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Resistance, chaos, and control in China : Taiping rebels, Taiwanese ghosts, and Tiananmen

Author: Robert P Weller
Publisher: Seattle : University of Washington Press, ©1994.
Edition/Format:   Book : State or province government publication : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
This study stakes out a new position on how and when potential resistance may be transformed into an actual social movement. Its three cases - the Taiping Rebellion in the 1840s and 1850s, ghost worship in modern Taiwan and the aftermath of the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square - contribute to ongoing debates among historians, social scientists and literary theorists on the relationship between culture and
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Details

Material Type: Government publication, State or province government publication
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Robert P Weller
ISBN: 0295972858 9780295972855
OCLC Number: 27336782
Notes: "Character list" in Chinese (transliterated and untransliterated).
Description: viii, 255 p. ; 23 cm.
Contents: Pt. I. Interpreting resistance and resisting interpretation. Resistance ; Saturation and potentials --
Pt. II. Taiping Rebellion. Jesus's brother and the Chinese periphery ; Saturating the movement: God gets power ; Too many voices ; Precipitation and institution: the Taiping rises up --
Pt. III. Taiwanese ghosts. Hot and noisy religion ; Saturated ghosts and social change in Taiwan ; Failed precipitations ; The limits to cultural domination --
Pt. IV. Conclusion: Tiananmen and beyond. Institutions of control, institutions beyond control ; Irony, cynicism, and potential resistance.
Responsibility: Robert P. Weller.

Abstract:

This study stakes out a new position on how and when potential resistance may be transformed into an actual social movement. Its three cases - the Taiping Rebellion in the 1840s and 1850s, ghost worship in modern Taiwan and the aftermath of the 1989 demonstrations in Tiananmen Square - contribute to ongoing debates among historians, social scientists and literary theorists on the relationship between culture and resistance. Resistance, Chaos and Control in China compares active resistance movements with everyday actions that imply unspoken resistance. It shows how certain areas of life defuse attempts at cultural domination by dissolving official interpretations. At the same time, these cultural "free spaces" nurture ambiguous and multiple alternatives of their own, including the possibility of erupting into open political resistance. The three cases demonstrate how attempts to push such ambiguous meaning into a single, explicit interpretation as resistance succeed or fail.

The material on the Taiping Rebellion offers new views of the role of spirit possession in the movement, and the section on surging ghost worship in Taiwan addresses the reproportioning of religion as the island's economy and political structure have been transformed in the last two decades. The Tiananmen chapters examine the nature of cultural control and resistance in China and other socialist societies.

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