Modern China. A Very Short Introduction
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Authors: Rana Mitter
Modern China: A Very Short Introduction
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THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea
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Patricia Aufderheide
BUDDHA Michael Carrithers
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BUDDHISM Damien Keown
DRUGS Leslie Iversen
BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown
THE EARTH Martin Redfern
CAPITALISM James Fulcher
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THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe
EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
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Paul Wilkinson
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JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves
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KABBALAH Joseph Dan
THE EUROPEAN UNION
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John Pinder and Simon Usherwood
KANT Roger Scruton
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Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
THE KORAN Michael Cook
EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn
LAW Raymond Wacks
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LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews
FEMINISM Margaret Walters
LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler
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William Doyle
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MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope
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MEDIEVAL BRITAIN
FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven
John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths
GALAXIES John Gribbin
MODERN ART David Cottington
GALILEO Stillman Drake
MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter
GAME THEORY Ken Binmore
MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta
GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh
MOLECULES Philip Ball
GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds
MUSIC Nicholas Cook
GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle
MYTH Robert A. Segal
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GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger
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GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin
LITERATURE Kyle Keefer
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THE NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway
NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner
HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson
NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN
HEGEL Peter Singer
Christopher Harvie and
HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood
H. C. G. Matthew
HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson
NORTHERN IRELAND
HINDUISM Kim Knott
Marc Mulholland
HISTORY John H. Arnold
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside
Joseph M. Siracusa
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PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close
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PAUL E. P. Sanders
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PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig
HUME A. J. Ayer
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Raymond Wacks
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
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Samir Okasha
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Khalid Koser
PLATO Julia Annas
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Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
David Miller
SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway
POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young
SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer
POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler
SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt
POSTSTRUCTURALISM
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Catherine Belsey
ANTHROPOLOGY
PREHISTORY Chris Gosden
John Monaghan and Peter Just
PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY
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Catherine Osborne
SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce
PSYCHOLOGY
SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor
Gillian Butler and Freda McManus
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns
Helen Graham
THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion
SPINOZA Roger Scruton
QUANTUM THEORY
STUART BRITAIN John Morrill
John Polkinghorne
TERRORISM Charles Townshend
RACISM Ali Rattansi
THEOLOGY David F. Ford
THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton
THE HISTORY OF TIME
RENAISSANCE ART
Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Geraldine A. Johnson
TRAGEDY Adrian Poole
ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway
THE TUDORS John Guy
THE ROMAN EMPIRE
TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN
Christopher Kelly
Kenneth O. Morgan
ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler
THE VIKINGS Julian Richards
RUSSELL A. C. Grayling
WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling
RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly
WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
THE WORLD TRADE
S. A. Smith
ORGANIZATION Amrita Narlikar
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MEMORY Jonathan Foster
EXPRESSIONISM
NELSON MANDELA Elleke Boehmer
Katerina Reed-Tsocha
SCIENCE AND RELIGION
GEOGRAPHY
Thomas Dixon
John Matthews and David Herbert
SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
THE MEANING OF LIFE
William Bynum
Terry Eagleton
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Rana Mitter
Modern
China
A Very Short Introduction
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
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by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Rana Mitter 2008
The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2008
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You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available
ISBN 978–0–19–922802–7
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by
Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire
Contents
ix
Pronunciation
xi
List of illustrations xiii
1 What is modern China? 1
2 The old order and the new 17
3 Making China modern 40
4 Is Chinese society modern? 74
5 Is China’s economy modern? 102
6 Is Chinese culture modern? 118
7 Brave new China? 139
Timeline
141
References
143
Further
reading
146
Index
149
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I am very grateful to all those at Oxford University Press who commissioned this Very Short Introduction and saw it through its various stages of life: Marsha Filion, Luciana O’Flaherty, Deborah Protheroe, and James Thompson. Writing this book made copious reading necessary. I could not have easily made the time to do that reading and refl ection without teaching relief funded by the generous grant of a Philip Leverhulme Prize by the Leverhulme Trust, for which I am immensely grateful. On-the-ground observations in 2006 were made possible by the kind award of a place on the British Academy–Chinese Academy of Social Sciences exchange scheme. I also owe thanks to the anonymous reviewers who gave valuable comments both at proposal and manuscript stage. Colleagues and friends contributed in many ways to the book, but I must single out Graham Hutchings and Neil Pyper, who patiently read and commented on the whole of a very rough draft with wit and copious good sense. I have also had the constant support of my parents and Pamina. Katharine read and commented on the entire manuscript, and offered support in countless other ways. This book is dedicated to her.
