Out of the Closet; China’s Historians “Discover” Republican-PeriodBand its  

Oleh:

Xu, Youwei ; Billingsley, Philip

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Modern China vol. 28 no. 4 (Oct. 2002), page 467-499.
Topik: China’s Historians “Discover” Republican-PeriodBand its
Fulltext: 467MC284.pdf (436.58KB)

Isi artikel

In a piece written just over ten years ago, the eminent Chinese historian Yu Zidao vented his frustration at modern Chinese historians’ failure to address the “bandit problem” that had been such a hallmark of pre-1949 China. The occasion was the publication of the Chinese translation of Philip Billingsley’s (1988) Bandits in Republican China.1 In his preface to that volume, Yu noted that the bandits that had proliferated during the Republican period years were “a serious social problem that illustrated the depth of the crisis in Chinese society.” Unfortunately, he lamented, Chinese historians since 1949 had “failed almost entirely to come to grips with the significance of that problem,” which had thus been reduced “almost to a vacuum.” Although a number of popular or descriptive works had appeared, Chinese historians as a whole had yet to offer more than the odd passing reference to Republican-period bandits, and it had fallen to overseas scholars to fill the gap.2 In the absence of any homegrown attempt to offer a substantial analysis or even to put together a satisfying descriptive volume, Yu thus recommended Billingsley’s book as the only comprehensive, reliable source for those seeking to understand this key area in Republican-period history. He ended his preface with an exhortation to Chinese scholars to end this embarrassing state of affairs by approaching bandits with the attention they deserved relative to their importance to China’s modern social history (Yu Zidao, 1992).3 Later in this review, we will consider the impact of Yu’s appeal. First, it is necessary to examine the reasons for the situation that aroused his concern.

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali