Contemporary Chinese Thought and the Question of Modernity: Difference between revisions

1997 article by Wang Hui

“Contemporary Chinese Thought and the Question of Modernity” (Chinese: 当代中国的思想状况与现代性问题) is an influential article of around 35,000 characters in length by Chinese intellectual historian and literary scholar Wang Hui, written in 1994 and published in left-wing literature journal Tianya (天涯) in 1997.^[1] An English translation by Rebecca E. Karl appeared in a volume of Social Text titled “Intellectual Politics in Post-Tiananmen China” (1998).

The article became the subject of intense debate and attention both for its methodology—an unusually socio-historical approach to intellectual history—and its expressed politics, which are critical of capitalist modernity.^[1] According to academic Yue Gang, it is “a cornerstone in the transformation of contemporary Chinese thought” and “has become a benchmark for the New Left.”^[2]

• Wang Hui. “Dangdai Zhongguo de Sixiang Zhuangkuang yu Xiandaixing Wenti” [“Contemporary Chinese Thought and the Question of Modernity“]. Tianya 5 (1997).
• Wang Hui, tr. Rebecca E. Karl. “Contemporary Chinese Thought and the Question of Modernity.” Social Text 55: Intellectual Politics in Post-Tiananmen China (1998): pp. 9–44.