ABSTRACT
Chinese intellectuals and the Communist Party are still recovering from the nightmare of the “endless movements and struggles” recalled by Qian Zhongshu in 1982. Both of these elements of Chinese society have cause to question their own minimal boldness in the face of events that required a far stronger stance than lack of enthusiasm. The Cultural Revolution, especially, lingers on in the minds of leaders inside and outside the Party. It was a horror that cannot easily be blamed on Mao Zedong alone. Intellectuals have been quite vulnerable to the pressures for conformity that have accompanied the phenomenon of anti-imperialist politics in twentieth-century China. In the process of comparing China and the West, contemporary intellectuals are learning to be more critical of both. Critical-minded intellectuals today differ from their predecessors in the early 1960s in their insistence that critical thought be given a greater and greater role in Chinese political life.
