Chen Hansheng: China’s Last Romantic Revolutionary

by Stephen R. MacKinnon

Chen Hansheng was not only a pioneer of modern Chinese social science, remembered for the village studies he organized by teams of researchers in the 1930s. He was also a political operative whose career as an underground and aboveground Communist activist spanned the twentieth century and the globe. This book draws on unique interviews, beginning in 1979, with Chen himself, his family and associates, along with an exhaustive examination of documents, writings, and archives, to build a rounded portrait of Chen, the man, and his world.

Genres: China

300 pages, Hardcover

Published September 26, 2023

Reviews

[Charles W. Hayford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biography is a good way to do history painlessly. Chen Hansheng became a Chinese revolutionary in the 1920s and stayed faithful and critical as Mao took over. He created a Chinese social science on the peasant economy. He was furious at the new tyranny after 1949. but still saw revolution as necessary. MacKinnon took Chen's oral history and presents the personal experience and the broad history. A good read!