Revolution and Its Narratives

"Cai Xiang is a self-reflexive and capacious thinker. His dialectical approach to unresolvable tensions and contradictions within Chinese socialism is extremely valuable for scholars who take the lived experience of socialism seriously. This timely translation will help English-language readers reassess their received views about China's socialist past and its postsocialist present, allowing them to better appreciate why conflicting stories about the Chinese revolution continue to shape China's self-understanding and its position in the world."  - Lydia H. Liu, author of The Clash of Empires: The Invention of China in Modern World Making

"A groundbreaking study, Revolution and Its Narratives presents a series of sympathetic and penetrating analyses that helps us better understand the cultural and social legacies underlying contemporary China. Since its publication in 2010, Cai Xiang's book has been widely recognized as a landmark achievement in Chinese socialist culture and history scholarship. This timely translation ought to have a deep impact on the study of modern China in the English-language world."  - Xiaobing Tang, author of Visual Culture in Contemporary China: Paradigms and Shifts

"Cai Xiang's study of socialist literary and cultural imaginaries, originally published in 2010, is one of the most provocative books on post-1949 Chinese literature and culture appearing in Chinese since the beginning of the new century. Its English version, Revolution and Its Narratives, brilliantly edited and meticulously translated by Rebecca E. Karl and Xueping Zhong, makes a significant and timely contribution to ongoing debates about the cultural-political legacies of revolutionary China." - Pu Wang, The China Quarterly

"Revolution and Its Narratives contains numerous original insights, based on a wealth of readings of both classics of the 1950s and 1960s and many lesser-known works. It covers a wide range of topics and will be essential reading for scholars and graduate students working on Chinese socialist literature." - Nicolai Volland, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

“This is a very timely and provocative book, and I applaud the translators’ insights and work. By articulating unrealized ideals of socialism and revolution, the book will make a valuable contribution to our rethinking of Mao-era literature and culture.” - Ban Wang, Chinese Literature

"Revolution & Its Narratives is beyond any doubt a major achievement and a substantial contribution to the field of Chinese cultural production of the 1950s and 1960s. Cai’s superb sensibility to theory, erudition, and ethical commitment to the subaltern classes make his book a compelling work of mind and passion." - Yiju Huang, China Review International