The Cultural Revolution at the Margins : Chinese Socialism in Crisis

Mao Zedong envisioned a great struggle to "wreak havoc under the heaven" when he launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966. But as radicalized Chinese youth rose up against Party officials, events quickly slipped from the government's grasp, and rebellion took on a life of its own. Turmoil became a reality in a way the Great Leader had not foreseen. The Cultural Revolution at the Margins recaptures these formative moments from the perspective of the disenfranchised and disobedient rebels Mao unleashed and later betrayed. The Cultural Revolution began as a "revolution from above," and Mao had only a tenuous relationship with the Red Guard students and workers who responded to his call. Yet it was these young rebels at the grassroots who advanced the Cultural Revolution's more radical possibilities, Yiching Wu argues, and who not only acted for themselves but also transgressed Maoism by critically reflecting on broader issues concerning Chinese socialism. As China's state machinery broke down and the institutional foundations of the PRC were threatened, Mao resolved to suppress the crisis. Leaving out in the cold the very activists who had taken its transformative promise seriously, the Cultural Revolution devoured its children and exhausted its political energy. The mass demobilizations of 1968-69, Wu shows, were the starting point of a series of crisis-coping maneuvers to contain and neutralize dissent, producing immense changes in Chinese society a decade later. Contents 10 List of Figures and Tables 12 List of Abbreviations 14 Preface and Acknowledgments 16 1. The Unthinkable Revolution 26 From the Margins: A Historiographical and Interpretive Detour 33 Plan of This Book 38 2. Enemies from the Past: Bureaucracy, Class, and Mao's Continuous Revolution 42 When Revolutionaries Became Rulers 46 Socialist Bureaucracy and Ruling-Class Formation 59 Class as Classification 63 How the Old Bottle Spoiled New Wine 71 3. From the Good Blood to the Right to Rebel: Politics of Class and Citizenship in the Beijing Red Guard Movement 78 Prolectarian Purity 81 Festivals of Red Violence 89 Birth of a Big Poisonous Weed 92 Rights and Class: Transgressing Maoism 107 4. Revolutionary Alchemy: Economism and the Making of Shanghai's January Revolution 120 A Brief History of Economism 122 Crisis and Indeterminacy 133 Revolutionary Alchemy: "What Kind of Stuff is Economism?" 145 The Making of a New Political Model 149 An Unstable Closure 156 In the Name of Proletarian Power 163 5. Revolution is Dead, Long Live the Revolution: Popular Radicalization of the Cultural Revolution in Hunan 167 The Great Retreat and Its Discontents 170 Resisting Demobilization: The Road to the Shengwulian 173 Coalition of the Disaffected? 184 "The People's Commune of China" 195 The Universality of the Singular 209 6. Coping with Crisis in the Wake of the Cultural Revolution: The Historical Origins of Chinese Postsocialism 215 Rebellion and Emcompassment 215 Return to Normalcy 221 Continuing Crises 228 The Road to Brumaire: The Hegemonic Politics of Economic Reform 242 Epilogue. From Revolution to Reform: Rethinking the Cultural Revolution in the Present 248 Two Contrasting Chinas? 250 Ruling-Class Transformation: Overcoming the 1978 Divide 252 The Incomplete Continuous Revolution 260 Appendix: List of Selected Chinese Characters 266 Notes 270 Bibliography 330 Index 354 "The Cultural Revolution began as a "revolution from above," and Mao had only a tenuous relationship with the Red Guard students and workers who responded to his call. Yet it was these young rebels at the grassroots who advanced the Cultural Revolution's more radical possibilities, Yiching Wu argues, and who not only acted for themselves but also transgressed Maoism by critically reflecting on broader issues concerning Chinese socialism. As China's state machinery broke down and the institutional foundations of the PRC were threatened, Mao resolved to suppress the crisis. Leaving out in the cold the very activists who had taken its transformative promise seriously, the Cultural Revolution devoured its children and exhausted its political energy. The mass demobilizations of 1968-69, Wu shows, were the starting point of a series of crisis-coping maneuvers to contain and neutralize dissent, producing immense changes in Chinese society a decade later." -- Publisher's description. Mao Zedong envisioned a great struggle to "wreak havoc under the heaven" when he launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966. But as radicalized Chinese youth rose up against Party officials, events quickly slipped from the government's grasp, and rebellion took on a life of its own. Turmoil became a reality in a way the Great Leader had not foreseen. __The Cultural__ __Revolution at the Margins__ recaptures these formative moments from the perspective of the disenfranchised and disobedient rebels Mao unleashed and later betrayed. The mass demobilizations of 1968-69, Wu shows, were the starting point of a series of crisis-coping maneuvers to contain and neutralize dissent, producing immense changes in Chinese society a decade later. The Cultural Revolution Began From Above, Yet It Was Students And Workers At The Grassroots Who Advanced The Movement's Radical Possibilities By Acting And Thinking For Themselves. Resolving To Suppress The Resulting Crisis, Mao Set Events In Motion In 1968 That Left Out In The Cold Those Rebels Who Had Taken It Most Seriously, Yiching Wu Shows. Biographical note: WuYiching: Yiching Wu teaches East Asian studies, history, and anthropology at the University of Toronto