Wretched rebels : rural disturbances on the eve of the chinese revolution / Lucien Bianco, with the assistance of Hua Chang-ming, translated by Philip Liddell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bianco, Lucien, author.

Contributor:

Bianco, Lucien, translator.

Hua, Chang-Ming, collector.

Series:

Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 323.

Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 323

Standardized Title:

Jacqueries et revolution dans la Chine du XXe siecle. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Peasants--China--History--20th century.

Peasants.

Revolutions--China--History--20th century.

Revolutions.

Peasant uprisings--China--History--20th century.

Peasant uprisings.

China--Rural conditions.

China.

China--History--20th century.

China--Social conditions--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 271 p. :) maps ;

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Asia Center, [2009]

Summary:

This book, a condensed translation of the prize-winning Jacqueries et révolution dans la Chine du XXe siècle, focuses on "spontaneous" rural unrest, uninfluenced by revolutionary intellectuals. Yet it raises issues inspired by the perennial concerns of revolutionary leaders, such as peasant "class consciousness" and China's modernization.The author shows that the predominant forms of protest were directed not against the landowning class but against agents of the state. Foremost among them, resistance to taxation had little to do with class struggle. By contrast, protest by poor agricultural laborers and heavily indebted households was extremely rare. Other forms of social protest were reactions less to social exploitation than to oppression by local powerholders. Peasant resistance to the late Qing "new policy" reforms did indeed impede China's modernization. Decades later, peasant efforts to evade conscription, while motivated by abuses and inequities, weakened the anti-Japanese resistance.The concluding chapter stresses persistent features of rural protest. It suggests that twentieth-century Chinese peasants were less different from seventeenth- or eighteenth-century French peasants than might be imagined and points to continuities between pre- and post-1949 rural protest.

Contents:

Preliminary Material

Typology I: Movements Opposed to the Administration

Typology II: Movements Within Society

Repertoire of Action

Exploitation or Oppression?

Taxation

Reforms

Conscription

Permanencies

Appendix

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Harvard East Asian Monographs.

Notes:

Revised and shortened translation of: Jacqueries et revolution dans la Chine du XXe siecle. Paris : Martiniere, c2005.

Sequel to: Peasants without the party / Lucien Bianco. Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, c2001.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [241]-261) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-68417-496-1

OCLC:

1132226612

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9781684174966 DOI