ABSTRACT
Descriptions of social change in China seem to be naturally associated with the metaphor of ‘revolution’ (Jing Wang 2001: 36-7). To a certain extent, the analogy is apt, especially when referring to the dramatic shifts in almost all fields of social life that have occurred in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since 1949, and since the introduction of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms and Open Door Policy in December 1978, in particular. Maoist China was marked by the triumph and aftermath of ‘socialist revolution’ and was later subject to the chaos of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The post-1978 regime has continued to uphold a revolutionary tradition not only in terms of promoting the early communist legacy known as the ‘spirit of Yan’an’ (Apter 1995: 189-234), but also in the guise of promoting other revolutions: ‘reform as revolution’, ‘information revolution’, ‘consumer revolution’, and so on.
