Turning Point: The 12 Months That Will Decide China's Future

Author: Zhang Jingping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Looking back at the Chinese context from March 2003 to March 2004, the author argues that while political and economic reforms have indeed shown impressive results, they do not align with the grand narrative often misinterpreted by public opinion. What truly demonstrates depth, breadth, and strength is the unprecedented reform of the social system. Therefore, the author is willing to outline the so-called "new policy" as described by overseas media, based on the second transformation of China highlighted by the social reforms. With this understanding, the author portrays the past 12 months as a turning point in China's 25-year straight line of development. He believes that this turning point holds significant indicators for the future of China.
Interestingly, in arguing his personal views, the author avoids the grand narrative commonly adopted by political commentators and the big news of the people's ethics. Instead, he presents the "outlines" as the core, while the modest and seemingly insignificant small incidents and ordinary people serve as the evidence supporting the turning point. Among these, there are the exam questions for doctoral students in constitutional and administrative law, the lies of the protagonist Yan Shouyi in the film The Cellphone, and the real-life story of Muzimei in the blogosphere.
It appears that the ideas behind the turning point are often new interpretations of old works, but they are completely different from the scattered articles you may have previously seen, except for the familiar details. The inclusion of a large number of works by the same author in one book is like a sample randomly selected in sociological methodology. The significance of these works has shifted from fragmented records of past news to interpretations of a dynamic contemporary history.