Social Politics, the State, Policy, Comparison: Gordon White’s Contribution to China Studies

Early on in his career, in the thick of Maoism’s most radical days, Gordon White discovered that Chinese society was politically engaged with the state, and throughout his career he elaborated the multiple, shifting contours of their complex encounter. Starting with his work on class politics in the Cultural Revolution and on teachers, and ending with the studies of civil society, the central thread of Gordon’s massive oeuvre on China was the lively, active interplay of classes and groups with the state.