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

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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.