Volume 29, Number 19 · December 2, 1982
'Red' or 'Expert'?
By John K. Fairbank
Education Under Mao: Class and Competition in Canton Schools, 1960-1980
by Jonathan Unger
Columbia University Press, 308 pp., $24.00
Competitive Comrades: Career Incentives and Student Strategies in China
by Susan L. Shirk
University of California Press, 231 pp., $24.00
China's Intellectual Dilemma: Politics and University Enrolment, 1949-1978
by Robert Taylor
University of British Columbia Press, 215 pp., $18.50 (Canadian)
Mao's last decade was as full of confusion and surprises as the 1790s in France. In size and complexity the Cultural Revolution was of course a much bigger event than the French Revolution. At any rate it will be studied from many angles for a long time to come. Probably its most arresting feature, in retrospect, was its disastrous attack on learning and intellectuals in the very land that had exalted scholarship and invented civil service examinations thirteen hundred years before. In fact, the two were not unconnected—learning was attacked in China because it seemed to be so entrenched in the establishment. This historical circumstance makes the Cultural Revolution hard to understand without reference to history. Some political scientists, however, are willing to try.
Review, 3273 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |