Chinese history

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• SOURCE: Dissent
  5/1/2022
  

  The Democratic Potential of China's Grassroots Intellectuals

  by Sebastian Veg

  Chinese intellectuals working outside the protection of state-controlled universites have a perilous existence, but carry on the struggle against the regime's efforts to impose orthodoxy on the nation's history. 

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• SOURCE: Dissent
  5/1/2022
  

  The Xi Era Demands New Ways of Understanding China

  by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

  This is the introductory essay to a special issue on contemporary China. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  1/10/2022
  

  How the Chinese Language Modernized

  Jing Tsu's book examines the ways that the Chinese written language has survived waves of iconoclasm and shifts in the politics of cultural authority. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/27/2021
  

  Jonathan Spence, Noted China Scholar, Dies at 85

  Spence taught for four decades at Yale, and published a number of popular and critically acclaimed books on the vast history of modern China. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  11/15/2021
  

  Michael Schuman: Xi's New China is Terrifying

  by Michael Schuman

  A leading China scholar argues that the government's increased restrictions on individuals and companies, from the petty to the consequential, signal a retrenchment of central authority after a period of liberalization. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/11/2021
  

  China Passes Historical Resolution Enabling Xi's Ongoing Rule

  “By tracing the continuity of the party over 100 years, it is used to show that it was inevitable for Xi to emerge at this time to be the ‘core’ of the party,” said Tony Saich of Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. 

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  11/8/2021
  

  Xi Understands the Crises Facing China Better than His Propagandists Do

  by Walter Russell Mead

  Creating a heroic role for Xi in the sweep of Chinese history is an important propaganda aim, but it shows that China faces urgent problems in the here-and-now that the leader may not be able to manage.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/7/2021
  

  To Hold Control in China's Present, Xi Seeks to Rewrite its Past

  The Chinese Communist Party's newest official history elevates Xi as a figure of historical significance alongside Mao and Deng Xiaoping, making the country's history an instrument of political power. 

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• SOURCE: Hong Kong Free Press
  9/19/2021
  

  How Hong Kong's Elite Have Embraced a Shifting Narrative on Tiananmen Square

  The rise of pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong has led to increasing reluctance to condemn the Tiananmen massacre. The arrest of protest leaders under the Beijing-backed national security law has further chilled dissent. 

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• SOURCE: The Baffler
  9/22/2021
  

  Rebel is Right: Reassessing the Cultural Revolution

  by Chaohua Wang

  A new book by the Chinese scholar Yang Jisheng examines the Chinese Cultural Revolution's lasting impact on the Communist Party, concluding that the generation of party leaders who experienced it were indifferent to utopianism but deeply attracted to the exercise of absolute power. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  9/19/2021
  

  Jonathan Mirsky: Historian Turned Beijing Correspondent, Mao Fan turned Critic of Beijing

  After beginning an academic career in east Asian history, Mirsky reported on the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the Tiananmen demonstrations and massacre, letting the facts he observed change his assumptions.

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• 9/19/2021
  

  Psychologically Speaking, Who Were the Heads of the Chinese Communist Party?

  by David Shambaugh

  Sinologist David Shambaugh's new book examines the evolution of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic's role in the world through a psychological history of the CCP's leaders. Excerpted here, he offers a schematic overview of the work. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/10/2021
  

  Ying-shih Yu, Renowned Scholar of Chinese Thought, Dies at 91

  "Professor Yu often returned to the theme that China’s long traditions could be a wellspring, not an enemy, of enlightenment, individual dignity and democracy."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/25/2021
  

  Yu Ruxin is Rescuing China’s Muzzled Past, One Footnote at a Time

  “We won’t be able to truly absorb the lessons of history, and history may just repeat itself,” Mr. Yu said in an interview from Hong Kong. “It couldn’t possibly be exactly like the Cultural Revolution, but something similar can’t be ruled out.”

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• SOURCE: NPR
  7/5/2021
  

  Unpacking The 100-Year History Of The Chinese Communist Party

  As the Chinese Communist Party turns 100 this month, NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with historian Andy B. Liu about the mark it's made on the country.

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• SOURCE: National History Center and Woodrow Wilson Center
  5/25/2021
  

  Event: June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989 (June 1, 2021)

  Jeremy Brown’s June Fourth takes a historical approach to the events of 1989 in China, arguing that the Beijing massacre was neither necessary nor inevitable, and tracing alternative paths that could have led to different outcomes. He addresses the National History Center's Washington History Seminar on June 1. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/11/2021
  

  It’s a Golden Age for Chinese Archaeology — And the West is Ignoring It

  by Rowan K. Flad

  Recent discoveries in Egypt have overshadowed more significant finds in China. This may reflect the romanticized popular culture image of colonial-era tomb-raiders, or the prevalent sense that Western civilization is derived from the Mediterranean world. It's time for a broader view of why the ancient world matters. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/11/2021
  

  The Underground Activists Who Fought for Freedom Across Asia

  by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

  A new book on the movements against colonial rule in Asia looks to grassroots movements and multiple ideological and political groups and challenges "great man" ideas of national liberation. 

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• SOURCE: Business Insider
  3/2/2021
  

  What China's Last Major War Tells Us About How it Will Fight the Next One

  An examination of the roots of war between Vietnam and China, which may suggest that Beijing is willing to initiate military action in the future. China's poor military performance in this conflict led to reform and modernization of the People's Liberation Army. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/15/2020
  

  The World’s Most Important Body of Water

  by Daniel Yergin

  The author of a book on the dispute over control of the South China sea examines four critical decisionmakers whose actions shaped the present conflict.