Yesterday's Me and Today's Me - Reflections and Interpretations of Contemporary Historiography (Volume of Yang Nianqun)

Author: Yang Nianqun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: The changes in Chinese society cannot be determined solely by the unidirectional flow of either "top-down" or "bottom-up" trends. Instead, they are the result of repeated strategic interactions and negotiations between upper-level political and economic structures and grassroots "local" contexts. The upper-level systems, influenced by the West, undoubtedly have a decisive transformative effect on local societies. However, this influence does not mean that local societies adopt a completely passive stance, blindly and helplessly conforming and accepting. Sometimes, the formation of upper-level political systems also adjusts their strategies by absorbing local traditions, making them more flexible. History has shown that many historical dynamics in modern China were shaped by the repeated tug-of-war between the upper and lower levels. Yet, our historical research often understands the changes in Chinese society in a unidirectional manner, failing to incorporate this dynamic complexity into our perspective. Worse, the dissatisfaction with traditional "political history" studies is sometimes directly converted into an attitude toward lower-level research, overlooking a crucial issue: without understanding the political operations of the upper society, it is equally difficult to comprehend why lower societies are able to possess what is termed "locality." This is the reason why I want to reemphasize the importance of political history research.