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The History of Critical Theory in China
Author(s) -
He Weihua
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12315
Subject(s) - ideology , china , critical theory , order (exchange) , culture theory , field (mathematics) , epistemology , sociology , political science , psychology , politics , law , philosophy , economics , mathematics , anthropology , pure mathematics , finance
Abstract Due to the lack of theoretical resources for the ideological reconstruction during the New Era, Critical Theory was brought into China along with numerous other theoretical paradigms. During the 80s, many of the major works by critical theorists became available in China for the first time. With the consequent social transformation after the implementation of the reform and opening‐up policy, the emergence of popular culture constitutes one of the most noticeable events during the post‐Mao era. Thus, in order to map, interpret and fruitfully engage with the new cultural formation, to appropriate Critical Theory to talk about Chinese cultural reality actually developed into a fad among Chinese intellectuals in the 90s. With more thorough and more complete studies being carried out in this field in recent years, Chinese scholars gradually became more aware of the limitations of Critical Theory. However, given its influence in Chinese academia, Critical Theory will remain important theoretical resources when Chinese scholars talk about popular culture.