Reread a Century (Volume 2: Social and Humanistic Debates in 20th Century China)

Author: Liu Fuchun Li Guangliang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-10-01
Features: The term "century" used in this book refers, in principle, to the years of the 20th century that have passed since 1900. The book is divided into 5 volumes, each covering approximately 20 years, based on general time limits rather than precise dates. The scope of the collected articles primarily focuses on those published publicly in mainland China, especially for the past 50 years. This is not only due to well-known reasons but also primarily for highlighting the theme, concentrating the perspective, and considering factors such as volume, format, and reality.
III. The term "social and humanities" in this book mainly refers to content with the nature of "trends" of the era and "hot spots" in reality. Even for such content, only the essential parts are selected, prioritizing representativeness and timeliness rather than solely from the perspective of scientific and academic value. Therefore, materials that clearly contradict or oppose the normal development of social and humanities, such as the "Cultural Revolution," are included in selected excerpts to preserve the truth, as they reflect, in a certain sense, the actual state of social and humanities of that era and have a prolonged duration.
The term "debate" in this book includes exchanges with explicit debate subjects as well as statements with implicit debate subjects. The debates cover both specific viewpoints of certain articles and broader tendencies and trends. Of course, the debates in this book are primarily based on normal "discussions" and "comments." Extraordinary "debates" (such as "great criticism," for example) can be regarded as "exceptions." Additionally, the selected "debates" are mostly those with a certain scale of influence and a "dramatic" atmosphere.
The term "rereading" in this book has two meanings: one is to provide literature materials for readers to read independently; the other is to offer a brief summary for shared reading with the readers. Of course, this should be a reading with a sense of retrospect and reflection. The book has certain academic research value.