neng and china′s long 1980s

This special issue explores the interconnected economic, political, material, and cultural developments in China’s long 1980s (1978–92) by taking up the Chinese character neng 能. Essays argue that the thematic compounds nengyuan 能源 (energy source, resource), nengli 能力 (capacity), and nengliang 能量 (energetics, momentum), which frequently appear in source materials, illuminate interconnections between reform policies, emergent cultural forms, production practices, and regional, generational, and personal experiences of China’s long 1980s. Essays attend to overlooked experiences in border areas, investigate circuits linking provincial cities and the capital, trace the emergence of media figurations, and offer insights into university life and grassroots-state collaborations in a shared ecology of interdependent developments.

Contributors: Tani Barlow, Nicholas Bartlett, Corey Byrnes, Tuo Li, Ying Qian, Louisa Schein, Wei Shang, Hui Wen, Hung Wu, Angela Zito, Zhen Zhang