The instrumentalization of the intellectuals in Communist China: A sociological research on intellectual community in Shanghai, 1949--1978.

摘要

The study focuses on the issue of social changes in China that made Chinese intellectuals lose their independence, self-reliance, and critical attitude, causing them eventually to become political instruments of the Chinese Communist Party.; The findings of this study indicate that before 1949, the Shanghai intellectual group followed the tradition of liberalism, which derived from the May Fourth, Movement in 1919. There were civil societies in big cities like Shanghai, where many intellectuals enjoyed living and working. The intellectual had relative freedom of speech, press, association, occupation choice, and migration. From 1949 to 1957, while trying to consolidate the new regime and establish a totalism politics, the ruling Party began to destroy these civil societies by all means possible. As a result, civil societies and the public sphere no longer existed, and the freedom of the intellectual became more and more restricted. This aroused resistance from intellectuals. They began to fight for their freedom to maintain their independence and the freedom to criticize political authority. The Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1957 was an open conflict between intellectuals and the Communist authority.; From 1957 to 1978, the intellectual became completely attached to the Communist Party, and recognized its ideology of Communism. With the establishment of totalism politics accomplished, the Communist Party controlled all aspects of the society. Intellectual now completely lost their freedom of speech, press, association, occupation choice, as well as migration. They were assigned to work in a certain unit, and were ordered about by the leaders of their work units. The salary and welfare benefits provided by the unit was the only survival source for intellectuals and their families, which enhanced their dependence on the Communist regime.; The study has also discovered that when social changes took place, the majority of intellectuals were forced to adjust their view of value, political attitude, and social behavior. The idea of survival of the fittest played an important role in the conversion of the intellectual. Since the changes were irresistible, the intellectuals, while physically trying to adapt to the changed environment, managed to persuade themselves to accept the new concept of value and ideology, and virtually became instruments of the authority.; The study concluded that a particular social environment would form a particular type of intellectual. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)