Reviews
"In his impressive and inventively researched book, Rana Mitter uses the May Fourth movement as a theme around which to explore China's bitter 20th century, with its repeated upheavals, foreign invasion and the death of more than 100 million people from man-made and natural disasters. He brings alive the promise felt by the intellectuals, journalists, writers and entrepreneurs who subscribed to the movement. The book is also peppered with excellent summaries of events to keep the non-expert reader up with what was going on, which is often at odds with the version propagated --and still largely accepted--after the communist victory of 1949."--Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times "With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints a brilliant, lively portrait of the intellectual and political fervor behind the May Fourth Movement, and how it has shaped, and continues to shape, China's national identity. A Bitter Revolution is critical to understanding the soul of modern China."--Iris Chang, New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America "A fascinating look at a pivotal time in the formation of the culture of modern China.... What is most intriguing about Mitters account is not what was lost in the dark decades that followed, but how much endured."--Publishers Weekly, "In his impressive and inventively researched book, Rana Mitter uses the May Fourth movement as a theme around which to explore China's bitter 20th century, with its repeated upheavals, foreign invasion and the death of more than 100 million people from man-made and natural disasters. He brings alive the promise felt by the intellectuals, journalists, writers and entrepreneurs who subscribed to the movement. The book is also peppered with excellent summaries of events to keep the non-expert reader up with what was going on, which is often at odds with the version propagated --and still largely accepted--after the communist victory of 1949."--Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times "With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints a brilliant, lively portrait of the intellectual and political fervor behind the May Fourth Movement, and how it has shaped, and continues to shape, China's national identity. A Bitter Revolution is critical to understanding the soul of modern China."--Iris Chang, New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America "A fascinating look at a pivotal time in the formation of the culture of modern China.... What is most intriguing about Mitters account is not what was lost in the dark decades that followed, but how much endured."-- Publishers Weekly, This is a brave book of big ideas sketched onto a huge canvas... this is a luminous and original study, written in a lively style, which will serve for years as an outstanding introduction to its subject., Prologue Tian'anmen Square, 1989 1. Flashpoint - Beijing, May Fourth, 1919 2. Saving the Nation: the era of the May Fourth Movement 3. Erasing the past: iconoclasm and the destruction of tradition 4. Ugly Chinamen and Dead Rivers 5. Making a stand: the lure and limits of democracy Epilogue The Legacy of May Fourth, 'With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints a brilliant, lively portrait of the intellectual and political fervor behind the May Fourth Movement, and how it has shaped, and continues to shape, China's national identity. A Bitter Revolution is critical to understandingthe soul of modern China'Iris Chang, New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America, This is a brave book of big ideas sketched onto a huge canvas... this isa luminous and original study, written in a lively style, which will serve foryears as an outstanding introduction to its subject., 'Mitter paints wonderful pen-portraits...he raises such a big question anddoes so in such strikingly good prose.'Sunday Times, "In his impressive and inventively researched book, Rana Mitter uses the May Fourth movement as a theme around which to explore China's bitter 20th century, with its repeated upheavals, foreign invasion and the death of more than 100 million people from man-made and natural disasters. He brings alive the promise felt by the intellectuals, journalists, writers and entrepreneurs who subscribed to the movement. The book is also peppered with excellent summaries of events to keep the non-expert reader up with what was going on, which is often at odds with the version propagated --and still largely accepted--after the communist victory of 1949."--Jonathan Fenby,Financial Times "With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints a brilliant, lively portrait of the intellectual and political fervor behind the May Fourth Movement, and how it has shaped, and continues to shape, China's national identity.A Bitter Revolutionis critical to understanding the soul of modern China."--Iris Chang,New York Timesbestselling author ofThe Rape of NankingandThe Chinese in America "A fascinating look at a pivotal time in the formation of the culture of modern China.... What is most intriguing about Mitters account is not what was lost in the dark decades that followed, but how much endured."--Publishers Weekly, 'Mitter paints wonderful pen-portraits...he raises such a big question and does so in such strikingly good prose.'Sunday Times, 'With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints abrilliant, lively portrait of the intellectual and political fervor behind theMay Fourth Movement, and how it has shaped, and continues to shape, China'snational identity. A Bitter Revolution is critical to understanding the soul ofmodern China'Iris Chang, New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of Nanking and TheChinese in America, "A Bitter Revolution is...the first book to explore modern Chinese history through the May Fourth Movement. As such it is pioneering." National Post, "In his impressive and inventively researched book, Rana Mitter uses the May Fourth movement as a theme around which to explore China's bitter 20th century, with its repeated upheavals, foreign invasion and the death of more than 100 million people from man-made and natural disasters. He brings alive the promise felt by the intellectuals, journalists, writers and entrepreneurs who subscribed to the movement. The book is also peppered with excellent summaries of events to keep the non-expert reader up with what was going on, which is often at odds with the version propagated --and still largely accepted--after the communist victory of 1949."--Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times"With compelling prose and insightful analysis, Rana Mitter paints a brilliant, lively portrait of the intellectual and political fervor behind the May Fourth Movement, and how it has shaped, and continues to shape, China's national identity. A Bitter Revolution is critical to understanding the soul of modern China."--Iris Chang, New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America"A fascinating look at a pivotal time in the formation of the culture of modern China.... What is most intriguing about Mitters account is not what was lost in the dark decades that followed, but how much endured."--Publishers Weekly, "A Bitter Revolution is...the first book to explore modern Chinese historythrough the May Fourth Movement. As such it is pioneering." National Post
Synopsis
China today is poised to play a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation was very different. In this powerful new look at modern China, Rana Mitter goes back to a pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from pre-modern to modern world. Mitter identifies May 4, 1919, as the defining moment of China's twentieth-century history. On that day, outrage over the Paris peace conference triggered a vast student protest that led in turn to "the May Fourth Movement." Just seven years before, the 2,000-year-old imperial system had collapsed. Now a new group of urban, modernizing thinkers began to reject Confucianism and traditional culture in general as hindrances in the fight against imperialism, warlordism, and the oppression of women and the poor. Forward-looking, individualistic, embracing youth, this "New Culture movement" made a lasting impact on the critical decades that followed: the 1940s, with the war against Japan and the civil war between the Nationalist Party and the Communists; the 1960s, with the bizarre, seemingly anarchic world of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution; and the 1980s, with the rise of a semi-market economy against the backdrop of continued single-party rule and growing inequality. Throughout each of these dramatically different eras, the May 4 themes persisted, from the insanity of the Cultural Revolution to the recent romance with space-age technology. China, Mitter concludes, still seems to be in search of a new narrative about what the country is, and what it should become. And May 4 remains a touchstone in that search., China is now poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. Rana Mitter returns to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world to present a powerful new history of twentieth-century China., China is now poised to take a key role on the world stage, but in the early twentieth century the situation could not have been more different. Rana Mitter goes back to this pivotal moment in Chinese history to uncover the origins of the painful transition from a premodern past into a modern world. By the 1920s the seemingly civilized world shaped over the last two thousand years by the legacy of the great philosopher Confucius was falling apart in the face of western imperialism and internal warfare. Chinese cities still bore the imprints of its ancient past with narrow, lanes and temples to long-worshipped gods, but these were starting to change with the influx of foreign traders, teachers, and missionaries, all eager to shape China's ancient past into a modern present.Mitter takes us through the resulting social turmoil and political promise, the devastating war against Japan in the 1940s, Communism and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, and the new era of hope in the 1980s ended by the Tian'anmen uprising. He reveals the impetus behind the dramatic changes in Chinese culture and politics as being China's "New Culture" - a strain of thought which celebrated youth, individualism, and the heady mixture of strange and seductive new cultures from places as far apart as America, India, and Japan.
