China's New Order: Society, Politics, and Economy in Transition

by Wang Hui, Theodore Huters

As the world is drawn together with increasing force, our long-standing isolation from--and baffling ignorance of--China is ever more perilous. This book offers a powerful analysis of China and the transformations it has undertaken since 1989.

Wang Hui is unique in China's intellectual world for his ability to synthesize an insider's knowledge of economics, politics, civilization, and Western critical theory. A participant in the Tiananmen Square movement, he is also the editor of the most important intellectual journal in contemporary China. He has a grasp and vision that go beyond contemporary debates to allow him to connect the events of 1989 with a long view of Chinese history. Wang Hui argues that the features of contemporary China are elements of the new global order as a whole in which considerations of economic growth and development have trumped every other concern, particularly those of democracy and social justice. At its heart this book represents an impassioned plea for economic and social justice and an indictment of the corruption caused by the explosion of "market extremism."

As Wang Hui observes, terms like "free" and "unregulated" are largely ideological constructs masking the intervention of highly manipulative, coercive governmental actions on behalf of economic policies that favor a particular scheme of capitalist acquisition--something that must be distinguished from truly free markets. He sees new openings toward social, political, and economic democracy in China as the only agencies by which the unstable conditions thus engendered can be remedied.

Genres: China, History, Economics, Politics, Nonfiction

252 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2003

About the author

Wang Hui (Chinese: 汪晖; pinyin: Wāng Huī; born 1959) is a professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Tsinghua University, Beijing. His researches focus on contemporary Chinese literature and intellectual history. He was the executive editor (with Huang Ping) of the influential magazine Dushu (读书, Reading) from May 1996 to July 2007. The US magazine Foreign Policy named him as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world in May 2008. Wang Hui is the recipient of many awards for his scholarship, and has been Visiting Professor at Harvard, Edinburgh, Bologna (Italy), Stanford, UCLA, Berkeley, and the University of Washington, among others. In March 2010, he appeared as the keynote speaker at the annual meeting for the Association of Asian Scholars.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly too liberal for my tastes. I prefer Lin Chun's Transformation of Chinese Socialism. That book is more historical, more concrete, and more to the left than Wang Hui. Lin Chun also cannot be used as easily by the anti-China crowd.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

raised very worthy questions ... no conclusions but useful insights, questions we must ask now

[abclaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had heard very good things about this book. The problem is, I am not entirely sure if I am disappointed or not.

Wang Hui is part of China's new left. Rather than being a sociologist or a political scientist as the the subject matter might suggest, his forte is Lu Xun, whose probably something akin to the Dickens of China.

What's the book about? Well it's an intellectual survey of China. Hui examines trends of intellectual thought within China and by Chinese abroad on modernisation, the meaning of socialism, the meaning of the reforms and all their short-comings. Obviously he challenges a lot of false dichotomies, points out that some of the measurement criteria used has inherent short-falls, and it even has some stinging criticisms of the theory and practice of the pro-market forces, but, well, it's not exactly easy reading. I remember in a public speaking class they told me never expect people to remember seven or more things at a time. Hui clearly ignored this advice entirely. It sometimes reads a laundry list of sub-clauses and observations, all good, but the format for the lay reader is terrible.

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

China’s New Order written by Wang Hui, a Chinese intellectual, gives the Chinese perspective on the emerging nation. I was surprised to learn that influential thinkers like Samuel Huntington and Edward Said were being read by Chinese intellectuals. His main theme seems to be that a liberal free market economy doesn’t necessary represent the only possible model for all nations. I think he has a point and he is particularly skeptical of Francis Fukuyama’s End Of History theory. He also makes a big difference between social liberality and economic liberality. The ideas are interesting, but I must say that the translation of this esteemed Chinese intellectual comes across as turgid. It's like an academic policy position paper-my least favorite type of non-fiction. Thankfully it was relatively short, but many of the ideas were provocative.

[Redpoet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Presented some interesting points, mostly related to 1989 movement, but otherwise too wispy washy, too moderate, too out of date for my taste. I have just begun reading The Transformation of Chinese Socialism by Lin Chun which already seems on a much higher plateau, , with, I believe a much better analysis and understanding. Still, the Chun Book was published in 2006, and even in the short time since then changes in China and the world are many. It is going to simply be hard to keep up.

[Ligeia · Rating 4 out of 5]

molto educativo
nell'insieme raccoglie interventi e saggi che illustrano la situazione sociale dal 1989, fino ai novanta con lucide disamine della realtà neoliberista cinese