Modern China in Transition,1900-1950

Abstract

Contemporary China can only be understood in relation to its recent past. During the half century before 1950, Chinese history was marked both by the vigorous per sistence of tradition and by the emergence of powerful revolu tionary drives. With the final collapse of the imperial system, China sought meaningful values and effective institutions which could realistically link past, present, and future. Chinese na tionalism, combined with traditional xenophobia, was a major impelling force during these years. Nationalism manifested itself in the widespread desire for political stability and for a strong central government capable of effective action both do mestically and internationally. The struggle for modernization affected both countryside—where fundamental institutional changes were required to ameliorate the living standards of the peasant base of Chinese society—and city—where the process of social and economic change had drastically uneven results in human terms. The control of military power was a key ele ment in Chinese politics throughout the republican period. The spreading of political awareness through broadened pro grams of public education brought with it a sharpened realiza tion of how much more could be done to modernize China given a strong and efficient government. The trend toward democ racy—in some senses of the word—was apparent in China; but neither of the major political movements, the nationalist or the communist, stressed two elements considered essential in the West—civil liberties and government by majority decision.