Hangzhou Luxury

Focusing on the writings of Fan Wenlan, a leading historian in post-1949 China, this article examines the origins of the “revolutionary narrative” in the Marxist historiography of modern China in the context of political and intellectual struggles between the Nationalists and Communists and within the Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s. The author argues [...]

Chinese farmers need loans. It’s hard for them to borrow from formal lenders like banks or even the rural credit cooperatives. Thus, to satisfy their financial needs, farmers borrow from informal lenders. While farmers have benefited from the post-Mao reform in many respects, financial reforms of the past three decades have failed to create an [...]

This article focuses on how Maoist discourse engineered revolutionary emotions as a method of political mobilization. Based on personal memoirs and eyewitness accounts, it argues that the Maoist discourse can be disaggregated into three themes, each aimed at provoking one type of emotion: the theme of victimization, which mobilized indignation in struggle campaigns; the theme [...]

This article examines the complex relationship of the state, market, and artists in pingtan storytelling in post-1949 China. By focusing on Su Yuyin, a pingtan storyteller, and his performing career, this article explores the persistence of cultural markets after the Communist victory in 1949 and argues that the market continued to play a significant role [...]

Focusing on the writings of Fan Wenlan, a leading historian in post-1949 China, this article examines the origins of the “revolutionary narrative” in the Marxist historiography of modern China in the context of political and intellectual struggles between the Nationalists and Communists and within the Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s. The author argues [...]

Chinese farmers need loans. It’s hard for them to borrow from formal lenders like banks or even the rural credit cooperatives. Thus, to satisfy their financial needs, farmers borrow from informal lenders. While farmers have benefited from the post-Mao reform in many respects, financial reforms of the past three decades have failed to create an [...]

This article focuses on how Maoist discourse engineered revolutionary emotions as a method of political mobilization. Based on personal memoirs and eyewitness accounts, it argues that the Maoist discourse can be disaggregated into three themes, each aimed at provoking one type of emotion: the theme of victimization, which mobilized indignation in struggle campaigns; the theme [...]