ABSTRACT

The conveners (the editors of this book) of the September 1989 Four Anniversaries China Conference in Annapolis, asked the contributors to look back from that point in time to consider four major events in modern Chinese history in the perspective of the rapid changes that were shaping the Chinese society, economy, polity, and sense of place in the world in the 1980s, a time when China was making rapid strides toward becoming more integrated with the outside world. With contributions by distinguished scholars in the field, the four anniversaries considered are the High Qing, the May Fourth Movement, forty years of communism in China, and ten years of the Deng era.

part One|118 pages

1839: The Proscenium of Late Imperial China

chapter 2|37 pages

The Structure of the Chinese Economy during the Qing Period

Some Thoughts on the 150th Anniversary of the Opium War

chapter 3|35 pages

Models of Historical Change

The Chinese State and Society, 1839-1989

part Two|82 pages

May Fourth Anniversary

chapter 5|16 pages

The May Fourth Movement as a Historical Turning Point

Ecological Exhaustion, Militarization, and Other Causes of China's Modern Crisis

chapter 6|19 pages

The Social Agenda of May Fourth

chapter 7|20 pages

Modernity and Its Discontents

The Cultural Agenda of the May Fourth Movement

chapter 8|23 pages

The May Fourth Era

China's Place in the World

part Three|104 pages

The PRC's First Forty Years

part Four|113 pages

The Deng Era