Understanding Reform in a Changing China: History of the Present

Ho Chiu Leung
History
UC San Diego

Wilson Miu
History
UC Santa Cruz

This cross-disciplinary working group studies Chinese society in the 1970s and 1980s from the perspective of the changes currently taking place in the country. Given the issues China is facing today, including gender inequality, ecological degradation, and political tension in border areas, a diversified approach is urgently needed to better situate China in the contemporary world. During the current pandemic, we repeatedly hear calls to return to normal life, often without questioning the very assumptions behind that “normalcy.” This working group contends that this is also the implicit thesis of the existing literature on China’s “Reform and Open Up,” which adopts a top-down perspective to understand how Chinese society transitioned from political chaos to economic development. We argue that for both the current pandemic and the Reform, this approach overemphasizes the economic motive in the decisions made by common people and narrows our understanding of their diverse experiences. This working group reconsiders “Reform and Open Up” by moving our gaze away from state politics and economic policies, searching for a new narrative that relates our research projects to pressing issues Chinese people face today.