Publisher's Synopsis
The emergence of China as a global presence in the recent past has led to a growing interest in the country and how the Chinese have coped in the face of rapid change. It has also focused the thoughts of observers on the role that the country's past has played in its rush into modernisation, and the issue of how the Chinese have struggled to reconcile their past with their present and future. This study reflects the author's belief that China's past and history remains vital in the Chinese mind. Many of these essays were influenced by work done by scholars who were protagonists in the Cultural Revolution: the way in which they used the past in polemical debates in support of political factions struggling for power demonstrates how that past has continued to stimulate the Chinese imagination.
