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China’s New Left

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Part of the book series: Politics and Development of Contemporary China ((PDCC))

Abstract

Emerging at first as a narrow intellectual critique in the mid-1990s, the New Left soon grew wings as it merged with supporters of populism, statism, and nationalism. The “Chinese New Left” is a term used to distinguish it from the Old Left, or conservatives, who are die-hard Maoists. Wang Hui, a professor at Tsinghua University whom many see as the academic leader of China’s “New Left,” suspected the term “New Left” was just being used as a cudgel to belabor liberals.1 The New Left developed out of several major streams of radicalism such as neo-Marxism, postmodernism, dependency theory, world system theory, and postcolonialism. It has used these perspectives for its criticism of global capitalism and issues in China’s market reforms.

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Notes

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© 2015 He Li

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Li, H. (2015). China’s New Left. In: Political Thought and China’s Transformation. Politics and Development of Contemporary China. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137427816_4

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