China's cultural legacy and Communism

by Ralph C. Croizier

This unique anthology is designed to show how the People's Republic has inherited what is describes as China's "cultural legacy" - its museums and monuments, history and archaeology, philosophy and religion, language and literature, architecture , and science, opera and performing arts, painting and sculpture, crafts and cuisine. China's "cultural revolution" is not just a phenomenon of the late 1960's or a new phase of the Chinese Communist movement. In a larger sense, it is the continuing process of intellectual and artistic fermentation that began in the nineteenth century under the impact of Western economic and military pressures, ideas, and technology. The challenge of the West undermined the confidence of many Chinese in the relevance of their traditions for the modern worlds. The question many of them have raised- how to be modern and still be Chinese- has an additional dimension for the Chinese Communists They must reconcile their genuine pride in the artistic products of China's elitist tradition with their Marxist vision of a new proletarian society. A special feature of this anthology is that every chapter combine contributions from major Western intellectual and art historians and observes with commentaries by Chinese Communists themselves on the inheritance of their tradition and the world of contemporary Chinese artists and intellectuals. Though this book was written in 1970, the information contained is still useful for anyone working or studying the Chinese.

313 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1970