A Modernization Marching to Revolution: Science, Technology, and Diplomacy in Mao’s China

Co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

As a set of terms, “modernization” and its earlier discursive forms, such as “industrialization” and “Westernization,” have been continuously invoked by historical actors and historians throughout over a century of Chinese history, particularly during different historical stages such as the armed revolution, socialist revolution and construction, and the reform and opening up under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This discursive phenomenon runs through various events in China’s recent century-long history, all referred to as “revolutions.” These include a series of continuous struggles led by the CCP against “colonialism,” “imperialism,” “feudalism,” “capitalism,” “bureaucratism,” and “liberalism.” The invocation of the term “modernization” by CCP leaders often served as a goal for the revolution to achieve or as a vision of construction after revolutionary success, aimed at rallying and inspiring revolutionary actions. The only notable exception largely occurred between 1966 and 1975. The modernization project initiated by Mao Zedong during the socialist revolution (1949-1956), which underwent a decade of exploration in socialist construction (1956-1966), ultimately devolved into the self-destructive and chaotic “Cultural Revolution” in 1966. To address the issue of this “modernization paradox” in the Maoist era, Professor Zhang will attempt to establish an interpretive framework from the perspective of discursive practice and state-building. Through a critical analysis of the relationship between discourse, knowledge, and power, she will examine the participation of discourse in state-building practices in the fields of science, technology, and diplomacy during the Maoist period.