Nebulous Nexus : Modernity and Perlustration in Maoist China
(2013) #2 in book series "Mass Dictatorship in the 20th Century". p.53-70- Abstract
- This chapter posits the existence of a nexus of modernity and surveillance in the People’s Republic of China in the untidy post-Liberation decade of the 1950s. It identifies the state’s interception and perlustration of ordinary people’s correspondence for the purpose of discovering what they were thinking as a central component of that nexus, and it illustrates this identification with contemporary data culled from a corpus of recently declassified intercept transcripts. It argues that the creation of an alternative modernity—labelled communism but defined by discipline and quantifiable order rather than simply by ”freedom from want”—was attempted by China’s then political leadership, but ultimately abandoned in favour of the quiet... (More)
- This chapter posits the existence of a nexus of modernity and surveillance in the People’s Republic of China in the untidy post-Liberation decade of the 1950s. It identifies the state’s interception and perlustration of ordinary people’s correspondence for the purpose of discovering what they were thinking as a central component of that nexus, and it illustrates this identification with contemporary data culled from a corpus of recently declassified intercept transcripts. It argues that the creation of an alternative modernity—labelled communism but defined by discipline and quantifiable order rather than simply by ”freedom from want”—was attempted by China’s then political leadership, but ultimately abandoned in favour of the quiet consolidation of really existing socialism with Chinese characteristics. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2344806
- author
- Schoenhals, Michael LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2013
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Modernity, China, history, politics, Mao, mass dictatorship
- host publication
- Mass Dictatorship and Modernity
- editor
- Kim, Michael ; Kim, Yong-Woo and Schoenhals, Michael
- volume
- #2 in book series "Mass Dictatorship in the 20th Century"
- pages
- 53 - 70
- publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- ISBN
- 978-1-137-30432-2
- project
- A Hundred Million Lives on File?––Confidential Records and Social Control in Mao Zedong’s China
- Mass Dictatorships of the 20th Century
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 23c81b2f-5209-432a-a18a-abd21859c418 (old id 2344806)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 10:02:38
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 13:56:05
@inbook{23c81b2f-5209-432a-a18a-abd21859c418,
abstract = {{This chapter posits the existence of a nexus of modernity and surveillance in the People’s Republic of China in the untidy post-Liberation decade of the 1950s. It identifies the state’s interception and perlustration of ordinary people’s correspondence for the purpose of discovering what they were thinking as a central component of that nexus, and it illustrates this identification with contemporary data culled from a corpus of recently declassified intercept transcripts. It argues that the creation of an alternative modernity—labelled communism but defined by discipline and quantifiable order rather than simply by ”freedom from want”—was attempted by China’s then political leadership, but ultimately abandoned in favour of the quiet consolidation of really existing socialism with Chinese characteristics.}},
author = {{Schoenhals, Michael}},
booktitle = {{Mass Dictatorship and Modernity}},
editor = {{Kim, Michael and Kim, Yong-Woo and Schoenhals, Michael}},
isbn = {{978-1-137-30432-2}},
keywords = {{Modernity; China; history; politics; Mao; mass dictatorship}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{53--70}},
publisher = {{Palgrave Macmillan}},
title = {{Nebulous Nexus : Modernity and Perlustration in Maoist China}},
volume = {{#2 in book series "Mass Dictatorship in the 20th Century"}},
year = {{2013}},
}