Routledge Handbook of Revolutionary China

350 Pages·2019·18.095 MB·English

by  Alan Baumler

Routledge Handbook of
Revolutionary China
The Routledge Handbook of Revolutionary China covers the evolution of Chinese society from
the roots of the Republic of China in the early 1900s until the end of the Cultural Revolution
in 1976.
The chapters in this volume explain aspects of the process of revolution and how people
adapted to the demands of the revolutionary situation. Exploring changes in political leadership,
as well as transformation in culture, it compares the differences in experiences in urban and
rural areas and contrasts rapid changes, such as the war with Japan and Communist ‘liberation’
with evolutionary developments, such as the gradual redefinition of public space. Taking a
comprehensive approach, the themes covered include:
• War, occupation and liberation
• Religion and gender
• Education, cities and travel.
This is an essential resource for students and scholars of Modern China, Republican China,
Revolutionary China and Chinese Politics.
Alan Baumler is Professor of History and Asian Studies Coordinator at Indiana University of
Pennsylvania, USA. He is the author of Worse Than Floods and Wild Beasts: The Chinese and Opium
Under the Republic and co-editor of The Chinese Historical Review.

Routledge Handbook of
Revolutionary China
Edited by Alan Baumler
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Alan Baumler; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Alan Baumler to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Baumler, Alan, 1965– editor.
Title: Routledge handbook of revolutionary China / edited by Alan Baumler.
Description: First edition. | Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge,
[2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019015170 (print) | LCCN 2019016915 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781315626727 (Ebook) | ISBN 9781317235897 (Adobe Reader) |
ISBN 9781317235880 (ePub) | ISBN 9781317235873 (Mobipocket Encrypted) |
ISBN 9781138647558 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: China—History—1949-1976. | China—History—Republic,
1912–1949.
Classification: LCC DS777.55 (ebook) | LCC DS777.55 .R627 2019 (print) |
DDC 951.05—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015170
ISBN: 978-1-138-64755-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62672-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders. Please advise the publisher of
any errors or omissions, and these will be corrected in subsequent editions.
Contents
List of figures viii
List of tables x
List of contributors xi
Introduction 1
1 Japanese goals, Chinese realities at the grassroots: the Japanese
Occupation in northern Zhejiang, 1937–42 14
R. Keith Schoppa
2 The rise of the Chinese Communist military-fiscal party-state in
Shandong Province, 1937–45 32
Sherman Xiaogang Lai
3 New China Daily: social change and the class project in wartime
Nationalist China 47
Joshua H. Howard
4 Liberation: a view from the Southwest 60
Kristin Stapleton
5 The search for a Socialist everyday: the urban communes 74
Fabio Lanza
6 Changes in the rural land system and power structure in
the countryside 89
Liu Yigao
7 “There is no crisis and it is going to go away soon, anyhow”—
propaganda, denialism and revisionism in debating the Great
Leap Forward famine 106
Lauri Paltemaa
v
Contents
8 Gospel light or imperialist poison? Controversies of the Christian
community in China, 1922–55 121
Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye
9 A (wo)men’s revolution? Small feet, large hands and visions of
womanhood in China’s long twentieth century 136
Barbara Mittler
10 The afterlife of Sun Yat-sen during the Republic (1925–49) 158
Xavier Paulès
11 The New Life Movement and national sacrifice 173
Maggie Clinton
12 Learning the new culture: rural literacy education in Shanxi in the
1930s and 1940s 185
Di Luo
13 Making Taiwan Chinese, 1945–60 202
Tehyun Ma
14 Chinese professions, the nation and revolution, 1895–1965 217
Charles W. Hayford
15 Roles of the beautiful nation in the making of a revolutionary
Middle Kingdom 232
Xu Guoqi
16 Closest model, rival and fateful enemy: China’s political economy,
law and Japan 243
Joyman Lee
17 Ambiguous paradigms: the Russian model and the Chinese Revolution 258
James Z. Gao
18 All rivers flow into the sea: the making of China’s most
cosmopolitan city 274
Hanchao Lu
19 Public space and public life: transformation of urban China,
1900–2000 286
Wang Di
vi
Contents
20 The nationalization of the hardship of travel in China, 1895–1949:
progress, hygiene and national concern 302
António Barrento
21 Chinese revolutions and the ebb and flow of revolutionary
historiography 318
Q. Edward Wang
Index 333
vii
Figures
I.1 London Illustrated News, March 2, 1912 3
I.2 Wei guojia shengcun er zhan! 1937 IISH/Stefan R. Landsberger Collections 5
9.1 Envisaging the New Woman 137
9.2 Strong Woman: Captain Wang Jialing 139
9.3 Strong (and beautiful) women 139
9.4 Advertising new small feet 141
9.5 Should men and women look alike? 141
9. 6 The embarrassment of natural/unbound feet 142
9.7a A new commune member 143
9.7b Another bumper harvest year 143
9.8 To think of one’s beauty (and “small feet”) is not enough 143
9.9 From small feet to large hands—and back again 144
9.10a Evening party dress 145
9.10b Flowers, as exquisite as brocade 145
9.11a Delicate hands Jingbao 145
9.11b Delicate hands Jingbao 145
9.11c Active hands 146
9.11d Active hands 146
9.12 Should men and women look (and be) alike? 147
9.13 Should men and women look alike? The return of small feet ... 149
9.14 Working women 152
10.1 A lesson about Sun Yat-sen for primary school 167
10.2 NAOA poster 168
10.3 Banknotes 169
20.1 This advertisement for Ovomaltine proposed the product as a solution
against the hardship of travel, which it took for granted and saw
confirmation of in the proverb “remaining at home a thousand days is
good, leaving one’s door one single moment is hard.” 305
20.2–20.4 The elder brother warned the younger brother not to buy things to eat
that might not be clean (Figure 20.2), used a towel he had brought from
home to wipe himself (Figure 20.3), and drank water from his water
canteen only (Figure 20.4), thus presenting a set of hygienic norms of
procedure while on travel. From Xiao lüxingjia 309
20.5 Eng Aun Tong - The Tiger Medical Hall presented a set of four types of
common medicine it produced as must-have travel items. From Lüxing zazhi 311
viii
Figures
20.6 This advertisement for a Five Continent Pharmacy product, which
was published in a guidebook for the mountain resort of Moganshan,
appealed to the idea of travel as a happy thing while recognizing the
perils to health from summer and mountain travel. From Moganshan daoyou 312
20.7 Watson’s was well aware of the relevance of a potential travel clientele to
its No. 190 Universal Stomach Remedy and advertised the product in
the Travellers’ Guide, the Singapore branch magazine of the China Travel
Service. From Xinglü zhinan 313
ix