Chinese Discourses on the Peasant, 1900-1949

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SUNY Press, Mar 24, 2005 - History - 259 pages
Xiaorong Han explores how Chinese intellectuals envisioned the peasantry and its role in changing society during the first half of the twentieth century. Politically motivated intellectuals, both Communist and non-Communist, believed that rural peasants and their villages would be at the heart of change during this long period of national crisis. Nevertheless, intellectuals saw themselves as the true shapers of change who would transform and use the peasantry. Han uses intellectuals writings to provide a comprehensive look at their views of the peasantry. He shows how intellectuals with varying politics created images of the peasant--"a supposed contemporary image and an ideal image of the peasant transformed for political ends, how intellectuals theorized on the nature of Chinese rural life, and how intellectuals conceived their own relationships with peasants.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
The Intelligentsia the Peasantry and the Chinese Nation
7
The Image of the Peasant
19
The Nature of Rural Society
73
Patterns of IntellectualPeasant Relations
117
Conclusion
167
Notes
177
Bibliography
211
Index
253
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About the author (2005)

Xiaorong Han is Assistant Professor of History at Butler University.

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