Mitter Rana. A bitter revolution: China’s struggle with the modern world

New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2005 (paperback). — xx, 357 p. — ISBN: 0–19–280341–7The book has also had to come to terms with the often rather closed-off nature of Chinese studies: things that need careful explanation to even well-informed readers often seem obvious to experts. For those who study China, names such as the May Fourth Movement, Lu Xun, or Heshang are well known. Yet I hope that some of the lesser-heard voices that are presented here may be of interest even to those who know China and its twentieth century well. I also hope that this attempt, even if tentative, to downplay the Communist revolution of 1949, which for so long acted as a gaping divide between ‘history’ and ‘contemporary politics’ in the China field, may be useful, and that it may be productive to look at China’s twentieth century through the continuities, as well as changes, that run across the decades. Finally, those familiar with Chinese politics know that it is a commonplace1919 that the ‘spirit of May Fourth’ has remained tremendously important in China since the events of: this book attempts actively to trace how and why that ‘spirit’ has remained so significant.