural Revolution and the Distortions of May Fourth 7. Ugly Chinamen and Dead Rivers: Reform and the 'New May Fourth' 8. Learning to Let Go: The May Fourth Legacy in the New Millennium

China is poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. This book goes back to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world.

Read more

Description

China is now poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. Rana Mitter goes back to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world. By the 1920s the seemingly civilized world shaped over the last two thousand years by the legacy of the great philosopher Confucius was falling apart in theface of western imperialism and internal warfare. Chinese cities still bore the imprints of its ancient past with narrow, lanes and temples to long-worshipped gods, but these were starting to change withthe influx of foreign traders, teachers, and missionaries, all eager to shape China's ancient past into a modern present. Mitter takes us through the resulting social turmoil and political promise, the devastating war against Japan in the 1940s, Communism and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and the new era of hope in the 1980s ended by the Tian'anmen uprising. He reveals the impetus behind the dramatic changes in Chinese culture and politics as being China's "New Culture" - astrain of thought which celebrated youth, individualism, and the heady mixture of strange and seductive new cultures from places as far apart as America, India, and Japan.

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Awards

Short-listed for British Academy Book Prize 2005

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Critic Reviews

“'With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints abrilliant, lively portrait critical to understanding the soul of modern China'Iris Chang, New York Times best-selling author of The Rape of Nanking”

Review from previous edition Breathtaking and authoritative'Graham Hutchings, former China Correspondent, Daily TelegraphAn impressive and inventively researched book'Financial Times`With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints a brilliant, lively portrait critical to understanding the soul of modern China'Iris Chang, New York Times best-selling author of The Rape of Nanking

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About the Author

Rana Mitter is University Lecturer in the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of St Cross College. He is the author of The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China (2000) and co-editor (with Patrick Major) of Across the Blocs: Cold War Cultural and Social Histories (2003). He has broadcast on topics to do with ancient and modern China and Japan on History Channeltelevision documentaries and on radio.

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More on this Book

China is now poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. Rana Mitter goes back to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world. By the 1920s the seemingly civilized world shaped over the last two thousand years by the legacy of the great philosopher Confucius was falling apart in the face of western imperialism and internal warfare. Chinese cities still bore the imprints of its ancient past with narrow, lanes and temples to long-worshipped gods, but these were starting to change with the influx of foreign traders, teachers, and missionaries, all eager to shape China's ancient past into a modern present. Mitter takes us through the resulting social turmoil and political promise, the devastating war against Japan in the 1940s, Communism and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and the new era of hope in the 1980s ended by the Tian'anmen uprising. He reveals the impetus behind the dramatic changes in Chinese culture and politics as being China's "New Culture" - a strain of thought which celebrated youth, individualism, and the heady mixture of strange and seductive new cultures from places as far apart as America, India, and Japan.

Read more

Product Details

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Published
26th May 2005
Pages
384
ISBN
9780192806055

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