Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: US-China Relations at a Historic Crossroad
- Part One Background and Lost Voices
- 1 From Admirer to Critic: Li Dazhao’s Changing Attitudes toward the United States
- 2 Legacy of the Exclusion Act and Chinese Americans’ Experience
- 3 Disillusioned Diplomacy: US Policy towards Wang Jingwei’s Reorganized National Government, 1938–1945
- Part Two Did America Lose China?
- 4 Lost Opportunity or Mission Impossible: A Historiographical Essay on the Marshall Mission to China, December 1945–January 1947
- 5 Negotiating from Strength: US-China Diplomatic Challenges at the Korean War Armistice Conference, 1951–1953
- 6 Mao Zedong and the Taiwan Strait Crises
- Part Three Rapprochement and Opportunities
- 7 Media and US-China Reconciliation
- 8 Sino-American Relations in the Wake of Tiananmen, 1989–1991
- 9 Jiang Zemin and the United States: Hiding Hatred and Biding Time for Revenge
- Part Four Did China Lose America?
- 10 China’s Belt-Road Strategy: Xinjiang’s Role in a System without America
- 11 The East and South China Seas in Sino-US Relations
- Conclusion: The Coming Cold War II?
- Index
1 - From Admirer to Critic: Li Dazhao’s Changing Attitudes toward the United States
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: US-China Relations at a Historic Crossroad
- Part One Background and Lost Voices
- 1 From Admirer to Critic: Li Dazhao’s Changing Attitudes toward the United States
- 2 Legacy of the Exclusion Act and Chinese Americans’ Experience
- 3 Disillusioned Diplomacy: US Policy towards Wang Jingwei’s Reorganized National Government, 1938–1945
- Part Two Did America Lose China?
- 4 Lost Opportunity or Mission Impossible: A Historiographical Essay on the Marshall Mission to China, December 1945–January 1947
- 5 Negotiating from Strength: US-China Diplomatic Challenges at the Korean War Armistice Conference, 1951–1953
- 6 Mao Zedong and the Taiwan Strait Crises
- Part Three Rapprochement and Opportunities
- 7 Media and US-China Reconciliation
- 8 Sino-American Relations in the Wake of Tiananmen, 1989–1991
- 9 Jiang Zemin and the United States: Hiding Hatred and Biding Time for Revenge
- Part Four Did China Lose America?
- 10 China’s Belt-Road Strategy: Xinjiang’s Role in a System without America
- 11 The East and South China Seas in Sino-US Relations
- Conclusion: The Coming Cold War II?
- Index
Summary
Abstract
The May Fourth Movement was the demarcation line in Li’s strikingly incongruent early pro-American stance and his later pro-Russian posture. His altered attitude paralleled the nation-wide demonstrations. What remained unchanged in his mind was his underlying nationalistic zeal for seeking an exemplar for China’s modernization. Before 1919, he intended to transform his country by pursuing the American model. However, this hope was dashed by the decision of the Paris Peace Conference. It was this event that inspired his noticeable ideological change. As he leaned towards Soviet Russia, he embraced communism. When he relinquished his long-held positive view of the United States, he became a pro-Russian activist, championed for the communist cause, and urged his countrymen to emulate Soviet Russia.
Keywords: Admirer, critic, America, nationalism, communism
Introduction
To many, it sounds ridiculous to link China’s first communist, Li Dazhao (1889–1927), with the United States, the global capitalist stronghold. Li never studied in America and did not even set foot on American soil. Li and America seem to be two distant unrelated objects impossible to group together. Nonetheless, the two are connected, because Li studied America ardently, deliberated over America frequently, and published on America regularly. He often cited American precedents to address China’s issues and intended to follow the American model for his nation’s modernization. As a progressive intellectual, he pioneered the exploration of Western civilization and paid close attention to the ascending superpower in North America. Confronting the status quo of his nation, Li felt the urgency of studying and emulating America. Yet, he ultimately drifted away, got closer to Soviet Russia, and embraced communism. His change in stance impacted his contemporaries, swayed the youth, and redirected his nation’s historical path. Without a doubt, an understanding of Li’s attitudes towards the United States will assist our comprehension of the complex historical evolution of twentieth century China.
A close examination of Li Dazhao’s writings demonstrates that his attitudes towards America changed during the May Fourth Movement in 1919. Before it, Li was an admirer of America who appreciated almost every aspect of American civilization.
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- Sino-American RelationsA New Cold War, pp. 31 - 54Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2022