Death of hometown : political elites and the fate of native place in modern China / Yongtao Du ; edited by Dong Wang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Du, Yongtao, author.

Contributor:

Wang, Dong, editor.

Series:

Asian Studies (Lived Places Publishing)

Asian Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology.

Politics.

Social sciences.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (164 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Political elites and the fate of native place in modern China

Place of Publication:

New York, N.Y. : Lived Places Publishing, 2025.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

One man's story from Anyang - a county in the North China Plain - may hold answer to these intractable conundrums. Anyang was established as a county when China became a unified empire in the 3rd Century BCE. For centuries, the local people made the county their home, where they buried their ancestors and dwelled with their kinsfolk. Talented sons of gentry families could pursue careers in the larger world through civil service, but it was in Anyang that their civil-examination-based careers began, and eventually it was here that they returned to for rest. The political and intellectual revolutions of the 20th century shattered this life-world of "old" China and transformed the meanings of life and place in Anyang. Unlike their forefathers, most educated men now pursued diverse career patterns, loosened links with their ancestral home-place, and rarely returned once they were gone. Despite these disruptions and destructions, Zhang Jinjian (1902-1989), an Anyang native and American-trained political scientist, launched a campaign to renew and remodel the age-old gentry localism, and bring it into the young Republic of China. The effort was eventually crushed in the Communist revolution, after which Anyang was reduced to little more than an administrative entity in a totalitarian regime. In its failure, however, the experiment shows the road not taken in modern China and reveals an alternative to the rootless People's Republic.

Contents:

Learning objectives

Prologue

Chapter 1 The new world

Chapter 2 The nation

Chapter 3 The home place

Chapter 4 The death of hometown

Epilogue

Discussion Questions

Notes

Recommended Further Readings

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on Publisher's website, viewed February 14, 2025.

Other Format:

Print version: Death of hometown : political elites and the fate of native place in modern China.

ISBN:

9781916985117

9781916985100

OCLC:

1484975395

Publisher Number:

10.62859/9781916985117 DOI

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.