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A Bitter Revolution
China's Struggle with the Modern World
Rana Mitter
384 pages
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numerous halftones
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234x156mm
978-0-19-280605-5
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Paperback
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26 May 2005
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- 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
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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.Readership: The general reader interested in China, students and lecturers of twentieth-century world history, Chinese history, comparative
history, and politics.
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Rana Mitter, Lecturer in the History and Politics of Modern China at the Unversity of Oxford
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Review(s) from previous edition
"Breathtaking and authoritative - Graham Hutchings, former China Correspondent, Daily Telegraph
"An 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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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
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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