One China, Many Paths

by Chaohua Wang (Editor)

The world’s largest country is now a constant topic of fascination or fear in the West, producing an ever increasing literature of scholarship, reportage and tourism. In this volume, the differing voices and views of leading Chinese thinkers can for the first time be heard in English translation, debating the future of their society and its place in the world. One China, Many Paths offers a vibrant panorama of the contemporary intellectual scene in the People’s Republic. Its contributors include economists and historians, philosophers and sociologists, writers and literary critics, across the generations.

Among the topics debated in these pages are the future of China’s growth model; the deepening crisis on the land; the country’s emerging class structure, and the fate of its workers; its commercial and high culture, and the interactions between them; the role of social movements and the aftermath of the late eighties; the prospects of a democratic constitution and the direction of China’s foreign policy. This collection gives a unique window onto the variety and vigor of opinions about public affairs expressed in China today.

Contributions by He Qinglian, Wang Hui, Chen Pingyuan, Qin Hui, Hu Angang, Gan Yang, Wang Xiaoming, Gian Liqun, and others.

Genres: China, History, Politics, Nonfiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

Reviews

[Andrés · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of essays analysing the changes in Chinese society during the 1990s. The writers are all Chinese with a mix of those who remain in China and those who have immigrated. In addition, while the majority of the writers are academics, there are also one or two essays by government officials who have practical knowledge of the economic and political changes in China which occurred that decade. The essays are definitely more descriptive than prescriptive in nature. The one noticeable disappointment is the group interview at the collection's end. On a number of important issues the interviewees simply punted and on others got bogged down in the semantic gymnastics which Marxists unfortunately force into any discussion they are invited to. The collection is definitely geared towards the academic market and some of the translations are a bit chunky, but the overall quality of the essays is impossible to miss.

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A symposium of Chinese New Left and (sometimes neo-)liberal intellectuals, most of whom participated in the Tiananmen protests, captured in the high neoliberal Jiang era. Very interesting stuff on usually ignored subjects such as the sudden explosion of knowledge in the late 70s and 1980s (when after years of foreign books being strictly rationed you could suddenly read Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason in a series on 'Western Bourgeois Philosophy') and the shift from rural co-operatives to brutally squeezing the peasantry in the 1990s - though concluding predictions of possible collapse extremely not borne out by events.