Zhidong Hao

Intellectuals at a Crossroads: the Changing Politics of China's Knowledge Workers (Suny Series, Interruptions: Border Testimony (Ies) and Critical Discourse/s) Zhidong Hao

A survey of contemporary Chinese intellectuals.

Zhidong Hao’s fascinating book, Intellectuals at a Crossroads, examines groups of contemporary Chinese intellectuals, their successes, failures, identity contradictions, and ethical dilemmas. Three categories of intellectuals are studied: organic intellectuals who serve specific interests, from government and business to working class movements; critical intellectuals who defy authority with continued social criticism; and “unattached” intellectuals who are fast being professionalized. Using a historical-comparative approach enhanced with demographic and rare interview data, the book bridges the traditional with the modern and the Chinese with the foreign by exploring how these intellectuals are adapting to their roles and influencing political, economic, and social change in the "new" China.

??what makes this book unique is its informed, compassionate, nuanced appreciation of the difficulties involved in being an intellectual in China today.? ? The China Quarterly

??this book is clearly a valuable contribution to both China studies and sociological studies of intellectuals. It provides a substantive account of present-day Chinese intellectuals, their changed socio-economic circumstances and their relations with the coercive power of a market-driven but still highly authoritarian party-state.?? The China Review

??brings a great body of knowledge and analysis together in one convenient place, weaving in major contributions from many adjoining fields?? — The China Journal

"This is an excellent book, one of the best I have read on Chinese intellectuals in a decade. Hao's analysis is impressive, balancing the urge to form comparable categories and abstractions with a solid grounding in the specific contexts of history and culture. He ends with a reasonable plea for what Chinese intellectuals should do: work as a class to promote social democracy. Hao's book is an impressive and delightful display of scholarship." — Tim Cheek, University of British Columbia

"Intellectuals played a major role in the Chinese revolution; they were the target of terrible repression during the Maoist era, and they once again seek their place as powerful agents of Chinese history. Future struggles for human rights, democracy, and national identity will depend on the work of China's intellectuals." — Richard Madsen, author of China?s Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society