Nostalgia for a Pre-Socialist Past: The Communist Party and the Politics of History in Contemporary China

中国共产党严格控制着人们对中国历史的记忆和解释。特别是1949年之前的时代被描述为黑暗和压抑的“屈辱的世纪”，由于中共反对“外国帝国主义”和“叛徒”国内敌人的“爱国”斗争，这一世纪才得以结束。这种说法是中共一党专政的关键合法性工具。然而，党对历史的控制远非坚如磐石。自1978年改革开放以来，民国（1911-1949）的新形象出现了。在书籍、报纸、纪录片和戏剧中，共产主义之前的中国有时被描绘成一个充满活力的社会，面对严峻的外部挑战，在现代化方面取得了显著进展。自2000年代中期以来，对共和党时代日益增长的迷恋被称为“共和党热”。为什么对完全偏离中共正统史学的共和中国的正面重新评价，会被允许出现，甚至在一个媒体仍然受到国家严格控制的国家蓬勃发展？修正主义的历史观对中共的合法性产生了什么影响？​但正如一些宣传官员所警告的那样，与毛派正统相悖的修正主义叙事，已经破坏了中共对民族主义的垄断，并助长了异见。​这两个相互冲突的目标在中国近代史领域发生了冲突，修正主义者对前共产主义中国的正面描述以牺牲“百年耻辱”的叙述为代价获得了支持，从而破坏了中共最重要的合法化工具之一。​​Xi高度重视历史话语,严厉制裁持异议的重新解读历史的观点和历史对自己有利。但这项研究表明，这种努力有先天的弱点。由于中共自相矛盾的历史叙述，修正主义观点甚至在最权威的宣传输出中持续存在，尽管媒体受到严厉控制。另一方面，这项研究将揭示中国的异议，这是越来越重要，但仍未得到政治学家的充分研究。在最近的“白皮书”抗议之后，我们迫切需要了解中共的弱点和异见的潜在原因。这个项目将在一定程度上帮助我们理解，尽管中共几乎完全控制了媒体，不同的观点是如何出现和传播的。与中国有关的研究结果也有助于我们理解其他专制政权对过去的解释。ESRC博士后奖学金将允许我扩展我的论文，进一步发展其中的关键思想，产生高质量的出版物，并与学术和政策受众接触研究结果。所有这些都将对我们理解中国的政治未来产生重要影响。

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintains strict control over how China's past is remembered and interpreted. In particular, the pre-1949 era has been described as a dark and repressive 'century of humiliation', which was brought to an end thanks to the CCP's 'patriotic' struggle against 'foreign imperialists' and its 'traitorous' domestic foes. This narrative is a key legitimation tool for the CCP's one-party rule.However, the Party's control over history is far from rock solid. Since the reform era began in 1978, a new image of Republican China (1911-1949) has emerged. In books, newspapers, documentaries and dramas, pre-communist China has sometimes been portrayed as a vibrant society making remarkable progress in modernisation in the face of severe external challenges. Since the mid-2000s, the growing fascination with the Republican era has been known as 'Republican fever'.Why have positive reassessments of Republican China, which deviate completely from the CCP's orthodox historiography, been allowed to emerge and even thrive in a country where the media remain under strict state control? What consequences have the revisionist views of history had on the CCP's legitimacy? In my PhD dissertation - 'The Rise of "Republican Fever" in the PRC: China's Pre-Communist Legacies and Post-Mao National Identity' - I argue that the post-Mao regime positively reassessed certain Republican-era legacies to support its new policy priorities - Western-oriented modernization (instead of revolutionary socialism) and pan-Chinese nationalism (instead of class struggle). But as some propaganda officials have warned, the revisionist narratives, which go against the Maoist orthodox, have damaged the CCP's monopoly over nationalism and have fuelled dissent.This study details a long-term factor embedded in the CCP political system that is undermining the regime's legitimacy - the self-contradictory nature of post-Mao China's official propaganda, which has had to simultaneously support both the Maoist revolutionary heritage and Deng Xiaoping's pro-market reforms. The two conflicting objectives have clashed in the field of modern Chinese history, with revisionist, positive portrayals of pre-communist China gaining ground at the expense of the 'century of humiliation' narrative, thereby undermining one of the CCP's most important legitimation tools.This is an extremely timely project and will offer crucial insight into the current political situation in China following the beginning of Xi Jinping's third term as CCP leader amid nationwide protests against his zero-Covid policy. On one hand, this study provides a nuanced analysis of the effect of Xi's effort to consolidate power. Xi attaches great importance to historical discourses, cracking down hard on dissenting historical views and reinterpreting history in his own favour. But this study shows this effort has innate weaknesses. As a result of the CCP's self-contradictory historical narratives, revisionist views have persisted even in the most authoritative propaganda output, despite draconian media control.On the other hand, this study will shed light on dissent in China, which is growing in significance but remains understudied by political scientists. Following the recent 'White Paper' protests, there is an urgent need to understand the CCP's weaknesses and potential causes for dissent. This project will go some way towards understanding how dissenting views emerge and spread despite the CCP's near-total control over the media. The findings relating to China here could also contribute to our understanding of interpretations of the past in other authoritarian regimes.An ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship would allow me to expand my dissertation, further develop the key ideas in it, generate high-quality publications, and engage academic and policy audiences with the findings. All of this will have important implications for our understanding of China's political future.