Title: Introduction: The transformation of the relationship between Chinese intellectuals and the state
Abstract: China’s economic reforms from a planned to a market economy, after a short
interruption in the aftermath of the bloody crackdown of the Tiananmen
protest movement on 4 June 1989, have accelerated since 1992. The market
transition evoked far-reaching changes in many aspects of China’s
state-society relations in the 1990s. One of the most profound changes was
the transformation of the relationship between intellectuals and the Partystate. For the first time, Chinese intellectuals appeared to be shaking off the
model of both traditional literati and modern establishment intellectuals. As
marketization proceeded, Chinese intellectuals opened up more space for
their personal choices and career development than ever before, and gained
more financial and intellectual autonomy from the Party-state. Globalization,
facilitated by technological advances in communication across national
boundaries, especially through the internet, further enlarged the Chinese
intellectuals’ public space. Despite these changes, however, the freedoms of
speech and association that most Chinese intellectuals desired and that
China’s Constitutions have promised were yet to be institutionalized due to
the authoritarian nature of China’s political system. Although the intellectuals
gained a degree of financial and intellectual autonomy, the role of critical
intellectuals was eroded by growing market forces and commercialization.
Moreover, as also occurred in post-industrial societies in the West and postcommunist societies in Eastern Europe and Russia, China is entering an age
of experts in which the relative importance of critical intellectuals to the
public is declining while knowledge-based and profit-oriented professionals
are becoming increasingly important.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-08-03
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 7
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