The Great Retreat and its Discontents
Re-Examining the Shengwulian Episode in the Cultural Revolution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12518567 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Yiching Wu (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Pages | 1-28 |
| Publication date | 2014-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The China Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1324-9347 • E-ISSN: 1835-8535 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/677049 |
| OpenAlex | W1997193469 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
By late 1967, there had been clear signs that China’s Cultural Revolution had entered the phase of retrenchment and moderation. Despite continuing radical extravagance, Beijing’s efforts revolved around taming the divided mass movement and establishing new organs of local power. In this nationwide milieu, the province of Hunan stood out as a remarkable exception. It was in Hunan that there emerged a diffused yet vigorous movement in opposition to Beijing’s attempts to rebuild the Party and state authorities. This movement, the Shengwulian, has been discussed by a number of China scholars. Conventional scholarly wisdom regarding this critical episode, however, seems to be based on several less-than-accurate premises. Using newly available sources, this paper re-examines the Shengwulian episode, with a special focus on how nationally significant issues, radiating out from the political center, played themselves out in relation to local contingencies, cleavages and complex power relationships
Beijing · China · Cultural revolution · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Retrenchment · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Public Administration · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
Mao’s Last Revolution
The Radical Students in Kwangtung during the Cultural Revolution
Factional Conflict at Beijing University, 1966–1968
The Chinese state in crisis, 1966–9
Nanjing's Failed “January Revolution” of 1967
Class Conflict in Chinese Socialism
The Cultural Revolution Warfare at Beijing's Universities Fractured Rebellion
Ideological and political tendencies of factions in the red guard movement
Whither China
Beijing Red Guard Factionalism
Local Politics in the Chinese Cultural Revolution
Structural work
Ambiguity and Choice in Political Movements
States and Social Revolutions
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |