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This website is designed to provide a sense of what
history means in the PRC's post-socialist consumer economy of 2001.
The traumatic ideological struggles of the last century seem to
have exhausted all desire to derive meaningful truths or lessons
from history. Whether it be in historical theme parks or urban renewal,
history is being reconstructed as a form of leisure edu-tainment
in which questions of authenticity and accuracy have given way to
an aestheticized post-modern pastiche of signs and commodification. |
The
uses and meaning of history have been fiercely contested in twentieth-century
China. Both intellectuals and political leaders recognized the importance
of using the past to define the present. May 4th intellectuals condemned
China's Confucian legacy in order to promote their platform of liberal
and scientific modernization. Under Mao, the past could only be
viewed through a radical Marxist lens that demonized both the imperial
fedual past and early twentieth-century bourgeous liberalism. Under
Mao, thousands of intellectuals were persecuted for failing to make
their interprations of history conform to the ever-shifting ideological
winds.|
Website Design:
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