The Challenge of China Contribution to a Transcultural Political Economy ofCommunication for the Twenty-First Century
Yuezhi Zhao
Assuming as I do that Mao Zedong correctly predicted the zigs and zags of China's struggles toward socialism, itseems obvious that thefuel is beingaccumulated which will power a later phase of class struggle taking off from where the Cultural Revolution ended. Dallas Smythe 1981, 247
I'm notputting bets on any particular outcome in China, but we must have an open mindin terms ofseeing where itisgoing. Giovanni Arrighi 2009, 84
If the political economy of communication as an academicfield counts the 'blind spot" debate, initiated by Dallas Smythe, as one of the deftning moments in its development, political economyofcommunication as apraxis witnessed a histori- cal encounter of an entirely different nature and magnitude, also initiated by Dallas Smythe, in an article entitled 'Mer Bicycles, What?," which was not pub- lished duringhis lifetime, butnevertheless"attainedalegendarystatus" amonghis peers (Guback 1994, 227). While the 'blind spot" debate pitted North American political economists against their British counterparts within western Marxism, this other encounter engaged Smythe with the ideas and political practices of the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) within the international communist movement.
TIle Handbook ofPolitical Economy ofCommllnicatiollS. First Edition. Edited byJanetWasko, Graham Murdock, and Helena Sousa. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2011 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Smythe went to China to study ideology and technology between December 1971 andJanuary 1972 on the eve of China's reinsertion into the global capitalist economy, a process that started with the formal breakth...
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...u- nist states, China remains unified under a CCP-Ied state that is ever vigilant not only againstwestern attempts at "xihua" China- thatis, imposingwesternliber- al-democratic institutions on China, but also "fenhua" China - that is, disinte- gratingitbysupportingTaiwaneseindependenceoranyforms ofethnonationalist independent movement. The reform period starting in 1978 marked a dramatic rearticulation of class and nation in the political economy of Chinese development, and along with it, a radical reorientation of the class nature of Chinese nationalism and the devel- opment of a depoliticized neoliberal cultural politics of class and nation. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and commercialized media - with TV at its core, but soon followed by computers and cell phones - have played instrumental roles in these processes (Zhao and Schiller 2001, Hong
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
Schoenhals, Michael. China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969: Not a Dinner Party. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. Print.
Osborne, Evan. "China's First Liberal." Independent Review 16.4 (2012): 533+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement.
The Communist programs of Russia and China both appealed to a wide range of audiences but they focused primarily on the working class, or also known as the proletariat class. First, the Chinese worked on creating a conscious working class, making sure that they understood how low they were on the social ladder so that discontent could form, fueling the revolution (“Communism in China”, 3...
In 1966, a socio-political movement known as the Cultural Revolution swept across the People’s Republic of China and resulted in astounding changes whose effects are still being felt by the nation today. The Cultural Revolution changed nearly every aspect of traditional Chinese culture, politics, and psychology, and replaced it with Maoist ideology. To change the paradigm of a nation with deep historical roots, immense size, and a greatly distributed population, such as China, in a course of ten years is a feat most commendable. Responsible for this mind boggling change is, at the heart of it, a single man, Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong was born in 1893 to humble beginnings in the countryside, the world itself oblivious to the future of this man (Spence).
by a world power can be felt by practically every nation of the globe involved
Throughout, 1900- 1950 there were a number of changes and continuities in China. From the fall of the dynasties to the rise of the Communist Party, these changes shaped China’s government and society. Although, many political changes were made multiple continuities were held constant such as, consistent rebellions and the lack of democracy.
It can also be argued that the political activities of Chairman Mao’s Communist China were more of a continuation of traditional Imperial China, based heavily in Confucian values, than a new type of Marxist-Leninist China, based on the Soviet Union as an archetype. While it is unquestionable that a Marxist-Leninist political structure was present in China during this time, Confucian values remained to be reinforced through rituals and were a fundamental part of the Chinese Communist ...
The spread of Communism and its ideals significantly increased during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War which intensified after the Second World War and resulted in a victory to the Communists in October 1949. At this time, the majority of the provinces in China were led by either the GMD or the CCP. However, the civilians in the GMD-ruled cities were suffering rapid inflation, strikes, violence and riots which led to a collapse of public order. Adding to this instability, corruption was rife within the Nationalist party’s lead...
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
From the beginning of their establishment, the bilateral relations between the United States of America and China have changed throughout the time. The bilateral relations of the two countries emerged from 1970’s with the ‘Ping-Pong’ diplomacy and there have been many pauses in their mutual relations. The US and China enjoyed cooperation in economic and military spheres and the mutual relations grew massively during until the end of 1990’s. The heads of the two states began visiting each other’s countries and the economic ties were tightening year by year. However, the issues of human rights and free speech declined mutual Sino-American relations. The American principle of democracy promotion and human rights protection minimized the Sino- American relations after the Tiananmen Square events in 1989, the US Presidents-George Bush and Bill Clinton- playing a key role in determining the further American foreign policy towards China.
Zhao, Y., (1998), Media, Market, and Democracy in China - Between the party line and the bottom line (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press).
Wei-Wei Zhang. (2004). The Implications of the Rise of China. Foresight, Vol. 6 Iss: 4, P. 223 – 226.
Inkenberry, John. “The Rise of China and the Future of the West.” Foreign Affairs. The Council of Foreign Relations. Jan 2008. Web. 9 Mar 2014.