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Utopia as a Concept Utopia as a Concept
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1935 Version 1935 Version
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1956 Version 1956 Version
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Utopia’s Afterlives Utopia’s Afterlives
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28 The Multiple Lives of Utopia in Modern China
Get accessTehyun Ma is Lecturer in International History at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the history of state- and nation-building in twentieth-century China and Taiwan. She has published on topics including the reconstruction of China after the Second World War II, and the Chinese empire from the Manchus to Mao.
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Published:18 December 2023
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Abstract
This chapter charts the life of More’s Utopia in China from the late nineteenth century to the present by situating three translations in distinct political and cultural contexts. Around 1900, as disenchanted Late Qing intellectuals reconceptualized time as progressive rather than cyclical, the term ‘utopia’ entered the Chinese lexicon, capturing a new ‘future-oriented’ understanding of history among a cohort that rejected Confucian fatalism. By 1935, with anti-colonial nationalists now striving to shape China’s destiny, a fuller translation of More reflected enduring interest in European history and thought, and hinted at the ruling party’s preoccupation with a regimented, mobilized society. After the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, a new edition of Utopia appeared, this time influenced by the Sino-Soviet alliance and the push for agricultural collectivization that presaged the Great Leap Forward. At each of these moments Utopia proved useful to intellectuals and politicians seeking to dictate China’s future.
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