A Bitter Revolution China's Struggle with the Modern World (Paperback)

Informationen zum Autor 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 Channel televisiondocumentaries and on radio. Klappentext In this powerful new look at modern China! Rana Mitter goes back to a pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from pre-modern to modern. Mitter identifies May 4! 1919! as the defining moment of China's twentieth-century history. On that day! outrage over the Paris peace conference triggered a vast student protest that led in turn to "the May Fourth Movement." Just seven years before! the 2!000-year-old imperial system had collapsed. Now a new group of urban! modernizing thinkers began to reject Confucianism and traditional culture in general as hindrances in the fight against imperialism! warlordism! and the oppression of women and the poor. Forward-looking! individualistic! and embracing youth! this "New Culture movement" made a lasting impact on the critical decades that followed. Throughout each of the dramatically different eras that followed! the May 4 themes persisted! from the insanity of the Cultural Revolution to China's recent romance with space-age technology. Zusammenfassung 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 asfar apart as America, India, and Japan. Inhaltsverzeichnis 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 ...

Klappentext
A Bitter RevolutionChina's Struggle with the Modern World Exciting account of how the politics and culture of China changed forever during the twentieth century Brings previously unheard voices from modern China to light, using a range of new and fascinating sources Shines a light on China's 'hidden history', e.g. China and Japan were not always enemies, and Communism was not inevitably destined to succeed in China Shows how the 1910s and 20s, traditionally regarded as progressive and liberal, hid the seeds of China's future political crises

Zusammenfassung
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.

Inhalt
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

#	Onlineshop	Preis CHF	Versand CHF	Total CHF
1	Seller	0.00	0.00	0.00