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Constructing China: Clashing Views of the People's Republic
For years now, China’s economic and political rise has provoked fear—even paranoia—around the world. But how do we get our information about China, and how are our understandings of it actually produced?
Constructing China presents a detailed examination of the means through which our knowledge of China is created. Rejecting the supposed objectivity of empirical statistics and challenging the assumption of a dichotomy between Western liberal democracy and Chinese authoritarianism, Mobo Gao dissects the political agenda and conceptual framework of commentators on China and urges those on the right and the left alike to be carefully critical of their own views on the nation’s politics, economics, and history.
Constructing China presents a detailed examination of the means through which our knowledge of China is created. Rejecting the supposed objectivity of empirical statistics and challenging the assumption of a dichotomy between Western liberal democracy and Chinese authoritarianism, Mobo Gao dissects the political agenda and conceptual framework of commentators on China and urges those on the right and the left alike to be carefully critical of their own views on the nation’s politics, economics, and history.
288 pages, Paperback
Published May 20, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 24, 2021
Textbook example of 'playing to the level of your competition.' I guess this might be of marginal use to someone who thinks of Mao as 'China's Hitler,' but otherwise this is excruciatingly dull — and, for a supposed full-throated defense of Maoism, awkwardly committed to highly academic notions of discursive struggle as well.
December 17, 2018
In 11 detailed essays, China scholar (and former red guard) Mobo Gao shatters conventional narratives about China, particularly dismantling the horror stories about Mao and the revolutionary period, and demonstrates the remarkable achievements made during the period, even in the face of immense challenges. Far from hagiography, the scholarship makes overriding critiques of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, while situation them in proper historic contexts, and demonstrating the real achievements made under Mao's leadership, both in terms of material benefit, and mass participation in society.
The theoretical framework also breaks down where the 'clashing views of the Peoples Republic' come from; that those who have the most to gain by upholding the current world order, also have the most to gain from tearing down the most revolutionary attempt to upend that world order, the Chinese revolution. This book is also decisive in critiquing the post-Mao leadership of China for taking the capitalist road, and demonstrating the ways that the 'Chinese miracle' was actually a result of material improvement from the socialist period.
I differ with a few concepts: the attempt to make a distinction between domestic and trans-national capitol seems to be a restating of Maoist views about the national bourgeoisie, and one that seems particularly ill attuned to the current world climate, where increasing all large capitol is financialised on a world level, and there are large volumes of Chinese capitol flowing through Asia, Latin America and Africa. That blindspot seems to impact the final chapter as well.
Quibbles aside, Mobo Gao's rigorous work should cause anyone who doubts how profoundly revolutionary Maoist China was to rethink their assumptions.
The theoretical framework also breaks down where the 'clashing views of the Peoples Republic' come from; that those who have the most to gain by upholding the current world order, also have the most to gain from tearing down the most revolutionary attempt to upend that world order, the Chinese revolution. This book is also decisive in critiquing the post-Mao leadership of China for taking the capitalist road, and demonstrating the ways that the 'Chinese miracle' was actually a result of material improvement from the socialist period.
I differ with a few concepts: the attempt to make a distinction between domestic and trans-national capitol seems to be a restating of Maoist views about the national bourgeoisie, and one that seems particularly ill attuned to the current world climate, where increasing all large capitol is financialised on a world level, and there are large volumes of Chinese capitol flowing through Asia, Latin America and Africa. That blindspot seems to impact the final chapter as well.
Quibbles aside, Mobo Gao's rigorous work should cause anyone who doubts how profoundly revolutionary Maoist China was to rethink their assumptions.
December 28, 2021
An incredibly insightful book that deconstructs popular narratives about China by discussing how those narratives are produced. In particular, due to the author's ideological orientation, the book focuses on deconstructing popular narratives about Mao and his leadership (especially the disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution). I'll admit that before reading this book, I believed in the common narrative of Mao-era leadership as one big disaster for China with only a few positives. However, the book successfully challenged this assumption by discussing the progress that the people of China made in that era. In addition, the book's discussion of Chinese foreign policy, conflicts with other countries, and its infamous territorial disputes was also very informative.
That being said, the book doesn't seem to be written for popular consumption. Rather, it is written largely as an academic text. The positive of this is that the author is thorough with citing research for all his claims. The negative is that the writing style is quite dense and, at times, dull.
That being said, the book doesn't seem to be written for popular consumption. Rather, it is written largely as an academic text. The positive of this is that the author is thorough with citing research for all his claims. The negative is that the writing style is quite dense and, at times, dull.
January 1, 2022
Exactly the kind of book I was looking for it deconstructs western orientalism of China.
He refutes historians such as Jung Chang, Jon Halliday and Frank Dikotter and their lies about Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
What was most interesting to me was Chinas border disputes and conflicts with Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong and the history behind them. I liked this book much better than his other book Mao The Battle for China's Past.
He refutes historians such as Jung Chang, Jon Halliday and Frank Dikotter and their lies about Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
What was most interesting to me was Chinas border disputes and conflicts with Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong and the history behind them. I liked this book much better than his other book Mao The Battle for China's Past.
September 4, 2020
I have formal complaints. The writing is a bit dense and disorganized at times, and the book does not have a concluding chapter. It just kind of ends, which is a missed opportunity to wrap things up. For that I'd really give it a 3.5 / 5 but that's not a thing.
Overall, its main focus is building an understanding of the processes of and motivations for knowledge / information production and control on China’s side as well as the “west” throughout the history of the PRC. Who benefits how by certain framing, and what objective facts are any of the popular arguments rooted in. In that context it elaborates broadly on Chinese history, with more focus on the 19th and early 20th century leading up to the revolution, and then detailed analysis of the Mao era and subsequent eras. The author makes case studies of the major topics of interest: China’s borders (HK, Taiwan, India and the South China See for instance), the GLF, the cultural revolution, and the liberalization of the Chinese markets.
It came out in ‘17 so it does not address the uyghur camps.
I think he does a good job of walking the line between being an apologist for China and a lapdog for US interests. He doesn’t let China off the hook for anything, but attempts to really explain the whys and hows of situations in a way I’ve never been able to find elaborated on without a western lens/framework. He contextualizes the post-Mao era in terms of a turn from sincere explicitly class conscious politics (to spite the flawed policy and implementation) to more nationalist and international market minded politics, and contextualizes much of the history of the PRC in terms of the “hundred years of humiliation” of colonialism that preceded it.
Overall, its main focus is building an understanding of the processes of and motivations for knowledge / information production and control on China’s side as well as the “west” throughout the history of the PRC. Who benefits how by certain framing, and what objective facts are any of the popular arguments rooted in. In that context it elaborates broadly on Chinese history, with more focus on the 19th and early 20th century leading up to the revolution, and then detailed analysis of the Mao era and subsequent eras. The author makes case studies of the major topics of interest: China’s borders (HK, Taiwan, India and the South China See for instance), the GLF, the cultural revolution, and the liberalization of the Chinese markets.
It came out in ‘17 so it does not address the uyghur camps.
I think he does a good job of walking the line between being an apologist for China and a lapdog for US interests. He doesn’t let China off the hook for anything, but attempts to really explain the whys and hows of situations in a way I’ve never been able to find elaborated on without a western lens/framework. He contextualizes the post-Mao era in terms of a turn from sincere explicitly class conscious politics (to spite the flawed policy and implementation) to more nationalist and international market minded politics, and contextualizes much of the history of the PRC in terms of the “hundred years of humiliation” of colonialism that preceded it.
May 21, 2025
Gao is an excellent writer - informative, brusque, ironic -and there is a lot to like here even if there are elements to distrust. So he's broadly supportive of the PRC's foreign policy, very critical of its economics, and when it comes to eg Xinjiang or Taiwan in particular I'm probably the other way round; while there's a grudging 'yes, ok, so vast millions were raised out of absolute poverty' line on post-1978 China, it is obscured by 'think of the spiritual damage caused by the dismantlement of collective farms', farms that afaik the Chinese farmers left with great alacrity. I also found the 'well, it was the wrong, princeling Red Guards who did the nasties, not the good, revolutionary Red Guards' explanation for the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution to be atypically dissembling. But mostly this is patient and thoughtful, sometimes superb on the gross hypocrisies of western powers on China, and has a very economical way of explaining the differing approaches to history and philosophy that the Chinese elite (still) has compared with its contemporaries.
October 12, 2020
An eye-opening experience of learning how knowledge is 'constructed' about a country and then 'consumed' by a targetted audience to achieve a desired outcome.
Mobo Gao illustrates how the western world has constructed ideas about China that affect China negatively. Information is consumed by westerners and some Chinese intellectuals to treat China in a negative way. This has occurred for centuries and continues to this day. Many examples are given, but one is of how China made scientific advances during the Cultural Revolution, whilst it is fashionable to simply call that period an unmitigated disaster.
Chinese geopolitics is changing so rapidly in 2020 that it is already become dated in some aspects. The book's optimistic outlook of China's Communist Party, such as the page that says Xi Jinping hasn't shown himself to be a dictator and there is no reason to think that he will become one (he is now most certainly a dictator). There are many opinions of the book I don't agree, but I gave it a high rating because it's so rare to find an alternative academic viewpoint on China to counter the standard narrative of China- even if that alternative viewpoint might be wrong.
Mobo Gao illustrates how the western world has constructed ideas about China that affect China negatively. Information is consumed by westerners and some Chinese intellectuals to treat China in a negative way. This has occurred for centuries and continues to this day. Many examples are given, but one is of how China made scientific advances during the Cultural Revolution, whilst it is fashionable to simply call that period an unmitigated disaster.
Chinese geopolitics is changing so rapidly in 2020 that it is already become dated in some aspects. The book's optimistic outlook of China's Communist Party, such as the page that says Xi Jinping hasn't shown himself to be a dictator and there is no reason to think that he will become one (he is now most certainly a dictator). There are many opinions of the book I don't agree, but I gave it a high rating because it's so rare to find an alternative academic viewpoint on China to counter the standard narrative of China- even if that alternative viewpoint might be wrong.
June 30, 2021
I wish the author’s writing style was more engaging. Putting that aside, he provides a much needed counterweight to what he feels is the crux of the problem with scholarship about China, which is “that the production and consumption of knowledge of contemporary China is far too political both inside and outside China.”
He presents some interesting arguments against popular mainstream analyses that have presented the Maoist period in China as being irredeemable.
Along the way, he also uncovers some particularly interesting tidbits. For example, during all the coverage of the SCS issues, I had not until I read it here come across the fact that most of the current PRC claims date back to ROC claims staked out with the logistical help of the US Navy.
He presents some interesting arguments against popular mainstream analyses that have presented the Maoist period in China as being irredeemable.
Along the way, he also uncovers some particularly interesting tidbits. For example, during all the coverage of the SCS issues, I had not until I read it here come across the fact that most of the current PRC claims date back to ROC claims staked out with the logistical help of the US Navy.
August 5, 2022
a bit hard to follow, like the author writes for people who already know
April 13, 2024
Pretty much the best the academic world has on offer as an introduction to China's mainstream issues: served as a buffet meal, and in a colloquial style.
This reader's experience was as follows:
1. It starts alright, but it turns out ... the author is poisoned by academic post-modernism! ... Yikes! Just reflecting on what he says about the relativity of truth makes me feel going bonkers. But still, I might find him useful and informative, by paying close attention to the references...
2. And it looks I might pick and choose what chapter I read on the basis of what interests me. ... Hey, it turns out that's exactly how the author conceived of the book. For that purpose, the introductory chapter presents a very good outline of what each following chapter is all about.
3. Hey, this supposed believer in relativity states quite freely what he thinks is right and wrong... regardless of the topic's contentiousness. Which is good news: it turns out that his postmodernism was just like paying lip service to a dogma of the academia.
4. A thought on the book as a whole: Imagine you were a complete outsider, faced on one side with a mountain of sources on China that contradict each other,... and on the other side a restaurant table where a Western sinologist, who has started out as a child of humble origins in China, is ready to chat with you about how he looks at the media landscape, and what he has seen & found out in his 70 years of experience. Would you NOT like to spend a few hours with him first?
5. Wow, I had no idea this aspect of China even existed. NO one ever mentions it. ... And this! ... And this... this opens an entire new world to me.
6. The author refers to the transnational interests, with the conflict between them on one hand, and the popular interests on the other hand as a crucial factor, but leaving us with only a vague notion of it. So much so, that the phrase he uses, "the split personality of the Chinese political and intellectual elite" is inadequate even as a metaphor: "split personality" implies a psychopathology of the individual, which is itself hotly contested within the psychiatric field (Modrow 1992, Frances Allen 2013, Reinders&Veltman 2020). Of course, the reader has likely heard & read of "anti-globalization," "globalists," and so on, but such abstract terms regularly conceal a lack of actual comprehension. This problem might have been ameliorated by a reference to one or works on the subject, but none is provided. So, that leads us to a question: how can something be both an important issue, but treated as trivial?
The book cites the statement of the USA as "an indispensable nation": dunno about that, but let me tell you: it looks that for anyone genuinely interested to learn on China, this book is an indispensable guide.
This reader's experience was as follows:
1. It starts alright, but it turns out ... the author is poisoned by academic post-modernism! ... Yikes! Just reflecting on what he says about the relativity of truth makes me feel going bonkers. But still, I might find him useful and informative, by paying close attention to the references...
2. And it looks I might pick and choose what chapter I read on the basis of what interests me. ... Hey, it turns out that's exactly how the author conceived of the book. For that purpose, the introductory chapter presents a very good outline of what each following chapter is all about.
3. Hey, this supposed believer in relativity states quite freely what he thinks is right and wrong... regardless of the topic's contentiousness. Which is good news: it turns out that his postmodernism was just like paying lip service to a dogma of the academia.
4. A thought on the book as a whole: Imagine you were a complete outsider, faced on one side with a mountain of sources on China that contradict each other,... and on the other side a restaurant table where a Western sinologist, who has started out as a child of humble origins in China, is ready to chat with you about how he looks at the media landscape, and what he has seen & found out in his 70 years of experience. Would you NOT like to spend a few hours with him first?
5. Wow, I had no idea this aspect of China even existed. NO one ever mentions it. ... And this! ... And this... this opens an entire new world to me.
6. The author refers to the transnational interests, with the conflict between them on one hand, and the popular interests on the other hand as a crucial factor, but leaving us with only a vague notion of it. So much so, that the phrase he uses, "the split personality of the Chinese political and intellectual elite" is inadequate even as a metaphor: "split personality" implies a psychopathology of the individual, which is itself hotly contested within the psychiatric field (Modrow 1992, Frances Allen 2013, Reinders&Veltman 2020). Of course, the reader has likely heard & read of "anti-globalization," "globalists," and so on, but such abstract terms regularly conceal a lack of actual comprehension. This problem might have been ameliorated by a reference to one or works on the subject, but none is provided. So, that leads us to a question: how can something be both an important issue, but treated as trivial?
The book cites the statement of the USA as "an indispensable nation": dunno about that, but let me tell you: it looks that for anyone genuinely interested to learn on China, this book is an indispensable guide.
September 14, 2025
Mobo Gao basically distills and rebukes the various common anti-China (mostly anti-Mao) narratives coming from the liberal perspective (from both Chinese and Western). It is a very resounding rebuke of the various narratives commonly deployed against China. Gao also highlights a very interesting dynamic between the new class in China that wished to ingratiate itself into the western globalist order post-Mao and the western globalists themselves (who could never accept the former), and also the subtle changes that are taking place under Xi.
August 21, 2022
real good stuff but i think would have benefited from slightly more history to balance out the criticism of dominant narratives (though that is obviously not quite the intent of the book!)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews