The Rural Modern : Reconstructing the Self and State in Republican China / Kate Merkel-Hess.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Merkel-Hess, Kate, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rural development--China--History--20th century.

Rural development.

Education, Rural--China--History--20th century.

Education, Rural.

China--History--Republic, 1912-1949.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (256 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2016]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Discussions of China's early twentieth-century modernization efforts tend to focus almost exclusively on cities, and the changes, both cultural and industrial, seen there. As a result, the communist peasant revolution appears as a decisive historical break. Kate Merkel-Hess corrects that misconception by demonstrating how crucial the countryside was for reformers in China long before the success of the communist revolution. In The Rural Modern, Merkel-Hess shows that Chinese reformers and intellectuals created an idea of modernity that was not simply about what was foreign and new, as in Shanghai and other cities, but instead captured the Chinese people's desire for social and political change rooted in rural traditions and institutions. She traces efforts to remake village education, economics, and politics, analyzing how these efforts contributed to a new, inclusive vision of rural Chinese life. Merkel-Hess argues that as China sought to redefine itself, such rural reform efforts played a major role, and tensions that emerged between rural and urban ways deeply informed social relations, government policies, and subsequent efforts to create a modern nation during the communist period.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

A Note on Romanization

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Writing for New Literates in the Chinese Countryside

2. To the Countryside

3. Organizing the Village

4. Village Contestations

5. A Movement Made and Lost

Conclusion

Archives

Notes

Glossary of Chinese Terms

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780226383309

022638330X

OCLC:

965759310