Bowing to Chairman Mao: Western-Trained Intellectuals and the State in the Early PRC

Abstract

This article examines the political experience and mental journey of four Western-educated Chinese intellectuals in the Mao era: art critic and translator Fu Lei; architect Liang Sicheng; historian Zhou Yiliang; and rocket scientist Qian Xuesen. It shows that though initially politically unaffiliated, all four were rapidly drawn towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), identified with the Party norms and lent support to the state. Such development can be attributed to their serious deliberation on ideological, social and personal issues, and the Party’s co-optation strategies. They were either eventually victimized in Maoist campaigns, or took advantage of political winds for personal advancement, or shrewdly carved out a professional space by virtue of political correctness. Their stories shed important light on the complex pattern of thinking and behavior of Chinese intellectuals, and the dynamism of the CCP in its early rule.