ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that similar to the "reactionary modernism" that infused right-wing political movements in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, including Nazism. Reactionary modernism is also profoundly nationalistic and anti-foreign. Symbolically and terminologically, reactionary modernism interprets political and social life in highly organic metaphors and images—themselves examples of the profoundly anti-abstract nature of the ideology—that value order over conflict and hierarchy over equality in a highly insular cultural model. The heart of Chinese reactionary modernism is the declaration of a cultural and ideological war against the influence of Western values, especially of individualism and skepticism, on Chinese and Marxist-Leninist traditions. Chinese democracy activists, such as Fang Lizhi, Yan Jiaqi, and other "die-hard capitalist roaders," are thus accused of being "the Chinese field agents and tools of America." The cultural, economic, and political model of Chinese reactionary modernism is a blend of belief in modern technology and practical science, but without liberal values and institutions.
