The Found Generation: Chinese Communists in Europe during the Twenties
3/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
In contrast to the Lost Generation of youth in the West, who were disoriented and disillusioned by the First World War and its aftermath, the Chinese youth born between 1895 and 1905 not only believed they had a duty to “save” their nation but pursued their goal through social and political experimentation. The vigorous purpose and optimism of this Found Generation contrasted with the apathy and detachment of their Western counterparts, who followed a different path in coming to terms with the new world of the twentieth century.
Just after the First World War, sixteen hundred Chinese young men and women traveled to Europe, most of them to France, as members of the Work-Study Movement. Their goal was to study Western technology and culture and utilize this knowledge to achieve “national salvation,” and they planned to finance their study at European schools by factory work. While in Europe, many of these students became politicized, partly through their exposure to European political ideas such as Marxism, and partly through the social network based on shared experience that transcended what would have separated them in China. One important result of this political activity was the formation of the European Branches of the Chinese Communist ORganizations (ECCO).
The Found Generation explores the origins, development, and significance of the ECCO, highlights the differences between it and the Communist home organization, and describes its impact on the Chinese Communist Party. The founders of the ECCO shared values and goals with their compatriots in China, but their experiences and opportunities in Europe molded them in different ways that can be traced in their later careers.
On their return to China, many of the young activists--including Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi, Cai Hesen, Li Lisan, Zhu De, Nie Rongzhen, and Wang Ruofei--quickly assumed powerful positions in Chinese politics, and their influence is still felt today. Levine’s examination of the early experiences of this important cohort of Chinese leaders helps explain their adherence to the Leninist concept of Party discipline and their tenacious hold over central governmental power.
The Found Generation is a pioneering study based on original sources (including interviews with several prominent participants in the Work-Study Movement and the ECCO), Chinese studies and memoirs, and Chinese and French periodicals. It provides otherwise unavailable information and analysis about the political leadership of modern China and, by pointing out the differences between the Chinese radicals in Europe in China, it furthers our understanding of the conflicts, motivations, and values of modern Chinese leaders.
Related to The Found Generation
Related ebooks
Global Medicine in China: A Diasporic History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfronting America: The Cold War between the United States and the Communists in France and Italy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Nation Astray: Nomadism and National Identity in Russian Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPostsocialist Landscapes: Real and Imaginary Spaces from Stalinstadt to Pyongyang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGoya and the Mystery of Reading Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNationalism and the Cinema in France: Political Mythologies and Film Events, 1945-1995 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolish Orphans of Tengeru: The Dramatic Story of Their Long Journey to Canada 1941-49 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Environment and Sustainable Development in the New Central Europe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemains of Socialism: Memory and the Futures of the Past in Postsocialist Hungary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAt the limit of breath: Poems on the films of Jean-Luc Godard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Quest for Freedom: A life of Alexander Kerensky the Russian Unicorn Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCommunist Parties Revisited: Sociocultural Approaches to Party Rule in the Soviet Bloc, 1956-1991 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Quest for Redemption: Central European Jewish Thought in Joseph Roth's Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Life: Jewish Students of Postwar Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Code of Civilization Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe are no longer in France: Communists in colonial Algeria Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRussia in 1919 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Views of Violence: Representing the Second World War in German and European Museums and Memorials Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar Through Children's Eyes: The Soviet Occupation of Poland and the Deportations, 1939–1941 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Short Break in Libya Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japan and Its World: Two Centuries of Change Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meanderings in Medical History Book Four Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBones around My Neck: The Life and Exile of a Prince Provocateur Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHard Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNomads and Commissars: Mongolia Revisited Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQi lái!: Arise! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpecial Relationships: People and Places Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Future Conditional: Building an English-Speaking Society in Northeast China Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Triumph of the Ordinary: Depictions of Daily Life in the East German Cinema, 1949-1989 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Anthropology For You
America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Body Language Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Why We Buy: The Science Of Shopping Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Survive in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bruce Lee Wisdom for the Way Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stories of Rootworkers & Hoodoo in the Mid-South Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Way of the Shaman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wedge: Evolution, Consciousness, Stress and the Key to Human Resilience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Summary and Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Regarding the Pain of Others Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of the American People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Found Generation
1 rating0 reviews