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

对前社会主义历史的怀旧：共产党与当代中国的历史政治

• 批准号: ES/Y010280/1
• 金额: $ 13万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FY010280%2F1
• 关键词: Nostalgia; Pre; Socialist; Past; Communist

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.

中国共产党（CCP）对如何记住和解释中国的过去保持着严格的控制。特别是，1949年之前的时代被描述为一个黑暗和镇压的“屈辱世纪”，这个时代是由于中共针对“外国帝国主义”和“叛徒”国内敌人的“爱国”斗争而结束的。这种叙述是中共一党统治的关键合法性工具。然而，中共对历史的控制远非坚如磐石。自1978年改革开放以来，民国时期（1911-1949）的新形象已经出现。在书籍、报纸、纪录片和戏剧中，共产主义前的中国有时被描绘成一个充满活力的社会，在面临严峻的外部挑战的情况下，在现代化方面取得了显着的进步。自2000年代中期以来，人们对民国时代的迷恋与日俱增，被称为“共和热”。为什么在一个媒体受到国家严格控制的国家，完全背离中共正统史学的对民国的积极重新评价能够出现甚至盛行呢？修正主义历史观对中共的合法性产生了什么后果？在我的博士论文《中华人民共和国“共和热”的兴起：中国的前共产主义遗产和后毛泽东国家认同》中，我认为后毛泽东政权积极地重新评估了某些共和时代的遗产，以支持其新的政策重点——面向西方的现代化（而不是革命社会主义）和泛中国民族主义（而不是阶级斗争）。但正如一些宣传官员所警告的那样，这些违背毛主义正统思想的修正主义叙事，损害了中共对民族主义的垄断，并助长了异议。这项研究详细介绍了中共政治体系中一个正在破坏其政权合法性的长期因素——后毛泽东时代中国官方宣传的自相矛盾性质，它不得不同时支持两种观点： 毛泽东革命遗产和邓小平的亲市场改革。这两个相互冲突的目标在中国现代史领域发生了冲突，对共产主义前中国的修正主义正面描述以牺牲“百年耻辱”叙事为代价，从而破坏了中共最重要的合法性工具之一。这是一个极其及时的项目，将为习近平在全国范围内担任中共领导人的第三个任期开始后的中国当前政治局势提供重要的见解。 抗议他的零新冠政策。一方面，这项研究对习近平巩固权力的努力的效果进行了细致入微的分析。习近平非常重视历史话语，严厉打击不同的历史观点，以有利于自己的方式重新解释历史。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，尽管有严厉的媒体控制，修正主义观点甚至在最权威的宣传输出中也持续存在。另一方面，这项研究将揭示中国的异议，这种异议的重要性日益增加，但政治学家的研究仍然不足。继最近的“白皮书”抗议之后，迫切需要了解中共的弱点和异议的潜在原因。尽管中共几乎完全控制了媒体，但该项目将在一定程度上帮助理解不同观点是如何出现和传播的。这里与中国有关的研究结果也可能有助于我们理解其他独裁政权对过去的解释。ESRC 博士后奖学金将使我能够扩展我的论文，进一步发展其中的关键思想，出版高质量的出版物，并让学术和政策受众了解研究结果。所有这些都将对我们理解中国的政治未来产生重要影响。